May 16, 2013

Raun Rasmussen, Executive Director
Joseph Genova, Board Chair
Legal Services, NYC
40 Worth Street, Suite 606
New York, NY 10013

The National Lawyers Guild-NYC Chapter fully supports the members of the Legal Services Staff Association UAW Local 2320 who were forced to go on strike on May 15. The Chapter urges the management of Legal Services NYC to immediately negotiate a fair contract with its staff. The current offer that was unacceptable to LSNYC staff fails to address key issues, including the ratio of management to staff. Currently Legal Services NYC has a ratio of 1 manager to every 3 bargaining unit employees, a seemingly wasteful ratio compared with the Legal Aid Society, which operates with 1 manager for every 5 employees.

Failing to address the issue of ratios, LSNYC instead attempts to slash healthcare benefits, virtually eliminating fertility treatments, a vitally needed service for couples trying to create a family. LSNYC also goes after 403(b) retirement benefits, seeking to cut them by 29%. For an organization that already offers its employees no pension, such cuts to retirement benefits are unpalatable.

Perhaps most alarmingly, these cuts do not just affect the employees of the organization, but will also diminish the client services central to the mission of Legal Services NYC. By undercutting employee benefits without a corresponding salary increase, LSNYC management force LSSA members out on strike, and the poor people of New York City who are served by LSNYC are denied the representation so critical to defending their rights.

We urge the management of Legal Services NYC to return to the bargaining table in good faith. The current offer from management would result in no cost-of-living salary increase, reduced healthcare, and cuts to retirement, and does not appear to be fiscally necessary. These givebacks will not serve the short-term interests of the staff, or the long-term interests of the organization and its clients. Looking upon an organization that prides itself on providing justice to vulnerable clients, we ask: Where is the justice for the staff of Legal Services NYC?

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

National Lawyers Guild, New York City Chapter

The New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-NYC) denounces the renewed attacks on Assata Shakur (s/n Joanne Chesimard) by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement authorities in the State of New Jersey. The FBI has designated the 65-year old former Black Panther Party member a “terrorist” and increased the bounty for her capture to $2 million.

Assata Shakur is a former member of the Black Panther Party in New York City. That organization, which advocated community control and self-determination in the Black community, was the chief target of the FBI’s infamous counterintelligence program known as “COINTELPRO”. According to documents released in the 1970’s, COINTELPRO’s stated goal was to “expose, misdirect, destroy and neutralize” Black political organizations and their leadership. The illegal and unconstitutional program resulted in the police murder of scores of BPP members, including Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago, and the frame-ups and wrongful convictions of many others, such as Geronimo Pratt and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, both of whom spent two decades in prison before their frame-ups were exposed. Many former Panthers remain in prison today.

Labelled by law enforcement as a leader of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), by 1973 Assata was listed as a suspect in virtually dozens of acts where a Black woman was thought to have been involved. After her May 2, 1973 arrest, she was tried repeatedly for armed robberies and assaults, and each time was either acquitted or the charges were dismissed.

Her May 2, 1973 arrest and conviction were the product of a New Jersey State Police “stop” for an alleged traffic infraction. Police opened fire, killing Panther leader Zayd Malik Shakur. As trial evidence showed, Assata raised her hands but was shot once in the front and again in the back. She was left to die on the road. Another Panther in the car, Sundiata Acoli, was wounded, was able to escape, but was captured a few days later. Assata was charged with felony murder on Trooper Forrester, who also died in the shootout. She was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life. She escaped custody in 1979 and thereafter went to Cuba. In the 1980’s that government, after concluding that Assata faced political persecution in the United States, granted her full asylum in accordance with international law.

The determining factor in labeling Assata Shakur a “terrorist” was the FBI’s assertion that she continues to espouse radical, revolutionary and “anti-U.S.” ideology. This candid observation by the FBI is in accordance with its continuing COINTELPRO operation. According to a 1969 FBI document, one of COINTELPRO’s goals was to insure that “the Negro youth and moderate must be made to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teaching, they will be dead revolutionaries.” The FBI’s action is an attack on Assata Shakur. But it is also an attack on all those who believe in and advocate for fundamental change in the social order in the United States. Advocating for freedom, human rights and self-determination and against racist police attacks is not terrorism. It is a fundamental right guaranteed by the First Amendment and international law.

