Tallahassee, FL – On Jan. 15, the Tallahassee City Commission held a final public hearing on Ordinance No. 24-O-40, which is for the creation of the Citizens Police Review Board (CPRB). The Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC), along with other community members came out to oppose the dissolution of the CPRB ordinance.

The CPRB has existed since the George Floyd movement in 2020, and was originally established by John Dailey, Tallahassee’s mayor. According to the city of Tallahassee website, the Citizens Police Review Board was created to “review completed Tallahassee Police Department internal affairs reports, cases, and issues relating to law enforcement that are important or of interest to the community and the City, and to increase and demonstrate police accountability and credibility with the public.”

After the passing of Florida House Bill 601 by Republican Wyman Duggan, civilian review boards across the state of Florida have been systematically dismantled by city leaderships. Although the city of Tallahassee claims that they are being legally forced to get rid of the review board, organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) disagree. In amemo released to multiple cities in Florida, the ACLU states that “the legislation (HB 601) as enacted has little or no practical effect on existing citizen-review panels in Florida’ and does not require boards to disband.”

Despite this, the Tallahassee city commission decided to hold a final vote on the CPRB, claiming that HB 601 made the CPRB ordinance illegal. About a dozen community members gathered to speak in favor of keeping the CPRB ordinance, including former city commission candidate Dot Inman Johnson and ACLU statewide organizer Madeline Bowman.

“We have seen in Florida a rise in this anti-democratic legislation aimed to suppress free speech,” said Bowman, who argued that the city had no real legal responsibility to disband Tallahassee’s review board.

“The fact that one of the things brought forward is the elimination of accountability in the police department is concerning to me,” said Dot Inman-Johnson, who ran against Curtis Richardson in the recent local election.

Other community members and organizations argued the need for police accountability and civilian oversight, trying to showcase the need for the board to continue to exist.

“The implementation of the CPRB was a demand of the people of Tallahassee,” said Thomas Speirs, a member of TCAC.

Before the final vote on the CPRB, both City Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow spoke about their disapproval of removing the ordinance. Matlow talked about the need for community oversight for not just the public, but also the city of Tallahassee leadership.

After a 3-2 vote, with City Commissioners Porter and Matlow voting to keep the ordinance and Mayor Dailey and Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox voting to remove it, the ordinance was officially dissolved by the city.

Despite this being a setback for police accountability, Tallahassee activists vowed that they would keep fighting for police accountability no matter what. TCAC intends to center their next campaign on the 2025 police budget, and fight for funding to go to affordable housing, transportation access and social services, instead of increased policing.

“No matter what happens, the community will continue organizing against police brutality. The names and histories of Tony McDade, Mychael Johnson, Wilbon Woodard, and Raheem Reeder will live on. We will keep organizing for Calvin Riley and fight for him to get justice. If we don’t struggle, we won’t win,” said Delilah Pierre, President of TCAC.

#TallahasseeFL #Tally #TCAC #PoliceAccountability #CPRB #ACLU #PoliceCrimes

Tucson, AZ – On Aug. 10, Tucson Police (TPD) pulled over Norlan Flores Prado, a day laborer from Nicaragua, for allegedly making an improper right turn. Tucson Police then did exactly what they claim not to: they contacted the Border Patrol. Immediately, nearly 50 activists mobilized into action and flooded the scene. Two women threw themselves under the unmarked government SUV in which Flores was detained. Amid chants of “La Migra, policia, la misma porqueria!” the police and Border Patrol were forced to extract the two activists from underneath the vehicle in order to proceed with the bogus arrest.

In Arizona the law is so ill defined, that Chicanos, American Indians, Mexicans and Latinos, are regularly stopped with no legitimate reason. The law states, “...where reasonable suspicion exists that a person is an alien...” That is the legal justification for racial profiling in Arizona and because of this discriminatory law, a working father of a three-day-old baby is now separated from his family.

Less than 24 hours after the attempt to stop the unmarked Border Patrol SUV, the community mobilized over 80 people in support of the detained immigrant worker Flores Prado. The crowd swarmed the front walk of the Tucson Police Department demanding the immediate release of Flores and an end to TPD-Border Patrol collaboration. Friends and family held signs saying, “Alto a la Poli-Migra” and “Ni un mas.” The fiercely determined crowd chanted, “No somos ilegales, tampoco criminales! Somos trabajadores de pueblos originales!”

