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national lawyers guild
National Lawyers Guild Vows to Fight GOP Criminalization of 'Left-Leaning Organizations'
"The NLG will continue to speak out in support of activists and movements most targeted by state repression."
Oct 24, 2025
The National Lawyers Guild expressed pride in its long history of "defending those who challenge fascism" on Thursday as it responded to a demand by a Republican congressman who called on US Department of Justice to investigate the nearly 90-year-old legal advocacy group's alleged ties to "antifa"—which the federal government has acknowledged is not an organization—and accused it of "perpetrating violence."
The NLG said that Rep. Lance Gooden's (R-Texas) letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi was a "clear act of 'jawboning,'" in which "a member of Congress uses their position to chill the First Amendment rights of others and has no legitimate legislative purpose."
Gooden wrote to Bondi, copying FBI Director Kash Patel and Internal Revenue Service CEO Frank Bisignano, last week, saying the NLG and its network of nonprofit social welfare groups "maintain close ties with left-wing extremists and domestic terrorist organizations like Antifa."
The congressman suggested that the group's original goal of "fighting fascist oppression" when it was founded in 1937 was a worthy one—yet took issue with the NLG for "openly aligning itself" with antifa, which former FBI Director Christopher Wray said during the first Trump administration is an "ideology" rather than a "group or an organization."
"Antifa" is a portmanteau of "anti-fascist," and has no organizational structure or leaders. Anti-fascist ideologies are embraced by autonomous groups and individuals, including many who have protested against President Donald Trump's anti-immigration, anti-First Amendment agenda.
"Anti-fascists are those that refuse to stay silent as [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents disappear people off the streets," said the NLG in a recent post on Bluesky. "Anti-fascists are the Stop Cop City protesters, defending their communities from the expansion of police training grounds."
"We all know that this is not the first time the NLG has faced political attacks from the US government."
Gooden noted that Trump recently signed an executive order designating antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization"—a legal designation that doesn't exist in the US—and called on the DOJ to take "stringent action in accordance with President Trump’s terrorist designation," including potential "disbarment of the NLG’s member attorneys, revocation of 501 status and benefits, and bringing criminal charges as the administration deems necessary and appropriate."
The NLG pointed out that it is not the first progressive rights organization to be targeted by the Republican Party.
"Over the past couple of years, several left-leaning organizations have been targeted in similar letters, particularly groups that have been standing up against the genocide in Palestine. Essentially, a member of the US Congress or Senate will issue an incendiary letter against an organization and call for specific government agencies to investigate and, in some cases, issue criminal charges," said the group. "The NLG is taking this development seriously."
The threat against NLG comes as the Trump administration has levied multiple threats against left-wing organizers—both with his executive order and National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which mandates a government strategy "to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”
The guild's local chapters in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, and Washington, DC have supported local movements as legal advocates since Trump began attempting to deploy federal immigration agents and the National Guard to the cities with the aim of carrying out his deportation campaign and stopping protests against his anti-immigration agenda.
Last week, the group expressed solidarity with the Prairieland Defendants, who held a noise demonstration outside Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. The Trump administration has indicted the protesters, marking the first use of the president's terrorist designation of "antifa" to bring criminal charges against a group.
"We all know that this is not the first time the NLG has faced political attacks from the US government. Since our founding in 1937, NLG members have been at the frontlines of defending those who challenge fascism and have been the target of state repression. This is a history we are proud of," said the group.
The group's statement came new polling from Reuters/Ipsos showed that 55% of US adults believe the president is wrongly using federal law enforcement to "go after his enemies," including officials like New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey as well as groups he disagrees with.
It also comes amid reporting that the FBI has begun questioning individual protesters about their involvement in anti-ICE demonstrations, according to journalist Ken Klippenstein.
"Under the domestic counterterrorism cases of the Trump administration, no crime needs to be actually committed for authorities to open an investigation," wrote Klippenstein. "In fact, NSPM-7 explicitly calls for a preemptive approach where law enforcement intervene in things 'before they result in violent political acts.' Attorney General Pam Bondi cited NSPM-7 in her own directive, ordering the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on anti-ICE 'terrorism,' citing protests in front of ICE facilities specifically."
The NLG has provided legal advocacy at protests at ICE facilities in Chicago and Portland, documenting the actions of police and federal agents.
"The NLG will continue to speak out," said the group, "in support of activists and movements most targeted by state repression."
