Strip-Search of 13 Year-Old Student, a Violation of Constitutional Rights?.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide if the 2003 strip-search of a 13-year-old Arizona female student was reasonable or if it violated her Constitutional rights. The Court will also determine whether the girl is entitled to a financial settlement from the school district or the school official who ordered the search.

The decision could have a lasting affect on a school's drug enforcement policies.

The case, Redding v. Safford Unified School District, was appealed from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found the strip search to be unconstitutional. A six-judge majority of the appeals court further held that the school official who ordered the search is not entitled to immunity as a result of his actions.

"Overzealous school officials stripped our client of her clothes and her constitutional rights," said Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. "We are confident that the Supreme Court will recognize that such conduct has no place in America’s schools and will protect the privacy rights of America’s students."

Savana Redding, an eighth grade honor roll student at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, was pulled from class on October 8, 2003 by the school’s vice principal, Kerry Wilson. Earlier that day, Wilson had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen - 400 milligram pills equivalent to two over-the-counter ibuprofen pills, such as Advil - in the possession of Redding’s classmate. Under questioning and faced with punishment, the classmate claimed that Redding, who had no history of disciplinary problems or substance abuse, had given her the pills. Safford maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward all prescription medicines, including prescription-strength ibuprofen.

After escorting Redding to his office, Wilson presented Redding with the ibuprofen pills and informed her of her classmate’s accusations. Redding said she had never seen the pills before and agreed to a search of her possessions, wanting to prove she had nothing to hide. Joined by a female school administrative assistant, Wilson searched Redding’s backpack and found nothing. Instructed by Wilson, the administrative assistant then took Redding to the school nurse’s office in order to perform a strip search.

In the school nurse’s office, Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear. She was then commanded to pull her bra out and to the side, exposing her breasts, and to pull her underwear out at the crotch, exposing her pelvic area.

The strip search failed to uncover any ibuprofen pills.

"The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had," said Redding in a sworn affidavit following the incident. "I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry."

The ACLU says the strip search was undertaken based solely on the uncorroborated claims of the classmate facing punishment. The groups says no attempt was made to corroborate the classmate’s accusations among other students or teachers, no physical evidence suggested that Redding might be in possession of ibuprofen pills or that she was concealing them in her undergarments. Furthermore, the classmate had not claimed that Redding currently possessed any pills, nor had the classmate given any indication as to where they might be concealed. No attempt was made to contact Redding’s parents prior to conducting the strip search.

"It offends both common sense and the Constitution to undertake such an excessive, traumatizing search based on nothing more than an uncorroborated accusation of ibuprofen possession," said Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU and counsel of record in the case. "Our fundamental right to privacy must not be cast aside when faced with groundless allegations rooted in unfounded fears of adolescent Advil abuse.

Police Officer violating Civil Rights beaten a man while restrained in a wheelchair.

I wonder why some fellow Citizens refuse to call to Police for help.!!!!!!!!!!.
A Chicago police officer pleaded guilty today to violating the federal civil rights of a man whom the officer struck repeatedly with a dangerous weapon while the man was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Loretta King, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office announced.

William Cozzi, 51, pleaded guilty to a one-count information in U.S. District Court in Chicago, admitting he used excessive or unreasonable force while acting under color of law. Cozzi joined the Chicago Police Department in 1992 and was assigned to the 25 th District at the time of the alleged incident. He was subsequently suspended from duty. Cozzi was indicted in April 2008 for depriving the victim of his civil rights.

On Aug. 2, 2005, while performing his duties as a police officer, Cozzi admitted that he used a “sap,” a dangerous weapon similar to a blackjack, to repeatedly strike the victim who was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair at Norwegian American Hospital, resulting in bodily injury. At the time, the victim was awaiting treatment in the hospital emergency room after being stabbed in the shoulder.

“The defendant violated the public trust by abusing his law enforcement authority,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King. “This prosecution demonstrates that the Civil Rights Division is committed to aggressively prosecuting law enforcement officers who willfully use excessive force.”


