Linda was blinded in one eye when Minneapolis police opened fire on her while she was covering a Black Lives Matter protest in the city.
She believes that the incident prevented the writer, photographer, and mother of two from covering social movements. She racked up six figures of debt due to her lack of health insurance.
She could not forget that day in May 2020, but she could at least remember it. She said in an interview that one of the cruelties of litigation is that she can't remember what happened.
The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit that was filed against it by a woman.
The Minneapolis Police Department's stated commitment to using "only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively bring an incident under control" was affirmed in the settlement.
The city insists that it's not an admission of liability and there is no apology. Even if she gets some money, she won't be able to pay her own medical bills. She can process her trauma now that she can keep a journal again.
She said it was freeing to be able to write without thinking about how her rough drafts will be perceived. She can now return to telling human stories of people on the margins without fear that those communications could end up in a court of law after she transitioned to nature photography. She is reporting on the plight of refugees in Germany.
"I can't say it's a homecoming, because nothing is the same," he said. It feels like I'm on some familiar paths again.
Dozens of journalists were injured when civil unrest broke out after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. They are not the only ones who believe they were targeted.
In Portland, for example, photographer Trip Jennings told Insider how lucky he was to avoid serious injury. He said federal agents shot him when he exposed something that was vulnerable.
According to Tai-Heng Cheng, a partner at Sidley, it was his hope that the incidents would be reduced by the settlement. Some people who think they are victims of unjust force will have a document they can use in their own litigation.
The fact that police are supposed to do this should help any future victims. If you followed the police department's manual, you could have shot Linda.
It's more than the money that's why she agreed to the settlement. She said it was a shame that the $600,000 was coming from the city's general fund. She called it bullshit. She wants to give a portion of the settlement to the community.
She doesn't think it alone will change policing in America, but she hopes the settlement it resulted in will make the country a better place to live in.
She said that the reforms take a lot of pushing and nudging until they reach a tipping point. "If you shoot civilians, there will be consequences," she said, arguing for police as well as everyone else.
Tell us about a news story. C Davis is the reporter for Insider.
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