Philadelphia Sued for Retaliating Against Gun Rights Advocate

[beevul]

"Philadelphia Sued for Retaliating Against Gun Rights Advocate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 14, 2012

PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the law firm of McCausland Keen & Buckman filed a federal lawsuit today against the city of Philadelphia on behalf of Mark Fiorino, a gun rights advocate who legally carries an unconcealed weapon in public. The suit alleges that the Philadelphia Police Department filed retaliatory charges against Fiorino after it learned that there was a YouTube recording of Philadelphia police officers threatening to shoot and screaming profanities at an unresisting Fiorino in February 2011. Fiorino was cleared of all charges in October 2011.

“This was a vindictive prosecution of Mr. Fiorino motivated solely by the fact that he publicly embarrassed the Philadelphia Police Department and threatened to sue them for their misbehavior,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Citizens have the right to hold police accountable without fear that they will be harassed or prosecuted for doing so.”

In September 2010, after an internal affairs investigation of two of Fiorino’s encounters with the police, the Philadelphia Police Department issued a revised policy, Directive 137, which states that holders of a License to Carry Firearms (LCTF) can legally carry an unconcealed weapon. However, according to the lawsuit, the Police Department failed to train its police officers about the revised policy.

"A person who hasn’t committed a crime shouldn’t be repeatedly harassed and retaliated against by the police,” said Fiorino. “If the Philadelphia Police Department trained its officers properly so that they actually knew the law, this wouldn't have happened to me. My goal is to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else who, like me, is merely exercising their legal rights."

The lawsuit charges that several Philadelphia police officers violated Fiorino’s rights by repeatedly detaining him far longer than necessary to make sure that he had a valid license to carry, confiscating his legally carried weapon and refusing to return it for five months, using excessive force, initiating false and retaliatory charges against him and subjecting him to a second arrest. The city of Philadelphia and Commissioner Ramsey are alleged to be responsible for the actions of the individual officers through their failure to train police officers in the law and Commissioner Ramsey’s instigation of the retaliatory charges. The suit seeks damages for Fiorino’s monetary losses, the violation of his rights, and additional harm.

http://www.aclupa.org/pressroom/gunrightsadvocatesuescityo.htm (more at link)

Real backlash - the kind that means more than wishful thinking.

[PavePusher]

1. It would be nice to see Philly have to write a check as big as the one Chicago did. n/t

[Logical]

2. I have followed this story closely! I hope Mark wins a lot....

Of money! The philly police lack of knowledge on gun laws is a joke!