“No law enforcement officer may use unreasonable force with impunity and every citizen, regardless of being in police custody, has a constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force,” U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald said.

Cozzi pleaded guilty while reserving his right to appeal a ruling last year denying his motion to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the prosecution was based in part on compelled statements he made to the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards and during a police review board hearing.

According to a plea agreement, Cozzi was dispatched to the hospital to respond to the stabbing and approached the victim who was being loud and verbally abusive while awaiting treatment for the stabbing. Shortly after approaching the victim, Cozzi placed him in handcuffs and left the emergency room to retrieve leg shackles, which he then placed on the victim. With the victim restrained, Cozzi used a sap to repeatedly strike him in the face and body. According to the plea agreement, at the time of the assault the victim posed no physical threat to Cozzi or anyone else at the hospital.

Cozzi also admitted that he subsequently prepared a false arrest report and misdemeanor complaints stating that the victim attempted to punch him and two hospital security guards, as well as a false tactical response report stating that he used an “open hand strike” on the victim but omitted that he struck the victim with a sap.

U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning set sentencing for March 26, 2009. Cozzi faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Drury from the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Freedom of Speech. Constitutional right?

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Made your own judgment and opinion. I did mine. Ashamed to see this happen on the 21st Century. Clearly violation of Constitutional rights in Maricopa County against they own constituents.

Detention Center Supervisor pleads guilty to Civil Rights Crime.

Clinton Shawn Sydnor, a former sergeant at the Grant County, Ky., Detention Center, pleaded guilty in federal court today to conspiring with deputy jailers and with inmates to violate the civil rights of a man who was in his custody at the jail. Today’s plea was jointly announced by Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, together with James A. Zerhusen, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Tracy Reinhold, Special Agent in Charge of the Louisville Division of the FBI. Sydnor faces a possible sentence of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 8, 2008.

Sydnor was initially charged in a federal indictment that also charged deputy jailers Wesley Lanham and Shawn Freeman. The indictment charged all three defendants with conspiring to violate the civil rights of the man in their custody; with violating the man’s rights; and with obstructing justice in connection with the investigation of those crimes. Sydnor was also charged with additional counts of obstruction for falsifying records in a federal investigation and for tampering with a witness.

According to the original indictment, on Feb. 14, 2003, Sydnor, Lanham and Freeman, along with other deputies not named in the indictment, while on official duty, taunted an 18-year-old high school student who had been brought to the detention center on a speeding charge. The deputies teased the teenager about his physical appearance. The indictment alleges that the defendants then solicited a group of convicted felons housed in a general population cell to intimidate the teenager. The indictment further alleges that the officers then left the teenager in the cell with the inmates, who proceeded to sexually assault the teen.

Sydnor admitted in court today that he conspired with the other officers and with the inmates to violate the teenager’s civil rights, that he knew the teen faced a threat from the other inmates, and that he deliberately ignored that danger. Sydnor also admitted that he had other officers falsify reports relating to the incident.

Lanham and Freeman have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and will face trial beginning on Aug. 11, 2008.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Kristy L. Parker and Trial Attorney Forrest Christian of the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky

Racism in U.S. spreads at high speed against Latinos specially Mexicans.!!!!

Racism in U.S. spreads at high speed against Latinos specially Mexicans.!!!!!!!

US Federal authorities should act to anti-Latino racist attitude starting to ingrain in national culture.

Hate crimes against Hispanic people is growing and calls for local, state and federal government fast decision-making, says El Diario/La Prensa.

"If they go unpunished, such social intolerance will turn staple national attitude, just like with racial segregation up to short after the mid 20th century", adds the warning.

"Nothing today compares to the 1882 Law through which racist people expelled Chinese from Western cities," it reminds.

