From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

Dorea McKesson has lost track of the number of times he's been arrested.

In 2014, he protested the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson,

Missouri. And he's been fighting on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement ever

since. In 2016, he was arrested after another protester, we don't know who, through something,

we don't know what, injuring a police officer whose name we don't even know. If this case is

allowed to move forward, it can mean the end of street protests. The ACLU and I personally

am part of DeRae's legal team, and we've asked the Supreme Court to stop this dangerous lawsuit

in its tracks. Dore joins us today to talk about the case, his life as an activist,

and what quarantine could mean for online activism. Dorey McKesson, thanks very much for joining us.

Welcome to the podcast. It's so good to be here. So Dorey, as we mentioned, you were in Ferguson

in 2014 protesting against police violence. And again in 2016, when Alton Sterling

was killed in Baton Rouge, you were called to action. Can you tell us what did you do to respond to

the killing of Alton Sterling? You know, it's been a long time of years since the protest began

because of the Mike Brown and so many more people have been killed since then. And when Paulin Sterling had killed, remember it was around the same time that Philandot Kestel got killed. So it was another nationwide conversation about these two men had been killed. I lived in Minneapolis when the protest started. I didn't really have a deep connection with Baton Rouge. An activist reached out to me who had known or mine a while, and she was like, do you think you can come? I had a job in Baltimore as a chief human capital, so I was like, you know, I'll come Friday as soon as I leave the office. So I got out of the office, flew to Baton Rouge, landed, went straight to a community meeting, went to sleep. And then the next night,

there was a big protest that somebody else had organized. So we went out just to support. And, you know, I'm out on the street. And just for like, I probably was outside for, I don't know, a couple hours. And the next thing I know, there's like a stampede of people running. and I'm like, okay, I don't want to get caught up in that stampede.

So I run, but I fall. And as I try to get up, I realize it's really hard to get up. I'm like, oh, I must have gotten caught. And at that time, I realize I'm under arrest. These two officers who have put their hands on my shoulder. And that starts the next 17, 18 hours. I'm in police custody. We eventually

get it overturned. But then, you know, a lot of things happen and it leads to this lawsuit.

Right. This was not the first time that you had been arrested. When you blocked the street,

when you have any kind of civil disobedience action, you kind of expect that you might end up getting arrested and released. So it wasn't your first rodeo, so to speak. Yeah, not my first time getting arrested. I got arrested before at the Department of Justice Building in St. Louis. And, you know, I don't know if I always expect an arrest, but I know that, like, it can lead to an arrest. I think what was interesting about Baton Rouge, and I've been to a lot of cities and protests, that Baton Rouge, the people

were pretty chill. It was just like a very chill place. The police are really aggressive. So,

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