Houston Police Brutality Reaches Green Bay

This morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Houston Chronicle report that Marvin Driver, father of Green Bay Packers Wide Receiver Donald Driver, was the possible victim of police brutality early Monday morning.  While the officers are presumed innocent of any wrongdoing at this stage, the articles reveal facts that will most certainly lead to what attorneys call a “1983″ Civil Rights claim.  42 U.S.C 1983 reads:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

Milwaukeeans most certainly remember the recent Frank Jude case where this Federal statute was used as the basis for a civil lawsuit against the police officers involved.  Often due to immunities and statutory damage caps, Federal 1983 claims are the most effective way for citizens harmed by the police to obtain justice. 

The media attention given to this high profile case all but guarantees a lawsuit is coming down the pipeline, and rightfully so.