Share and speak up for justice, law & order…
PHOENIX — A jury has sided with the Phoenix Police Department in a federal civil rights lawsuit that claimed officers unfairly targeted two protesters because of their anti-police views according to AZ Family.
The verdict contradicts one of the claims leveled against Phoenix Police in a report from the Department of Justice last year.
That report, stated that Phoenix Police unlawfully restricted protected speech and expression
The civil rights lawsuit stemmed from a protest in July 2019 where hundreds of people gathered in downtown Phoenix to protest conditions inside federal immigration detention centers. After some protesters blocked the light rail tracks, officers used a loudspeaker to broadcast warnings, urging the crowd to leave.
Sixteen people were arrested that night, including Jorge Soria and Phil Martinez.
The two men filed a civil rights lawsuit, claiming the police unfairly targeted them because they were known police critics. Soria had been carrying a Soviet flag and a sign that called police “child killers.”
Lt. Benjamin Moore testified that the men were arrested because they refused to leave.
The Civil Rights Division of the DOJ highlighted the incident as evidence of wrongdoing in a 126-page report that concluded Phoenix PD engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations.
The report was admitted into the trial and a jury concluded that Phoenix Police Lt. Moore did not violate the protesters’ rights. Moore’s attorney, John Masterson, said he believes the jury was swayed by video of the incident played at trial.
Masterson said the case shows there were inaccuracies with the DOJ report.
Dr. Travis Yates previously released a preliminary report on his assessment of the DOJ Investigation and he was not surprised at the findings of the jury.
“Frankly, after reviewing every video and comparing them to what the Department of Justice said, I am embarrassed that anyone is even calling this an actual investigation,” Yates told us.
Out of the 34 incidents listed by the DOJ regarding Phoenix police restricting protected speech, Yates identified 32 as being factually inaccurate as portrayed by the DOJ.
Yates said that in the report, the DOJ routinely called criminal behavior protected speech and used hindsight bias to judge the officers in an extreme chaotic environment.
“The descriptions of the incidents by the DOJ were so sanitized, that when I watched the video footage, I couldn’t even recognize that it was the same event,” Yates concluded.
The Phoenix Police Department released the associated video and reports with each incident mentioned by the DOJ but most local media outlets have ignored the obvious inaccuracies portrayed but the DOJ.
We can’t help but notice that whenever local media discusses the Phoenix Police Department, they cite the DOJ report and call it a “scathing” report against the department.
While a jury has rejected the report, it’s still being used as propaganda by the media and that is not “scathing,” it’s a scandal.
Share and speak up for justice, law & order…
Source: www.lawofficer.com