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CBS Chicago Reporter Says ICE Shot Chemical Agents at Her ‘Absolutely Unprovoked’
The attack came after a day of protest in which the National Lawyers Guild Chicago says officers were "launching chemical agents and firing munitions at members of the press and people assembled to protest."
Sep 29, 2025
Local police have launched a criminal investigation after a CBS News Chicago reporter said she was attacked "absolutely unprovoked" by immigration agents outside a detention facility in Broadview.
Television reporter Asal Rezaei was at the Broadview center Sunday morning, where she'd been going for weeks since protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "Operation Midway Blitz" began in Chicago earlier this month.
When Rezaei realized there were no protesters at the scene, she began to drive away with the driver's side window down. That's when a masked agent fired a pepper ball at her car from behind the fence, "causing the chemical agents to engulf the inside of her truck," according to CBS News.
"An ICE agent took a direct shot at my car today. Absolutely unprovoked," Rezaei wrote on social media. "My window was open, and chemicals went all over my face. Been puking for two hours."
Rezaei explained that there was "not one protester in sight" and that she was "simply driving by to check the scene out like I have been for weeks, about 50 feet from the entrance."
She posted photos of her car's windshield, which was left covered in specks of white powder.
In a police report filed Sunday, Rezaei said: "At this moment, it's not really clear why that officer took a shot at me. My car has been here several times, although I did not identify myself verbally as a member of the press. There were no protests going on. There was actually nobody there except one other person that was a member of a fire department that was there checking in on the buildings around this area."
The Broadview Police Department has announced that it is opening an investigation into the attack. Police Chief Thomas Mills said in a statement that chemical agents were “fired from the direction of the [ICE] detention facility" toward Rezaei's vehicle. Mills said that the police department "expects the full cooperation by the US Department of Homeland Security into our criminal investigation."
A spokesperson for DHS has denied that Rezaei was attacked, saying: "Absolutely not. No member of the media at CBS or any other outlet was ‘attacked.’ For their safety, we remind members of the media and journalists to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots."
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson warned on Friday that ICE officials have been “making war” in her community by “deploying chemical arms, such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders."
Mills himself said he had been verbally attacked by ICE agents during a protest. He said that later, while attempting to gather information about an apparent hit-and-run by an ICE agent on a pedestrian, officers were hit with pepper spray, which altered their vision so badly that they were required to leave the scene.
Video: CBS News
The agency's tactics only grew more brutal over the weekend, which local police say was a direct act of retaliation from the Department of Homeland Security. On Saturday morning, Broadview police said they received a message from ICE agents that it would be "a shit show in Broadview today."
Agents fired tear gas and other chemical irritants at a crowd of about 75 protesters gathered outside the facility on Saturday night. According to the Chicago Tribune, federal officials took 11 people into custody, four of whom now face federal charges.
One of the people arrested and later released was another journalist, Steve Held, the co-founder of the investigative outlet Unraveled Press. Held was released from custody just hours before ICE reportedly fired at Rezaei. Another reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times was also struck by rubber bullets and tear-gassed.
"The pattern of law enforcement violence and targeted attacks persisted yesterday, with agents launching chemical agents and firing munitions at members of the press and people assembled to protest," said the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of Chicago. "Agents used multiple chemical agents, launched kinetic grenades, and shot rubber bullets, mace, and pepper balls against those assembled. One legal observer was shot directly in the face with a projectile. Agents also menaced people by pointing firearms at them, including handguns and a rifle."
The NLG said federal agents' actions on Saturday "were notably distinct from prior days in that officers went after people who were simply gathered to support the active protesters."
Officers "forcibly removed people sheltering from tear gas in vehicles," "fired weapons at specific protesters in direct response to their First Amendment-protected statements and snatched protesters signs," the group said. They also "confiscated tents used for shade, as well as food, water and first aid supplies, and people's bike helmets and other personal property, putting them in a dumpster in the restricted area."
As people tried to leave the protest, NLG says "agents blocked them and demanded to illegally search people's bodies and vehicles."
“Last night, our Legal Observers witnessed militarized federal agents deploy chemical weapons and fire projectiles at a crowd of people exercising their First Amendment rights," said Amanda Yarusso, a volunteer attorney with NLG Chicago. "The violence was an indiscriminate, unprovoked, and illegal use of force. These unlawful actions by federal agents demonstrate this administration’s complete disregard of constitutional standards.