Among other relevant incidents, the paper relates the mid July fatal beating by two teenagers of a Mexican immigrant, 25, in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
Check this post from Symsess about the attempt to distor the truth about Luis Ramirez Death. click here:

In Nashville, Tennessee, the Police detained, handcuffed and shackled a pregnant woman with labor pain over a traffic violation.

Also, five men and the organization Somos America sued Maricopa County PD and the Mayor's Office for bashing Latinos

Arresting Legal and U.S. Citizens are rising at a high levels.




Two U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident were among those arrested last month in Mount Pleasant, Texas, during a federal immigration crackdown targeting identity fraud at poultry giant Pilgrim's Pride.

One 19-year-old citizen was taken from her home while still in her pajamas, and an 18-year-old citizen was shackled at his ankles, handcuffed at his wrists and tied at his waist, said the arrested workers and a relative. All three speak mostly Spanish

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, contends that such arrests are rare and that when it does happen, citizens are immediately released.

But across the U.S., reports of arrests and detentions of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are increasing.

Lawyers and immigrant-defense groups said such incidents will continue to rise as the federal government deepens its crackdown against illegal immigrants – one of the broadest such actions in 50 years.

Raids have intensified in the last two years – a get-tough approach in the absence of comprehensive immigration legislation.

Federal lawsuits

Two federal lawsuits representing 122 workers have been filed challenging mass detentions of U.S. citizens, during immigration raids. All were either citizens or people in the U.S. with legal status.

Juan Manuel Carrillo, 18, who worked at the Mount Pleasant Pilgrim's plant for $9.75 an hour, was one of 46 arrested in a pre-dawn dragnet that included 300 ICE agents and other personnel.

He said he told officials that he was a U.S. citizen.

"I said I was born in San Diego, and they said they didn't believe me," Mr. Carrillo recounted, in Spanish. "I said I was telling the truth. They said I was working with another's Social Security number."

Mr. Carrillo said that when his 17-year-old brother, Marco Antonio, brought him his U.S. passport, immigration agents insisted the pair were lying and asked him where he bought the passport.

Mr. Carrillo was taken to Mexico as a toddler by his Mexican-born parents and lived there for 15 years, before returning to the U.S. about a year ago. He speaks little English.

Xochitl Delgado, 19 and also a worker at Pilgrim's Pride, was arrested in her home in the early morning of April 16 and taken into custody still in her pajamas, said her older sister, Griselda Delgado.

She said her sister, born in the U.S., is still too traumatized to speak about the arrest.

"Every time she remembers she cries," Griselda Delgado said. "Before they take a person away, they should do a deeper investigation about who has documents."

Mr. Carrillo said he remembers Ms. Delgado sitting in a cell in her pajamas and sandals. ICE officials said Xochitl Delgado was wearing "an ample sweat suit."

U.S. prosecutor

Alan Jackson, a Tyler-based assistant U.S. attorney, said all criminal charges have been dismissed against the three workers, arrested on suspicion of using a Social Security number not issued to them.

"After the arrest, we determined that dismissal was appropriate," he said.

Asked if investigators believed that the three were using false Social Security numbers, even though they had authentic ones, Mr. Jackson said: "What it means is that we felt the evidence that they were using someone else's Social Security number wasn't strong enough."

Mr. Jackson said that his office moved quickly to dismiss charges against Ms. Delgado.
"We were racing against the clock to do it and get the district clerk to stay late enough to process it," he said.

The indictment against Xochitl Delgado was dismissed "in the interests of justice" at 5:03 p.m. April 17, about 35 hours after her arrest, according to the pleading in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Division.

Mr. Jackson declined to comment on whether those arrested might themselves be victims of identity theft.

But ICE spokesman Virginia Kice noted that, in general, the burden of proof rests with the federal government for establishing what it calls "alienage" – or whether a person was born outside the U.S.

There is no comprehensive government database that establishes who holds U.S. citizenship, she added.

Jesus García, a 27-year-old legal permanent resident, was also picked up by authorities and his arrest was photographed by a newspaper owner who followed ICE agents to several locations.

