|
Hullaboarder
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: OHIO(but my mind's in a far better place)
|
Got this email today:
--------
Dear Bob,
We can't thank you enough for your commitment to First Amendment rights and for turning that commitment into action. Your incredible outpouring of support for the club-goers in Michigan who had their civil rights violated in the raid at Club What's Next has been incredibly successful at raising public awareness of what happened.
New details that have emerged via eyewitness accounts since our last report indicate that the strip searches and cavity searches to which some patrons were subjected were conducted in unsanitary or dangerous ways. Because Michigan has strict rules about when and how police officers can conduct cavity searches, these searches may have been in violation of state law. As for the arrests themselves, the local law against frequenting a known drug establishment, which was used to arrest and ticket many patrons of the nightclub, broadly defines a "drug establishment" as any place where people use or sell drugs. This means the law could be used to prosecute anyone who is ever in a place where drugs are used or sold.
With concerns about the constitutionality of such a broad statute and the legality of some of the searches, the Greater Flint ACLU and ACLU of Michigan held a meeting on Thursday to speak with people who were present at the nightclub raid, and the Alliance is working with the ACLU to determine how we can best support this fight as it goes forward. If you were there and want more information about fighting back, please submit an incident report to the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund and a copy will go to the ACLU. If you live in the Flint area and are able to organize people for a possible future event such as a public rally, please contact us directly.
Thank you again for all your work! We will keep you updated as the situation evolves. And if you have not yet taken action to tell the city of Flint you condemn these civil rights abuses, you can still do so:
|