We call on the U.S. government and State of New Jersey to rescind its bounty on Assata Shakur. We further demand that all efforts to secure her extradition cease and that her political asylum be respected. We further urge that Sundiata Acoli (s/n Clark Squire), who is over 70 years old and who has been incarcerated for over 40 years, be released to parole supervision.

The National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has members in every state.

online for the 2013 Spring Fling!

Read bios of the honorees here.

Download a PDF of the ticket and ad order form here.

For Immediate Release

March 19, 2013 – New York – The National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter (NLG-NYC) condemns the NYPD’s killing of sixteen-year old Kimani Gray on March 9, 2013 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Mr. Gray was killed by seven bullets fired by two NYPD officers, both of whom have been sued repeatedly in the past for civil rights violations. The Chapter expresses our heartfelt condolences to the family of Mr. Gray at this time of tragic loss and continues to strive for the day when the children of New York City are protected from police killings and violence.

The killing of Mr. Gray is symptomatic of a police department that engages in routine and daily acts of violence and brutality against communities of color in New York City. The NYPD’s systemic racism includes its unconstitutional stop-and-frisk program, which is responsible for the arbitrary detention and frisking of hundreds of thousands of innocent people annually; its surveillance, targeting, and harassment of Muslims, South Asians, and Arabs under the direction of its Demographics Unit; and its long history of excessive and deadly force against people of color. The NLG-NYC supports the call for the immediate suspension of the two officers who shot and killed Mr. Gray, as well as the call for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute both officers.

The NLG-NYC also condemns the police violence that has been unleashed this past week against demonstrators in East Flatbush. Police have utilized excessive force and engaged in unlawful arrests of community residents and of members of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the Justice Committee who were conducting Cop Watch, the legal practice of observing and documenting police activity. The NLG-NYC demands that all charges against arrestees be dismissed and we call on the NYPD to respect the rights of political protestors in East Flatbush and throughout New York City.

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

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As members of the radical legal community, we will not allow the government to silence Lynne and isolate her case from public discourse. While the government has attempted to use her case to instill fear in others who defend the oppressed and advocate for dignity and human rights, we recognize Lynne as among the ranks of freedom fighters who do not stand down in the face of government repression of marginalized groups. She has dared to speak out for them.

Throughout her legal career, Lynne defended those who so many had abandoned: Muslims, people of color, and those individuals the government labeled “terrorists.” Lynne did not shy away from placing her clients’ cases in the larger political context under which they occurred, under the umbrella of the U.S. government’s war on terror used to justify the occupation and complete dismantling of entire countries in the Muslim world, to justify larger police and military defense budgets and funding of the prison industrial complex. Sadly, her own case became an example of government overreach and vindictiveness–from the political motivations compelling her prosecution to judicial coercion of an unduly harsh punishment.

Even while fighting her appeal, she has never stopped devoting her time to helping others; she spends these days supporting and advocating for other women imprisoned with her. She continues to speak out in support of human rights and radical causes from the confines of her own cell.

We demand that Lynne not only receive the immediate treatment she needs, but call on her peers in the progressive and radical community to continue to stand by her. We cannot forget the larger context within which Lynne’s own targeting and incarceration take place, i.e., as a restraint on us to provide zealous advocacy to those who the government has marked as its enemies. For her courage and strength to defend and fight for others at the expense of her own liberty, we are forever indebted to our freedom fighter Lynne Stewart and send our solidarity and love in this time of struggle.

