September 19, 2016
It’s no secret that police
officers fake charges when dealing with protesters, but now there’s hard
evidence.
In a complaint filed U.S.
District Court for the District of Connecticut by the American Civil Liberties
Union of Connecticut, it’s alleged that that three state police troopers
violated a protester’s rights byy searching and detaining him, confiscating his
camera, and charging him with fabricated criminal infractions.
The whole incident was captured
on video.
via ACLU:
On behalf of Connecticut resident
Michael Picard, the ACLU-CT alleges that John Barone, Patrick Torneo, and John
Jacobi, all employed by the state police division of Connecticut’s Department
of Emergency Services and Public Protection, violated Picard’s First Amendment
rights to free speech and information and Fourth Amendment right against
warrantless seizure of his property.
On September 11, 2015, Picard was
protesting near a police DUI checkpoint in West Hartford. Barone approached him
under the pretext of public complaints and confiscated Picard’s legally-carried
pistol and pistol permit. Barone then claimed that filming the police is
illegal, and took Picard’s camera. Unbeknownst to the troopers, the camera was
recording when Barone brought it to Torneo’s cruiser. With the camera rolling,
the officers proceeded to: call a Hartford police officer to see if he or she
had any “grudges” against Picard; open an investigation of him in the police
database; and discuss a separate protest that he had organized at the state
capitol.
After Barone announced “we gotta
cover our ass,” either Torneo or Jacobi stated “let’s give him something,” and
the three settled on fabricating two criminal infraction tickets that they
issued to Picard. Torneo drove away with Picard’s camera on top of his cruiser,
upon which the camera fell onto the hood of the car, Torneo stopped, and Jacobi
returned the camera to Picard. In July of this year, the criminal charges
against Picard were dismissed in the Connecticut Superior Court.
“Police should be focused on
public safety, not punishing protesters and those who film public employees
working on a public street,” said ACLU-CT legal director Dan Barrett, who is
representing Picard in the lawsuit. “As the video shows, these police officers were
more concerned with thwarting Mr. Picard’s free speech and covering their
tracks than upholding the law.”
“Community members like me have a
right to film government officials doing their jobs in public, and we should be
able to protest without fearing political retribution from law enforcement,”
said Picard. “As an advocate for free speech, I’m deeply disappointed that
these police officers ignored my rights, particularly because two of the
troopers involved were supervisors who should be setting an example for others.
By seeking to hold these three police officers accountable, I hope that I can
prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.”
“The evidence clearly shows that
these police officers violated Mr. Picard’s rights,” said attorney Joseph R.
Sastre, who defended Picard against the criminal charges and is joining Barrett
to represent Picard in the civil case. “We are confident that the court will
agree, and we hope that it will send a strong message to police and the public
alike that enforcing the law means respecting free speech, not trampling on
it.”
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