USA
Criticism of US police: officers arrest half-naked men with drawn guns for “election fraud”.
Several police officers arrest a half-naked man.
© The Guardian
The bodycams of Florida police officers recorded disturbing images. In several cases, black men are seen being arrested half-naked and at gunpoint. The alleged violation: voter fraud.
After newly discovered bodycam videos, the police in Florida are under massive criticism. The footage shows several armed officers surrounding a house, waking up sleeping men and guiding them out of the house while they were still in their underwear. They are also not granted a request to put on another pair of trousers.
The seemingly drastic scenes are not about murder, manslaughter or similar violent crimes – the accusation is: election fraud. The background is a campaign by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who had declared war on election fraud and would like to take vigorous action against it.
In the case of the two arrested men, the suspicion was complicated: both were convicted of murder more than 30 years ago. They had served their sentences in the meantime, but the conviction meant that they were no longer entitled to vote. In Germany, too, such a withdrawal of the right to vote is possible in principle, but it occurs very rarely and only in the case of election-related crimes such as high or state treason or forms of electoral interference.
The accusation: Despite the deprivation of the right to vote, they had registered to vote and thereby illegally influenced the election. However, both men deny this: They would have received the cards for voting registration by mail and would not have received any warning that they were not allowed to vote.
In addition, the means of arrest seem clearly too violent. Daniel Tilley, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, says: “The police officers didn’t bring a gun to the knife fight, they brought a gun to the ballot box fight. This is an incredibly grotesque abuse of power.” In his opinion, such scenes are not only there to stop real fraudsters: “But also to intimidate voters who may be eligible to vote.”
Voter fraud is extremely rare in the US, as in most western countries. In the cases of the two men, too, a court could not find any electoral fraud.
Source:“The Guardians”