Zero tolerance & the drug war strike again

[Anonymous]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ ... -apnewyork

Court: LI man who suffered stroke can sue for false DWI arrest
September 28, 2006, 10:46 AM EDT

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) _ A limousine driver who claims he was driving erratically because he suffered a stroke _ not because he was drunk _ can sue Nassau County for false arrest, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt denied the county's motion to dismiss the suit filed by Jorge Aguilera of Sands Point.

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Aguilera's limo was pulled over Aug. 26, 2004, on the Long Island Expressway in Syosset, after two officers observed him driving erratically. He told the officers that "he did not feel well and was unable to control his movements," according to the lawsuit.

Although a field sobriety test for alcohol was negative, the lawsuit said, Aguilera was arrested on a DWI charge and taken to police headquarters in Mineola. He was handcuffed to a bench for about two hours before more alcohol and drugs test were administered, it said.

None of the tests showed signs of alcohol or drugs and the charge against Aguilera was ultimately dropped, the suit said. According to his lawsuit, Aguilera was then taken to Winthrop-University Hospital where he was diagnosed as having a stroke.

Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman said the county was disappointed by Spatt's Sept. 18 ruling, and disputed Aguilera's claims.

[Antigen]

Government thugs handcuff children, kill dog during $60 marijuana raid  

Dear Ginger Warbis:

I want to share with you a recent horrifying example of our government's war on marijuana users. Get ready to be outraged.

The following is an excerpt from a September 20 article in the Times Union in Albany, New York:

A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust. The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there.

The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m.

"I heard a big boom. My first reaction was to jump out of bed. We were trying to find where our kids were at and all of a sudden we had guns in our faces," said 40-year-old Anita Woodyear, who rents the second-floor flat.

During the ensuing chaos, police handcuffed two of the woman's children, Elijah Bradley, 11, and 12-year-old Victoria Perez, and shot at her dog in the kitchen before killing it in the bathroom, Woodyear said.

"That seems like an awful lot of firepower for marijuana," said Fred Clark of the Schenectady chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "That's like spending $125,000 for $5."

Woodyear said she suspected police had intended to search a neighboring home, but had the wrong address on the search warrant. Neighbors said they suspect illicit drugs are dealt at other homes on the block.

"No apology, no 'sorry about your dog'," she said.

But police said they have no reason to apologize. They said they raided the house because Woodyear's 18-year-old son, Israel M. Bradley, sold three plastic bags of marijuana there for $40 on Sept. 15. They allege he sold two other bags of marijuana in the house for $20 on Aug. 28, they said.

In addition, police said Bradley was carrying marijuana in the home on Sept. 1. "We had the absolute right house. We had the absolute right target," said Assistant Chief Michael Seber.

Click here to read the entire article.