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'What It Looks Like When ICE Violates' First Amendment: Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Thrown to Ground
"What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities," said the Illinois congressional candidate.
Sep 19, 2025
Protests at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago continued on Friday, with ICE and Border Patrol agents tear-gassing, pepper-spraying, and detaining demonstrators—and even throwing congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground.
"This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights," Abughazaleh wrote on social media alongside two videos of the incident at the facility in Broadview, Illinois—which is key to ICE's deadly "Operation Midway Blitz," launched earlier this month as part of US President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
"What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it's still nothing compared to what they're doing to immigrant communities. I've been fighting the right as a journalist and now I'm running for Congress to do the same in DC," said Abughazaleh, a former producer at Media Matters for America and one of several Democrats in the 2026 race to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District.
"They weren’t showing their faces and almost none had visible badge numbers. There will likely never be any real accountability for the agent who grabbed me and threw me to the ground but we can have accountability for Trump and Tom Homan," she added, referring to the president's border czar. "And that’s why I’m running for office."
In a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the 26-year-old said ICE agents threw her to the ground twice:
“I wasn’t surprised, and that’s part of why we’re here,” Abughazaleh said. “Everyone here is at least a little bit scared, but mostly I’m angry and we need to get the facility shut down.”
ICE agents used tear gas and shot pepper balls, she said—some of which hit her legs—around 6:00 am, while shouting “your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”
She anticipates a “nasty” bruise on her right side.
“It’s more important than ever to stand with our neighbors, if not just for their basic human dignity,” Abughazaleh said. “I’m not here as a candidate, I’m here as an individual.”
The newspaper noted that "ICE did not respond immediately to specific questions about Abughazaleh, the use of nonlethal chemical agents, and the status of the protesters allegedly arrested during the clash."
The US Department of Homeland Security later shared Fox 32's video of an agent shoving Abughazaleh to the ground on social media and said: "Individuals and groups impeding ICE operations are siding with vicious cartels, human traffickers, and violent criminals. You will not stop ICE and DHS law enforcement from enforcing our immigration laws."
The National Lawyers Guild of Chicago, which had legal observers at the protest, said that it "was aware of three arrests as of 1:00 pm, but the situation was changing rapidly. Local police were observed nearby and failed to protect civilians from the federal agents’ attacks, but did not appear to participate in the violent acts or any arrests directly."
The federal agents used tear gas and pepper balls, and "repeatedly and aggressively grabbed and dragged seated protesters, throwing several of them into the street," the guild said. The legal observers also saw "an agent unholstering his handgun, and a van driven by agents almost running over a protester who had fallen in its path."
Abughazaleh used her experience to create a contrast between herself and some other candidates also hoping to replace Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old who announced in May that she would not seek reelection.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another candidate in Democrats' crowded primary race for the 9th District, also joined the protest in Broadview on Friday. He told Block Club Chicago that “I’ve seen shocking violence.”
“I mean, throwing people to the ground, pepper balls, tear gas... It seems gratuitous, right? They’re trying to intimidate. They’ve got guys up there on the roof with cameras," he added. “They’re trying to remind people that this is an administration that names and then targets its political enemies for physical and economic violence.”
Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez (D-40) and Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton—a Democrat running to replace retiring US Sen. Dick Durbin—were also at the ICE facility on Friday.
Asked about agents' violence toward protesters, Stratton told reporters that "people are here to peacefully protest. Look what we've been seeing over the last several weeks right here in Chicago: people being snatched off the streets, stuffed into unmarked vans, and with no due process."
"We are seeing the Constitution being stomped upon, and just this week, again, attacks on First Amendment rights—and all of us need to be speaking with moral clarity and saying this is not right," she added. "So I'm here to stand with Illinoisans who are protesting peacefully and make sure that I let them know that I stand with them."
Organizers intend to continue demonstrating as long as the ICE operation continues in Chicago and its suburbs. In a statement ahead of Friday's action, protester Britt Hodgdon stressed that “ICE doesn’t make me or my community safer.”
“If exercising my right to free speech gets me tear-gassed, then I’m not safe," Hodgdon continued. "If my neighbors go missing into a deportation system where their families can’t find out where they’ve been taken, then my neighborhood is not safe. If there are ICE agents all over my city and they’re willing to shoot and kill someone who tries to get away from them—as they did in murdering Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez—then none of us are safe.”
