The Times Argus has a story on how the Hartford police are trying to stonewall an investigation into a recent racial profiling incident there.
According to today’s paper:
MONTPELIER – The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont filed a lawsuit against the Hartford Police Department Friday seeking the release of records pertaining to what appears to be the wrongful arrest of a man in his own home in late May.
http://www.timesargus.com/arti…
The story is that a local man was pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, and dragged out of his house naked (what, was their Taser broken?) while apparently suffering from a medical emergency. The news sounded a lot like the Henry Louis Gates “being in a house while black” incident last summer, but when local news sources tried to investigate they were stonewalled by police.
The Valley News has been unable to get the official reports, and now the Vermont ACLU is representing Anne Galloway over at www.Vtdigger.org in an effort to get to the bottom of what happened.
In a related story, the Department of Education is stonewalling the Times Argus in its efforts to get some important budget documents released.
MONTPELIER – In an apparent violation of the state’s open-records law, the Department of Education Monday denied public access to a document that may heavily influence the budgeting process at school districts around the state.
Legislative efforts to curb education spending culminated earlier this year in a bill that seeks voluntary budget reductions from every school district in Vermont. The legislation, which aims to achieve more than $23 million in cuts in fiscal year 2012, directs the commissioner of education to craft district-specific reduction targets.
http://www.timesargus.com/arti…
That story seems to be particularly egregious, as the Department apparently admits that the document, setting forth district-by-district budget cut targets, is a public document, but they just want to take their time in letting it out. They are promising to get the information out within 48 hours, which has led the Times Argus/Rutland Herald to decide not to sue for the information.
Deb Markowitz has made it clear that the decision by Vilaseca has no legal justification.
As part of the new media, we think it is vital to get at important stories that the government wants to cover up. I hope the ACLU and Vtdigger can get the racial profiling story out. I would also like to see some legal action taken against the Education Department. I can understand the fact that a civil action might not be any faster than just waiting for the Ed Department to decide to let the information out, but where is the sanction for such clearly illegal activity?
I read both stories this morning and they’re both troubling.
Perhaps some media outlet with balls (Times-Argus? BFP? WCAX? someone?) should simply sue. Of course it makes no sense to go to court to fight to get something that’s coming out in 48 hours; but they’re essentially being kept from doing their job (and selling papers in the meantime- NOTE: someone tell the newspaper’s that selling papers isn’t their job but only a necessary aspect of it- a byproduct, in fact, of doing their actual job) and thus are losing potential revenue from this illegal delay in releasing public documents.
Next time I get pulled over on the road, I’ll say “sure you can see my license- tomorrow”. I’ll let you all know how that works out for me….
There is no legal authority at the state commissioner level to mandate anything with regards to funding levels for a school district. Our school board will ignore it. All the surrounding school boards will ignore it. So, for governing purposes, it doesn’t matter when the document comes out.
Why make such guidelines in the first place, if they have no authority? Clearly, to influence the upcoming election for governor. I’m sure the plan was to have the recommendations come out in October, during heavy press coverage. Imagine the scene: Lt. Gov Dubie is standing by smiling and approving. He gets to look like a money-saving hero. On the other side, the Dem nominee either lamely agrees, or looks like a spendthrift or policy wonk(ette). Nice trap.
Releasing the recommendations in August will destroy their only usefulness, which is why it is being resisted.
By the way, don’t you just love VT Digger?