ACLU Talks To Homeless People Who Say Police Dumped Them Outside The City

The following information was provided by the ACLU in a news release:

The ACLU's letter to Detroit documents the experiences of five individuals who were doing nothing illegal, yet were subjected to this abusive and unlawful treatment on multiple occasions.

• Andrew Sheehan, 37, was "taken for a ride" at least four times since December 2011. Andrew has been homeless on and off for several years because of a substance abuse problem. He has since completed a drug rehabilitation program and is now working, living in an apartment, and continuing to attend religious services at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Greektown. Andrew has been picked up several times while sitting on a manhole in Greektown to keep warm. Police have driven him anywhere from five to seven miles away. On one occasion officers said they were taking Sheehan to a shelter, but instead dropped him off at the boundary between Detroit and River Rouge on Fort Street—eight miles from where he was picked up.
• Dennis B., 54, has been homeless on and off for many years. In 2011, Dennis was "taken for a ride" by officers approximately four or five times. On several occasions, officers approached Dennis near St. Mary's Church, frisked him for loose change, and insisted that he throw out any money in his pockets, removed him from Greektown and dropped him off around 6 Mile Road on the Detroit's eastside. In January 2012, Dennis was again standing outside St. Mary's Church when an officer told him he was not allowed to be in the area and subsequently took Dennis to the corner of Gratiot Street and Harper Street and left him there.
• Charles E., 58, has had a brain aneurism, experiences seizures, and has an ulcer in his leg. After his son's death in 1992, Charles began to experience severe emotional and mental difficulties, leading to the loss of his job and home. On one evening in March 2012, Charles and his brother were walking on the sidewalk on Lafayette Street near Beaubien Street when police officers put them in the van and drove them to Buchanan Street in Southwest Detroit. Because Charles was afraid of what he might encounter in that area and despite the significant pain he was experiencing from the blood clots in his legs, he and his brother crossed the Lodge freeway and walked two hours back to downtown Detroit.

• Elvin D., 46, has been homeless, on and off, for four or five years. In the fall of 2012, Elvin was sleeping in Hart Plaza when, around midnight, a police officer approached him and offered to take him to a warming center. Instead of taking Elvin to a shelter, the officer dropped him off on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. Elvin walked most of the night to return to downtown Detroit.
• Marvin S., 37, was standing on Woodward Avenue when two officers with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department pulled up, handcuffed him, and placed him in the back of their squad car. Marvin demanded to know why he was being arrested, but the officers refused to answer his questions as they drove out of downtown Detroit. Eventually, the officers pulled over in Allen Park near the "World's Largest Tire" near I-94, approximately 14 miles from downtown Detroit, and told Marvin to "get out."