Latest updates at lynnestewart.org

To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart #53504-054
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Ft. Worth, TX 76127

The Muslim Defense Project (MDP) of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-NYC) was formed to combat the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have created a comprehensive system of illegal surveillance, predatory prosecutions, and the targeting of entire Muslim communities — in New York City and beyond. We stand in solidarity, as members of these communities and their allies, to seek the elimination of laws that enable the discrimination of Muslims. We will arm our communities with the knowledge and information they need to protect themselves. We will put our legal skills to use defending those who have fallen prey to predatory prosecutions. We recognize that community ties through trust and activism have been under attack over the past several years, and we endeavor to safeguard and build those precious relationships. Through organizing and activism, we seek to build a strong front by developing alliances with other communities who have also been the subject of the government’s repression. Together, we will fight this government onslaught on our fundamental rights — as history has taught us that the rights of one community or individual belong to us all.

To learn more about the Muslim Defense Project, please visit www.nlgnyc.org/mdp.

The Handschu agreement, named for lead plaintiff, Barbara Handschu, was the result of a 1971 class action suit over the harassment of activist groups by the police’s “Red Squad”.  The lawsuit led to a set of Federal regulations governing police investigations of political activists and religious groups.  NLG-NYC attorneys Martin R. Stolar and Franklin Siegel, along with attorneys Paul Chevigny, Jethro Eisenstein and Arthur Eisenberg, have been the attorneys on the case for over 40 years. Both Martin and Franklin are past presidents of the NLG-NYC.

Read more about the court filing and Handshu v. Special Services Division here.

Links to press coverage by the NY Times

Link to coverage by the Huffington Post

Link to coverage by the New York Law Journal

Last week, in Manhattan Criminal Court, three of the 700+ people arrested last year on the Brooklyn Bridge finally had their days in court. Over a two-day trial, the court heard testimony about what brought them to Zuccotti Park last October and what their state of mind was when they proceeded onto the bridge. The judge found that the exhilarating moment when the police appeared to lead people onto the bridge created a reasonable doubt about their intent to block traffic, and on this basis, two of the defendants were found Not Guilty, after more than a year of adjournments. During this intervening year, protesters made several thousand appearances in criminal court, where they were regularly greeted and assisted by NLG-NYC Mass Defense members. Time and time again, they were told “thanks so much for being here — we couldn’t do what we do without you.”

Contributing to the National Lawyers Guild-NYC helps ensure that we can continue working on behalf of protesters, low-income tenants, the thousands of people subjected to overzealous policing, workers, and others who regularly get the short end of the stick. Because the Guild is deeply invested in the practice of law for the people, we have no big foundation or corporate contributors. We depend on our members and donations from our supporters to sustain our work, and would like to ask you to help with this support.

Contributions can be made online at http://nlgnyc.org/contribute, or via check made out to NLG-NYC and sent to National Lawyers Guild-NYC, 113 University Place 8th floor, New York, NY 10003. Please see the web page for information regarding tax deductions.

For highlights of the NLG-NYC’s work over the last year, please download our latest newsletter at http://nlgnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/NYC-NYC-News-November2012-final4.pdf, featuring work on Occupy Wall Street, the Stop Stop and Frisk trial, surveillance in the Muslim community, and many more details of Guild work in action. Here is a brief description of the work of some of the Chapter committees:

Members of the chapter’s Mass Defense Committee were in the streets as legal observers and in the courthouse assisting with arraignments and court appearances. With more than 800 protesters arrested in 2012 while asserting their free speech and assembly rights, MDC members were in Manhattan Criminal Court nearly every week to expedite the arraignments and subsequent appearances of arrestees.

The chapter’s Anti-Racism Committee presented a series of low-cost and free CLE’s focusing on housing justice, including tenant organizing, non-payment evictions, affirmative litigation for repairs, and NYCHA termination proceedings. ARC also co-hosted a successful party this summer to raise funds for the national TUPOCC travel stipend.

The Muslim Defense Project‘s first full year of activities included facilitating Know Your Rights workshops that provide a realistic assessment of the dangers of interacting with law enforcement officials, in consideration of their repressive tactics, without the presence of an attorney. The MDP provided legal and activist support for those Muslims and Palestinian human rights activists facing government persecution in the courts and stood in solidarity with the local Muslim community by attending and speaking at rallies calling for police commissioner Ray Kelly’s resignation. The MDP also presented a major panel at this year’s NLG national convention.

