News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island joined with civil rights groups today to formally announce the introduction of comprehensive legislation in the General Assembly to address the widespread documented problem of racial profiling by police in traffic stops. The legislation, being sponsored by Rep. Joseph Almeida and Sen. Rhoda Perry, is the community’s formal response to a Northeastern University study released last summer which showed that the majority of police departments in the state routinely stopped black and Hispanic drivers for traffic violations much more often than whites, and searched their cars much more often as well, even though whites were more likely to be found with contraband when a search was conducted.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today called “homeland security” legislation being proposed by Governor Carcieri “extraordinarily dangerous” with “alarming ramifications for political and labor protest, freedom of association, academic freedom and the public’s right to know.” That is the conclusion reached in a 13-page analysis of the bill prepared by the ACLU and sent out today to various political, labor and academic organizations.

The ACLU said today it will ask state legislators to amend the open records law to require police departments to release arrest reports within 48 hours of a request for the information. The call follows the death of South Kingstown resident Bruce Chappell on Tuesday after being arrested by North Kingstown police. Police officials have refused to release copies of the report of his arrest, citing a provision in the open records law giving public agencies up to ten days to respond to requests for public information.

The ACLU has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, challenging the state’s attempt to overturn a recent decision from a panel of that court which held that the Urban League of R.I., the NAACP and other plaintiffs have the right to pursue a claim that black voting power on the South Side of Providence was improperly diluted by recently redrawn Senate district lines. The federal panel’s favorable ruling is being reheard by the entire appellate court on February 4th.

In a brief filed in the R.I. Supreme Court today, the ACLU of Rhode Island is challenging the Providence Police Department’s efforts to avoid any liability for its admitted contemptuous behavior for almost two years in failing to comply with both the state’s racial profiling law and court orders that had found the Police Department in contempt for non-compliance with that law.

The ACLU of R.I. today filed a federal lawsuit challenging the life-sized nativity scene  and menorah in front of Cranston City Hall, as well as the policy that Mayor Stephen Laffey recently implemented to authorize those displays. The suit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorneys Miriam Weizenbaum and Amato DeLuca on behalf of life-long Cranston resident Grace C. Osediacz, argues that both the display and the policy violate the First Amendment.

Calling the decision “deeply disappointing,” the ACLU announced that U.S. District Court Judge Mary Lisi had today denied the organization’s request to submit a friend of the court brief to address the issue of imposing sanctions on the three attorneys in the Cornel Young, Jr. civil rights case. They are facing sanctions for allegedly misrepresenting the judge’s position in court papers.

In a case that raised potentially far-reaching free speech issues for state residents, the ACLU hailed the dismissal today of criminal charges against Little Compton resident William Bullivant at a hearing before R.I. Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg. ACLU volunteer attorneys Charles Levesque and Nicholas Trott Long represented Bullivant at the hearing.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to City of Providence’s release of an “action plan” to address racial profiling: