imported post
IA_farmboy wrote:
lBut she WAS arrested. If being put in handcuffs does not equal being arrested then what does?
This seems to happen a lot in Wisconsin, someone calls the police about someone open carrying, person gets cuffed and questioned, person is then released once the police realize that no crime was committed.
There is an old saying, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action." In this case it becomes harassment. The local police department should know better by know than to place someone open carrying into cuffs. Someone needs to give the PD a poke in the ribs with a sharp lawyer.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100603/METRO03/6030408/ACLU-alleges-Detroit-cops-retaliate-when-challenged
ACLU alleges Detroit cops retaliate when challenged
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- "It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority" is a quotation often attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
But two federal lawsuits filed Wednesday by the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union say when it comes to dealing with police, citizens inspired by that line might find themselves charged with crimes.
The lawsuits allege police retaliation, citing instances in which citizens doing nothing wrong were charged with misdemeanors after questioning the authority of Detroit officers who approached them.
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"The crimes they were charged with were completely made up," said Dan Korobkin, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Michigan. "They still had to show up for court."
Though the examples cited happened in Detroit, Korobkin said the problem is systemic. "It happens all over, and it's not unique to Detroit," he said.
Ken Anderson, a U.S. Army veteran, was parked on a side street just east of Woodward on Nov. 12, 2008, using a laptop computer, when an unmarked police car pulled up behind him, activated its lights, and two officers approached him.
When one of the officers asked for identification, Anderson, 57, asked what "probable cause" they had to stop and question him. One officer said he was parked in "a well-known drug zone."
Anderson said he verbally resisted handing over his driver's license until one of the officers said he would come into the car and take it.
Though a check of his license came back clear, Anderson was given a misdemeanor complaint for loitering in a known drug area.
It's a crime that was on the books at one time but no longer is, Korobkin said. Anderson had to show up both at an arraignment and for his trial date before the complaint was dismissed in 36th District Court.
"It was more of a retaliatory action for me questioning their authority," said Anderson, a retired car designer who lives in Detroit.
Deputy Chief John Roach, a spokesman for Detroit police, said he couldn't comment on Anderson's case or another one cited by the ACLU because of the litigation.
"It is our expectation that all of our officers treat our citizens fairly and within the limitations of the Constitution," Roach said.
Complaints are investigated and discipline taken against officers found to have acted inappropriately, he said.
In the other incident, Howell resident Phillip Letten was with a group of people on July 31 distributing booklets about animal cruelty outside Comerica Park when an officer ordered them to stop.
Letten, 22, and the members of Vegan Outreach stopped handing out the literature. But Letten noted that he was on a public walkway and asked the officer if he could see a copy of the city ordinance that purportedly prohibited him from distributing leaflets without a permit.
"No, but you can give me your license and I can write you a ticket," was the officer's response, Letten said.
He was the only one in the group ticketed for distributing fliers without a permit.
Korobkin said there is no such infraction related to noncommercial fliers. The complaint later filed in court was different, citing Letten with refusing to comply with an "order to stop" and interfering with pedestrian traffic. The charges were later dismissed.
The officer "altered the misdemeanor complaint himself after he realized that it is not a crime to distribute fliers without a permit," the complaint alleges.
"I was just standing up for myself, asking the police officer a question, and he didn't like it," Letten said.
Two examples do not establish a pattern, but Korobkin said the ACLU has received many similar complaints the group does not have the resources to research.
"This is more of a quiet problem," he said. Most people who experience it don't have the resources to fight back, and therefore, "it's under the radar screen."
He sees it as a training issue.
"These are sort of basic American values that you can exercise your rights as a citizen when you are completely innocent of any wrongdoing, and you're not going to find yourself charged with a criminal offense," he said.
Roach said Detroit police launched a training program on First Amendment issues in August to help them deal with complex scenarios they might see and "act appropriately."
The ACLU wants a formal declaration that what happened was unconstitutional, plus undisclosed monetary damages for its clients.
"The main thing we're trying to do with these cases ... is not to win $1 million," Korobkin said. "It's to prevent these things from happening again."