In a statement Friday afternoon Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates similarly said that "under Donald Trump, federal agents make us less safe no matter what letters they have on their uniform."
"If the federal government wanted to help our city, it would restore Medicaid, rebuild the Department of Education, and stop threatening our schools, not send its agents to arrest workers, separate families, and harass area residents," she added. "How do you teach a civics class on the US Constitution when students are watching the president tear it apart in real time?"
This article has been updated with comment from the Chicago Teachers Union, the city's arm of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US Department of Homeland Security.
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Taxpayers Submit UN Report Charging US Officials With Genocide in Gaza
"The United States government has continued to make possible, with massive arms shipments, Israel's genocide in Gaza," said one advocate. "The U.S. courts have failed to intervene. World bodies absolutely should."
Apr 07, 2025
In a 57-page report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, grassroots groups representing thousands of U.S. taxpayers compiled what they said was "incontrovertible" evidence that U.S. policymakers are "directly participating in genocide in Gaza" and called on international authorities to intervene.
Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), a grassroots movement comprising 2,000 taxpayers and endorsed by several national progressive advocacy groups, submitted the report four months after the organization filed a federal class action lawsuit against members of Congress for "illegally using" tax dollars to fund Israel's assault on Gaza, which began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
That case, targeting Democratic U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, both of California, was dismissed in February, with U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria saying it posed a "political question" to the court—a ruling that TAG said "gave a green light to the ongoing unconstitutional allocation of tax dollars to fund genocide."
Tarik Kanaana, a Palestinian activist in California who was the lead contact for the report, suggested that with rulings like Chhabria's, "all three branches" of the U.S. government have ensured the country is "a full partner and bares responsibility for this genocide."
"The American people have no recourse within the U.S. political or judicial systems when it comes to their government's crimes against the people of the world," said Kanaana. "We, Americans who cannot accept our government's actions, are forced to appeal to international bodies to influence our own government to do what its citizens overwhelmingly want."
In TAG's report—endorsed by peace groups including CodePink, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), and RootsAction—the organization points to "violations of U.S. obligations by the U.S. Congress and executive in committing residents' tax dollars—including those of Palestinian-Americans whose families have been decimated in Gaza" to support "an unfolding genocide in Gaza."
"We, Americans who cannot accept our government's actions, are forced to appeal to international bodies to influence our own government to do what its citizens overwhelmingly want."
International groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Médecins Sans Frontières have recognized Israel's bombardment and near-total humanitarian aid blockade—which have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians—as a genocide, while the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza last year and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The report filed by TAG details how the group believes members of Congress, President Donald Trump—who welcomed Netanyahu to the White House on Monday—former President Joe Biden, and other U.S. officials have broken federal laws and statutes forbidding the government from providing military support to countries that violate human rights, and international laws prohibiting genocide and apartheid.
In April 2024, 366 members of the U.S. House and 79 senators voted to send an additional $26.38 billion in aid to Israel, primarily for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), on top of billions of dollars in military support the U.S. had already provided since October 2023.
In addition to ignoring rising public opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed assault on a civilian population, said TAG, citing analyses by Amnesty International and HRW, "the April congressional votes were taken in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Israeli military was carrying out genocide in Gaza with U.S.-provided weapons and munitions."
The group also cited its lawsuit and another dismissed lawsuit filed last year by Defense for Children International-Palestine against Biden and members of his administration as evidence that U.S. taxpayers have been left with little recourse to stop their elected representatives from supporting genocide.
" International law and minimal human decency prohibit genocide," said Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction. "But the United States government has continued to make possible, with massive arms shipments, Israel's genocide in Gaza. The U.S. courts have failed to intervene. World bodies absolutely should."
Additionally, TAG pointed to the grip that the pro-Israel lobby, empowered by the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that permitted unlimited corporate spending on U.S. elections, has on the political system—with politicians who speak out against Israel's violent policies in Palestine regularly targeted by anti-Palestinian groups. Powerful politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Biden have also smeared demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to U.S. funding of the IDF as "antisemitic," while the Trump administration is overseeing the repression of anti-Israel speech and threatening colleges' funding if they don't join in cracking down on Palestinian rights advocacy.
"With insurmountable obstacles to accountability in the U.S. electoral and judicial systems and an increasing disregard of international human rights and humanitarian law by the U.S. government, intervention and oversight by the U.N. Human Rights Council is urgently needed to challenge U.S. repression and the impunity of U.S. legislators and officials for aiding and abetting genocide with U.S. tax dollars," reads the report.
