HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: …Rafael Bello argued that officers Ben Lauver and Scott Bowman overreacted in April 2009, when they came to his Bello Grocery on Church Street to serve him with an arrest warrant tied to a drunken driving case.
A confrontation, which Bello claimed was exacerbated by a language barrier, resulted in both officers using their Tasers on him.
Afterward, they learned that the warrant wasn’t valid… (more)
W. K.: Increasingly, GOP judges in the PA federal Middle District Court are making it impossible for citizens to be heard in civil rights complaints against Pennsylvania officials.
What??
1) The officers had a warrant they thought was valid;
2) Bello raised his voice and refused to obey police orders;
3) Bello had a gun and grabbed it during the confrontation, then put it down.
and it’s the judge who is making it impossible…….?
C’mon W.K. sober up.
Anonymous: You miss the point, Anonymous. This case was thrown out without a hearing, as they increasingly are in the Middle District. This complaint deserves a day in court. Or is it just Tom Corbett, enmeshed as he is in even greater controversies, who gets to be heard in the federal Middle District Court of Pennsylvania?
Civil rights cases by their very nature are unpopular with the satisfied majority. They involve a single person telling a community: you violated my American rights.
He got a hearing and the judge made her decision. The guy pulled a gun on a cop. What are you suggesting, that we clog the courts with mischief from near do wells? In Phila, where I came from he would have probably been shot. Which is usually okay because Phila has a democratic mayor. I didn’t know we had a civil right to pull a gun on a cop, or ignore a lawful and reasonable order especially when a arrest warrant is in hand. And what, pray tell, does Corbett have to do with it? This was U.S. Middle District Senior Judge Sylvia H. Rambo, not some PA district judge. If you want to go jousting with windmills might I suggest you pick a better windmill. This one doesn’t pass the ” I hate Tom Corbett” test.
Sorry anonymous, this case and many others was dismissed on briefs, without a hearing or a jury. What is happening to limit civil rights suits in the federal Middle District Court is a very important issue. “Decisions” like this prevent the victims of government abuse — often the least powerful among us — from seeking redress. It also protects corrupt officials, and greatly endangers a community. This is not the place to limit torts. Here the judge has sent a message to every cop and town official that they will be protected if they erroneously taser a citizen.
I’m glad you are satisfied with our government and our officials. Many others are not. What is lost on many Pennsylvanians is that our constitution is meant to protect the rights of all, not only the satisfied majority, but the unprotected minority.