Mr. García insisted that he'd broken no immigration laws. Eventually, he was released and reunited with his U.S. citizen wife and five daughters.

"I was not to blame for any of the charges," said Mr. García, who no longer works at the Pilgrim's plant.

Federal immigration agents and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, John L. Ratcliffe, said at a Dallas news conference in April that the national arrests were part of "an ongoing criminal investigation" into criminal activity involving alleged identity theft.

Of the more than 300 workers arrested at five Pilgrim's plants across the country, about a third were criminally charged, immigration officials said.

A spokesman for Pilgrim's Pride Corp. – based in Pittsburg, Texas, with $7.59 billion in revenue last year – said the company cooperated with officials and has not been charged.

Matt Yarbrough, a lawyer who has prosecuted immigration-related crimes as a former assistant U.S. attorney, said the operation at Pilgrim's Pride raises questions about excess use of law enforcement power.

"There is reasonable and then there is overly aggressive," said Mr. Yarbrough, who prosecuted an immigration raid against the Pappas restaurant chain in the 1990s.
"Those factors to a court are going to seem overreaching and ultimately the government could be liable for falsely imprisoning someone."

Peter Schey, president and executive director for the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, said he believes that U.S. citizens are increasingly facing federal immigration agents who are incredulous about their U.S. citizenship.

"If more U.S. citizens exercise their rights to seek damages in these illegal detentions," that could cause the Department of Homeland Security to re-evaluate the way they search for those in the U.S. illegally, Mr. Schey said.


February 2008: 114 workers, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, are temporarily detained during a raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises in Van Nuys, Calif. In April, each filed federal claims for $5,000 in damages. In that raid, ICE agents blocked exits and prevented employees from leaving until more than 100 workers were arrested on immigration-related offenses, and eight more on criminal charges.

August 2007: Alicia Rodriguez, a Mansfield tax preparer, is held for 16 hours before she is able to convince authorities she is a U.S. citizen. She was picked up on a warrant for a traffic violation. Authorities mistook her for an illegal immigrant deported three years earlier, who insisted she was a U.S. citizen. "They were pretty belligerent in not believing me," said the 29-year-old Ms. Rodriguez. Ms. Rodriguez said she now carries a copy of her U.S. birth certificate with her.


June 2007: Jose Cesar Guzman, a Santa Fe, N.M., chef from El Salvador with legal status, is held for five weeks because of a mix-up in his legal files. He was mistaken for another man with a similar name, Jose Carmelo Guzman, said his attorney, Olsi Vrapi of the Noble law firm in Santa Fe.

May 2007: Pedro Guzman, a U.S.-born man who some say had mental health problems, was removed to Tijuana by federal immigration agents. In August, he was reunited with his family. His attorney, Mark D. Rosenbaum, the legal director of the ACLU in Los Angeles, has sued the federal government on constitutional grounds. "They had records that reflected he was a U.S. citizen and they asserted he was a U.S. citizen," Mr. Rosenbaum said. ICE spokesman Virginia Kice said the litigation constrains her comments on the case. But she said the man "made repeated assertions that he was born in Mexico."

December 2006: Eight workers with U.S. citizenship or legal permanent resident status are detained as part of an immigration raid of Swift & Co. plants across six states, including one in Cactus, Texas. Of the 1,297 workers arrested, 274 were criminally charged with violations related to identity theft or other offenses. The United Food and Commercial Workers union sued ICE, claiming the raid violated the workers' Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. ICE is asking that the suit be dismissed.

Stop Harvesting Stop Disabling & Murdering Lives; Stop Selling & Harvesting Organs




The Communist Chinese [CCP] have been harvesting organs and tissues of lives, youth to elderly, of the Falun Gong and other prisoners in their slave labor camps. It is outrageous enough to know of these human rights violations, but the CCP is selling the organs, tissues of these innocent prisoners. All monies are sent back to the CCP. In effect, the CCP have been and continue 'to bank on the lives of their victims'. This is a billion dollar business! Now you know why they don't want it stopped.