Margaret DeMatteo, an attorney and one of the TAG report's lead authors, said the group's decision "to charge our own government with complicity in genocide is not just an act of accountability, it is an act of mourning."
"I carry the weight of documenting what should never be ignored: the U.S. government's complicity in genocide," said DeMatteo. "While we seek justice through words and international mechanisms, the people of Gaza endure unimaginable suffering—suffering that demands urgent action, not silence."
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Progressive Delegation Back From Palestine Boosts Case for Embargo on Israel
"The evidence is clear: The genocide in Gaza and the systematic nature of the abuse of Palestinian detainees recall the worst historical abuses committed by colonial powers against Indigenous populations."
Nov 07, 2024
Progressive International's Palestine Delegation—whose members were attacked earlier this week by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank—on Thursday issued "an urgent call to governments across the globe" to impose "a total energy, economic, and arms embargo against Israel" to punish its ongoing 13-month U.S.-backed assault on Gaza.
The Palestine Delegation—which was co-convened by Progressive International (PI), the National Lawyers Guild of the United States, and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers—released a report containing findings of members Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona and lead delegate; Marc Botenga, a Belgian member of European Parliament (MEP) from the Marxist-socialist Workers' Party; and Jaume Asens, a leftist MEP from Spain.
"The Israeli regime must urgently be subject to total isolation on all fronts."
"The evidence is clear: The genocide in Gaza and the systematic nature of the abuse of Palestinian detainees recall the worst historical abuses committed by colonial powers against Indigenous populations... seeking their liberation, from the concentration camps used by Britain against the national liberation movement in Kenya to the internment of millions of Algerians by France," the report states.
Israel's 398-day assault on Gaza has killed or injured at least 155,000 Palestinians, including those who are missing and feared dead, while forcing nearly the entire population of the coastal enclave from their homes and causing widespread starvation and sickness. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is weighing evidence of genocide presented by South Africa in a case backed by more than 30 nations and regional blocs and thousands of experts, advocates, and rights groups around the world.
"Any government providing arms, energy, economic, or diplomatic support to Israel is complicit in these crimes against humanity—and threatens the basic integrity of the international order," PI asserted. "The Israeli regime must urgently be subject to total isolation on all fronts—economic, military, cultural, political, and diplomatic—to lay the groundwork for the end of the genocide and the dismantling of the colonial occupation in Palestine."
The U.S. boosts Israel with tens of billions of dollars worth of armed aid and unwavering diplomatic support. Other nations including Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India also provide Israel with substantial backing.
The PI delegation said it "arrived in Palestine amid sustained efforts by Israeli authorities to prevent access to the occupied territories and obscure the conditions of deprivation, detention, apartheid, and annexation endured by the Palestinian people."
Delegation members got a small taste of what Palestinians living in the occupied territories endure when they were reportedly attacked with tear gas and stun grenades by armed Israeli settlers and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops Monday while accompanying West Bank farmers in Qusra as they attempted to harvest from the olive trees that are the lifeblood of Palestine's rural economy and a frequent target of land-grabbing settlers trying to drive Arabs away.
Last month, IDF soldiers fatally shot Hanan Abu Salameh, a 59-year-old Palestinian woman who was working with relatives in her family's olive grove in the village of Faqqua, located east of Jenin in the northern West Bank.
"We are dealing with something as simple as harvesting olives," said Colau. "And even this has now been turned into an act of war by the illegal settlers and the army."
Earlier this week, around 50 countries joined in a call for an arms embargo on Israel. All but one of the nations—Norway—are in the Global South. They include: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, South Africa, Sudan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
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Legal Coalition Says Chicago Police Must Protect Protest Rights at Democratic Convention
"People have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights to speech and assembly, including rallying, marching, and demonstrating," the letter says, calling on police "to respect and honor those cherished, sacrosanct rights."
Aug 16, 2024
Chicago's history of "unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence" toward anti-war protesters over recent decades—including during the Democratic National Convention of 1968—is on the minds of peace advocates and legal experts planning demonstrations for this year's DNC, kicking off next week, against U.S. support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
"We are a collective of progressive local and national legal organizations, attorneys, and legal workers writing to express our grave concerns about recent actions of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and city of Chicago to stop protestors from demonstrating at the upcoming Democratic Convention," one coalition wrote in a letter made public Friday.
