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

Fri Feb 3 22:04:29 UTC 2017

This is a total load of crap, Joe Harcz was actually one of the organizers
and this kind of crap does NOT gain the NFB the kind of publicity we need

timelord09 at comcast.net

There Are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

William and Leader Dog Lynerd
-----Original Message----- 
From: Mary Ann Robinson via NFBMI-Talk
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2017 15:43
To: NFB of Michigan List
Cc: Mary Ann Robinson
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol 
lawn event

    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,

ada_celebration_7

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)

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.

The criminal charge against Harcz

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

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

out - barred (their) entry," the suit alleges. They "wanted to suppress 
plaintiffs' speech and prevent them from expressing disagreement with the 
messages

advanced by the event's organizers," the suit alleges.

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

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

Living were not immediately returned Monday.

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

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

with resisting and obstructing police, a 2-year felony. Minutes before his 
trial was scheduled to begin in August, Ingham County prosecutors dismissed

the charge.

"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,"

Harcz said Friday.

Although the plaintiffs wanted to celebrate the ADA anniversary, they "

harbored serious concerns about several aspects of the event,

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

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

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;

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.

"Literally, the police officers formed a wall with their bodies, later 
supplemented by metal barricades, to deny plaintiffs access and prevent them 
from

participating in the event," the suit alleges.

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

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

ADA celebration.

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

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

completely wrong," Porter told the Free Press Friday.

Porter points to a 2015

ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals,

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

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

influences." However, "the answer to disagreeable speech if not violent 
retaliation by offended listeners or ratification of the heckler's veto 
through

threat of arrest by the police."

The ADA, passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against people with 
disabilities in jobs, schools, transportation, and public and private places 
that

are open to the public.

"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

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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