A member of the Southside Worker Center spoke at the rally saying, “These laws are unconstitutional. They are based on racial discrimination. We will keep fighting these!” This was the second demonstration at Tucson Police Department in less than a week to protest the detention of a Southside worker due to the collaboration of Tucson Police with the Border Patrol. The momentary celebration of the release on bond of Gerardo Ruiz-Lopez, a father of three daughters, was overshadowed by the detainment of Flores.

In Arizona, the oppression of undocumented people and other nationalities is being met with resistance and a back-and-forth struggle over tactics and countermoves. For example, organizers developed a network of community responders that arrive to a scene where TPD has contacted Border Patrol. Border Patrol is attempting to outmaneuver the activists by using unmarked vehicles and an unidentified agent.

Organizers and activists have talked with Police Chief Roberto Villasenor and the Tucson City Council about TPD’s collaboration with Border Patrol. Immigrant rights activist Dean Jefferson explains, “This is a deportation apparatus desperate to meet quotas based on a racialized agenda.”

Organizer Geoff Boyce provided details, “Villasenor denies that his officers collaborate with Border Patrol by saying that there are no records on cell phones of calls made by TPD to Border Patrol. But how is it that time and time again Border Patrol is at the scene of a supposed traffic violation by a Brown person? Clearly, TPD is now using private cell phones to call Border Patrol. They’re trying to dodge our pressure. But we will keep it up.”

Adding to the sentiment of sustained resistance, activist and mother Angie Loreto said, “We need to put the heat on Villasenor. He never wants to come out and meet us. We need to make him feel the pressure that our undocumented families feel every day.”

Despite an ACLU effort that forces the sheriff to report on calls to Border Patrol, activists are holding the city accountable to its own slogan. Summing up much of the institutional inaction, activist-educator Alisha Maria commented: “The fact that Tucson City Council has declared the city an ‘Immigrant Welcoming Community’ is offensive. It’s a slap in the face to all of those hardworking people who endure harsh conditions just to get here and face heavy oppression and exploitation. People don’t like to get slapped. Slap them enough and they’ll slap back.”

Protesters vow to improve their rapid action network. They aim to stop the racial profiling, end the intimidation tactics used by the police to harass drivers and workers and to stop the deportations.

#TucsonAZ #PeoplesStruggles #Deportation #Arizona #ACLU #Immigration

Detroit, MI – The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Detroit music duo Insane Clown Posse (ICP), filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 8 on behalf of Juggalos, or fans of ICP, saying their constitutional rights to expression and association were violated when the U.S. government wrongly and arbitrarily classified the entire fan base as a “hybrid” criminal gang. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four Juggalos and the two members of ICP.

In 2011, Juggalos were officially identified as a “hybrid gang” by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), when the fan group was included in the DOJ’s third National Gang Threat Assessment. As a result of this unjust designation, “individual Juggalos are suffering improper investigations, detentions and other denials of their personal rights at the hands of government officials” or denied employment, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The lawsuit asks a judge to order the DOJ to remove the Juggalos from the government’s list of gangs so that the fans of ICP will no longer be unconstitutionally and unjustifiably singled out as targets for scrutiny and harassment by law enforcement authorities throughout the country. The lawsuit goes on to assert that the DOJ’s classification of the Juggalos as a gang is unconstitutionally vague and violates the Juggalos’ constitutional rights to association and speech.

In 2012, attorneys representing Insane Clown Posse and their record label, Psychopathic Records, filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to obtain records the federal government used to justify officially designating Juggalos as a criminal gang. When those documents were finally released, they contained nothing that would warrant labeling all Juggalos as a criminal gang.

#DetroitMI #Music #FBI #ACLU #PoliticalRepression #InsaneClownPosse #Juggalos

“This settlement marks an end to the lawsuits filed by people arrested or harassed during the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “We hope that it serves as a lesson to Pittsburgh and other cities about the importance of respecting demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.”

The lawsuit stemmed from the actions of police during the last day of the G-20 Summit on Sept. 25, 2009. That evening, Pittsburgh deployed hundreds of police officers to Schenley Plaza, a public park in the middle of the University of Pittsburgh campus, after learning of plans for a demonstration in the plaza to protest the police's use of arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets in Oakland the night before. Without justification, the police ordered people assembled on the plaza to disperse and then funneled them onto the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning, where police surrounded about 100 people and then arrested them for failure to disperse and for disorderly conduct. Others were arrested for failure to disperse even though they were blocks away from the plaza.

The ACLU-PA filed suit on behalf of 25 people arrested that night, including 14 students from the University of Pittsburgh and nearby Carnegie Mellon University, claiming that the police violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful arrest.

