My client was driving in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He saw a police car belonging to the Martinsburg Police Department. Desiring to express some protected First Amendment speech, he flipped them the bird – the middle finger. They immediately pulled him over. A federal civil rights lawsuit is currently pending.
Surprise Police Chief Piña recorded an internal message video for his police officers about a week after the arrest. In it, he defiantly and irrationally claims that there was no First Amendment violation. He also has another officer, who gained valuable experience in First Amendment (and other) violations, while working at the Phoenix Police Department, give the officers advice on how to respond to encounters with so-called First Amendment Auditors.
Here’s the first video I did on this.
Cops in Little Rock, Arkansas harass a veteran holding a cardboard sign that reads, “God Bless Our Homeless Vets.” The veteran happens to be Jeff Gray, a YouTuber and legendary First Amendment activist. Like moths to the flame….
Here’s the 8th Circuit case discussed in the video.
Rodgers v. Bryant, 942 F.3d 451 (8th Cir. 2019)
Here is Jeff Gray’s Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HONORYOUROATH/
The Supreme Court has made clear that “one of the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights” is the sacred promise to every American, enshrined in the First Amendment, that citizens enjoy the freedom to complain about their leaders. Lozman v. Riviera Beach, 585 U.S. 87, 101 (2018). But the city of Surprise, Arizona and its mayor, Skip Hall, broke that promise, arresting Plaintiff Rebekah Massie in front of her 10-year-old daughter for criticizing a public official at a city council meeting.
The complaint:
UPDATE October 24, 2024:
Surprise Police Chief Piña recorded an internal message video for his police officers about a week after the arrest. In it, he defiantly and irrationally claims that there was no First Amendment violation. He also has another officer, who gained valuable experience in First Amendment (and other) violations, while working at the Phoenix Police Department, give the officers advice on how to respond to encounters with so-called First Amendment Auditors.
Do you remember the video I did in June of last year showing the Phoenix Police Department arresting (Kenneth) Ronald McDonald in retaliation for calling one of them a “dumbass?” Not only did McDonald single-handedly beat the corrupt City of Phoenix cops and prosecutors, representing himself pro se and winning his criminal case, but he made it into the HUGE DOJ investigation report released a few months ago. Whatever happened to the two cops from the video?
The full DOJ report is here.
A 70 year old man in Ada County, Idaho was arrested by police officers at a police station, after he dared to look into a police cruiser window. The charges were later dismissed. He filed a lawsuit, which just settled for $250,000, along with mandatory additional training for sheriff’s deputies in that county.
Here’s Sherriff Matt Clifford’s troubling statement, as discussed in the video:
Earlier this week, we settled a lawsuit with Mr. Heikkola, stemming from an incident in January 2023. It wasn’t our best day. It is the expectation that Ada County deputies perform to the best of their abilities every day — while keeping people’s constitutional rights in the forefront of their minds, while also keeping our community safe.
For anyone to claim we are trampling on someone’s constitutional rights simply isn’t true.The reality is, we have hundreds of contacts every day with people of all different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and socioeconomic standings. While the vast majority of those interactions go well, occasionally we fumble and miss the mark.
Part of the settlement was to include additional constitutional policing training; fortunately, we had already implemented this training prior to the settlement. We will now also include a scenario similar to Mr. Heikkola’s in our scenario-based training. We are one of few law enforcement agencies across the country with routine built-in training time. Every patrol deputy receives 9.5 training hours per month. These blocks of training include topics such as firearms training, scenario-based training, legal updates, EVOC, de-escalation techniques, arrest and control techniques, CPR and first aid, and more.
Part of our culture at the Ada County Sheriff’s Office is to always strive to be better – and learning from this incident will help us to do just that.
Here’s the full lawsuit:
The video I posted last week about the illegal arrest in Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia apparently made the news today. Here’s my response.
Here’s the FULL uncut raw bodycam footage from the incident, from beginning to end:
Here’s the newspaper article:
Paul O’Brien, who lives in Grafton, West Virginia, observed a Taylor County Sheriff’s Deputy running a speed trap across the road from his residence. He posted on Facebook about it, joking that he WISHED he had an M-80 (firecracker) so that he could set it off and cause the deputy to have a heart attack. In the same post, he criticized the department for the deaths of three individuals over the years. Deputy Cody Mayle of the TCSD then paid Paul a visit at his home. He had no warrant, but rather just wanted to “talk.”
When Paul decided he didn’t want to talk with Deputy Mayle, Deputy Mayle suddenly grabbed him and arrested him. Paul spent two nights in jail. Around three months later, the frivolous charge of “obstruction” was dropped, since it was admittedly frivolous, according to the prosecutor. Paul submitted a complaint to the department, but heard nothing back.
This is Deputy Cody Mayle, who is seen on bodycam laughing as soon as Paul was thrown in the holding cell:
My last West Virginia based video coincidentally, was from Barbour County, which is only the next county over, and that deputy also has the same last name – Mayle. Here’s a link to that video. I’ll have more information soon about that situation…
This is the location of the incident:
Here’s the police report / charging document:
Here’s the dismissal order:
This footage was sent to me by Jeff Gray, of Honor Your Oath Civil Rights Investigations. It comes to us from Daytona Beach, Florida. It shows multiple police officers harassing a guy on a bicycle who had flipped them “the bird.” As I’ve discussed numerous times, flipping “the bird” to police officers is protected First Amendment speech. In retaliation for that speech, they wrote this guy a ticket for what hopefully is the non-existent crime of riding a bicycle on a sidewalk.
This footage was submitted by Rhet. It involves the Manistee Police. Rhet is a DJ. Earlier in the evening, he played the song “Bad Boys” when this officer walked into the club. Well, later in the evening, the same officer pulls him over for what was seemingly not an actual traffic offense. One thing leads to another, and Rhet ends up arrested.
Rhet’s original video is here.