In June 2008, off-duty Air Force Staff Sgt. Matthew St. John was searched and detained for carrying a holstered gun in a movie theater in Alamogordo, New Mexico. But open carry is legal in New Mexico, so St. John sued the city, arguing that it had violated his Fourth Amendment rights. A federal court agreed, and in September 2009 the City of Alamogordo paid him $21,000 in damages and legal fees.
The officers who detained St. John claimed they were acting in their legitimate role as “community caretakers” when they grabbed him by both arms and physically removed him from the theater. As the court explained, “Under the community caretaker exception, officers may seize an individual in order to ‘ensure the safety of the public and/or the individual.’ ” U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Black rejected the officers’ claim, explaining that “they had no basis for believing that anyone’s safety was at risk.” Since the officers should have known that a citizen’s legal possession of a weapon does not justify searching or detaining him, Black wrote, they could not claim qualified immunity for their actions.
The settlement is one of at least four recent cases in which overzealous police officers trying to enforce nonexistent laws against weapon possession were slapped down and made to pay for it. At least five more such cases are pending.
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Bill St. Clair|1.4.10 @ 5:01PM|#
Except that the officers WEREN'T made to pay. The "City of Alamogordo", i.e the taxpayers of Alamogordo, paid. The officers should have been held personally liable. That would make it less likely for this to happen again.
|1.18.10 @ 6:09PM|#
It won't stop until cops and their superiors are held criminally and civilly responsible. It's about cowing the public, not safety.
abercrombie milano|5.27.10 @ 3:36AM|#
My only point is that if you take the Bible straight, as I'm sure many of Reasons readers do, you will see a lot of the Old Testament stuff as absolutely insane. Even some cursory knowledge of Hebrew and doing some mathematics and logic will tell you that you really won't get the full deal by just doing regular skill english reading for those books. In other words, there's more to the books of the Bible than most will ever grasp. I'm not concerned that Mr. Crumb will go to hell or anything crazy like that! It's just that he, like many types of religionists, seems to take it literally, take it straight...the Bible's books were not written by straight laced divinity students in 3 piece suits who white wash religious beliefs as if God made them with clothes on...the Bible's books were written by people with very different mindsets...in order to really get the Books of the Bible, you have to cultivate such a mindset, it's literally a labyrinth, that's no joke
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