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Philly pays Whole Foods protester $15,000 for false arrest, refuses to deal with pattern
Animal rights protester wins settlement, but has police department learned? ACLU alleges that Philadelphia cops frequently make illegal arrests at protests and that officers are not provided with First Amendment training.
Philly pays Whole Foods protester $15,000 for false arrest, refuses to deal with pattern
On Dec. 22, 2011, Philadelphia Police officers arrested Ed Coffin for passing out animal-rights leaflets in front of the Whole Foods on South Street.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleges that Philadelphia police frequently make illegal arrests at protests, and claims that officers are not provided with First Amendment training. Instead of facing those issues in court, the City of Philadelphia will pay Coffin $15,000 — a sum that he couldn't turn down.
"Of course we're going to take it, but it's basically the city's way to shut down the conversation," says ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper. "The complaints we have gotten over the years" have been "basically nonstop."
The ACLU will continue to advocate that police adopt free speech training measures, says Roper, and they represent a number of defendants with similar allegations.
Neither the City of Philadelphia nor Whole Foods responded to repeated requests for comment from City Paper.
According to the ACLU complaint, the incident began when a Whole Foods manager threatened to call the police on Coffin. Coffin explained that he was on a public sidewalk and that his activities were legal. Two Philadelphia police officers, however, told him that he could not leaflet in front of Whole Foods because it was a "business district." When Coffin asked what law the officers based their order on, he was placed under arrest.
"It's usually animal rights activists," says Roper, "because they're usually in small numbers and they don't need a permit. And it's also people who tended to piss off businesses, so businesses call the police."
Coffin, according to the complaint, had even alerted the police civil affairs bureau that he would be leafleting ahead of time — though such notice was not required by law.
"I was wrongfully arrested for doing nothing more than partaking in First Amendment activity, protected by the Constitution," Coffin tells CP. "I fear that situations such as this definitely have a chilling effect on other activists, who might now think twice before engaging in lawful, peaceful activities."
A 2007 Philadelphia police internal affairs report found that some officers operate under the mistaken impression that all protests require a permit when, says Roper, only those with 75 or more participants do.
The Philadelphia Police Department, the ACLU alleges, does not train rank-and-file officers on how to deal with protesters. While specially-trained civil affairs officers maintained months of good relations with Occupy Philly protesters, civil liberties advocates contend that beat cops lack a basic understanding of First Amendment rights.
And reported false arrests, says Roper, are just the tip of the iceberg, since "most people get threatened and stop what they're doing."
Philadelphia police have come under repeated criticism for civil rights violations over the past two years. In June 2011, the ACLU and other civil rights activists announced a settlement with the department over the stop and frisk program, which many black Philadelphians say unfairly targets them for street-corner searches based on their race.
And in September, the Philadelphia Daily News revealed that cops have frequently arrested people for photographing police action, often destroying cameras or cell phones.
The ACLU alleges that the city has "encouraged, tolerated, ratified and has been deliberately indifferent to...improper arrests, detentions and malicious prosecutions of citizens… Particularly in connection with perceived challenges to police authority," and used "pretextual arrests for offenses such as disorderly conduct, obstruction of the highway and city ordinance violations to remove individuals engaged in protected First Amendment activities from public areas."
They also charge that the city "has failed to properly sanction or discipline officers" who perpetrate such violations.
"They may be happy to pay $15,000 every time we file a case make this go away," says Roper. "But it's not going away because police officers keep doing it."
Coffin was protesting Whole Foods because they sell meat — period — and to encourage everyone to become a vegan.
"I was handing out literature to patrons in front of Whole Foods, to raise awareness about what I call, their 'humane myth,'" he tells CP. "I was attempting to inform consumers regarding the fact that 'humane' slaughter is an oxymoron and that animals suffer and die on all farms, not just factory farms. My solution is that if people are concerned for the well being of animals, they adopt a vegan lifestyle, or begin moving towards one, as that's truly the only way to end animal exploitation. People are very receptive to that idea, once presented with the facts."
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