Lawsuit claims harassment of lawful gun owners is turning Phila. into a 'police state' :: 03/23/2012

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a Philadelphia man on March 15 alleges that the City of Philadelphia and its police department have been engaging in a widespread assault on citizens' Second Amendment rights, specifically by unlawfully arresting people who are legally carrying firearms using gun licenses from reciprocal states.

In a 43-page lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by Philadelphia attorney James E. Lee, of the firm Brooker, Richardson, Dickerson, Lee & Associates, on behalf of city resident Jeff Lavalliere slams the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Police Department and various law enforcement higher-ups for a slew of constitutional rights violations, asserting that the city's constant and longstanding assault on the Second Amendment is turning Philadelphia into a "police state."

Despite the fact that Philadelphia cannot legally enact its own gun laws due to the state's preemption statute, the city "has a long and unsuccessful history of attempting to regulate lawful gun ownership," the lawsuit claims.

The suit goes on to label Mayor Michael Nutter as a "malicious and vocal advocate of abolishing the Second Amendment rights of citizens like Mr. Lavalliere."

"Highly prone to rhetorical hyperbole, Mayor Nutter often misstates facts and claims that lawful gun owners are violating the civil rights of other citizens," the lawsuit states. "Mayor Nutter wrongfully and maliciously claims that the formal reciprocity agreements with other states ... is a 'loophole' that allows firearms to be unlawfully possessed in the City of Philadelphia."

The lawsuit outlines three separate incidents in which Lavalliere was unlawfully detained, accosted by police and had his firearm and Florida gun license seized without provocation.