CIVIL LIBERTIES

COPS USE TASERS ON TOP OF, RATHER THAN INSTEAD OF, GUNS

AP - The Houston Chronicle reported that Houston police officers have
used Tasers more than 1,000 times in the past two years. But in 95
percent of those cases, they were not used to defuse situations in which
suspects wielded weapons and deadly force clearly would have been
justified. Instead, the newspaper reported, more than half the Taser
incidents escalated from relatively common police calls, such as traffic
stops, disturbance and nuisance complaints, and reports of suspicious
people.

In more than 350 of the first 900 Taser incidents, no person was charged
- the case was dropped by prosecutors or dismissed by judges and juries.
Of those people who were Tasered and charged with crimes, most were
accused of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, the newspaper said

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA011507.04B.tasers_
houston.2a77611.html

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JURY TELLS AMERICAN AIRLINES TO PAY $400K TO MAN IT PROFILED

NBC 6, FL - A jury in Massachusetts ruled on Friday that American
Airlines should pay a South Florida man $400,000 in a discrimination
case. John Cerqueira and his attorneys accused American Airlines of
racial profiling after he was removed from a plane in Boston in December
2003. Cerqueira said he had visited family in the Boston area and was
trying to fly back to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
when American Airlines officials ordered him and two other men off the
plane. . . Cerqueira said three Massachusetts state police officers
escorted him and two Israeli men off of the plane. They were all
questioned and later released. "We went to the American Airlines ticket
counter and they refunded our fares for all three of us and told me I
was being denied service," Cerqueira said. "They didn't tell me for how
long and I had to figure out a way to get home." In his suit against the
airline, Cerqueira, who is an American citizen of Portuguese descent,
claimed he was denied service because the airline mistakenly believed he
was of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian decent. The complaint
included an e-mail message, which Cerqueira said is from an airline
official, stating, "Our investigation has revealed that our personnel
perceived certain aspects of your behavior, which could have made other
customers uncomfortable on board the aircraft."

http://www.nbc6.net/news/10754704/detail.html

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STATE TROOPER GOES BALLISTIC OVER ANTI-WAR SIGN

NEWS WITH VIEWS - An Oregon man says he and his family were accosted and
harassed by an Oregon State trooper while exercising their
constitutional right to protest the war on a public sidewalk in Portland
on December 9, 2006. David Brownlow, 49, who serves as the vice chairman
of the Constitution Party of Oregon, filed a $1 million federal civil
rights lawsuit against Senior Trooper Ken Moore for violating his right
to freedom of expression . . . According to Brownlow, who worked on the
Mary Starrett for Governor campaign in the 2006 election cycle, he was
standing on the sidewalk, with his wife and 12-year old daughter,
adjacent to a Portland mall, peacefully holding up a sign that read
"SUPPORT OUR TROOPS -- BRING THEM HOME!" Brownlow's son, Jared, is
currently serving with the US Army in Baghdad making this a personal as
well as political action.

While they displayed their sign to passing motorists, Trooper Ken Moore
saw the family, sped up to the scene, and stopped in the street in front
of the small sidewalk demonstration, according to Brownlow. "The visibly
agitated trooper then got out of his patrol vehicle and began shouting
at us claiming that we were 'breaking the law,' and demanded that we put
away the sign and 'leave the area immediately,'" Brownlow said. . .

Surprisingly, said Brownlow, when he asked what law was being broken by
him and his family, Trooper Moore replied, "When a trooper tells you
that you are breaking the law, that is all you need to know." Mr.
Brownlow, a savvy political activist, demanded to know what law or
ordinance was being broken at which point Trooper Moore jumped over the
traffic barrier onto the sidewalk and shouted directly into Mr.
Brownlow's face that, "It was enough to be told the law was being
broken, and that if you did not move immediately, you will be arrested."


Brownlow described how his child, by now quite terrified, moved from
standing between her parents to hide behind her mother. According to Mr.
Brownlow, his wife then said to Senior Trooper Moore, "We're not
blocking the road, nor are we blocking the sidewalk." This caused the
officer to point a finger at her in front of her child shouting, "If you
do not stop talking, I will arrest both of you for disorderly conduct!"
Brownlow also described how the angry trooper grabbed the banner out of
his and his family's hands, folded it up and then threw it into his
patrol vehicle. . .

http://www.newswithviews.com/BreakingNews/breaking49.htm

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