Ark. Town Under Fire For 24-Hour Curfew

Police Armed With Military Rifles Aggressively Question Residents In High-Crime Area

(AP)  Officers armed with military rifles have been stopping and questioning passers-by in a U.S. neighborhood plagued by violence that's been under a 24-hour curfew for a week.

On Tuesday, the Helena-West Helena City Council voted 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.

Police Chief Fred Fielder said the patrols have netted 32 arrests since they began last week in a 10-block neighborhood in this small town on the banks of the Mississippi River long troubled by poverty. The council said those living in the city want the random shootings and drug-fueled violence to stop, no matter what the cost.

"Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I'm fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here," Mayor James Valley said. "The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution."

However, such stops likely violate residents' constitutional rights to freely assemble and protections against unreasonable police searches, said Holly Dickson, a lawyer for the ACLU of Arkansas who addressed the council at its packed Tuesday meeting. Because of that, Dickson said any convictions coming from the arrests likely would be overturned.

"The residents of these high-crime areas are already victims," she said. "They're victims of what are happening in the neighborhoods, they're victims of fear. But for them to be subject to unlawful stops and questioning ... that is not going to ultimately going to help this situation."

The council rejected Dickson's claims, at one point questioning the Little Rock-based attorney if she'd live in a neighborhood they described as under siege by wild gunfire and gangs.

"As far as I'm concerned, at 3 o'clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law," Councilman Eugene "Red" Johnson said. "Anyone out at 3 o'clock shouldn't be out on the street, unless you're going to the hospital."

[barbaram99]

I saw this on the news. There are lots of places just like that place and no I have not lived there. I have lived in small towns and cities. Sir /Madam ye right in in yer post. America is becoming a 3rd world nation and America gives money to nations outside this nation. Thank ye and be safe over there.

[imhotep21]

For most of the people commenting on this issue, apparently you''ve never lived in Helena or as we call it, "Hell-Town!" This is not your average small town. Crime in the city is serious! I totally agree with what the mayor is doing because I%u2019ve see so many people killed in the city. This is not the suburbs; it%u2019s the ghetto, the hood, the slums! I''m willing to bet that the lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas won''t show up in the city unarmed or without police protection. I am a Soldier, currently serving my fourth deployment in a combat zone. Now, I''ve seen just about everything you can imagine fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan but, Helena is worse. The shame is our government spends billions on other countries, while there are third-world cities in America%u2026.

[impeach__w]

for these people who are so suspicious of the govt..oh why oh why would at every endevour would you guys want the govt. to dicate our lives..from what we eat to what we do..to how i drive my car to what i think..to what i can say to somebody..

come on people..

Posted by libsluv2spit



A contridiction from an oxy-moron, I''ve never seen anyone talk out of BOTH SIDES of his arse before this guy

[impeach__w]

Wasen''t this same thing going on in Washington D.C. about 2 or 3 weeks ago? Why yes it was and the lawsuits are rolling in!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/
07/20/eveningnews/main4276185.shtml

Where is the FBI you asked? They are creating a file on every person (American) and assigning a rating for their potential to cause terror.

Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons - like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated - to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious. Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person''s race or ethnicity.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/
07/03/national/main4229431.shtml

[impeach__w]

libsluv2spit It''s a freakin article from this very site. Read it and. tell me again about consipiacies. Buy a gun, learn to use it. No one has to keep you safe. The police are not responsible for your individual safety - you are.

[libsluv2spit]

the reason why this is happening is NOT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO but because your version of law enforcement had failed and held this small town hostage..you are forgetting the overhwhelming crime and dispair that comes with drugs

[libsluv2spit]

Posted by Impeach__W at 11:00 AM : Aug 14, 2008
+ report abuse

******************

like i said only criminals and the criminally minded fears law enforcement..and you sir are criminally minded..NOT TO MENTIONED SMOKED A LITTLE TOO MUCH CRACH..you see these really intricate conspiracies or ''faces'' on everything..speak about it after it happens to you..till then you are speaking out of your arse..

[barbaram99]

toldyouso Dear ye right there. I still have my Maine maps. We had a curfew in Newport Me at 9pm they sounded it every night. It meant in the house and off the streets in yer under 18. Minors could be out after 9pm with an adult. We abided by it. It has always been done. The fire house did it each night. I ''member asking about it as I was new in that foster home and town. 4 years I heard that nightly. Yep at home on the dot. I never whined about it. I felt safer in the 70s than today.

[toldyouso12]

It''s called martial law--and is illegal without going through the proper channels by the state and Federal government, NOT by a city.

[loyalto1]

Why cares you ask? well this kind of violence spreads like cancer. wake up you sleeping idiots! I grow up in the 1970''s and violence was almost nonexistent even in the city compared to today.

[whiskyrokkr]

Let this lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union out in the worst part of town @ 2am and see what he thinks then. Lawyers are scumbags

[libsluv2spit]

the ''drug dealers'' are preditory in nature..more money and power in small towns..

[libsluv2spit]

Because this style of law enforcement will be coming to a neighborhood near you.

Posted by curse914 at 08:02 PM : Aug 13, 2008
+ report abuse

**********

that specific neighborhood is infested with drugs, crime and negligence because they followed your version of law enforcement..

the only people who should be afriad of the police are the criminals and the criminally minded..

[bhappy2-2]

I would have a very difficult time allowing myself to be subjected to such nonsense, especially since I own and know how to use firearms.

[shanev137]

Why is this news? Nobody cares about a little podunk town in backwater Arkansas.

[krannawitter]

email them!

http://www.helena-westhelenaar.com/aboutus.html

[e-mail] - Mayor Valley
[e-mail] - Eugene Johnson

[allurfears]

The police HAVE a reasonable cause to search provided to them by the city council and they are carrying out a legal directive.
Posted by cjw3cma at 06:27 PM : Aug 13, 2008
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You, sir, are completely uninformed and completely wrong. You are proposing that the government can issue a "General Warrant" to search any and all people. This is absolutely NOT a "legal directive" as you state. Thank GOD, the Constitution requires a warrant for search based on reasonable cause and that a warrant must issue only upon presenting evidence to a court of jurisdiction.

What YOU are proposing is so far from what the founding fathers wanted, that I wonder if you are an American, or you are just a uneducated product of our decrepit school system. Certainly you know nothing about the principles founding this country.

The founding fathers were VERY EXPLICIT about eliminating the kind of "General Warrant" you propose. They did so because the English issued general warrants that allowed the authorities to do as they pleased- just as you would want- to stop citizens at their whim and search and seize citizens without cause.

Again- The founders were diametrically opposed to allowing our government to act as under a "general warrant" You are just plain wrong and frighteningly un-American.

[deacon20081]

This sounds to much like Martial Law. I agree with the ACLU that the City Council is full of it. Can''t wait for the law suits to start. A city council may pass an ordinance, however it can not Pass Laws contrary to State or Federal Laws on the books.

[roachcrusher]

"As far as I''m concerned, at 3 o''clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law," Councilman Eugene "Red" Johnson said. "Anyone out at 3 o''clock shouldn''t be out on the street, unless you''re going to the hospital."

Mayor James Valley said. "The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK..."


Wow, they should be right at home in in Comnist China. Or I guess they are comfortable in Fascist USA under George Bush.

[babooph]

The world changes so fast-used to be only big city slums had the drug lifestyle!What happened?