Donations Request for Millions March Defendants

As of 9am on Saturday, December 20, comrades of the Trayvon Martin Organizing Committee – NYC have surrendered to the custody of the NYPD, for their alleged involvement in an incident on the Brooklyn Bridge on the night of the Millions March.

NYPD Detective William Aubry called the incident, in which one cop received a bloody nose and another a few bumps and bruises, “right up there with being one of the most violent acts that I’ve seen.” Apparently Aubry and the NYPD have forgotten the meaning of the word “violent.” They have not once used the term to describe the police murder of Eric Garner, the execution of Ramarley Graham and Akai Gurley, or the countless others harassed and brutalized by the police.

For the past week–while Eric Garner’s murderer, officer Daniel Pantaleo, has walked the streets a free man–the NYPD has pursued a vicious campaign of harassment and repression against NYC activists. Seemingly random visits to the homes of activists and their associates have involved raids by dozens of officers, threats of deportation, and beatings. The city has employed the lure of a $25,000 bounty in a desperate attempt to make arrests. Yet our movement remains unbowed.

The Trayvon Martin Organizing Committee – NYC commends all demonstrators across the country who refuse to leave their friends in the hands of murderous, abusive police. If this movement has taught us anything, it is that resistance is not only justified, but necessary. We will stand behind our comrades as they face whatever charges the city will throw at them. We know they are the victims here – not the NYPD. We are all victims at the hands of the white supremacist, capitalist state. For the same reason, we are the ones to overturn it.

We ask that you support our comrades too by donating to the Trayvon Martin Organizing Committee bail and legal fund. Our comrades have had our backs. It’s time to have theirs.

Donate here: http://goo.gl/Tf3YAg

Donation Drive to Help Haley Rose, Arrested for Self-defense

As if being arrested for self-defense is not appalling enough, Haley was then tortured by the police.  Donations can be made via paypal and are greatly appreciated.
[TW: Hate crime, homophobia, transmisogyny, violence, imprisonment, torture, rape]

Recently, I was walking with my fiance to a nearby convenience store at night. I live in an area where sexual harassment is more or less constant when I venture outside, particularly when it’s dark. As I rounded the corner, I was sexually harassed by a random man standing on the corner. I fired my stun gun into the air to make him leave us alone before we walked into the light of the store…

Monday: Pack the courtroom to challenge stop-and-frisk!

This coming Monday, March 18, Floyd v. City of New York will go to trial. The Floyd trial, which challenges New York City’s stop-and-frisk practices as racially discriminatory and unconstitutional, marks the culmination of more than a decade’s work by CCR on issues of abusive policing.

Help pack the courtroom starting Monday at 10am: 500 Pearl Street, Courtroom 15-C (please come at least 30 minutes early to leave time to get through security).

Attorneys in the case will hold a press conference in the morning before the trial begins. An NPR interview with one of the plaintiffs and one of the witnesses in the trial will run on Morning Edition. At lunchtime, community groups will rally and hold a press conference. And when the day is done, CCR will post the first of its daily reports on the trial.

Daily updates will be posted on the CCR website, Facebook and Twitter. Follow and use the hashtag #NYPDonTRIAL to share and retweet our updates and media coverage of the trial.

If you can contribute financially, please donate to support CCR’s work on important issues like the Floyd trial.

Scandalous Recordings of NYPD Stop-and-Frisk & the App to Counter the Program

Exclusive audio obtained by The Nation of a stop-and-frisk carried out by the New York Police Department freshly reveals the discriminatory and unprofessional way in which this controversial policy is being implemented on the city’s streets.

On June 3, 2011, three plainclothes New York City Police officers stopped a Harlem teenager named Alvin and two of the officers questioned and frisked him while the third remained in their unmarked car. Alvin secretly captured the interaction on his cell phone, and the resulting audio is one of the only known recordings of stop-and-frisk in action.

In the course of the two-minute recording, the officers give no legally valid reason for the stop, use racially charged language and threaten Alvin with violence. Early in the stop, one of the officers asks, “You want me to smack you?” When Alvin asks why he is being threatened with arrest, the other officer responds, “For being a fucking mutt.” Later in the stop, while holding Alvin’s arm behind his back, the first officer says, “Dude, I’m gonna break your fuckin’ arm, then I’m gonna punch you in the fuckin’ face.”

Listen to the full audio recording, see The Hunted and the Hated with interviews of Alvin and others revealing controversial information about Stop and Frisk, then download the NYCLU app to protect yourself.

Monday: Support Rent Strikers in Red Hook Court!

While the Sunset Park Rent Strike continues, Dennis Florez is being charged with assault for coming to the defense of a Sunset Park tenant and organizer, who herself was being assaulted by the building’s super. Fransisca spent one-week in the hospital with bleeding in her brain. The super has not been charged.

Please come to support Dennis at his hearing this Monday morning:

August 20th at 9am
Red Hook Court
88-94 Visitation Pl.

Please wear RED to show your solidarity with Dennis.

After court, a press conference will be held to discuss not only Dennis’ case, but also to address the injustice faced by the rent strikers and the behavior of the police in the Sunset Park neighborhood in general.

Come to Brooklyn Court to support the Warrens against police brutality!

UPDATE: On Friday, May 11, the City agreed to settle the case brought by Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren with a total payment of $360,000. Although there is the standard no admission of liability, the amount of the settlement speaks for itself in terms of whether there was wrongdoing on the part of officers in the NYPD. Thanks to all of you who have supported the Warrens throughout this case. The trial, which was scheduled to start
on 5/14 in the Eastern District of New York, has obviously been canceled.

—

*MONDAY, MAY 14th through FRIDAY, MAY 18th, 2012, 9:30 A.M.*
*Brooklyn Federal Court, 225 Cadman Plaza East (at Tillary St.)
*The Judge is Allyne Ross, Courtroom 8C on the 8th floor.*
*Subways: 2, 3, 4, 5, M, N, R to Court St./Borough Hall;
A, C, F to Jay St./Borough Hall*

On June 21, 2007, at about 6 P.M. MIchael Tarif & Evelyn Warren, both
African-American attorneys (Tarif has been a leading civil rights lawyer for many years), were stopped in their car at a red light at the intersection of Atlantic & Vanderbilt Avenues in Brooklyn, only a few blocks from where they live and practice law. They observed many NYPD officers chasing a young man across the parking lot of a McDonald’s. The police caught the young man and proceeded to start beating him, in full view of hundreds of people, including children. Tarif stepped out of his car and yelled at the police to stop beating the young man. The same police, led by a sergeant, came over to the Warrens’ vehicle, reached in and started beating Tarif, then dragged him out of the car and arrested him. When Evelyn objected, she too was arrested-and hit in the face. The Warrens were taken to the 77th Pct. but their arrests had been witnessed by people who knew them. Within hours, hundreds of people had gathered at the
precinct demanding that the Warrens be released. They were, but then spent the next many, many months fighting the criminal charges, which were ultimately dismissed by the District Attorney’s Office.

The Warrens filed a federal 1983 (civil rights) action against the police who beat and arrested them, the NYPD and the City of New York. In that suit, they are represented by civil rights attorney Jonathan Moore.

That lawsuit is scheduled to start trial on May 14th in Brooklyn federal court at 9:30 A.M. The trial itself is scheduled to take 1+ weeks. Let’s start by filling the courtroom the first week, then see where we go from there.

For years, Evelyn and Michael Tarif Warren have defended the community whenever their services were needed. Tireless and fearless defenders of community people against police brutality, they now need our support in return.