News & Commentary

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:

The ACLU of Rhode Island is seeking to have the Providence Police Department held in contempt of court for its continued failure to comply with the state’s racial profiling law and with court orders that had previously found the Police Department in contempt for non-compliance with that law. Even as the City continues its appeal of that initial contempt finding, the ACLU has today asked the R.I. Supreme Court to return the case to Superior Court for a further contempt hearing.

Relying on recently-released statistics showing that Providence Police Department’s compliance with the Traffic Stops Statistics Act in May, 2003 was the lowest than at any time since the City was held in contempt of court last October for violating that Act, the ACLU has called on the City to continue to collect traffic stops data on a voluntary basis for the indefinite future. Only in this way, the ACLU said in a three-page letter to Mayor David Cicilline, can the City seek to stem the problem of racial profiling in the City, which a top police official has acknowledged is occurring. Pursuant to a court order issued last year in response to the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the City’s non-compliance with the Act, traffic stops data collection continued through July, but has since ceased.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an unprecedented state law passed by the General Assembly last month that gave the Town of North Smithfield a one-time exemption from the state’s major law banning employment discrimination. The suit was filed on behalf of an Hispanic female applicant, Christine Melendez, who is barred from obtaining any position with the newly-created North Smithfield Fire Department because of the law. Instead, the town has voted to hire 21 white males who currently work for the town’s private fire and rescue service. Last week, the Town, which has no fire department of its own, took formal action to acquire the private fire and rescue service that has been serving North Smithfield. In doing so, the Town voted to hire en masse the service’s all white and all male firefighting force. Before taking this action, the Town sought and obtained an exemption from the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA), the state law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender and age. The exemption, granted by the General Assembly, bars any individual from filing an employment discrimination claim under FEPA for the Town’s mass hiring. However, the law did not – and legally could not – exempt the Town from federal anti-discrimination statutes.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has today intervened in the pending litigation between the state of Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indians over the highly publicized state police raid of the Indians’ smoke shop last month. The ACLU affiliate, joined by its National office, has filed a “friend of the court” brief in U.S. District Court in support of the Tribe’s legal arguments. The brief was prepared by National ACLU staff attorney Stephen Pevar who, as the author of The Rights of Indians and Tribes, has literally written the book on the subject.

The ACLU of Rhode Island and over 20 civil rights and community organizations joined today in the release of a report sharply critical of Governor Donald Carcieri’s civil rights record in his first six months in office. The 16-page report, “Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs in the Governor’s Office,” focuses on five major issues the Governor has dealt with during his term. The report calls his response to them “cause for considerable alarm,” and says they demonstrate “a pattern of ignoring the people with something to say about discrimination when an issue directly affecting them” arises. The report, prepared by the ACLU and two civil rights organizations, concludes with a series of twenty recommendations for the Governor to implement to address the concerns outlined in the report.

In a brief filed this week, the ACLU of Rhode Island has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Court of Appeals to allow its “racial profiling” lawsuit to proceed against the Town of Westerly on behalf of a 50-year old African-American man, Ashaway resident Bernard Flowers, who was stopped in his car and detained at gunpoint by town police. The appeal, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Thomas G. Briody, claims that the district court erred when it ruled that the police had sufficient grounds to warrant a “felony car stop” of Mr. Flowers.

At a news conference organized by the ACLU of Rhode Island, a dozen civil rights and community groups gathered at the State House today to call for concrete action by the Attorney General and local law enforcement authorities to address the now-thoroughly documented problem of racial profiling in the state.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a lawsuit in R.I. District Court on behalf of Jean Philippe Barros, a person of Cape Verdean descent who, the suit claims, was the victim of two incidents of racial profiling within a year by Scituate police. The suit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Thomas G. Briody, argues that the incidents violated Barros’ right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and to equal protection of the laws. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against the Town to prohibit any further harassment or detention of Barros without probable cause.