MEDIA ADVISORY: Broader Community Plans Wednesday Press Conference In Response To New Documentation That Reveals Government Surveillance Program Expanded Far Past Muslim Communities

Press Contacts: DRUM, Executive Director, Monami Maulik. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Direct phone: 347.385.9113

 Who:     Community activists, organizations, religious leaders, elected officials,

               Muslim community organizations, and legal and community advocates.

 What:    Press Conference in front of One Police Plaza

When:   Wednesday, March 28^th at 11:30pm EST

Why:  The most recent set of documents revealed by the Associated Press on Friday, March 23rd uncovers that the scope of the NYPD’s Intelligence Divisions surveillance program far exceeded what was previously known in regards to the local New York Muslim community. The now well-documented program also ensnared dozens of other local community organizations that have simply questioned or publicly opposed government policies over the past decade, including several groups specifically working on NYPD accountability. It was also revealed that the program’s geographic scope went far past Muslim student organizations across the Eastern seaboard, going as far away as public events and demonstrations down in New Orleans.

These new revelations continue to heighten and significantly broaden the very serious questions that have yet to be answered by the NYPD and elected officials surrounding this program. For weeks the local Muslim community has stood together with other leaders from around this city and decried that blanket surveillance of a community based on religion and race goes in the face of constitutional rights and to the core of what American values in this great city stand for. This cry has grown louder with these new revelations and confirms that the program was not developed as a response to security threats, but as a way of keeping track of those who have actively opposed government policies.

Representatives from surveilled organizations will be holding a press conference this Wednesday at 1p.m. EST to join the ever-growing call for greater NYPD oversight, transparency and accountability.

Organizing Groups: DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, War Resisters League, The International Action Center, Al Awda NY, The Ruckus Society, The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Justice Committee, Peoples’ Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability, CAAAV, The New York May 1st Coalition, Domestic Workers United, and Critical Resistance.   

Endorsers: National Lawyers Guild NYC Muslim Defense Committee, Majlis ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of Metropolitan New York, CUNY CLEAR, VAMOS Unidos, Center for Constitutional Rights, SAALT, Arab American Action Network, Pakistan Solidarity Network, South Asian Solidarity Initiative, Southwest Workers Union, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Dignity Campaign for Real Immigration Reform, Muslim Legal Fund of America, Masjid as-Salam, Defending Dissent Foundation, Turning Point for Women and Families, International Socialist Organization, Judson Memorial Church, Occupy Faith NYC, Trinity Lutheran Church, Project Salam, Jews Against Islamophobia, BAYAN USA, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, New York City Labor Against War, Labor for Palestine, Socialist Action, Solidarity, Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery (Episcopal), Jordan Flaherty, Professor Chip Pitts (Standford Law School & Oxford University), Shamshad Ahmad, Professor Vijay Prashad (Trinity College), Aysha Ghani, Audre Lorde Project, Streetwise and Safe, Picture the Homeless, Communities united for Police Reform, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment, FIERCE  (list in formation)

Article's author is a member of PJ's close ally org, Streetwise and Safe: http://www.streetwiseandsafe.org/  

NYC Needs CPR

BY CHRIS BILAL 

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2012/03/15/gay_city_news/perspectives/

Though Commissioner Ray Kelly promised to investigate the murder of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in the Bronx, community members who have spent their entirelives surviving in neighborhoods under the intimidating eye of police patrolsand perennial surveillance towers already know the cause of death –– the NYPD’s discriminatory, unlawful, and abusive policing practices. Yet Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have yet to acknowledge the ways in which “broken windows” policing and the department’s stop and frisk practices make hundredsof thousands of New Yorkers like Ramarley Graham less, not more, safe.

Manyare understandably shocked and rightfully appalled at the most recent evidenceof the department's discriminatory deployment of stop and frisk tactics toward people and communities of color –– 684,000 stops in 2011, a 14 percent increase over an already record-setting number of stops in 2010, and a 602 percent increase since Bloomberg took office. 

Know Your Rights! Advocates Take on Stop-and-Frisk In Bronx Mural

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/know_your_right.php

By Sam Levin Fri., Mar. 9 2012 at 2:28 PM

Activists speaking out against the New York Police Department's controversial stop-and-frisk policy are unveiling a new weapon: art!

Last month, we reported on the formation of a coalition called Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR, which has brought together dozens of groups under a unified campaign to push for increased police accountability (and to make stop-and-frisk and police reform important topics in the upcoming mayoral election).

The group has a broad agenda that includes hosting training sessions for New Yorkers and pushing legislation designed to improve police-community relations and increase the accountability around stop-and-frisk incidents.

Runnin' Scared chatted with one of the coalition's organizers this morning about the group's latest effort -- a colorful mural in the Bronx aimed at teaching passersby their rights.