News & Commentary
The March on Washington and History Repeating Itself
ACLU of Florida's Field Coordinator Nikki Fisher is attending the 50th Anniversary March on Washington. She will be blogging her experiences for ACLUFL.org
The original March on Washington took place over two decades before I was born. When I was a kid in school first hearing about it, it seemed as far away from me as did stories about the Civil War or the founding fathers or anything else I read about in a history books. But as I grew older and learned more about the march, more about what the people involved were fighting for, and more about the world, it became less of a mythic part of some distant history and more relevant to me.
By Nikki Fisher
Florida Will Kill Severely Mentally Ill Man Unless Supreme Court Intervenes
Note: This blog post originally appeared on the National ACLU Blog of Rights. That post can be found here.
By Anna Arceneaux, Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment Project
(Update: John Ferguson was executed at 6:17 PM E.T. on Monday, August 5th)
Unless the United States Supreme Court intervenes in the next few days, Florida will execute John Ferguson on August 5, despite a well-documented history of his psychosis spanning over 40 years.
By Guest Blog- ACLU National
14-Year-Old Arrested for Playing with Puppy While Black. Seriously.
Note: This blog post originally appeared on the National ACLU Blog of Rights. That post can be found here.
By Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project
Last week down in Florida, 14-year-old Tremaine McMillian was playing in the water with a friend at the beach when a Miami-Dade police officer approached him to ask what he was doing, misinterpreting their play for a fight. Tremaine walked away from the officers, carrying his new puppy in his arms. After observing his allegedly "dehumanizing stares" and clenched fists, the officer used his ATV to chase Tremaine down and throw him to the ground in a chokehold so intense that the teenager wet himself during the incident. It was his mother who caught part of the incident on camera.
By Guest Blog- ACLU National
This Mothers’ Day, I will think of Mary Graham
I met Mary Graham last Saturday at a meeting of Mothers Standing in the Gap, a group of women in Jacksonville who come together to support one another through their sons’ incarceration. Like mothers everywhere, they do everything they can for their sons, with little concern for themselves.
Seeking Justice through the U.N. Human Rights Committee
When the U.N. Human Rights Committee reviews U.S. compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) this October, the review will tackle many of the human rights violations plaguing Florida. Last week the committee released its list of issues, which will form the basis for the U.S. review, and demanded answers to questions regarding U.S. laws and policies in areas such as juvenile solitary confinement, felon disfranchisement, and discriminatory enforcement of criminal law.
Petition: End the federal anti-immigrant program in Florida
Right now, two sheriff's offices in Florida are participating in a program that has led to racial profiling and created fear in minority communities. This program goes beyond the infamous Arizona anti-immigrant law, not just involving local law enforcement officers in asking about immigration status, but actually deputizing these officers to perform immigration enforcement functions on behalf of the federal government. But like the Arizona law, this program is ripe for abuse.
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