Man Wins Partial Victory In Circuit City Arrest 788
JeremyDuffy writes "Michael Righi, the man who was arrested at Circuit City for failing to show his reciept/driver's license, has fought a moral battle against the city for almost a month now. The case has already been settled and he emerged victorious... sort of. It turns out that he's already spent almost $7500 and would have kept fighting them too, but because his family would have been dragged into it, he was forced to take a deal. They've expunged his record and dropped all charges, but he had to give up his right to sue the city to do it."
so what was the victory? (Score:5, Interesting)
The PhoneDot effect (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course it was more a joke than a reality, but as time grew, we found that hundreds of people calling businesses and police departments inquiring about "Any new information?" was a great way to get things fixed. I can recall one incident with Circuit City (of all places!) where the managers on duty received nearly 200 phone calls a day from "media inquiries" relating to a direct lie from a sales person to one of our group. It only took 2 weeks of "Any new information" for the company to back down and repair the situation, at which point there was no more news to cover.
Now I know harassment is a "crime," but why isn't there a site like phonedot.org? Instead of the slashdot effect, you can have the phonedot effect. Give it digg like capabilities so bloggers and other media contributors can vote up or down various customer service issues, and then let these thousands or hundreds of thousands of bloggers make their calls to see if there is "Any new information?" until the issue is settled.
When my previous city refused to get rid of the city sticker for vehicles, I typed up a newsletter and printed 30,000 of them to distribute. The newsletter had every phone number of every city official (home, work, cell). It only took 2 months of massive phone inquiries for the city council to end the city sticker harassment, and I think it was a net gain for those who called to inquire. Fight idiotic harassment with idiotic harassment.
Re:Being anal (Score:1, Interesting)
apathetic people are allowing these battle to occur in the first place, if everyone fought, victory would be assured
Re:Well they did silence you... (Score:1, Interesting)
So true. I heard the other day where someone on welfare and her 6 year old kid accumilated something like $20k in lawyer costs from an RIAA suit. Some info here. http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6873.cfm [afterdawn.com] here http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005294.php [eff.org]
I think she is like computer illeterate and whatnot, and the RIAA admitted that "oops, we meant to go after this person, or bad, sorry" and she has accumilated like 10s of thousands of debt to fight this.
Other countries have a better system where if the initiator of a lawsuit was completely wrong, then they have to pay or something like that. I think that is a better system. Because otherwise its advantagous for a lawyer just to blindly sue whenever they feel like it, and they get paid win or lose.
Re:The PhoneDot effect (Score:4, Interesting)
1. You get harassed by a company or a public official.
2. You post your details about the harassment, as well as any contact information by the harasser, as well as any proof of the harassment (video, audio, photos, receipts, etc).
3. People review the harassment, make initial phone calls to check on it, etc.
4. Harassments are moderated up or down, reviews are moderated up or down. Negative poster karma is displayed (people who lie, post their ex-girlfriend's contact info, etc).
5. Top harassments on each page get the most response from the site visitors. Maybe Michael Righi's case brings 10,000 phone calls a day to the Brookfield, OH police department, and every manager's home and cell phone per day. Issue solved.
I recall when Ron Paul (sorry, had to bring it up) was going to be uninvited from Michigan's GOP gatherings. All it took was a few thousands phone calls a day to get that resolved in a matter of days. Sounds like an excellent way to use one official's negative service to the public's advantage.
Sometimes saying "no" is not as costly (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Citizen Review Boards (Score:5, Interesting)
My city (Omaha) hired an police auditor. Then when she released a report saying that the police were overly rude to black people at traffic stops, she got fired. It's been almost a year now and we still don't have any public review of the police. It's damn frightening.
Re:nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Ethical? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's on shaky ground ethically speaking
(A) A lawyer shall not present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present criminal charges solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.
(A) A public prosecutor or other government lawyer shall not institute or cause to be instituted criminal charges when he knows or it is obvious that the charges are not supported by probable cause.
Re:Well they did silence you... (Score:1, Interesting)
Now imagine if, not only do you have to pay your own lawyer for a case you'll probably lose, but you have to pay their team of $500/hour lawyers if you lose.
