In the New York State prison system, it’s possible to be thrown into solitary confinement for a nonviolent offense, then kept there for two years straight, 23 hours a day with no days off. That’s exactly what happened to Leroy Peoples, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit settled this week that will drastically reduce the use of the punishment.
The idea that New York City is in the throes of a historically or even notably dangerous and criminal era is a myth fabricated largely by the knuckleheads at the New York Post. More evidence to the contrary: In the years since stop-and-frisk began its great decline, murders and shootings in the city have gone down too, not up, according to new NYCLU analysis.
The New York Post reports that the NYCLU has requested to file an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by the website ProPublica against the NYPD three years ago seeking information about the police department’s unmarked vehicles carrying mobile body scanner technology, called Z Backscatter Vans.
Supporters of the NYPD's "stop and frisk" minority harassment program often argue that, hey, it's worth stopping and searching thousands of people with virtually no probable cause, because it makes this city a safer place. According to a new NYCLU analysis, though, it mostly just sends people to jail for weed.
The New York offices of both the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union are located in the financial district. Their building on Broad Street was decimated by Sandy's storm surge and their offices likely won't be open for the foreseeable future. They could use your help.
Adrian is a prisoner in an isolation cell in a New York State prison, due to be released in September of 2015. He spends 23 hours per day locked in his cell. The picture above, clipped from a newspaper and festooned with motivational reminders, hangs on his cell wall "to remind him of his dream to work in an office one day."
The NYPD's "stop and frisk" program has garnered criticism in the past, in part because it is essentially one big "Racism License: Hunt Anyone That Your Personal Prejudices Cause You to Deem as 'Suspicious' At Will" license for NYPD officers, who are not, as a group, known for their unerring sense of racial fairness. In other news, the numbers show the stop and frisk program is being used racist-ly.
A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union says that police in New York are "consistently misusing and overusing Tasers." The study of hundreds of taserings found that the majority of them "did not meet expert-recommended criteria;" that 15% were "clearly inappropriate" cases, such as shocking someone who was already handcuffed; and that only 15% of Tasering victims were armed when the police zapped them.
Back in July, the NYPD revealed that it planned to set up cameras across the city and track every single car that came into town. Based on London's "Ring of Steel" program, the NYPD plan calls for the installation of some 3,000 security cameras, mostly in lower Manhattan. As you might expect, the New York Civil Liberties Union isn't so jazzed about a plan that would allow the city to keep track of you every waking minute of the day. Yesterday the group filed suit against Ray Kelly and the NYPD over the department's refusal to share information about how it actually plans to carry out the program. The full suit after the jump.