“I hope that this settlement will at the very least show authorities across the U.S. that they cannot violate the First Amendment rights of their citizens,” said Plaintiff Galen Armstrong, who traveled to Pittsburgh from Chicago to participate in G-20 demonstrations.

Plaintiff Melissa Hill traveled to Pittsburgh from Minneapolis to document the G-20 demonstrations for Twin Cities Indymedia. She was arrested on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning after being trapped by police lines. Her video camera, which was confiscated by police during her arrest, was later returned to her, broken and without the memory card.

“With this settlement, I will now be able to move forward after the traumatic events of that evening that resulted in the destruction of my video camera,” Hill said. “I hope that this settlement sends the message that there are consequences when a city uses police state tactics that I hope to never witness again.”

#PittsburghPA #PoliceBrutality #G20 #ACLU #rightToProtest

The new law includes restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression that criminalize many forms of protest. The law criminalizes, with a mandatory 3 year jail sentence, any protest that might “perturb, interrupt or impede” politicians, or “any disorder” around them. The law also prohibits protests in schools, universities and health institutions that “obstruct the providing of services or access.” This is clearly targeted at criminalizing anything like the 2010 student strike at the University of Puerto Rico or actions to defend public services that are threatened by budget cuts and austerity. Violations of this law mean 6 months in jail and/or a $5000 fine.

Puerto Rican Governor Fortuño is with the New Progressive Party (PNP) of Puerto Rico. Since Puerto Rico is a colony (“commonwealth”) of the U.S., politicians there can also be affiliated with U.S. parties; Fortuño is also a member of the U.S.’s Republican Party and a member of the Republican National Committee, the leadership body of the Republican Party. He will be a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida in late August along with other controversial right wing politicians such as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. There will be large protests outside the Republican National Convention, centered by a mass march on August 27.

#PuertoRico #InJusticeSystem #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #civilLiberties #Repression #ACLU #antiimperialism #colonialism #LuisFortuño

The complaint argues that the new “Procedures for Public Use of the Hennepin County Government Center” issued by Hennepin County and certain unwritten procedures enforced by the county violate the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights because:

• The rules were expressly created in response to OccupyMPLS, which is a content-based limitation on speech.
• The rules put forth impermissible time, place and manner restrictions.
• The rules are unconstitutionally overbroad.
• The rules are a result of arbitrary and unconstitutional decision-making.
• The unwritten procedures were designed to suppress Plaintiff’s speech and are inconsistent with how the county has treated other groups.

The complaint, which provides details of the county’s restrictions, asks the court to declare that the “Procedures for Public Use of the Hennepin County Government Center” and certain unwritten procedures relating to chalk, electricity and use of structures are unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

“The rules put forth by Hennepin County are particularly troubling because they were created as a direct response to OccupyMPLS,” stated Justin Perl, partner at Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand. “They were not based on any previous ordinances. The Constitution does not allow the government to just make up new rules as you go along in order to target a particular group.”

“In the United States, we have celebrated protesters occupying spaces around the globe during the Arab Spring, yet we are quick to criticize the Occupy Movement for utilizing some of the same methods of expression.” stated Charles Samuelson, executive Director of the ACLU-MN.

Plaintiffs include: Occupy Minneapolis and individuals Benjamin Egerman, Benjamin Painter, Samuel Richards, and Melissa Rowan. Plaintiffs are elected delegates of OccupyMPLS to represent their interest as an unincorporated political association.

Cooperating attorneys include: Tim Griffin and Brian Thomson of Leonard, Street and Deinard and Alain Baudry, Justin Perl and Leora Maccabee Itman of Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand LLP.

#StPaulMN #InJusticeSystem #civilLiberties #ACLU #OccupyWallStreet #OccupyMN #OccupyMinneapolis #AmericanCivilLiberitesUnion

Los Angeles, CA – The Council on American-Islamic Relations of the Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the FBI on Feb. 22. The lawsuit points out that the FBI sent an undercover agent, Craig Monteilh, to infiltrate local mosques in Southern California, to promote acts of violence and spy on thousands on worshippers.

This is another example of how the FBI is targeting and has unleashed repression against the Muslim and Arab communities.

The CAIR and ACLU lawsuit accuses the FBI of targeting Muslims because of their religion, which is a violation of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of association. The undercover agent later fell out with the FBI and is also suing the FBI for unpaid wages.

#LosAngelesCA #FBI #Muslims #CAIR #ACLU #PoliticalRepression