Article here.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The local NAACP says Grand Rapids police used
excessive force in the controversial handcuffing of an 11-year-old girl
at gunpoint while searching for a stabbing suspect.
"The officers involved violated Honestie Hodges' Fourth Amendment
Constitutional right, in addition to using excessive force," the Grand
Rapids branch of the NAACP said in a statement.
Showing posts with label civil rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil rights. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Supreme Court might let immigrants (detained after September 11, 2001) sue US Officials
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether former
Attorney General John Ashcroft and other onetime government officials
have immunity in suits by immigrants who say they were rounded up and
illegally detained after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The court agreed to hear three consolidated cases brought by mostly Muslim immigrants who were in the country illegally. . . .article here (via abajournal.)
The court agreed to hear three consolidated cases brought by mostly Muslim immigrants who were in the country illegally. . . .article here (via abajournal.)
Monday, September 12, 2016
Law Professor and Journalist collborate to hold police accountable for actions
“I think this will be our Ferguson.”
Sitting in his office at the University of Chicago Law School just over a year ago, attorney and professor Craig Futterman was talking about a video almost no one had seen. It was a dashboard-camera recording of a white Chicago police officer killing a black teenager.
The details, then still unconfirmed, rang with an ominous echo of the police shooting of Michael Brown, whose death in a Missouri street sparked weeks of protest.
Futterman, who runs the university’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, hadn’t seen the video yet either; but he’d been pushing the city to make it public for months, ever since a confidential source had called and described it to him. “An execution,” Futterman’s source had called it. He searched for his own words. Finally he said simply, “This kid, his name is Laquan McDonald.”
Article here (via abajournal).
Sitting in his office at the University of Chicago Law School just over a year ago, attorney and professor Craig Futterman was talking about a video almost no one had seen. It was a dashboard-camera recording of a white Chicago police officer killing a black teenager.
The details, then still unconfirmed, rang with an ominous echo of the police shooting of Michael Brown, whose death in a Missouri street sparked weeks of protest.
Futterman, who runs the university’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, hadn’t seen the video yet either; but he’d been pushing the city to make it public for months, ever since a confidential source had called and described it to him. “An execution,” Futterman’s source had called it. He searched for his own words. Finally he said simply, “This kid, his name is Laquan McDonald.”
Article here (via abajournal).
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Man says undercover officers beat him unconscious: Civil suit against police
A 23-year-old man says he was tackled and choked unconscious by
undercover officers who were searching for a fugitive in Grand Rapids.
Article here (via mlive).
James King claimed he thought he was being mugged when a plainclothes Grand Rapids Police detective and FBI special agent asked for his identification and held him against an unmarked SUV on July 18, 2014. He said didn't know the men were law enforcement.
King, who wasn't the man police were seeking, says he tried to run but was assaulted during a chaotic, confusing scene described in a lawsuit filed Monday, April 4, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. King is represented by attorney Patrick Jaicomo, of the firm Miller Johnson.
King, who was charged in the earlier incident and found not guilty, was previously a GVSU student.
On a side note: this case brings up the legality of whether police can be videotaped during the course of their jobs. One of the officers allegedly involved in Mr. King's arrest asked that bystanders delete any video they may have captured with their cell phones.
This article (from 2012) says that "Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you're an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops." Michigan does allow recording of police - this doesn't mean that it will make the police who are being recorded very friendly to the subjects who are doing the recording. Or that it will prevent any charges from being filed - even in connection with the recording, such as disturbing the peace, obstruction of officers, etc.
Article here (via mlive).
James King claimed he thought he was being mugged when a plainclothes Grand Rapids Police detective and FBI special agent asked for his identification and held him against an unmarked SUV on July 18, 2014. He said didn't know the men were law enforcement.
King, who wasn't the man police were seeking, says he tried to run but was assaulted during a chaotic, confusing scene described in a lawsuit filed Monday, April 4, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. King is represented by attorney Patrick Jaicomo, of the firm Miller Johnson.
King, who was charged in the earlier incident and found not guilty, was previously a GVSU student.
On a side note: this case brings up the legality of whether police can be videotaped during the course of their jobs. One of the officers allegedly involved in Mr. King's arrest asked that bystanders delete any video they may have captured with their cell phones.
This article (from 2012) says that "Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you're an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops." Michigan does allow recording of police - this doesn't mean that it will make the police who are being recorded very friendly to the subjects who are doing the recording. Or that it will prevent any charges from being filed - even in connection with the recording, such as disturbing the peace, obstruction of officers, etc.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Michigan lawmaker leads "hate group," says Southern Poverty Law Center
A civil rights group based in Alabama is calling an organization led
in Michigan by state Rep. Gary Glenn a "hate group" once again.
Article here (via mlive).
The accusation targeting the American Family Association is part of a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Glenn, (R- Larkin Township) who represents parts of Midland and Bay counties, declined to comment on the group's accusation. He is a freshman in the Michigan house of Representatives, and has long served as president of the American Family Association, which is based in Mississippi.
Article here (via mlive).
The accusation targeting the American Family Association is part of a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Glenn, (R- Larkin Township) who represents parts of Midland and Bay counties, declined to comment on the group's accusation. He is a freshman in the Michigan house of Representatives, and has long served as president of the American Family Association, which is based in Mississippi.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Juvenile Plaintiff's case dismissed regarding MDOC's failure to protect them from abuse
The Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit filed by seven juvenile prisoners who alleged prison staff didn't do enough to protect them from sexual and physical abuse.
In a decision dated Tuesday, the court ruled the seven John Does who were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not meet the disclosure requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The court also disagreed with the plaintiffs' assertion that an amendment to the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act violates the rights of prisoners because it does not allow them to sue the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) for civil rights violations.
"We have reviewed all remaining issues and find them to be without merit or unnecessary for the disposition of this appeal," wrote Judges Michael J. Riordan and Pat Donofrio.
Article here (via mlive).
In a decision dated Tuesday, the court ruled the seven John Does who were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not meet the disclosure requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The court also disagreed with the plaintiffs' assertion that an amendment to the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act violates the rights of prisoners because it does not allow them to sue the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) for civil rights violations.
"We have reviewed all remaining issues and find them to be without merit or unnecessary for the disposition of this appeal," wrote Judges Michael J. Riordan and Pat Donofrio.
Article here (via mlive).
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Should courthouses be "off limits" to immigration authorities?
Rosario Socope, a Guatemalan immigrant in the country illegally, had an
unwelcome surprise waiting for her when she attended a pretrial hearing
on a felony charge at a courthouse in Brooklyn this month. As she
stepped out of the courtroom into a public hallway, she was approached
by immigration agents seeking to deport her.
Article here (via WSJ Law Blog).
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Civil rights and same-gender marriages, will Michigan allow this? Trial starts today.
Michigan’s highly anticipated gay marriage trial gets underway today in
Detroit, where a federal judge will hear the pros and cons of children
being raised in same-sex families and ultimately decide what the
definition of marriage should be and will be in this state.
Michigan has a voter-approved ban on same-gender marriages, that essentially defines marriage in Michigan as between one man and one woman. This was about 10 years ago.
Article here.
Michigan’s case involves two Hazel Park nurses who are challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption, arguing the bans unlawfully violate their right to get married and adopt each other's children. The plaintiffs, April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, filed their suit in January 2012, initially raising only the adoption issue, but then challenging the gay marriage prohibition as well.
My personal take on this: I wrote an article (unpublished, email me for a copy) about equal protection for persons with disabilities. Even if the federal Court in today's trial decides to drop the voter-approved ban on same-gender marriages (which the Supreme Court views in the same category as persons with disabilities), what will happen at the next level? The Supremes have been on this issue for a bit in other cases, but haven't changed the level of constitutional scrutiny for this group.
Michigan has a voter-approved ban on same-gender marriages, that essentially defines marriage in Michigan as between one man and one woman. This was about 10 years ago.
Article here.
Michigan’s case involves two Hazel Park nurses who are challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption, arguing the bans unlawfully violate their right to get married and adopt each other's children. The plaintiffs, April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, filed their suit in January 2012, initially raising only the adoption issue, but then challenging the gay marriage prohibition as well.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Class action lawsuit alleges Michigan teens subjected to sex abuse in prison
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of seven "John Doe" minor inmates, alleges that Governor Snyder, the Michigan Department of Corrections, Director Daniel Heyns, three deputy directors and wardens at 10 state prisons have failed to abide by federal law in not keeping minor inmates separate from adults. Article here.
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