42 USC 1981 makes it a crime for STATE ACTORS (like police) to deprive a person of his constitutional rights “under color of state law.”

Malisha says:

July 14, 2013 at 6:05 pm

 

(on Frederick Leatherman's Law Blog) 

42 USC 1981 makes it a crime for STATE ACTORS (like police) to deprive a person of his constitutional rights “under color of state law.” 42 USC 1983 makes it a liability (money, civil court) for STATE ACTORS (again, like police) to deprive a person of his constitutional rights “under color of state law.” This is the way people sue police for wrongful death, if the POLICE kill their kids etc. In Harford County three white cops arrested a Black man with no criminal record, a veteran, for “tresspassing” but somehow before he got into court in the morning to be arraigned, they managed to beat him to death. A civil rights lawyer sued the sheriff’s department and some others for wrongful death. Usually these settlements are secret and nobody’s head rolls; the taxpayers pick up the bill, of course.

There is also a provision for suing both state actors and non-state actors under these sections for CONSPIRACY to deprive someone of their constitutional rights under color of state law.

That’s what should be used in this case, in my opinion, because the police, the OS, Frances Robles et al., Lee, Carter, Smith, Wolfinger, etc. etc. and the HOA (who have paid up already to get their release so as to not be on the hook for more later) were conspiring long before Trayvon Martin was ever targeted by Fogen.

 They conspired to keep Fogen from facing the problems that arose when HOA members registered complaints about his conduct to the police. Lee hid those complaints and threatened people — or ignored them — who were complaining. Black people were complaining. Fogen was chasing them and scaring them and putting out leaflets to watch out for their kids (for no reason) and accusing them falsely of every kind of misdeed and making their lives unlivable and causing them to live in a hostile home environment.

He was taking away Black residents’ and Black residents’ guessts’ rights, and their life interest in living as free human beings in their own community. He had the complete cooperation and backing of the police in this regard. They are guilty. They should be liable. If the DOJ doesn’t want to use 1981 to say so, private lawyers and/or NAACP lawyers and/or academics should band together and use 1983 to do it. AND if any one party is held liable in any way, shape or form, for any of it, then they can also get attorneys’ fees under 42 USC 1988. It’s about time somebody put some teeth into the law that says you just can’t up and decide to take away someone’s right to live peaceably in their own lives in their own ways without due process.

NO MORE BLAH BLAH BLAH.

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