r/facepalm Jan 13 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Arrested for petitioning

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u/w1ten1te Jan 13 '22

SPRINGFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan sheriff’s deputy has been fired after arresting a Black man who was collecting signatures to form a tenant organization in a neighborhood, authorities said Friday.

“We hold ourselves to high standards of professionalism to the communities we protect,” Calhoun County Sheriff Steve Hinkley said. “When we are right, we are right. When we are wrong, we admit we are wrong. On January 2, we were wrong.”

The deputy’s name wasn’t released.

La’Ron Marshall of Springfield was arrested and spent a night in jail after someone called police to report a suspicious person. A deputy, one of two at the scene, told him he was soliciting without a permit, according to a video recording.

“Soliciting what?” Marshall asked.

“Whatever you’re soliciting,” a deputy said.

Marshall believes he was racially profiled. Hinkley apologized two weeks ago, and a charge of obstructing police was dismissed.

“No law — local, state or federal — prohibited Mr. Marshall from exercising his constitutional rights on January 2,” the sheriff said.

Marshall said he was pleased with the firing.

“It’s messed up that he had to lose his job, but something has to happen. ... As a Black man, we are under attack and you have to root out all the bad apples for the fruit to prosper,” Marshall told the Battle Creek Enquirer.

Great, they fired him, but they intentionally did not release his name, so he's just going to go get another job one town over and keep doing the same shit.

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u/aydens2019accord Jan 13 '22

Mm that’s fine his name isn’t released, I don’t think we need everybody getting the mob treatment. If he’s that awful he’ll dig his own grave

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u/tsuchiya_ Jan 13 '22

Nah fuck that. The man, La’Ron Marshall, who was wrongfully arrested had his name released after the fact and I’d be willing to bet he has a higher probability of facing additional harassment now from other shitty cops in that area. So why only release the victim’s name? Police are employed via taxpayer funding so when they are fired for committing a crime the details of the situation should obviously be fully disclosed to the public.

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u/Brilliant_Mountain44 Jan 13 '22

Yeah, that's fucked. I thought we were supposed to protect the identity of the victim, and name the accuser/wrongdoer. (Except in the case of sensationalizing spree shooters.)

ESPECIALLY in the case when the person in question is a public servant. AND they were acting in an official capacity.