"Protest Is Democracy at Work"

[applegrove]

Protest Is Democracy at Work

By Amy E. Lerman and Vesla M. Weaver at Slate

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/12/police_brutality_protesters_history_of_civil_rights_women_s_suffrage_child.single.html

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By giving a microphone to the voiceless, protest has historically been a tool to make us a more just society. In addition, criticism of insurgent movements misses a distressing but essential truth: For many Americans, public protest is sometimes the only meaningful avenue for democratic expression.


This is particularly true for those who are the most directly and disproportionately harmed by the criminal justice system, which is currently characterized by an extraordinary absence of effective mechanisms for accountability. In many communities around the nation, the formal grievance procedures provided by police departments are neither independent nor transparent. Instead, citizen complaints are frequently investigated through secret processes in which the police department plays both judge and jury.


Nor are such grievance procedures generally successful. In a study of 600 citizen complaints made about police abuse in Los Angeles, not one was sustained by the department. In addition, individual officers enjoy something called “qualified immunity,” which makes it difficult to successfully prosecute them on criminal charges so long as they can reasonably claim their actions were taken in good faith.

For example, the Maryland police in Robles v. Prince George’s County, a case heard in the 4th Circuit, tied a man named Nelson Robles to a metal pole in the middle of a deserted parking lot and left him there to be picked up by officers in another jurisdiction; the man had been arrested for an outstanding traffic warrant. The court found that the “the officers' actions were not reasonably related to any law enforcement purpose” and agreed that Robles had suffered significant harm. However, the officers claimed and were granted a good faith exception.



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