ThomasIsUnderrated
07-29-2005, 03:03 PM
Calling the operation "almost totalitarian," a federal judge says a Houston police plan that led to 278 arrests in a Kmart parking lot almost three years ago was unconstitutional.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas allows all 10 lawsuits filed in the wake of the Aug. 18, 2002, mass arrest, and a smaller operation the previous night, to proceed.
The "plan to detain all persons ... with no regard for the existence of open businesses and their customers, is facially unconstitutional," Atlas wrote in an opinion made public this week.
The sweep by police was planned to crack down on illegal street racing, but the lawsuits contend that most of those arrested in the parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer were innocent Kmart customers or diners at a nearby Sonic restaurant. Police had arrested 25 people the previous night outside a nearby James Coney Island restaurant.
...
The lawsuits accuse police of brandishing pistols and shotguns, verbally abusing customers and knocking food from diners' hands and off their tables.
The lawsuits allege that those arrested were forced to sit for hours while plastic cuffs cut into their arms, and some people soiled their clothes when denied permission to use restrooms.
Read it all
HERE (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3287251)
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas allows all 10 lawsuits filed in the wake of the Aug. 18, 2002, mass arrest, and a smaller operation the previous night, to proceed.
The "plan to detain all persons ... with no regard for the existence of open businesses and their customers, is facially unconstitutional," Atlas wrote in an opinion made public this week.
The sweep by police was planned to crack down on illegal street racing, but the lawsuits contend that most of those arrested in the parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer were innocent Kmart customers or diners at a nearby Sonic restaurant. Police had arrested 25 people the previous night outside a nearby James Coney Island restaurant.
...
The lawsuits accuse police of brandishing pistols and shotguns, verbally abusing customers and knocking food from diners' hands and off their tables.
The lawsuits allege that those arrested were forced to sit for hours while plastic cuffs cut into their arms, and some people soiled their clothes when denied permission to use restrooms.
Read it all
HERE (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3287251)