FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Bina Ahmad, 608-658-4228
Beena Ahmad, 917-806-1997

National Lawyers Guild-New York City Chapter (NLG-NYC) Muslim Defense Committee Commemorates the Anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution and the Ongoing Struggle of the People of Egypt

NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Committee demands the end of U.S. aid to the Egyptian military

NEW YORK (January 25, 2012) – Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, the popular challenge that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak from his thirty-years of brutal dictatorship. The revolution inspired and sparked other democratic uprisings throughout the globe, including the Occupy movement.  We commemorate and honor our Egyptian brothers and sisters for this once seemingly impossible feat, and stand in solidarity with their ongoing struggle for democracy and human rights in Egypt.  Since the revolution began one year ago, hundreds of Egyptians have been violently killed and thousands wounded at the hands of Egypt’s military, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF).  The Egyptian military, once seen as supportive of the revolution has now revealed its true colors as it attempts to undermine the people’s movement through secret decision-making, violent crackdowns on the civilian population using prohibited weapons – such as U.S. made torture tools – against peaceful protesters, continuance of military tribunals for civilians, kidnapping of revolutionaries, and refusal to cede power to the people.

As U.S. lawyers, legal workers, and activists, we condemn the U.S. government’s financing of the Egyptian military, through monetary aid as well as the sale of weapons used against peaceful protesters.  We call on the U.S. government to immediately cease all exports to Egypt of U.S. made tear gas, weapons and torture tools used by the Egyptian military against peaceful Egyptian protesters.

The erosion of democracy in Egypt mirrors our own. The recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) empowers our armed forces to enter in civilian law enforcement and selectively suspend both due process and habeas corpus for terror suspects, including U.S. citizens, captured on U.S. soil even outside of an armed conflict zone.  It is no coincidence that President Obama would sign such a law here while maintaining military and financial support of the Egyptian military who also rob their people of their most basic rights through indefinite detention and torture.  As we see the ever shrinking democracy in our own country, we stand alongside our Egyptian brothers and sisters in fighting to reclaim our most basic human rights and freedoms.

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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CONTACT:
Jennifer Carnig, 212.607.3363 / jcarnig@nyclu.org
NLG Contact, Gideon Orion Oliver, 212.766.8050

Rights Groups Urge City to Halt Illegal Restrictions at Zuccotti Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 9, 2012 – Arbitrary and inconsistently applied rules and security measures restricting the public’s access to Zuccotti Park violate city zoning laws, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild argued today in a letter to the New York City Department of Buildings.

The groups urge Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri to promptly address the violations and ensure that Zuccotti Park is open and accessible to all members of the public on an equal basis.

“Right now, Zuccotti Park is a public space in name only,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “The metal barricades, security checkpoints and selectively enforced rules not only raise serious constitutional concerns, they violate city zoning laws. We expect the city to ensure that the park is managed in a manner consistent with its own laws.”

Metal barricades have encircled Zuccotti Park since the NYPD cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment there on Nov. 16. The public can only enter the park through two gaps where security personnel selectively subject people to searches.

The groups maintain that these security measures and the constantly changing, selectively enforced and unwritten park rules violate zoning laws, longstanding city policies, and park-owner Brookfield Properties’ legal obligations under a 1968 special zoning permit that established the park as a “permanently open park” for “the public benefit.”

In its letter, the groups present a list of these violations. Among them:

The metal barricades encircling the park violate a city voting law requiring at least 50 percent of the plaza’s frontage be unobstructed with unrestricted access to all walkways through the park.

The barricades and checkpoints interfere with the public’s use and enjoyment of the park, in violation of Brookfield’s legal obligation to maintain the space as a “permanent open park.” People are reluctant to enter an area encircled by metal police barricades.

The barricades constitute a major design modification to the park. Under zoning law, such modifications must go through a city approval process, which has not occurred.

Security personnel have prohibited individuals from bringing an ever-changing list of items into the park, including food, cardboard signs, musical instruments and yoga mats even though the park’s written rules do not prohibit any particular items from entering the park. The written rules only apply to prohibited conduct.

“In a statement issued by Mayor Bloomberg explaining his decision to evict peaceful protesters from Zuccotti Park, the mayor noted that ‘we must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws,’” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Taylor Pendergrass. “That is precisely what we are asking the City to do now—comply with its own laws and restore the park to its role as a functioning public space open to all New Yorkers.”

“First Amendment freedoms are particularly vulnerable to selective enforcement by the government,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Like the constitution, City zoning law also recognizes that in New York City’s public plazas, members of the public cannot be selectively targeted for the enforcement of patently unreasonable restrictions.”

“Brookfield and the City must remove these restrictions and restore Liberty Park to the people immediately,” said Gideon Orion Oliver, president of the National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter. “Every day they refuse to do so, they compound the irreparable harm they have done – and continue to do – to our First Amendment freedoms.”

In addition to the complaint filed today, others have made similar complaints to the Department of Buildings. The Department of Buildings’ online complaint website shows an open complaint regarding the barricades at Zuccotti Park, and the group “whOWNSspace” states that nearly 100 additional complaints have been filed by other individuals asking the Department of Buildings to investigate the ongoing zoning law violations at the park.

To read the full letter, visit http://www.nyclu.org/files/releases/NYCLU_letter_to_LiMandri_1.9.12.pdf.

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OWS Activist Legal Working Group (OWS-ALWG) and the National Lawyers Guild-NYC Chapter (NLG-NYC) Invites OWS to the first in a series of open forum meetings

January 3, 2012
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
56 Walker Street
New York, NY

OWS ALWG wrote:

Come join us and discuss your OWS legal needs with the NLG-NYC Chapter! Come hear an update from NLG-NYC Chapter on the legal front so far!

This meeting is to open up a dialogue between OWS and the NLG-NYC Chapter to get a sense of where OWS might need some legal help and the ways NLG-NYC might be able to help us out.

Did you want to discuss your arrest or criminal case? This is NOT that meeting! (Don’t worry, that meeting is coming soon.)

Did you want to talk about other legal stuff? Police misconduct? Individual property damaged in the raid? Does your working group need legal advice? Then this IS that meeting!

** This open forum will be facilitated by OWS Think Tank – thanks Think Tank!

Questions? Contact OWS ALWG: ows.legal@gmail.com

Need direction? Click below.

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