Miami Herald by Monique O. Madan

February 2, 2018

 

A middle school teacher has filed a lawsuit against Homestead and its mayor after he says he was unconstitutionally kicked out and banned from city hall.

Kim Hill — a community activist and Miami-Dade County public school teacher — was removed from an August 2016 council meeting after urging city officials to implement police body cameras.

Hill’s year-long plea for police reform, which took place during the public comment portion of monthly council meetings, came after Homestead police officer Anthony Green shot and killed a 32-year-old father of six, Edward Foster III, at a South Miami-Dade intersection in 2015. Prior to this incident, Green had shot and killed two others while on duty and was cleared.

Hill says city officials claimed he violated the city’s decorum policy and was escorted out of the building — a move Hill said violated his civil rights.

The lawsuit — filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against Homestead and its mayor, Jeff Porter, on behalf of Hill — argues that banning Hill from city hall, which precluded him from challenging the ban, infringed upon his freedom of speech and due process rights. [READ MORE]