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New York City (NYC)

Private Feds Cash In On Unusual Contempt Case

July 31, 2020 Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service. , , ,
Manhattan — With trial still months away, taxpayers have paid more than a quarter-million dollars to a private law firm deputized by a federal judge to convict an environmental attorney of misdemeanors.  That is only one of the many oddities of United States v. Steven Donziger, a criminal contempt case against a lawyer defending a more than $9 billion verdict that he helped Ecuadorean villagers obtain against Chevron for oil contamination in the Amazon rainforest in 2011.  “So — the punchline is: The government has spent $254,930 to date prosecuting a misdemeanor,” Donziger’s attorney Zoe Littlepage summarized in an email to her co-counsel and her client.

Thousands Of Police Discipline Records Kept Secret For Decades Published

July 27, 2020 By Eric Umansky, ProPublica. , , ,
Until last month, New York state prohibited the release of police officers’ disciplinary records. Civilians’ complaints of abuse by officers were a secret. So were investigators’ conclusions. The public couldn’t even know if an officer was punished. Today, we are making this information public and, with it, providing an unprecedented picture of civilians’ complaints of abuse by NYPD officers as well as the limits of the current system that is supposed to hold officers accountable. We’ve published a database that lets you search the police complaints so you can see the information for yourself. Data experts can also download the data.

Housing Rules Could Force Newly Released Prisoners Into Homelessness

July 24, 2020 Jerry Iannelli, The Appeal. , , ,
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the population of New York City’s jails has been nearly halved. According to New York state data, the city’s average daily jail population dropped from 7,214 people in June 2019 to 3,878 in June 2020—a 46 percent decline. And according to the most recent jail reduction fact sheet from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the city released nearly 3,400 people from local jails between March 16 and May 25 alone. These releases most likely represent the largest single cut to the city’s jail population in history.

Massive March Demands Justice And Liberation For Palestine

July 6, 2020 By Samidoun. , , ,
Thousands of people joined a massive rally and march for Palestine in Brooklyn, New York, as part of the “Day of Rage” against Israeli annexation, colonization and Zionism in Palestine on Wednesday, 1 July. The rally was led by Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine and organized by the NY4Palestine coalition, of which Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a member alongside WOL, Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine – NJ; and several Students for Justice for Palestine chapters throughout New York City. The rally lasted for nearly two hours as the crowd continued to grow, full of energy and militant spirit to struggle for Palestine. The march was widely attended by young people and by the Palestinian community in New York, and slogans like “Not just annexation – Not just occupation, Palestine won’t take it, Bring the whole thing down!” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!” filled the air.

Cops Off Campus And Out of Our Unions!

July 6, 2020 By David Klassen, Spectre Journal. , , ,
The union I am a part of, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) at the City University of New York (CUNY), voted not only to kick the cops off campus but also to drive the cop union out of the AFL-CIO, the national labor federation with which our parent union is affiliated. Before the June 25 delegate assembly where we voted on it, union members working in Rank and File Action drafted the resolution with these clear demands. The union leadership, who has regularly taken more conservative positions on a range of issues, offered a substitute resolution that expanded some language but dropped the demand on expelling the police unions. A rank-and-file delegate amended it back in and the complete resolution overwhelmingly passed. This is an early step in a larger struggle but the victory shows that in moments of mass struggle rank and file members can push forward radical demands. 

What It’s Like To Not Pay Rent, According To Striking Tenants

July 5, 2020 By Caroline Spivack, Valeria Ricciulli, and Diana Budds, NY Curbed. , , ,
Defective locks make for dubious building security. Walls sag with water damage and look as if they’re melting. An infestation of vermin plagues apartments. These are the conditions that some tenants in an apartment building on Sheridan Avenue in the South Bronx have endured for years. But it was the outbreak of COVID-19 in March that was the final straw. Now, 14 tenants in the 30-unit brick building have collectively withheld rent. With the help of the tenant group Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), they have urged their landlord, multinational Monarch Realty Holdings, to forgive their rent for the duration of the city’s public health crisis. The Bronx building is one among dozens across the boroughs where the pandemic has generated a flashpoint between tenants and landlords. But, in joining together to organize rent strikes, some tenants have turned their inability to pay into a form of protest, urging rent forgiveness while sending the message that they require greater government relief.

Lawyers Get No Bail In Property Damage Case, Face 45 Years In Prison

July 3, 2020 Center for Constitutional Rights. , , ,
The Center for Constitutional Rights and a coalition of other civil rights organizations are calling on federal prosecutors to release on bail two New York attorneys who are accused of throwing Molotov cocktails into an empty New York police car during protests in Brooklyn on May 30. The lawyers — Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman — are facing a minimum of 45 years in prison if convicted on the federal charges. The two were initially released on bail, but then the federal government challenged the bail conditions, sending them back to pretrial detention — a move that shocked many in the legal community since neither Mattis nor Rahman have a criminal history.

NYPD Officers Arrest And Pepper Spray Queer Liberation March Protesters

June 30, 2020 Sydney Perriera and Aviva Stahl, The Gothamist. , , ,
NYPD officers arrested and pepper-sprayed protesters at the Queer Liberation March Sunday afternoon while attempting to arrest two people for graffiti, according to witnesses. Numerous videos shared on social media show a crowd of officers shoving outraged protesters where arrests were being made near Washington Square Park. As two were being arrested for graffiti, protesters intervened in an attempt to free them, at which point police responded with pepper spray, multiple witnesses told Gothamist. A legal observer said at least four people were arrested and 10 others pepper-sprayed—including someone running a fruit stand nearby protesters.

