CCR Files for Class Certification in Stop-and-Frisk Lawsuit

News from the Constitutional Center for Human Rights.

Photo courtesy; Ken Stein

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Covington & Burlington, LLP, and Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, LLP filed a motion for class certification in Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., a federal lawsuit filed against the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the City of New York that challenges the NYPD's practice of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop-and-frisks.

The motion for class certification, if granted, would allow the hundreds of thousands of persons unlawfully stopped and frisked since 2005 to become plaintiffs in the lawsuit and to benefit from any remedies which the Court orders in this case. The motion comes at a critical time, as New Yorkers have felt a dramatic increase in the number of suspicion-less stop-and-frisks per year in the city. In 2010 alone, there were 601,285 stops of New Yorkers by the NYPD, and the department is on pace for over 700,000 this year, with the vast majority of stops occurring in communities of color.

The filing comes on the heels of increasing scrutiny in recent weeks over the program and the NYPD’s practices overall. CCR testified earlier this fall before the Public Safety Committee of the New York City Council, highlighting concerns about stop-and-frisk and other related issues earlier this fall, and continues to call for accountability, transparency and oversight of the police department.

New Documents Show FBI Rapidly Expanding Massive Biometric Database and Surveillance System

Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), and the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic released internal government documents obtained through the NDLON v. ICE federal lawsuit. The documents relate to the controversial Secure Communities program and confirm that the FBI has continued to rapidly expand its Next Generation Identification (NGI) program.

This worrisome expansion continues without adequate oversight and irrespective of demands by state and local governments that Secure Communities should not be mandatory. The Secure Communities program has been advanced despite significant public outcry over its devastating effects on communities, costs to local police, and reports that crime victims fear coming forward due to the program.

Click here for an annotated index to the documents, and for a blog by CCR staff members about the developments.

The documents were recently obtained through Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by CCR, NDLON and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law seeking information pertaining to the Secure Communities program.

Honduras: CCR Attorneys Urge Court to Hear Lawsuit Against Honduras Coup Leader

On November 2, in our case against coup regime leader Roberto Micheletti Baín, CCR filed a motion detailing the atmosphere of total impunity in Honduras for human rights violations committed since the 2009 coup d’etat and the systemic attacks on the resistance movement and human rights defenders.

CASE FACTSHEET | NEW DOCUMENTS FILED

Freedom Waves, the latest flotilla organized to break Israel’s siege of Gaza, left unannounced from Turkey en route to Gaza on November 2. The illegal blockade constitutes collective punishment prohibited by the Geneva Conventions; it has caused excessive and disproportionate harm to the civilian population as it has led to a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, widespread failure of public infrastructure, and chronic unemployment due to the blockade’s systemic undermining of Gaza’s economy. Israeli forces violently intercepted the flotilla on November 5 in international waters and nearly sunk one of the boats with water cannons while the passengers were on board. Passengers—who included two U.S. citizens—were threatened with machine guns, assaulted, forcibly removed, had their property taken, and were detained by Israel.

Despite the fact that U.S. citizens were involved the U.S. government has made no public comments about the flotilla seizure and the detention of U.S. citizens. Indeed, even when Israeli forces executed U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan aboard the Mavi Marmara during the May 2010 flotilla the State Department said nothing—there has been no demand for an investigation or for accountability. A UN report about the incident confirmed that Furkan Doğan received “five gunshot wounds in the back of his head, nose, left leg, left ankle and in the back, all from close range” and that his “motionless, wounded body was kicked and shot upon, execution-style by two Israeli soldiers.” The State Department failed to even mention the execution in their 2010 human rights report on Israel.

Stand up for human rights. Call the State Department and demand justice for Gaza and the flotilla passengers.

TOMORROW: Attend NY Senate Public Hearing to Support Anti-Torture Legislation

NY Senator Thomas K. Duane, co-sponsor of the Gottfried/Duane NY Anti-Torture Legislation explicitly prohibiting New York State-licensed medical professionals from participating in torture, is holding a Senate Public Forum to discuss the bill. Come hear the testimonies in support of this anti-torture legislation, and show your own support. Learn more about the NY Anti-Torture legislation and what you can do to support it at the CCR website, When Healers Harm.

WHAT: NY Senate Public Forum on Medical Professionals’ Participation in Torture

WHEN: November 15, 2011, 11:00 AM

WHERE: Senate Hearing Room, 19th Floor
250 Broadway, New York, NY

Sincerely,
Annette Warren Dickerson
Director of Education and Outreach

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