If you ever plan on becoming a police officer, keep in mind that violating someone's constitutional rights may come back to haunt you.
A Virginia-based civil liberties non-profit filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man who claimed that police violated his constitutional rights because an officer arrested him for carrying a rifle and holding an "Impeach Obama" sign on a Virginia overpass.
The photo below shows a picture of the rifle and the sign the man used in his protest.
(Photo Credit: CBS 6)
In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia Wednesday, Brandon Howard alleges that the Hopewell Police Department violated his First, Second, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when police arrested him for expressing his free speech and lawfully holding a gun.
Police at first arrested Howard on charges for being in public with a rifle, but released him after 90 minutes without charges.
According to the complaint,
“The U.S. government has unfortunately adopted a ‘do what I say, not what I do’ mindset when it comes to Americans’ rights overall. Nowhere is this double standard more evident than in the government’s attempts to arm itself to the teeth, all the while viewing as suspect anyone who dares to legally own a gun, let alone use one,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute.
“Indeed, as this case shows, while it still technically remains legal to own a firearm in America, possessing one can now get you pulled over, searched, arrested, subjected to all manner of surveillance, treated as a suspect without ever having committed a crime, shot at and killed.”
MRCTV obtained a copy of the complaint below: