NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD New York City News NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD – NYC CHAPTER FALL 2012 SPECIAL OCCUPY WALL STREET EDITION Mass Defense Support for OWS Criminal Cases BY BEN MEYERS, MASS DEFENSE COORDINATOR “It’s going to be a long day for you guys – they’ve already started arresting people downtown,” the senior court officer told me on the By Griffin Lotz/RollingStone.com © 2012 morning of November 17. Two days after the raid on Zuccotti Park, this was a day of mass demonstrations confronting the injustices of global capital at its symbolic center in the Financial District. Twelve blocks from Wall Street at the Manhattan Criminal Court, it was also the arraignment day for 30 of more than 700 people arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge six weeks earlier. We were standing outside the Ben Meyers legal observing at Pussy Riot Solidarity Demo, August 17, 2012 fifth floor courtroom where a small team of volunteers were expedit- ing the defendants’ court appearances. And the officer was right, it was a long day in the middle of a very long week. On the morning of the park’s eviction, as hundreds of arrests were taking place all Resistance Builds to over downtown and Guild attorneys were arguing for an emergency injunction against the City, there had been almost 60 arraignments of Bridge arrestees, and an equivalent number were arraigned the next Stop and Frisk day as well. Through careful planning and the labors of a dedicated BY MEGHAN MAURUS cadre of people, though, we were able to keep track of who was being Since 1968 New York’s Mass Defense Committee has represented represented by which lawyers, whether they accepted the prosecution’s people arrested exercising their First Amendment rights. And, the offer, and if not, when they would next be due in court. All this infor- commitment has been in high gear over the past year as NLG attorneys mation was sent back to the Chapter office and logged into a database have supported and/or represented literally thousands of folks arrested created for this purpose. This was one of the ways in which the Mass at protests in New York City. While our work representing Occupy Defense Coordination Committee (MDCC) supported the attorneys Wall Street demonstrators has received the most attention, we have who were representing protesters arrested at Occupy Wall Street. also represented dozens of individuals involved in smaller, but no less continued on page 9 important activist movements. The movement to Stop Stop and Frisk has been among the most effective protest movements in the city. The INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Mass Defense Committee has provided substantial support to that Special OWS Report ...............................................................................3-11 movement over the last year. Feds Stage First Annual FBI Muslim Conference ...................................14 Over the years an amazing resistance movement against Mass Muslim Defense Project ...........................................................................15 Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex has been built in New York City, and throughout the country. One chapter of this fight Jazz Hayden’s Struggle .............................................................................16 occurred on October 21, 2011 when around two hundred people Guild in Action ..........................................................................................17 gathered at the State Office Building on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd Lynne Stewart Speaks from Behind the Prison Wall ..............................18 and 125th St. Those in attendance were from a large cross section of Member News ...........................................................................................19 New York. Some were connected to community groups, including A Portrait of Gus Reichbach .....................................................................21 Stop Stop and Frisk and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. Others Remembering Richard Bellman ................................................................22 were from the community policed by the 28th precinct who were just David G. Lubell and the Guild ..................................................................22 passing by and were drawn in by the signs and speakers. After a series Law Student News ....................................................................................23 of speakers and chants these folks marched down to the 28th precinct Anti-Racism Committee Update ...............................................................23 chanting “We won’t stop until we stop stop and frisk,” and other Spring Fling 2012 ......................................................................................24 