IJSP Members Travel to Albany for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights!

Members of IJSP traveled up to Albany - the state capital of New York - on Tuesday to meet & lobby state legislators to support and pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

This was the 5th legislative session that Domestic Workers United (DWU) has lobbied state legislators for passage of the Bill of Rights. For the first time in decades, the state legislature is controlled by the Democratic Party. Though many Democratic legislators still stand in the way of justice, dignity and reparations for domestic workers, it is our hope that the change in political party control will provide more space and chance for passage of the Bill of Rights THIS YEAR.

It was a cold, but exciting day as 4 buses filled up at 6:30am at Union Square in Manhattan and made the trip up to Albany. We met with over 50 state legislators, held a press conference and had a march around the capital square.

YOU CAN STILL SUPPORT THE DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS!
There are still a number of ways that you can support the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights:

• You can join IJSP members for our monthly phone outreach to help build the membership base of DWU
• You can help IJSP plan and conduct neighborhood canvassing in support of the Bill of Rights
• You can join IJSP, DWU and others for the NEXT Albany Action Day! The exact date is not set yet, but will occur in late April
• Have an idea or skill you'd like to share? Let us know! ijsp@riseup.net

Another example of the importance of CopWatch!

Below is an article from the New York Times today that presents the importance of video taping police interactions in the community.

To get involved with a city wide effort in doing Cop Watch, you can get more info on Peoples' Justice website - www.peoplesjustice.org - and you contact us! ijsp@riseup.net

February 12, 2009

An Officer Is Accused of Beating a Suspect

By JOHN ELIGON

Last July, Police Officer David London arrested a man in the Upper West Side building where he lived with his mother, accusing him of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

But the building's surveillance video told a different story, District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_m_m

orgenthau/index.html?inline=nyt-per> said Wednesday.

It showed Officer London pulling the man out of an elevator, Mr.

Morgenthau said, and beating him 18 to 20 times with a baton. The beating continued even after the man, Walter Harvin, fell to the ground, Mr. Morgenthau said. And even after Mr. Harvin was in handcuffs, Officer London delivered another eight to 10 blows, some with his feet, Mr.

Morgenthau said.

Officer London, 43, has been indicted on charges of assault and filing false records and pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. He was released without bail. If convicted he faces up to seven years in prison.

Stephen C. Worth

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/stephen_c_

worth/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , his lawyer, said Officer London "maintains his innocence strenuously."

Mr. Worth said his client was a 16-year veteran of the force assigned to a housing unit and is married with three children. He also has an exemplary record as a police officer, Mr. Worth added.

Daniel J. Castleman, the chief assistant district attorney, said, "We will dispute that," but he declined to give details.

Mr. Worth said it was important to put the video of the beating in the context of what happened before and after it was captured.

"Oftentimes the videotape is the beginning of the story, not the end,"

Mr. Worth said.

Several officers have been indicted in recent months after videos contradicted their accounts of how they made arrests. In December an officer was indicted <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/nyregion/16critical.html> on assault and other charges after a video showed him shoving a bicyclist in Times Square. Last month two undercover narcotics officers were charged with lying about a drug sting <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/nyregion/16narcotics.html> after a nightclub video showed they had had no contact with four men they arrested. Prosecutors dropped charges against the bicyclist and the four men after the videos came to light.

In Officer London's case, prosecutors said they could not release the video, which came from surveillance cameras, to the public because it was part of the evidence. But they said it captured the episode in detail.

The confrontation took place on July 28, 2008, when Mr. Harvin, 29, an Iraq war veteran, was trying to get into his apartment building, a public housing project <http://gis.nyc.gov/nycha/im/AddressMap.do> , at 93rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, Mr. Morgenthau said. Officer London stopped him and asked for his identification. Mr. Harvin did not have any, nor did he have his key to the building, Mr. Morgenthau said, and he got into a shoving match with Officer London.

Mr. Harvin made it to the elevator, where the assault began, Mr.

Morgenthau said. Mr. Harvin was arrested on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, but prosecutors dropped the charges last September after the surveillance video contradicted Officer London's account.

