Barnett v. D'ARTOIS

331 F. Supp. 1310, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11604
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedSeptember 20, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 16890
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 331 F. Supp. 1310 (Barnett v. D'ARTOIS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnett v. D'ARTOIS, 331 F. Supp. 1310, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11604 (W.D. La. 1971).

Opinion

DAWKINS, Chief Judge.

OPINION

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT Our jurisdiction in this action rests upon 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3). Plaintiffs, under Rule 23 F.R.Civ.P., bring this as a class action 1 under the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 1983) to temporarily restrain and preliminarily and permanently enjoin defendants from interfering with the peaceful use of public parks of Shreveport.

Additionally, declaratory relief (28 U.S.C. § 2201) is sought, holding that Ordinance No. 73 of the City of Shreveport is unconstitutional both on its face and as applied in violation of rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. 2

After two amendments to the complaint, permitted by Rule 15(a) and (b), F.R.Civ.P., the present posture of plaintiff’s complaint further requests that defendant D’Artois be required to return all photographs and identifications of members of plaintiffs’ class taken on June 2, 1971, at Columbia Park in Shreveport.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Alarmed by the ever increasing traffic in heroin, marijuana, and other dangerous drugs (LSD) in Shreveport, the Mayor (Honorable L. Calhoun Allen) and Commissioner of Public Safety (Honorable George D’Artois), together with narcotics officers and Louisiana Police undercover agents, met to discuss means of interdicting this criminal activity.

*1312 After several weeks spent with plaintiffs’ group, Officers Fussell and Warrington participated in “making” approximately 30 drug cases: a case is made by actually purchasing illegal drugs from a pusher. Their assiduous efforts may have netted more of the people involved in Shreveport’s illicit drug traffic, but information revealed that the confidences they painstakingly acquired soon were to be lost. Alerted that their agents’ cover was in danger, police officials decided to request warrants and execute them at Columbia Park, a local City Park where the majority of cases of drug transfers had occurred. Thirty-eight warrants were prepared, some being for “John Does” and “Jane Does” because of difficulty in obtaining names without the undercover men creating suspicion. 3

June 2, police officers converged on Columbia Park (a rather small recreation area) • and sealed off avenues of escape. 4 Sexton testified: “We anticipated there would be forty or fifty in the park and get those people and get a picture and get their names and get out. We anticipated we would get fictitious names of people we wanted. I believe there were two people in the Park that we had warrants for that were arrested later on and we were assisted by pictures.” (Tr. 249.) This planned raid, with warrants issued on probable cause, soon turned into a police round-up. The males were pat-frisked, everyone was photographed, and, then, detained in the pavilion for approximately two hours. Some motorists and pedestrians passing Columbia Park on Columbia Street were stopped and the long-hairs among them were directed to the pavilion where they were photographed and identification was requested. Tom Metcalf was typical of the group which was not in the Park originally. On his way to work, at the Sound City recording studio, long-haired Metcalf circled Columbia Park to see if any of his friends were there: “As I turned on to Columbia, there was another car ahead of me and a police officer was staying in the middle of the road and the car ahead of me was passed and he flagged me over to the side and asked me to step out of the car and frisked me and asked me if I would walk over to the pavilion. He led me up to the hill where another patrolman took me to the pavilion and searched me again and asked me to stand in line to took my picture.” (Tr. 93.) 5

*1313 George D’Artois, Commissioner of Public Safety, and one of the undercover agents were present at all times during the detention of the young people in the Park and those brought from the street. The photographs and identifications of those people who were not prosecuted are locked in the files of the Division of Special Investigation of the Shreveport Police Department.

Sunday, June 6, was advertised by pamphlets distributed by the “hippie” community and an underground newspaper as a day on which a rally would be held in Betty Virginia Park to peacefully and silently protest the treatment received by the young people a few days before. 6

Unaware of any restrictions on use of the City’s parks, approximately 100 “hippies” congregated. Despite at first remaining in small groups and causing little concern to anyone, the City officials demanded that the group disperse ■ only a short while after they had gathered at the Park. When so instructed by the Mayor and the Commissioner of Public Safety, the group first sat down, then left once Mrs. Elizabeth Clay promised to obtain a temporary restraining order which would enable them to “return the following Sunday to the Park without fear of being harrassed by the police.” (Tr. 41.)

A temporary restraining order could not legally be obtained from this Court in time and the efforts of plaintiffs’ attorney to get a permit from the Director of Parks and Recreation, Fred McGaha, were unproductive; he refused “because the request asked for a group meeting where political activities and political discussions would be made and the use of band instruments that would, in my opinion, upset the other people that were in the Park.” The authority upon which this decision was made and to which the Mayor and Commissioner later adverted is Shreveport City Ordinance No. 73. 7

Plaintiffs undaunted by lack of a permit, the unconventionally attired, long-haired group returned to Betty Virginia Park June 13; and, desiring to appear to be as innocuous as possible, at first kept to themselves in small groups and warned away drug abusers by printed “No Holding” placards. 8 After two hours of frisbee-throwing and rapping in peaceful assembly, the police again on the instructions of Allen and D’Artois, noting that they were congregating in sizeable groups, and beginning to set up loud “rock band” instruments, ordered the group, along with a few family picnickers, to disband and vacate the Park. This evacuation was ordered after a short-lived fight drew a small crowd of spectators. Reliable intelligence information had been obtained that “outsiders” and arms were to be brought in. D’Artois’ experience had convinced him that the situation was “explosive” and, after conferring with Allen, the order to leave was issued. We find these de *1314

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Related

Baker v. State
478 S.W.2d 445 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
331 F. Supp. 1310, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnett-v-dartois-lawd-1971.