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Boston Pays Out $170,000 To Man Arrested For Recording Police
Ian Lamont writes "The City of Boston has reached a $170,000 settlement with Simon Glik, who was arrested by Boston Police in 2007 after using his mobile phone to record police arresting another man on Boston Common. Police claimed that Glik had violated state wiretapping laws, but later dropped the charges and admitted the officers were wrong to arrest him. Glik had brought a lawsuit against the city (aided by the ACLU) because he claimed his civil rights were violated. According to today's ACLU statement: 'As part of the settlement, Glik agreed to withdraw his appeal to the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel. He had complained about the Internal Affairs Division's investigation of his complaint and the way they treated him. IAD officers made fun of Glik for filing the complaint, telling him his only remedy was filing a civil lawsuit. After the City spent years in court defending the officers' arrest of Glik as constitutional and reasonable, IAD reversed course after the First Circuit ruling and disciplined two of the officers for using "unreasonable judgment" in arresting Glik.'"
The cops are slow to learn.........
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/student-arrested-for-taking-photo-of-cop/
http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-26/news/31240585_1_police-officer-cops-misdemeanor
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
So, does that compensation include:
1) Removing his fingerprints from not only Boston police's files, but the FBI and every other system it was instantly and permanently sent to?
2) Removing all records of his improper and illegal arrest from every system?
Somehow I think information, once collected, is forever there. He will now be "searched", like a suspect, every time prints are run.
The average cops attitude reminds me of the Roman consul Gnaeus Pompey, who conquered Syria and Jerusalem without the senates prior approval. When some of his victims complained that his actions were unjust, he responded "Stop quoting the laws to us, we carry swords."
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
You didn't read the story then (duh). The court tossed qualified immunity for the officers. Glik sued both the city and officers in question and in theory the city could force the cops to split the tab with them (I doubt they will). This should send a big chill through the nations police force as it's now precedent that they can lose immunity for false arrest. That's a HUGE precedent and exposes officers violating peoples rights to civil suits that take them for everything they are worth. Now an officer has to make the choice to falsely arrest someone with the understanding that they could end up in civil court and ordered to pay that person a bunch of money for violating their rights.
Now if they made the officer pay at least half of $170,000, and then take the rest from the entire police officer's pension plan instead of the tax payer, then you'll see these type of evil, cowardly arrests stop overnight. Nothing like sharing the pain to stop this...