Police Attack Occupy City Hall As Budget Vote Nears

June 30, 2020 Popular Resistance. , , ,
New York City - Early this morning, New York Police officers swarmed the hundreds of people who have been peacefully occupying the park in front of City Hall for the past week and calling for a $1 billion cut to the NYPD budget. The city council is expected to vote on the budget today. Police pushed people onto the sidewalk, beat people with batons and made arrests. People report a person with a broken arm from being beaten with a baton and another with a broken ankle from being pushed between barricades. People are still in the park despite the attack by police as they wait for the city council to vote. They are calling for a "No" vote because it does not meet their demands.

Occupation Of New York City Hall To Defund The Police

June 24, 2020 Change the NYPD. , , ,
New York City - More than 170 local & national organizations, brought together by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), released a follow-up to their April letter calling on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to cut at least $1 billion directly from the NYPD expense budget by the June 30th deadline and redirect resources for FY21 to core social programs that are essential for Black, Latinx and other communities hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the letter released today, CPR and the #NYCBudgetJustice coalition make it clear that the call “to cut at least $1 billion directly from the NYPD FY21 expense budget is the floor, not the ceiling.” The demands of the group echo those laid out in the policy report on #NYCBudgetJustice released by CPR last week.

NYPD Cops Encouraged To ‘Strike’ On July 4

June 19, 2020 Craig McCarthy and Tina Moore, NY Post. , , ,
A labor strike is brewing in the NYPD. A pair of flyers making the rounds among NYPD officers are encouraging them to call out sick July 4 — as retribution for police reform and a perceived anti-cop climate following the outrage over high-profile police killings of unarmed black men across the country, multiple cops told The Post. One message calls for the strike to kick off at 3 p.m. July 4. “NYPD cops will strike on July 4th to let the city have their independence without cops,” the message, which is being passed among cops via text, according to sources. “Cops that say we can’t strike because of the Taylor Law,” the message reads, referencing a law that makes public worker stoppages punishable with fines and jail time.

City Bar Calls For Investigation Following Arrests Of Legal Observers

June 19, 2020 By Tom McParland, Law.com. , , ,
The New York City Bar Association on Wednesday called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department to “immediately investigate” the alleged targeting of nine legal observers earlier this month during a protest against police brutality in the Bronx. In a statement, the City Bar said it was “gravely concerned” by what it called “concerted efforts” in New York, and across the country, to interfere with the work of observers at mass demonstrations protesting systemic racism and police killings of black Americans. The City Bar specifically cited reports that legal observers associated with the National Lawyers Guild had been pulled out of a crowd in the Bronx, restrained with zip-tie cuffs and detained for 20 minutes. Some officers, the City Bar said, had “illegally accessed” the observers’ privileged documents and took down their personal information, while claiming not to know the function they were serving at the protests.

NYPD Accused Of Deliberately Targeting Legal Observers

June 11, 2020 Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist. , , ,
On Thursday evening before curfew, Rex Santus was standing alone on a quiet Mott Haven street corner when he caught the attention of NYPD officers passing in an unmarked minivan. As eight officers surrounded him, the 28-year-old CUNY law student identified himself as a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild, and explained his intention to monitor a nearby protest against racist police brutality. The officers accused him of “illegal counter-surveillance against police,” Santus said. They seized his notebook, reading from it and mocking him for writing that some cops had obscured their badge numbers. As the officers feigned ignorance about the role of legal observers, Santus recalled, an apparent warning blared from their police radios: “A lot of LOs out tonight.”

Over A Thousand Cyclists Take Over City Streets On Solidarity Protest Ride

June 10, 2020 By Elizabeth Kim, Caroline Lewis, Ben Yakas, JB Nicholas, Jake Offenhartz and Karen Yi, Gothamist. , , ,
Over a thousand cyclists biked their way from Brooklyn to Manhattan as part of a Black Lives Matter solidarity ride Monday evening. The ride started at Grand Army Plaza just before 6:30 p.m., and made its way to Atlantic Avenue and then Bedford Avenue; the riders then crossed over on the roadway of the Williamsburg Bridge, snaked through lower Manhattan, and started biking up the West Side Highway. Along the way, there was lots of cheering and seemingly supportive honking—and probably some not-so-supportive honking from drivers who had to wait for the cyclists to pass them. A large group of the cyclists looped around over the Manhattan Bridge, and headed back toward Barclays Center. Some cyclists were snared in traffic on the roadway of that bridge, with several people getting flat tires—and at least one driver running over a person's foot.

Healthcare Workers: From ‘Heroes’ To Targets Of Police Repression

June 9, 2020 Take Back the Bronx and FTP4 Medics, Left Voice. , , ,
We healthcare workers were arrested and prevented from assessing many protesters with serious injuries who were cuffed on the ground crying for help, some visibly bleeding. Police informed us they had their own medics but had only two FDNY EMTs to triage a crowd of more than a hundred people. Police also refused to allow us to help people whose hands were zip-tied and visibly purple, only loosening ties on one protester, borrowing our shears. After detainees – who were prevented from even shouting their names and identifying information to legal observers nearby – were packed into jail cells scattered across multiple boroughs, the NYPD then followed protesters offering jail support, again including medics and legal observers with the correct documentation, to their vehicles where they again arrested essential workers for “curfew violation.” 
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