News & Commentary

Administrators at Central High School in Providence have allowed sophomore Eliazar Velasquez to return to school after the student was suspended last week for posting photographs of the school principal on a personal website. The photographs depicted principal Elaine Almagno smoking a cigarette on school grounds, in direct violation of state law.

The R.I. ACLU today announced the settlement of its racial profiling lawsuit against the Scituate Police Department in a case in which the ACLU alleged that Pawtucket resident Jean Philippe Barros, a person of Cape Verdean descent, was the victim of racial profiling when he was stopped, questioned and ticketed. Without acknowledging any wrongdoing, the Town has agreed to pay Barros $10,500. Last October, a federal jury cleared the police, but the ACLU appealed, challenging significant restrictions on the evidence that the judge allowed the jury to consider. As a result of the settlement, the appeal is being dismissed.

The Rhode Island ACLU is urging police departments across the state not to purchase Taser “stun guns,” a controversial weapon that many U.S. law enforcement agencies, including four in Rhode Island, have begun adding to their arsenal.

A federal judge has rejected efforts by the Scituate Police Department to dismiss a racial profiling lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Rhode Island on behalf of Pawtucket resident Jean Philippe Barros, a person of Cape Verdean descent. As a result, the case can proceed to trial.

As part of a new anti-surveillance campaign which is designed to defend consumers’ personal privacy rights, the ACLU is asking Rhode Island-based CVS and 20 other leading retail, banking and travel businesses across the country to take a “no-spy pledge” to reject government requests to voluntarily turn over information on customers and their transactions.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced that a settlement had been reached in a federal lawsuit it filed two years ago against the Woonsocket Police Department on behalf of a woman who was strip-searched and left naked in a holding cell for over five hours after being arrested for “driving under the influence.” Under the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay $65,000 to plaintiff Joann Lanoue in exchange for dismissal of the suit. The agreement specifies that it does not constitute any acknowledgement of wrongdoing by Woonsocket police officials.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston today rejected the ACLU’s appeal of a racial profiling lawsuit brought on behalf of a 53-year-old African-American resident of Hopkinton, Bernard Flowers, who was stopped in his car and detained at gunpoint by Westerly police in 2000. By a 2-1 vote, the court, while calling it “a close case,” said that Westerly police had “reasonable suspicion” when they pulled Flowers over. The appeal was handled by ACLU volunteer attorney Thomas G. Briody.

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.

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.