The average person might think that Civil Rights is about marches and protest signs or banners. However, in this society, Civil Rights are like an invisible, weightless, suit of armor we wear that protects us from the excesses of government or others who might treat us unfairly.
The law that most often puts the steel in that suit of armor was originally passed in the aftermath of Slavery.
§ 1983. Civil action for deprivation of rights
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, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
Case Study.
In a local jurisdiction, the name of which you would easily recognize, a middle-aged man had a garage, and he seemed able to repair anything with wheels. Gentrification and other factors forced him to move his operation to his home. A street, where for generations, fisherman parked their boats, repaired their nets and processed the day’s catch.
Realtors and their speculators started to buy and sell the nearby homes, property values started to climb. They objected to the crowded yard of the mechanic, believing that kept their investments from increasing in value even faster.
Despite the fact the mechanic had his repair shop credentialed from the state, the township started working against the mechanic. Inspection after inspection yielded violation upon violation, which begat fine after fine, until the township declared him a junkyard. That generated more violations and finally the town launched a “flotilla” of police and heavy equipment that confiscated his tools and belongings and crushed everything else.
The publicity made the mechanic a pariah in the community. Afterall he was running a “junkyard,” or so the town claimed.
When the mechanic sought our help, we sued under this law. The ensuing investigation uncovered apparent corruption within the township operation and as the trial began a settlement was reached that made him whole financially.
The mechanic recently passed away, but the harassment stopped and for years he lived and repaired vehicles with little drama in his life.
——–
The case illustrates that Civil Rights is not just for movements, privileged majorities or marginalized minorities, but for every person. I heard a grade-school teacher tell her class many years ago, “The individual is the reservoir of Civil Rights, society has no rights.”
It sounds extreme, but it is true, society reflects the social contract each person makes with another person.t
I’m a Webdesigns.Net site!