chants. Folks joined the march as it progressed. When they arrived From the Archives .....................................................................................26 continued on page 12 NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD New York City News EDITORIAL BOARD Bruce K. Bentley Nora Carroll Michael Fahey NLG-NYC Aaron Frishberg Setareh Ghandehari Susan C. Howard Paul Mills Graphic Design: Judith Rew HOLIDAY PARTY CHAPTER OFFICERS President Wednesday, December 19, 2012 • 6:30-9:30pm Gideon Orion Oliver Vice Presidents Bruce K. Bentley Lamis Deek MUSIC • FOOD • DRINKS • CHEER Treasurer Sarah Kunstler New York County Surrogates Court EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Bina Ahmad 31 Chambers St., corner of Chambers and Center Susan Barrie Robert J. Boyle Courtroom of Hon. Kristin Booth Glen, Room 503 Nora Carroll Deborah Diamant Hillary Exter Please RSVP to [email protected] or 212-679-6018 Aaron Frishberg Vance Gathing Polly Halfkenny Susan C. Howard Amanda Jack Margaret Ratner Kunstler Joel R. Kupferman Yetta G. Kurland CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR Cristina Lee Carl Lipscombe Meghan Maurus 2012 LAW GRADUATES! Sally Mendola Ben Meyers Alexander Sascha Bollag, NYU Eugene Grinberg, NYLS Steven Miklosey, Seton Hall Daniel L. Meyers Ann M. Schneider Lee Brannon, Fordham Julia Hernandez, CUNY Katherine Moore, Columbia Geoff Schotter Valerie Brender, NYU Jessica Heyman, NYU David Morales, Columbia Heidi J. Siegfried Kevin Burke, BLS Amanda R. Izenson, NYLS Megan Neal, CUNY Martin R. Stolar Arthur Burkle, Fordham Frederic Beach Jennings V, John Nicodemo, Touro Eileen Weitzman Garrett Wright Jeannine Cahill, PACE Fordham Maggie Palmer, CUNY Chapter Coordinator Dana Capone, NYLS Shannon Karam, BLS Susanna Park, NYU Susan C. Howard Lucas Christiansen, BLS Corey Klein, Seton Hall Daniel Pearlstein, Cardozo Mass Defense Coordinator Ben Meyers Delco L. Cornett, NYLS Frances M. Kreimer, NYU Stephanie Pell, Cardozo COMMITTEE CONTACTS Amy Lien Cross, Cardozo Jesse Ladner, BLS Victoria R. Ply, Cardozo Anti-Racism Committee Briana Cummings, Columbia Robin Gordon Leavitt, CUNY Dave Pollock, Cardozo Garrett Wright Lauren K. Dasse, CUNY Cristina Lee, BLS Emily Powers, BLS Anti-Repression Committee Robert J. Boyle Adero Davis, U. of London Puichun Li, BLS Hannah Roth, BLS Environmental Justice Committee Blakeley Decktor, CUNY Courtney Libon, Fordham Ilana Rubin, Hofstra Joel Kupferman Feminist Caucus Benjamin N. Dictor, Cardozo Gabriela Lopez, CUNY Eben H. Saling, BLS [email protected] Kelly Fay-Rodriguez, CUNY Erika Lorshbough, BLS Caryn Schreiber, BLS Housing Committee Steven Dobkin Michael Figura, CUNY Diana Marin, Fordham Richard Semegram, CUNY Labor and Employment Committee Flavia Franco, Hofstra Awinna Martinez, Rutgers- Adam Shoop, CUNY Cristina Gallo Dustin Frankel, NYU Newark Phillip Starkweather, Cardozo Mass Defense Committee Bruce Bentley Eliza Gabai, Cardozo Elise McCaffrey, CUNY Celeste Tesoriero, St. John’s Military Law Committee Margaret Garrett, BLS Devin McDougall, Columbia David Urena, Fordham Aaron Frishberg Muslim Defense Committee Rachel Goldberg, NYU Michele McGuinness, CUNY Rebecca Wallach, CUNY Beena Ahmad & Bina Ahmad Allana Golovko-Rosen, BLS Zoe Meier, Indiana U. Kimberly Walters, Columbia Next Generation Committee [email protected] Matthew Gore, McGill Moira Meltzer-Cohen, CUNY Dana B. Wolfe, BLS 2 • NatioNal lawyers Guild-NyC News • www.NlGNyC.orG FALL 2012 Jail Support for OWS Arestees BY ROSE REGINA LAWRENCE step up to do jail support, and no meetings to shift. The core jail support team went on “Jail support” is an umbrella term refer- other than for specific, immediate planning. strike, telling activists that they needed to ring to various services activists provide for The goal was to make it as easy as possible to learn and use the skills and legal knowledge each other when arrested. Most of the time do jail support for the first time and to lower we had been teaching. As we prepare for the it means having people waiting with food, the threshold for participation. The remote one-year anniversary of the start of OWS, the cigarettes, a friendly face, and basic medical coordination phone line also served as a way jail support line is back up and running and assistance. It is a way that we take care of each that we could walk new people through the jail we are again rethinking how to build a system other so we can come back again to make our support processes and respond easily wherever that meets the needs of the movement. voices heard. and whenever the calls started coming in. As with any major projects, there were ups, I started attending protests in New York Our model diverged radically from how downs, and notable events somewhere in the City a decade ago, like many others, to oppose street medics tend to run jail support. When middle. Sometimes, we did really well and