News & Commentary

Last week, I attended a Town Hall in Tampa that was convened by Attorney Barry Cohen to address race relations and law enforcement. There was a panel of 14 individuals that included judges, attorneys, the Public Defender, educators, the Tampa Police Department, the Sheriff’s office, parents, and a youth. There were over 200 people in attendance representing a cross-section of Tampa and Hillsborough.

The conversation was very timely, in light of the recent publication of a report showing that blacks are being disproportionately over-policed in Tampa. Attendees shared stories of their experiences with law enforcement, judges, the school system, the criminal justice system, and the devastation to communities due to the intersection of race and poverty, and the interface with law enforcement and the courts.

Gov. Rick Scott’s drug testing crusade comes to an end as state decides not to challenge appeals court ruling finding mandatory suspicionless government searches of TANF applicants unconstitutional

By: Angel Harris, Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment Project

Ida B. Wells said it best, "Our country's national crime is lynching."

Last week, we were reminded of this when the Equal Justice Initiative released its report, "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror." A gruesome history of these carnivals of torture and death from the Civil War until World War II, the report documents the racial terrorism designed to keep black Americans across the South destitute and powerless.

The time is upon us once again. Monday, March 2 marks the start of the Florida legislature’s 2015 session and the ACLU of Florida will be at our state’s Capitol defending against bills that aim to limit your civil rights and civil liberties. We’ll also be fighting for new laws that look to expand freedoms for all Floridians. We’re excited about the work we’ll be doing and want to share just a glimpse of what’s to come.

The pictures of six black men stared back at me from the screen, the images of their faces shredded by bullet holes. It seemed like some kind of sick threat, but it was the work of a Florida police department.

This morning, I was greeted by the sickening news that the North Miami Beach Police Department (NMBPD) is using mug shots of black people and others for target practice. Mind you, these are not cartoons or computer-generated mug shots—these are photographs of real people, some of whom were arrested by the NMBPD itself.

You’ve got to admire the Florida Legislature for its creativity in inventing ways to circumvent democracy and minimize the power of the people’s vote.

Voters should not be fooled by the Legislature’s latest con – proposed constitutional Amendment #3. It is a pernicious proposal “requiring” that a lame-duck Governor, rather than the newly-elected Governor, fill judicial vacancies.

It should be soundly defeated.

The tragic shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has raised many questions about how law enforcement treats the very citizens it is supposed to protect, including whether local law enforcement should be armed to the teeth with military grade equipment. Could a military response happen here in Florida? It’s impossible to know right now, and we need to change that.

In June, the ACLU released a national report on the militarization of local law enforcement, which documented the federal to local pipeline of war machines and weapons. There are several programs that enable even the smallest towns to obtain massive reserves of weapons.

By Cassandra Stubbs,
Director, ACLU Capital Punishment Project

This post originally appeared on ACLU's National Blog of Rights.

According to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Henry Lee McCollum deserved to die for the brutal rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. There's just one problem, and a frequent one in death penalty cases: Henry Lee McCollum didn't do it.

Instead of tracking down the true killer, police and prosecutors went after Henry Lee McCollum and his half-brother Leon Brown, two intellectually disabled and innocent teenagers.

By Nusrat Choudhury,
Staff Attorney, ACLU Racial Justice Program

This post originally appeared on ACLU National's Blog of Rights

The tragic killing of college-bound teenager Michael Brown has raised questions about the frequency with which police kill unarmed black men in America. The answer, unfortunately, is far too often.

Just three months ago, on a warm April afternoon, a white police officer shot and killed Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old black man, in downtown Milwaukee's Red Arrow Park. According to the Milwaukee police chief, the officer was "defending himself in a violent situation." But the eyewitness report of a Starbucks barista paints a very different picture.

According to the barista, Hamilton had been sleeping on the concrete sidewalk next to Starbucks when two police officers approached him, asked him questions, and left after determining that he was doing nothing wrong. But an hour or so later, she heard yelling. Looking out the Starbucks window, she saw a different white police officer standing up against Hamilton, "who was holding the officer's own baton in a defense posture." The officer "lunged" at Hamilton in an attempt to get the baton, but failed.