[nfbmi-talk] Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol lawn event

Fri Feb 3 21:42:27 UTC 2017

This is fantastic!!!

> On Feb 3, 2017, at 2:43 PM, Mary Ann Robinson via NFBMI-Talk <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>    Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol lawn event
> 
> Paul Egan ,
> 
> Detroit Free Press 12:44 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2017
> 
> Disabled protesters file lawsuit,
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> ada_celebration_7
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> A small group is kept behind barriers as they protest over various concerns outside the celebration of 25 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
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> at the Capitol in Lansing on Sept. 17, 2015.(Photo: Rod Sanford, Lansing State Jour, Rod Sanford | Lansing State Jour)
> 
> LANSING - Seven demonstrators -- six of them disabled -- filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Michigan State Police officers and organizers of a 2015
> 
> Americans with Disabilities Act anniversary celebration at the Capitol, where blind activist Joe Harcz was arrested for obstructing police.
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> The criminal charge against Harcz
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> was dismissed last year.
> 
> He and the other plaintiffs say their constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under the law were violated when they were barred from the
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> outdoor event, held on the Capitol lawn on Sept. 17, 2015.
> 
> "The Michigan State Police and Capitol personnel - having agreed ahead of time with two non-profit organizations hosting the event . to keep plaintiffs
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> out - barred (their) entry," the suit alleges. They "wanted to suppress plaintiffs' speech and prevent them from expressing disagreement with the messages
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> advanced by the event's organizers," the suit alleges.
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> The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, seeks legal fees and costs and unspecified damages.
> 
> Defendants in the lawsuit are nine Michigan State Police officers, the former Capitol facilities director, and two non-profit organizations that helped
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> organize the 25th anniversary ADA event -- the Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living and the Capital Area Center for Independent Living.
> 
> E-mails to the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living, and a call to the Capital Area Center for Independent
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> Living were not immediately returned Monday.
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> Harcz, 64, of Mt. Morris Township, was arrested when he tried to cross a police barricade to enter the event, after police identified him as a protester
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> they believed was intent on disrupting it. Harcz, who organizers confirmed was a member of one of the committees that planned the celebration, was charged
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> with resisting and obstructing police, a 2-year felony. Minutes before his trial was scheduled to begin in August, Ingham County prosecutors dismissed
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> the charge.
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> "For more than 25 years, I've fought for the Americans with Disabilities Act to be implemented, and on that very day I was kept out of our very own celebration,"
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> Harcz said Friday.
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> Although the plaintiffs wanted to celebrate the ADA anniversary, they "
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> harbored serious concerns about several aspects of the event,
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> including private sponsorship of the event by a company that paid disabled employees less than minimum wage," and the fact the venue for the event, the
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> Capitol Building, was itself not fully ADA-compliant, the suit alleges.
> 
> The suit includes counts of false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution on behalf of Harcz. But the other plaintiff demonstrators, who were
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> not arrested, allege their rights were also violated by being kept away from the ADA celebration.
> 
> Protesters Mark Eagle, Terry Eagle, David Robinson, and Joseph Sontag, who are all legally blind; Eleanor Carter, who uses a wheeled cart to help walk;
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> and her husband Brian Dian, allege they were deprived of their First Amendment rights to free speech and their Fourth Amendment rights to equal protection
> 
> under the law.
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> "Literally, the police officers formed a wall with their bodies, later supplemented by metal barricades, to deny plaintiffs access and prevent them from
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> participating in the event," the suit alleges.
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> At a preliminary hearing in 2015, Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke, Jr. said it was reasonable for police to establish a buffer between ADA celebrants
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> and protesters, and Harcz and the other demonstrators were never told to leave the Capitol grounds, only to stay in a certain area, a distance from the
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> ADA celebration.
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> But Julie Porter, a Chicago attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Harcz and the other defendants weren't even given a chance to join the event. They
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> were instead singled out and kept away on the basis of the views that organizers and police perceived them to espouse. "This was really surprising and
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> completely wrong," Porter told the Free Press Friday.
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> Porter points to a 2015
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> ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals,
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> in a case involving Wayne County and a group called Bible Believers. The court ruled officials violated the rights of Christian evangelists by keeping them
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> from preaching and handing out leaflets at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, which draws significant numbers of Muslims.
> 
> The court said "it is easy to understand Dearborn's desire to host a joyous festival celebrating the city's Arab heritage in an atmosphere of hate and negative
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> influences." However, "the answer to disagreeable speech if not violent retaliation by offended listeners or ratification of the heckler's veto through
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> threat of arrest by the police."
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> The ADA, passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in jobs, schools, transportation, and public and private places that
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> are open to the public.
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> "I want to send a message that they cannot continue to suppress the First Amendment rights of people with disabilities, and no one should be treated the
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> way they treated us," Canter said Monday.
> 
> Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan at freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
> 
> Source:
> 
> http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/02/03/lawsuit-disabled-protesters-were-barred-capitol-lawn-event/97408982/
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