Windsor man seeks apology after being cuffed and charged with trespassing during city hall protest
The Canadian Constitution Foundation is looking for apology from city, police
Windsor man wants an apology after being handcuffed while he skated around city hall protesting the budget
January 23|
Duration2:27Spencer Allossery says he was carrying a sign protesting the lack of transparency around the Windsor city budget when he was handcuffed and ticketed.
Social Sharing
While skating outside city hall with a protest sign criticizing transparency at the public institution, Spencer Allossery says he was unjustly placed in handcuffs by police and issued a trespass order.
Now, a non-profit firm that defends peoples’ constitutional rights has taken on Allossery’s case. The Canadian Constitution Foundation [CCF] is looking to get the $65 trespass ticket thrown out and an apology from both police and the city.
“Our rights are not understood by the people who enforce them,” said Allossery.
The 50-year-old says he doesn’t protest often, but after seeing portions of the Windsor municipal budget being redacted on Dec. 29, he says he felt compelled to express his views.
“When governments operate in the darkness, it’s a concern for anybody and it’s a concern for me,” said Allossery.
His sign stated “under the 2001 Ontario Municipal Act, you are legally required to provide a complete budget.”
Allossery says he was told to leave the property by city security on Jan. 5., around the time a city committee meeting was taking place. After refusing, police put him in handcuffs and trespassed him for 24 hours.
Then on Jan. 6, the city released a statement saying it will make nearly 30 items public that were previously kept private in the budget. The shift came after mayor Drew Dilkens directed administration to see if items listed as in-camera could be made public.
“I think when people look at the list they say ‘there’s really nothing to see here, like it was no big deal,” said Dilkens on Jan. 12. “Great, now that stuff’s out there and people can chew on it.”
Letters have been sent to the City of Windsor and the Windsor Police Service demanding they apologize to Allossery.
Freedom of expression is important, city says
A city spokesperson said they don’t comment cases before the courts.
However, added that the municipality is “committed to upholding freedom of expression.”
“Freedom of expression is not only protected by the constitution but is also an important and integral right in a free and democratic society. Individuals are entitled to the constitutional right of freedom of expression in front of city Hall, including the right to express public dissent so long as it is peaceful,” said Michael Janisse, senior communications manager at the City of Windsor.
The Windsor Police Service did not immediately respond to CBC’s request for comment.
Josh Dehaas, who works with CCF and is representing Allossery, says he’s waiting for a meeting with the Crown’s office to hopefully get the trespass ticket thrown out.
Lawyer says his client was ‘peaceful’
“Windsor City Hall security screwed up here because they decided somebody protesting couldn’t be there with his sign without any good reason for doing so,” said Dehaas. “And police, rather than investigating and figuring out whether there really was any good reason to trespass him from the property, put him in handcuffs and so both of them, I think, violated the charter very clearly.”
The CCF said both police and the city violated his right to freedom of expression.
Dehaas said his client’s protest was peaceful and he wasn’t causing a disturbance.
“He did that at a skating rink outside of city hall, which is the quintessential place where people are supposed to go to express themselves on political matters,” said Dehaas.
“As long as you’re not being disruptive in any serious sort of way, you’re allowed to protest in public spaces like skating rings.”
‘You’re gonna regret this’: RI Asst. AG Devon Flanagan berates police while under arrest
USA TODAY NETWORK – New England
A Rhode Island special assistant attorney general was arrested in Newport after being accused of trespassing at a restaurant and becoming defensive with police officers who asked her to leave.
Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Hogan Flanagan was arrested Aug. 14 outside the Clarke Cooke House restaurant and charged with trespassing, according to a police report. The incident was recorded on an officer’s body camera.
“Buddy, you’re gonna regret this. You’re gonna regret it,” Flanagan is heard saying in the body camera video. “I’m an A.G.”
She was arrested along with another woman, who was identified as a friend from college.
The incident is under review by the Rhode Island attorney general’s office.
“Ms. Flanagan has been employed with the Office for approximately 7 years and is currently assigned to Appellate Unit of the Criminal Division,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “The Office immediately began a review of the incident, which we anticipate will conclude within the next few days.”
The office said it was unable to comment further on the incident, as it relates to “personnel issues.”
What police say happened that night
At around 9:51 p.m. on Aug. 14, officers responded to the restaurant at 24 Bannister’s Wharf for a report of an “unwanted party,” the Newport Police Department said.
Police reports for both Flanagan and the involved friend state that alcohol was involved.
Two women, later identified as Flanagan and the other party, can be seen on police body camera video standing outside the restaurant as an officer pulls up.
As the officer gets out of his cruiser, Flanagan tells him she wants him to “turn his body cam off.”
“Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests to turn it off,” Flanagan, of Warwick, says.
Get the Daily Briefing newsletter in your inbox.
Start your day with the morning’s top news
Delivery: DailyYour Email
During the recorded interaction, Flanagan repeatedly asks officers to turn off their body cameras, insisting it was protocol. Newport Police Department protocol allows for the footage to be turned off if a witness or victim requests it and the scene is non-confrontational, among other situations.
“They want you guys to leave. Let’s just leave. Let’s just make it easy,” an officer can be heard saying on the video.
The officer then walks over to the restaurant’s host station.
“You guys just want them out? Do you want them trespassed?” the officer asks.
“Anything we can do. Trespass, yeah. Cuff ’em. Please,” a man at the host station says.
Both women put into police cruisers, body cam video shows
Flanagan was handcuffed and placed into a police cruiser first, the video shows.
“I’m an A.G., I’m an A.G,” Flanagan repeats as the cruiser door shuts.
Has Flanagan been placed on leave?
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha addressed the incident on talk radio the morning of Aug. 19.
He said that Flanagan has not been placed on leave, but that a “strong sanction” would be coming, including a “suspension without pay” if he decides to retain her with the office.
“Look, she’s put me in a bad position. She’s embarrassed herself, humiliated herself, treated the Newport Police Department horribly,” Neronha said during the Aug. 19 interview on WPRO. “She is going to take some steps to try to address that in the next day or so.”
While he did not say what the “steps” would entail, he did say an apology to the Newport Police Department was “clearly necessary, and she understands that.”
Neronha said Flanagan would “take responsibility for her conduct, and then we’ll go from there,” adding that he hadn’t yet made any decisions regarding discipline.
“It was inexcusable behavior,” he said. “She knows better. … I’ve got 110 lawyers. She embarrassed all of them, in a sense.”
He said that he had Flanagan watch the body camera footage herself, take a few days and then come back to him with what she thought she needed to do to “make this right.”
“I have the responsibility to protect the office, obviously, and the work, but these are decisions that impact human beings, too,” Neronha said, adding that Flanagan has children, and “they’re going to see these tapes.”
Neronha also said Flanagan “misstated” body camera protocol.
“Look, it’s my office that drove that body cam program in the first place. So I’m really glad that they’re on every police officer in the state,” Neronha said.
This story has been updated with new information.
Journal staff writer Katherine Gregg contributed to this report.