The Street Law Team continued to tailor its Know Your Rights workshops to address the increased presence of police in communities of color and the NYPD’s unrepentant use of stop and frisk. The curriculum was also expanded to include information specific to immigration status and the Secured Communities program. The Team produced a business-card sized Know Your Rights card in English and Spanish to accompany these workshops.

The Mass Incarceration Committee (which was formally recognized in November) has taken the lead in communicating with the Guild’s many jailhouse lawyer members, and is presently receiving submissions from incarcerated members who would like to be part of the MIC’s steering committee.  The committee’s inaugural event, a screening of the documentary “Broken on All Sides” by Philadelphia Guild member Matt Pillischer, will be held in March 2013, in conjunction with the Anti-Racism Committee.

The Military Law Committee assisted a service member at Ft. Drum charged with a long-term unauthorized absence who was facing jail time for desertion. After lengthy negotiation by Committee members, he was given an administrative discharge, which allowed him to avoid a criminal record and to secure employment.

The Next Generation Committee’s annual City-wide Disorientation introduced over 150 law students to the work of the NLG-NYC, with topical workshops and trainings in Street Law, Immigration Court Observation and Legal Observation. The relationships established at Disorientation are nurtured and strengthened at monthly NextGen social meet-ups throughout the city.

The Labor and Employment Committee presented two CLEs aimed at developing closer relationships among workers’ rights advocates in NYC: “Occupy Labor Law” at 1199 SEIU, and “On Offense: Tools for Worker Justice” at Cardozo Law. Members of the L&E Committee are currently working with the newly formed Post Hurricane Sandy Task Force.

The new Post-Hurricane Sandy Task Force developed a factsheet on health hazards present in storm clean-up work, and has been helping to coordinate legal volunteers to staff clinics in Staten Island and the Rockaways.

At a time when legal courage is in short supply, it is more important than ever that this work continue, which can only happen with the help of a community of supporters. Please consider making a contribution to the National Lawyers Guild-NYC at http://nlgnyc.org/contribute.

Warm regards,

National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter Executive Committee

Contact:
muslimdefense at nlgnyc.org

NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project Condemns Israel for Continued Occupation of Gaza

NEW YORK (November 24, 2012) – The Muslim Defense Project (MDP) of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-NYC) condemns Israel for its continuing occupation of and its current attacks on Gaza. We furthermore condemn the Obama administration for its seemingly blind obedience to Israel’s cynical, illegal, and ultimately genocidal position towards the Palestinian people.

The current cease-fire does not diminish the destruction and death Israeli forces brought to Gaza nor does it address the root cause of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which is Israel’s 45-year-long colonial project of occupation. The current Israeli terror campaign against Gaza has seen the killing of dozens of children, as well as the targeting of critical infrastructure, media outlets, and the bombing of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp. The atrocities will continue so long as Israel remains committed to an agenda of the occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people.

As New Yorkers, we have seen the local effects of the ongoing demonization of Palestinians, Arabs, South Asians, and Muslims broadly. We constantly hear from the U.S. government and its corporate media echo chamber that the Muslim “militants” act out of hatred while the occupiers (Israel, NATO, or the U.S.) act in self-defense. This is a false and dangerous narrative that continues to be used as a justification for repression both abroad and at home.

The New York City Police Department has been using this framework as an excuse for rampant spying, infiltration, and entrapment within New York’s Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities. This has included surveillance of political organizing around the Palestinian cause. It is often during these times of international illegality and aggression that we see an increase in domestic abuses of power. We, as the NLG-NYC MDP, will continue to remain vigilant in our support of targeted people and our opposition to state repression.

The NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project combats the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have created a comprehensive system of illegal surveillance, predatory prosecutions, and the targeting of entire Muslim communities—in New York City and beyond.

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