ACLU, Masinter, Challenge Tasers in Supreme Court

MIAMI – In a petition submitted to the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida asked the nine Supreme Court Justices to rule that a law enforcement officer’s excessive use of force with a Taser is unconstitutional.

The case offers the Supreme Court its first opportunity to address Taser abuse in an incident captured by a videocamera mounted on the patrol car dashboard of the Washington County, Florida Sheriff’s Deputy, Jonathan Rackard. Deputy Rackard administered three five-second-long 50,000 volt discharges of a Taser to Jesse Buckley with the Taser in “drive-stun” mode, which means that the device was pressed directly against the skin instead of from a distance.

The ACLU lawsuit alleges that the deputy’s actions violate the Fourth Amendment, since his only purpose was to inflict pain upon an already-handcuffed arrestee to make him stand up. Buckley’s lawyer, James V. Cook of Tallahassee, Florida, posted the video on YouTube at the suggestion of the dissenting member of the Eleventh Circuit panel, Judge Beverly Martin.

You can view the video of Jesse Buckley being actively tased by Deputy Rackard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWC7iSGCk-s

Cook has complained that the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling licenses police officers to use Tasers as cattle prods to inflict gratuitous pain on a nonviolent handcuffed arrestee, simply to herd him towards a police car.

"The repeated and excruciatingly painful application of 50,000 volts of electricity was once the exclusive province of the agents and implements of torture, and cannot be condoned in a civilized society,” said Maria Kayanan, ACLU of Florida Associate Legal Director.

Although Mr. Buckley never once actively resisted arrest nor attempted to flee, the officer continued to tase him solely to cause pain. The federal district court held that the officer was not entitled to qualified immunity, but by a split decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed that opinion.

“It takes us back several decades to a time when some law enforcement agencies gave officers permission to use old-fashioned electric cattle prods, along with dogs and fire hoses, to control people who were not being violent," said his lawyer, James Cook. But when you create a world where waterboarding and torture becomes the official policy of a Presidential administration, how much easier it is to justify a few volts here or there.

A PDF of the petition can be downloaded at: http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/BuckleyCert-final.pdf

The ACLU of Florida filed the petition in the U.S Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Counsel for Jesse Daniel Buckley is Michael R. Masinter, ACLU Board Member and Professor of Law at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center; James V. Cook; Randall Marshall, ACLU of Florida Legal Director; and Maria Kayanan, ACLU of Florida Associate Legal Director. Good luck, guys.

Fort Myers to Alert Residents of Sex Offenders

Want to know if a sex offender is moving into the neighborhood, but don't have internet access?

Well, residents in Fort Myers will receive a heads-up phone call when a sex offender or predator moves into their neighborhood. A pre-recorded phone blast is sent out over land lines within a quarter-mile radius. The message informs residents of what's happening and who to call with information.

On the heels of discovering that 90,000 sexual offenders are registered on My Space, their sheriff's office is joining several other Florida law enforcement agencies in expanding that program to include notifications when sex offenders are on the move.

Sgt. Tracy Booth, who oversees the sexual offender program at the sheriff's office, said by law, her agency is required to notify schools, parks and day care facilities when a sexual predator moves. But parents also can check the agency's Web site or sign up for e-mail alerts about where offenders are living.

Claudia Corrigan is vice president of the Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit A Child Is Missing, which is providing the service to the sheriff's office free of charge. Booth said once her staff verifies the new address of the offender, a call is made to A Child Is Missing, which can put out the information almost immediately. Corrigan said her office's technology allows 1,000 phone calls to be placed in under one minute.

Because her office identifies itself as the law enforcement agency trying to release the message, there is a 98 percent listen rate. The pre-recorded statement will simply tell the listener the name of the offender, offer a description and reveal where he or she is living.

I wonder if in our attempt to keep children free of sex offenders, we have passed laws making it so sex offenders can never have a decent chance at freedom ever again. 20 year registration requirements. Civil committment after criminal incarceration. Restrictions on residency and employment. Forced to live in shanty huts under highway bypasses and then routed from there as well.

Were lepers in the time of Christ treated any better? I really think that legislators have created a permanent class of felons whose crimes were heinous but whose penalties have become discriminatorily oppressive. They need to be challenged to insure that they have not gone too far; have not gone beyond lawfully penal to illegally unconstitutional.

I know how offensive the deeds were which led to incarceration and subsequent supervision. But how repressive have we become in passing restrictions that are themselves uncivil and inhumane? Will there ever be a lawmaker to say maybe we have gone too far and have to retreat? When have you ever known anyone to take laws back?