Such a system can be good but it has to be set up very carefully to avoid bankrupting people who seek true justice.
Re:Why Would ACLU Take This? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why not cooperate? (Score:2, Interesting)
Pick your fights one at a time (Score:2, Interesting)
yes sir! (Score:3, Interesting)
ignorance might be bliss...but it sure as hell is not an excuse, nor should it be a reason to let the officer escape unscathed. By doing so, its ...we'll try not to let it happen again...wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Anyone know what happened to the charges he filed against the CC guy? Thought he mentioned something about them being dropped in his blog but didn't go into much details...
Re:He didn't deserve any of this (Score:1, Interesting)
That a police officer would look for state issued identification doesn't strike me as outrageous either. Are police supposed to start taking people's word for who they are during an investigation? They'd never be able to nab those with a warrant out against them.
It's not bad enough that Righi wasted the time of the justice system and put his family through hell, but he's damaging the real fight for our rights. We're fighting to keep the government from checking what books we read and listening to our phone calls without a warrant, to restore habeas corpus itself, and this guy makes a federal case out of a receipt. It makes the whole movement look petty.
Re:Q: Why not cooperate? A: Because I am free. (Score:3, Interesting)
I would not ever advocate a society without a police force, but thank you for putting words in my mouth. I was merely pointing out the current condition of being an officer. Actually, what I would like to see is better pay for the police, better training and good oversight. Part of the problem with the police we do have is that it is underpaid and very non-glamorous. While the latter is probably a lost cause, the former could be fixed quite easily. The end result of the current state of affairs is that we get what was seen, police officers acting irresponsibly with the powers they are given.
As for punishing them, this is a must. Certainly, there is going to need to be a review of each case and an appropriate punishment to any infraction. I wouldn't want to see the officer, in this case, thrown off the force for doing what he did. He should not, however, be let go with no repercussions. At the very least, he should spend some time in training on what the rights of a person are, and where his powers end.
Do I have to remind people we are talking about a guy who refused to show his receipt and identification? This isn't the American Revolutionary War. Nor is this part of some civil right movement. Give me a fucking break.
The point wasn't about fighting and dieing over showing ID or not. If your read the previous paragraph, you will notice that I was talking about dealing with criminals and taking responsibility for your own protection against them, rather than ceding your liberty to a government. It is quite possible that, in the US, some criminal will abuse their rights and kill you. Rather than running in fear to the waiting arms of a police state, we must each be willing to stand and fight, and possibly die, to protect ourselves and preserve our liberty. We must each be willing to accept that its a dangerous world out there, and that the safety offered by giving up our liberty to a government, is a dangerous illusion.
Re:wrong? (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly. If they see a person stealing, stuffing something into their bag, pants, socks etc... they have a reason to search you and follow up with a citizens arrest. The reason stores have begun searching the bags on the way out is to be sure their employee (the cashier) is not a friend (or taking a kickback) to help you steal the item. This is the stores problem and the solution is not to pretend they have the right to search and detain you. They have the onus of proving you have stolen something. You are not required to prove that you did not. By that logic, they could ask for proof of purchase of any item on your person (assuming the store actually carries said item).
I personally will not shop anywhere where the policy is to search customers on the way out. It's not my responsibility to help them manage their own employees. I'm not a cow and have no intention of giving an inch where constitutional rights are concened.
Re: Larry Craig's record on homosexuality (Score:2, Interesting)
He's most likely just another "good ole boy" who is willing to sell the rights of gays down the river in exchange for some bubba votes back home and some mutual back scratching from his GOP colleagues. This makes his outing less of a story, and makes him less of a tragic villain. Probably so many exaggerations are flying around because we like to hear a good dramatic story, and the reality of the situation isn't all that engaging.
Not that homophobia in Congress isn't a bad thing, and not that he didn't participate in it with his votes, but Larry Craig wasn't at the center of it, and he was never Jerry Falwell's right-hand man. Maybe the next scandal will be more titillating
Re:Q: Why not cooperate? A: Because I am free. (Score:2, Interesting)