What this means for all locally globally, is that if it is Medicare, Medical, or other insurance companies, it means YOU, the tax payer would be partici-pating in any/all of these crimes against humanity. Do you want your person or loved ones now, or later in history to be known as one who was complicit in the murder of countless innocent lives?

This must be stop; be Pro active against Human Rights Violations.

Sign the petition here:

TROOPER INDICTED ON FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION.

Columbia, South Carolina—United States Attorney W. Walter Wilkins and Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., stated today that a federal grand jury in Greenville, South Carolina, issued an indictment today charging South Carolina Highway Patrolman Steve C. Garren, age 39, of Greenwood, with a federal civil rights violation.

The indictment alleges that on June 24, 2007, Garren struck a man with his patrol vehicle resulting in bodily injury to the man. The indictment further alleges that Garren’s actions willfully deprived the man of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer.

Mr. Wilkins stated, “Allegations of law enforcement abuse are serious, and must be considered carefully. I am confident the grand jury has done just that in issuing this indictment.”

The charge follows an investigation by federal and state authorities after a video of the alleged incident was shown by television and internet media outlets earlier this year.

Mr. Wilkins stated, “The joint investigation into the conduct of certain members of the South Carolina Highway Patrol is ongoing, and I anticipate additional presentations to the federal grand jury. Our office will continue to work with the FBI, SLED, and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to identify those cases that are appropriate for federal prosecution.”

Mr. Wilkins further stated, “I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the cooperation of the South Carolina Highway Patrol in this joint investigation. I also want to make clear that the overwhelming majority of troopers serve the citizens of this state with honor and distinction everyday. It’s important that this investigation continue, not only for the public’s confidence, but for their benefit as well.”

Mr. Wilkins stated the maximum penalty Garren could receive is a fine of $250,000.00 and imprisonment for ten years.

The case was investigated by special agents of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alston C. Badger and Civil Rights Division Deputy Chief Brent Alan Gray.

The United States Attorney stated that all charges in this Indictment are merely accusations and that all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Watch video> http://videos.thestate.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1780386&genre_id=2985

Domestic Terrorism. CHESTERFIELD STUDENT INDICTED ON EXPLOSIVE CHARGES



COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- Acting United States Attorney Kevin F. McDonald announced today that a Federal Grand Jury sitting in Florence, South Carolina, returned an Indictment against Ryan Anthony Schallenberger, age 18, of Ruby, South Carolina, in connection with an alleged plot to blow up Chesterfield High School. Schallenberger was charged in the three-count indictment with:

(1) receiving and attempting to receive an explosive with the knowledge and intent that it would be used to kill, injure, or intimidate an individual, and damage and destroy a building, vehicle, or other real and personal property, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 844 (d), and punishable by a maximum possible prison term of ten years;

(2) attempting to damage and destroy real property owned, possessed, or leased to Chesterfield High School and the Chesterfield County School District, by means of fire and an explosive, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 844(f)(1), and punishable by mandatory minimum prison term of five years and a maximum possible term of 20 years; and

(3) possessing an unregistered destructive device, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Sections 5861(d) and 5871, and punishable by a maximum possible prison term of ten years.

Schallenberger was initially arrested last month on a federal complaint that cited his alleged conduct as being in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332a, involving a weapon of mass destruction. Mr. McDonald state that the WMD charge was not presented to the Grand Jury for its consideration. “Having considered the circumstances of this matter, and having reviewed the evidence obtained to date, I believe the case is properly charged. The explosives charges that were issued by the Grand Jury today are very serious charges,” Mr. McDonald said.

Schallenberger’s arraignment is tentatively scheduled for 10:00 a.m., at the Federal Courthouse in Florence on June 10 th.

The case was investigated by ATF, FBI, SLED, and the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rose Mary Parham and Buddy Bethea of the Florence Office.

Mr. McDonald stated that the charges in this Indictment are merely accusations and that the defendant charged is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty