Court: Public should know when police create illegal task forces

RSS Feed

Court: Public should know when police create illegal task forces

March 9th, 2018

Awake Goy

For six plus years, the LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne, formed an illegal police task force called the State’s Attorney Felony Enforcement, or SAFE, unit.(Click here to see Brian Towne’s State Attorney video.)

Calling an illegal group of law enforcement officers SAFE, is the most disturbing disregard of our civil rights that I have ever seen.

During those years, SAFE officers illegally stopped and arrested 77 motorists and stole more than $1.7 million from them.

Last year, Alyssa Larson and Jeffery Straker filed a class action against LaSalle County claiming Towne’s “vigilante police force” violated their civil rights. The lawsuit claimed SAFE officers targeted out-of-state drivers; pulled them over for minor traffic offenses and conducted drug dog searchers without probable cause.

“Police officers are not allowed to stop vehicles based solely on the fact that they have out-of-state license plates,” the lawsuit repeatedly says.

The lawsuit also sought damages for unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest, emotional distress, and unjust enrichment.

According to numerous newspaper articles, the Illinois Supreme Court declared SAFE illegal.

Justice Charles Freeman said, “(Nowhere) does (the statute) prescribe that a state’s attorney patrol the highways, engage in law enforcement and conduct drug interdiction. Our dissenting colleagues contend that the state’s attorney’s duty to investigate suspected illegal activity is boundless and unrestricted. We disagree.”

In 2017, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the SAFE unit was illegal and police could not search vehicles without a warrant.

Do you feel SAFER knowing law enforcement illegally ticketed an unknown number of motorists, arrested 77 people and stole millions from the public?

So now that the courts have declared SAFE illegal, one would think a class action lawsuit would be a slam dunk, right?

Wrong.

Three days ago, an Illinois District Court claimed that motorists should have known that the police task force was ILLEGAL.

“Larson’s Section 1983 claims are time-barred,” St. Eve wrote in a 12-page ruling. “SAFE’s stop, seizure, and search of Larson and the car occurred sometime in October or November 2012. Larson knew (or should have known) then that the officers lacked probable cause or justification—as she claims, she had violated no ‘traffic, city, state, or federal law[s],’ yet the officers had put her in an unmarked vehicle, leaving her grandmother in her car, and without consent took a drug-sniffing dog around and into it.”

But wait, it does not end there.

Judge Amy St. Eve claimed the public should also have known that SAFE police were illegally stopping motorists.

St. Eve claimed “that Larson knew SAFE targeted out-of-staters and that her stop and search lacked suspicion or cause at the time the officers pulled her over,” St. Eve said. “Even if Ringland was Larson’s first indication that SAFE was not authorized to conduct traffic stops, the complaint does not allege that such illegitimate authorization gives rise to a constitutional injury.”

So if the public should have known that some police task forces are illegal what are we supposed to do?

Should motorists speed up and ignore them? Should motorists refuse to hand over their drivers licenses and registration?

The courts ruling is absurd and proves once again that they no longer care about our civil liberties.

If the courts won’t protect the public who will?

Fyi, I included the above picture of a police task force entering homes in Long Island, New York, searching for illegal tenants as one more example of illegal police task forces in the U.S. (Click here & here to learn more.)

Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blacklistednews/hKxa/~3/_3rrbeLMMJo/court-public-should-know-when-police-create-illegal-task.html