Missouri Constitution Bill of Rights


Article I Section 15 (May 28,1998)

Unreasonable search and seizure prohibited--contents and basis of warrant
Section 15.That the people shall be secure in their persons, papers, homes and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures; and no warrant to search any place, or seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing the place to be searched, or the person or thing to be seized, as nearly as may be; nor without probable cause, supported by written oath or affirmation.(for the complete section, click here)








The Facts on Police Brutality


Police brutalityis one of the most serious, enduring, and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The problem is nationwide, and its nature is institutionalized. Police officers engage in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings and unnecessary roughness in cities throughout the United States. Meanwhile, their police superiors, city officials, and the Justice Department fail to act decisively to restrain or penalize such acts or even to record the full magnitude of the problem.

Race continues to play a central role in police brutality in the United States. Despite gains in many areas since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's, one area that has been stubbornly resistant to change has been the treatment afforded racial minorities by police. It is assumed that most victims of police brutality are not only of color, but are poor as well. Although police also choose victims of a lower economic status, wealth is often omitted when police select an invididual to harrass.

Testimonies, such as the one made by rap artist and actor Will Smith serve as evidence that the police systematically select people to brutalize and harass based upon skin color. Smith says he typically gets pulled over every other week or so and when he asks why, the typcial response is "You're a nigger with a nice car."

Smith's statement is a mild case of the treatment police officers give Blacks when being pulled over or otherwise. Increasingly, police engage in violent physical force that results in the assault or death of many Blacks such as the following:

*In California, a corps of cops repeatedly shoot Tyesha Miller, engulfed in a diabetic coma while sitting in her car. Their alibi is that they felt threatened by her. She was killed as she sat unarmed in her vehicle.

*In Philadelphia, 18 year-old Dontae Dawson, unarmed, is ordered by police to raise his hands over his head upon being pulled over. When he does so, he is shot to death by a police officer who insists that he thought Dawson had a weapon.

*New York Police approach a West African emigrant at his apartment. NYPD officers claim he is a suspect in a rape investigations (which is later proven false). Police fire 41 times at Mr. Amadou Diallo, himself unarmed, hitting him 19 times and killing him in his own apartment. *In 1997, Abner Louima is assaulted at a Brooklyn precinct. A wooden handle plunger is shoved into his rectum causing injury to the small intestine. Police then stick the dirty plunger down Louima's throat and threaten to kill him if he speaks about the incident.



Despite the immoral judgement of the police officers involved in these cases as well as police who participate in these acts nationwide, their crimes often go unpunished.
Such cases are arising in regularity and are worsened by the realization that most cops who have committed these crimes will face no serious prosecution, if any at all. Law enforcers offer excuses for their actions typically say that they felt endangered or feared for their lives and made the best judgement they could at the time. The media have encouraged such dishonest testimony by offering distorted information and assurance to the public that these officers were "just doing their jobs." Even if a police officer is prosecuted, it is likely that they will receive an acquittal because of the infamous "code of silence" officers swear to upon entering law enforcement.

The Code of Silence states that an officer does not provide adverse information against a fellow officer. This includes offering false testimony in the trials of policemen accused of brutality or murder. Former NYPD officer Bernard Cawley testified to the existence of this code. He says, "Cops don't tell on cops...If a cop decided to tell on me, his career is ruined..he'l be labeled a rat." This code extends to all levels of police enforcement including an officer's supervisors and ultimately police commissioners and chiefs.

Despite the fact that police brutality is a violation of human rights as well as civil rights guaranteed in the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the beat goes on. Young, innocent lives are being stolen away by the insensitive acts of the people we ironically call law enforcers and protectors. These heinous crimes will continue if we as citizens fail to speak out against injustice. Organizations like Amnesty International, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, the National Lawyer's Guild, and many other organizations exist for the purposes of ending these police violations. However, it is important that a greater number of individuals get involved to ensure that actions to end these crimes manifest.

YOU CAN HELP END POLICE BRUTALITY


Write to your city government and urge it to provide full funding for citizen review of police officers accused of human rights violations. If your city, county, or town does not have citizen review of your police, call for the creation of an effective civilian review unit. Also, urge it to require your police department to create and utilize "early warning" or "at risk" systems to identify officers who are the subjects of repeated complaints or civil lawsuits alleging misconduct.

Write to your state legislators and governor urging the creating of a special prosecutor's office to handle the investigation and prosecution of police officers accused of brutality or corruption.

Write to your U.S. Representative and Senators, urging them to condition federal funding to police departments on those departments' reporting on incidents of excessive force by their officers and on respect for human rights.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON POLICE BRUTALITY CHECK THESE WEBSITES:

Amnesty International

October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality

National Lawyer's Guild

Refuse and Resist!

Civil Rights

Sonoma County Free Press

Police Brutality Forum







HATE CRIMES: TODAY'S REALITY


Hate crimes are acts of violence directed against people because of their racial, religious, ethnic, gender, or sexual identity.

In 1997 a white teenager with a shaved head brazenly admitted he shot and killed a West Afrikan immigrant at a bus stop because he didn't want to live in a world with blacks. Sadly, this is but one example of the thousands of hate crimes that plague America today. Incidents like these are brutal and can be even more brutal like the well known annihilation of James Byrd in Texas.

Recent statistics on Hate Crimes in Missouri (1995): 157 agencies reported hate crimes covering a total population of 3,440,651 people. 14 agencies reported a total of 135 incidents. The most incidents of reported hate crimes were in California: 1,751!!!

Blacks are the victims of the majority of hate crimes that occur!From lynchings to cross-burning and even church-burning, anti-black violence has been and still remains the prototypical hate crime - an action intended not only to injure individuals but to intimidate an entire group of people.

Hate groups have adopted a new strategy. Instead of orchestrating and perpetuating their own acts of violence, the new hate groups are increasingly advancing their views through the Internet, literature distribution, broadcasts over public access television, and grassroots organizing. Hate groups are recruiting among two very different sectors of the population--young people alienated from society and more mainstream adults who are angry at the federal government. All in all, there are 150,000 to 200,000 hate group members and sympathizers, according to the Center for Democratic Renewal. And, according to Klanwatch, law enforcement officials have recovered a vast array of weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, military explosives, grenades, military assault rifles, Uzis, and other types of machine guns from hate groups and their sympathizers.

Hat crimes are a more serious problem than is generally recognized, and a resolution of the problem requires a unified and determined response from elected officials, law enforcement leaders, business leaders, civic, religious and educational orgnaizations of all kinds and by ordinary citizens in their communities, on their jobs, in their houses of worship, and in their schools.

HOW YOU CAN HELP DECREASE THE NUMBER OF HATE CRIMES:


1)Exercise nation leadership: National leaders from every sector of society - including government, business, labor, religion, and education - should use their prestige and influence to encourage effort to promote tolerance and harmony and to combat bigotry.

2)Enforce existing laws: The nation must reprioritze the enforcement of federal and state civil rights laws. The recent revelations about pervasive discrimination and personal abuse against Blacks at Texaco are another reminder that bias and bigotry are still part of American life.

3)Renew America's commitment to vigorously combat hate crimes: Congress should renew the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) without a sunset provision, and expand its coverage to include gender. It will provide a continued mandate for law enforcement agencies at every level of preventing, prosecuting, and, in every way, combating hate crimes.
a)Reauthorize the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Congress should reauthorize the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission identifies, analyzes, and reports on the major civil and human rights problems confronting the nation.

4)Expand coverage of federal criminal civil rights statutes:
Unless all hate-motivated incidents are identified, monitored, and documented, the full extent of the severity and prevalence of this violence cannot be adequately addressed. Tougher hate crime laws should be enacted at both state and local levels, including "penalty-enhancement" provisions that impose harsher punishments for criminal acts motivated by bigotry.

5)Create hate crime units: Local police departments should create hate crime units, with specially trained officers and outreach efforts to minority communities.

6)Encourage communities to participate: Congress and the Administration should encourage local law enforcement agencies to participate in the HCSA data collection effort. Communities should also encourage efforts by businesses, labor unions, civic groups, and concerned citizens. The response by the communities, companies, civic organizations and ordinary citizenss to the arsons of Black churches is a model for how Black America should initiate or intensify efforts to promote respect for diversity and to discourage acts of intolerance.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS TO CONTACT:

NOT IN OUR TOWN, The Anti-Defamation League, Anti-Racist Action, Computerusers Against Racist Expression (C.A.R.E.), Cyberwatch, Hatewatch, Klanwatch, Internet Racism Discussion Board, the Nizkor Project, Stop the Hate, Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Organization for Women, Yad Vashem, and many others.