Baton Bob Receives $20,000 Settlement For Coerced Facebook Post

McGruber writes: After arresting him during a June 2013 street performance, Atlanta Police Officers forced costumed street performer "Baton Bob" to make a pro-police statement on his Facebook page before they would allow him to be released on bond. Social media coverage of the incident triggered a six-month internal police investigation into the arrest. Atlanta Police Officer H.J. Davis was given a one-day suspension, then resigned from the Atlanta Police department a few weeks later. Atlanta Police Lt. Jeffrey Cantin received a five-day suspension for "violating responsibilities of a supervisor".

Baton Bob also filed a federal lawsuit against the city, arguing that officers made a wrongful arrest that violated, well, nearly every constitutional right you can name. Those included Jamerson's "right to free speech, his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, his right to remain silent while in custody, his right to be free from compelled speech, his right to counsel, and his right to privacy." The City of Atlanta's legal department reviewed the case and determined that a $20,000 settlement would "be in the best interest of the city" rather than fighting the claims in court.

Comments

Re:not far enough.

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

They should be put on some type of national-level "bad cop list" so no jurisdiction in the US can ever hire them as law enforcement again. Unfortunately, nothing like that exists and these "bad cops" just move somewhere else and end up violating people's rights in their new town.

Re:The song remains the same

[sumdumass]

20k is child's play. It isn't the value of his post, it is the duress in which it was forced to be made.

Re:The song remains the same

[Grishnakh]

Cities will go completely bankrupt before they even think of reining in their police.

Pay Settlments from Police Pension Funds

[Anonymous Coward]

It's time police misdeeds settlement be paid for from Police pension funds, if they lose a case, I suggest 50% from the officer responsible, and the other 50% from his collegues to help incentivise them to police themselves.

Re:Pay Settlments from Police Pension Funds

[ShaunC]

We do need to find some solution that holds the police themselves financially responsible for their misdeeds, otherwise the ones who behave recklessly have no incentive to stop doing so.

I suggest 50% from the officer responsible, and the other 50% from his collegues to help incentivise them to police themselves

I'm afraid that taking settlements out of the pension fund might have the opposite effect of what's intended. If you think it's hard getting cops to report or testify against one another now, imagine how bad it would be if their collective retirement benefits were at stake. The blue wall of silence would grow ten times as tall and ten times as thick. Officers would never speak ill of one another, knowing that if another officer is found guilty of a crime, their own pension fund takes a hit.

Perhaps it's time we require all police officers to take out insurance policies for this sort of thing. As an example, many states require real estate brokers to maintain an errors and omissions (E&O) insurance policy covering a minimum of $1M. To sell houses. Surely it's not unreasonable that a police officer, authorized to use deadly force under color of law during the course of their job duties, could be made to carry insurance against the mistakes they might make... Mistakes which often have far more severe consequences than messing up a real estate contract.

Re:not far enough.

[PopeRatzo]

It's not like people line up to be cops. Low pay, high risk.

That's not as true as you might think. Here are the most dangerous jobs (# of deaths per 100,000):

Logging workers: 127.8
Fishermen: 117.0
Aircraft pilots: 53.4
Roofers: 40.5
Garbage collectors: 36.8
Electrical power line installation/repair: 29.8
Truck drivers: 22.8
Oil and gas extraction: 21.9
Farmers and ranchers: 21.3
Construction workers: 17.4

More recently, policing has gotten even lessdangerous.

And yes, people do in fact "line up" to be police officers. I live a block and a half away from the police academy here in Chicago, and I've seen the lines that form when the police exam is taken. It's a lot of people. And as far as "low reward", that's debatable too. We're talking about a lifetime guaranteed pension after 20 years (not a 401k, but an actual pension. You have that at your job?