Mr. Harvin suffered bruises and welts on his arms, back and head, Mr.

Morgenthau said. Afterward, Mr. Harvin became homeless and drifted about the country, and prosecutors could not find him, Mr. Morgenthau said.

But a lawyer representing Mr. Harvin informed the district attorney's office Wednesday that he was back in New York.

"He's a fragile person," said the lawyer, Adam Orlow, who added that Mr.

Harvin suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq.

"He became only worse after this incident."

He said he would file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan within the next two weeks.

Officer London was placed on modified duty shortly after the episode and was suspended without pay because of the indictment.

Help Canvass for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights!

JOIN members of IJSP and Domestic Workers United for mid-day canvassing for the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights!

Particularly with the balance of power shift in the New York state legislature,
THIS IS THE YEAR to make the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights pass!

Help make it happen!

Support DRUM YouthPower! Campaign & the Student Safety Acct

DRUM UPDATE:

DRUM YouthPower! youth leaders & Hillcrest students held an energetic rally on Monday at Hillcrest High School calling attention to escalting abuse by School Safety Officers.

DRUM youth leader Kumar Heeralall spoke about guards who attacked him in the "Strip Search Room" while he was handcuffed and had him arrested after. DRUM was joined by NYCLU and Rojan Morgan's family & lawyers who have filed suit & are working closely with DRUM to demand an investigation.

Help us demand an end to these practices on low-income youth of color.
Call your City Council member and express support for the Student Safety Act!

Call DRUM to help out with the ongoing YouthPower! campaign at 718-205-3036

Check our website for updates: www.drumnyc.org
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NY 1 News Clip:

http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?ArID=90276&ap=1&Flash

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Hillcrest High School 'safety agents' under attack from students, parents

BY JOY WILTERMUTH
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Tuesday, December 9th 2008, 6:58 PM

Farriella for News

Activists Saniya and Rishi (they did not want last names used) at Hillcrest HS rally Monday. Rohan Morgan (inset, l.) and Kumar Heeralall accuse school security of abuse.

Students, parents and civil rights activists are demanding a probe of what they call overly aggressive policing at a Queens school, saying safety agents have created a "climate of fear."

Agents at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica have allegedly beaten students, strip-searched them and routinely forced them to line up for at least an hour for security checks, protesters said Monday at the school.
"We came to Hillcrest because, in our view, there is an educational and civil rights emergency," said Donna Lieberman, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
She said Principal Stephen Duch is "complicit" in ongoing problems and has "turned a blind eye" to the aggressive behavior of security agents, who are NYPD employees.
Hillcrest student Rohan Morgan, 16, filed a lawsuit against the city in August after four security agents allegedly handcuffed him and then severely beat him in the dean's office.
"I was scared and didn't know what to think," Morgan said, recounting the incident at the rally.
School has been difficult since then, he said.
"I still have to look over my shoulder," Morgan said, adding that agents "still mess" with him.

City Education Department officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. But spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said such allegations are taken seriously.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the July incident was sparked over a cell phone, which is banned in school. When agents tried to pull Morgan aside after his phone set off the metal detector, Morgan resisted, Browne said.
"The student became irate, and pushed and struck the agent," Browne said. Morgan was taken to Long Island Jewish Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Trudy Morgan said her son came home with bruises all over his body and suffered a knee injury that required surgery.
"This is not the way they deserve to be treated," she said.
Hillcrest graduate Kumar Heeralall, 21, said he was the victim of a similar assault in 2007.
"They took me in a room, handcuffed me and beat me up," said Heeralall, who did not file a suit. "I thought I was the only one that it happened to."
Hillcrest student Ashley Avery, 16, said other schools don't have such stringent security.
"Not everyone is carrying a pocketknife," she said.
But George Geller, who heads the school's safety agents union, called the claims "outrageous."
"Inevitably, there are going to be allegations from time to time," Geller said. "What you heard here today were irresponsible calls to remove safety agents from schools."

With Jonathan Lemire

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/12/09/2008-12-09_hillcrest_high_school_safety_agents_unde.html