Black pastor arrested while watering flowers sues police in Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A Black pastor who was arrested by white police officers while watering the flowers of a neighbor who was out of town filed a federal lawsuit alleging the ordeal violated his constitutional rights and caused lingering problems including emotional distress and anxiety.
Michael Jennings filed the lawsuit Friday night against three officers and the central Alabama town of Childersburg requesting a jury trial and seeking an unspecified amount of money.
Jennings’ lawyers held a news conference outside the Birmingham federal courthouse on Saturday to discuss the lawsuit, and the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, and other groups planned a rally afterward at a downtown park.
“I’m here for accountability, and I’m here for justice,” Jennings told the news conference.
The suit alleged the actions of Officers Christopher Smith and Justin Gable, Sgt. Jeremy Brooks and the city violated rights protecting against unlawful arrest and guaranteeing free speech.
Childersburg city attorney Reagan Rumsey didn’t return an email seeking comment.
Jennings, 56, was arrested in May after a white neighbor called 911 and said a “younger Black male” and gold SUV were at a house while the owners — who are friends of Jennings and had asked him to watch their home — were away.
Jennings identified himself as “Pastor Jennings” but refused to provide identification to the officers, who arrested him on a charge of obstructing government operations after a 20-minute confrontation that included raised voices on both sides.
Filed in municipal court, the charge was dismissed within days at the request of the then-police chief. Jennings’ attorneys last month released police body camera video that was obtained following a records request to the city, 55 miles southeast of Birmingham.
Hong Kong sentences: Five speech therapists in Hong Kong were sentenced to 19 months in prison on Saturday after they published a series of children’s books that the court said instilled a hatred of the government in young readers.
Their sentence extended a government crackdown on political dissent that began during mass protests in 2019.
The defendants, who were the leaders of a speech therapists union behind the books, have been in jail for more than a year. Because of time served, their lawyers said they were likely to be released fairly soon.
The Hong Kong police’s national security department arrested them last year, accusing them of violating a colonial-era law on seditious publications.
Prosecutors said that the defendants’ series of three books, about a flock of sheep resisting the tyrannical rule of a wolf pack, could “weaken” Beijing’s sovereignty over Hong Kong by portraying the Chinese government as authoritarian.
LGBTQ club ruling: The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a court order that would have forced Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ group as an official campus club.
The court acted Friday in a brief order signed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that indicated the court would have more to say on the topic at some point.
The university, an Orthodox Jewish institution in
New York, argued that granting recognition to the group, the YU Pride Alliance, “would violate its sincere religious beliefs.”
The club said Yeshiva already has recognized a gay pride club at its law school.
A New York state court sided with the student group and ordered the university to recognize the club immediately. The matter is on appeal in the state court system, but judges there refused to put the order on hold in the meantime.
Pop star complaint: A sexual assault complaint has been filed against Puerto Rico pop star Ricky Martin, who recently sued his nephew over what he said were false allegations of sexual abuse.
A person who was not authorized to speak about the case confirmed that Martin’s nephew, Dennis Yadiel Sanchez Martin, filed the complaint. The person said the complaint, filed at a police precinct in the capital
of San Juan, does not automatically trigger an arrest because the alleged incident is not recent, adding that police will investigate and determine whether charges are warranted.
Sanchez previously requested a restraining order against Martin in July, but a judge later archived the case after Sanchez admitted under oath that he had never been sexually assaulted by the singer.
On Thursday, the artist’s attorneys filed a lawsuit against his nephew, whom they described as “troubled.”
They accused him of extortion, malicious persecution, abuse of law and damages.
Wounded Knee land buy: Two American Indian tribes in South Dakota have joined forces to purchase 40 acres around the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark, the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history.
The Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux said the purchase of the land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was an act of cooperation to ensure the area was preserved as a sacred site.
More than 200 Native Americans — including children and elderly people — were killed at Wounded Knee in 1890. The bloodshed marked a seminal moment in the frontier battles the U.S. Army waged against tribes.
The tribes agreed last week to petition the U.S. Department of the Interior to take the land into trust on behalf of both tribes.
The Oglala Sioux tribe will pay $255,000 and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe will pay $245,000 for the site, Indian Country Today reported. The title to the land will be held in the name of the Oglala Sioux tribe.
New Zealand boat capsizes: Five people died Saturday in waters off New Zealand
after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued.
Police said the 28-foot boat overturned near the South Island town of Kaikoura. Police said they were continuing to investigate the cause of the accident.
Kaikoura Mayor Craig Mackle said the water was calm at the time of the accident and the assumption was a whale had surfaced from beneath the boat. He said there were some sperm whales in the area and humpback whales traveling through.
News agency Stuff reported the passengers belonged to a bird enthusiasts’ group.
Kaikoura is a popular whale-watching destination. The sea floor drops away precipitously from the coast, making for deep waters close to the shore.