"We do not want a repeat of the violence and violations committed by the CPD during the Democratic National Convention of 1968, the anti-Iraq war protest on March 20, 2003, the 2012 NATO summit, and throughout the 2020 summer of demonstrations in support [of] Black lives," the coalition wrote to Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The coalition—made up of more than a dozen groups and over 50 individuals—noted that "CPD's protest-related civil rights violations are not just historical fact; they are the present reality. During the last eight months, CPD officers have targeted people protesting for a cease-fire and justice in Palestine with violence, verbal harassment, and unnecessary arrests."
"People have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights to speech and assembly, including rallying, marching, and demonstrating," the letter stresses. "We are calling on you to respect and honor those cherished, sacrosanct rights."
The letter specifically expresses concern about "recent intimidating comments made by Superintendent Snelling about arresting peaceful protestors"; "revisions the CPD made to its mass arrest policy were publicly released on August 8"; "Corporation Counsel's efforts to punish pro-Palestinian demonstrators in pursuing convictions for misdemeanors for mere ordinance violations for obstructing traffic"; and "CPD's communication of contradictory information regarding where people will be jailed and how family members and loved ones will be able to locate them."
WBEZ reported Friday that "protest marches are planned for the first, third, and final days of the DNC, which runs from August 19 through August 22. They're focused on a myriad of issues—housing, education, policing, but the cause expected to draw most protesters is the ongoing conflict in Gaza."
As WBEZ detailed:
As the start of the convention draws near, organizers are still advocating to make space for more protesters to get their messages heard. Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesman for the Coalition to March on the DNC, a pro-Palestinian group, is continuing to push for the city to extend the route from one mile to more than two miles in length for Monday and Thursday's protests to accommodate as many demonstrators as possible.
"We've got 150 organizations that have joined the coalition from across the country. We expect to have tens of thousands of people in the streets," Abudayyeh said. "One mile is not going to be enough for everybody to be able to practice their First Amendment rights and to be able to protest the DNC."
The new letter emphasizes that "despite the CPD and city's efforts, people will demonstrate during the DNC. We urge you to follow CPD's policies by a) allowing demonstrations in public thoroughfares; b) using the least intrusive enforcement action consistent with public safety including refraining from issuing dispersal orders and/or engaging in arrests unless all other reasonably available options for restoring public safety have been exhausted; c) in the event a dispersal order is required, providing protesters with ample opportunities to leave and instructions on how those assembled can do so."
"Should enforcement action be necessary, CPD must follow its policies and state law to ensure that officers cite and release people suspected of minor offenses from the field, as opposed to arresting individuals and holding them for hours," the letter continues. "It is cruel, unnecessary, and a waste of our taxpayer money to detain protestors for hours and possibly days."
The coalition—which includes the ACLU of Illinois, First Defense Legal Aid, Law for Black Lives, Palestine Legal, and the Chicago and Loyola University Chicago chapters of the National Lawyers Guild—also warned that "we as a legal community are organized and prepared to ensure that protestors' rights are honored and respected."
"If necessary, we will hold the CPD and other law enforcement agencies accountable should they eviscerate people's constitutional rights," the letter concludes. "Please do not force us to do so."
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NYC to Pay Millions to Police Brutality Protesters Violently Arrested by NYPD
"They dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons," said one protester. "Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck."
Mar 01, 2023
Hundreds of people who were trapped, beaten, and wrongfully arrested by New York City police officers during a nonviolent 2020 racial justice protest in the Bronx will each receive $21,500 if a judge approves the terms of a settlement filed in federal court late Tuesday.
Around 300 people were arrested, many of them brutally, on June 4, 2020 in the Mott Haven neighborhood while peacefully protesting police violence and systemic racism following the May 25 murder of unarmed Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
"We had every right to protest, yet, the city of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized," 31-year-old Samira Sierra of the Bronx, one of the protesters who sued the city, told The New York Times.
"We had every right to protest, yet, the city of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized."
Joshua S. Moskovitz, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told BuzzFeed News they hoped the settlement "marks an inflection point for policing in New York City."
"This unprecedented settlement recognizes that the NYPD's actions in Mott Haven were grievously wrong," he said.
In social media posts, organizers of the June 4 "FTP4" protest—Take Back the Bronx and Bronxites for NYPD Accountability—urged participants to "take back the streets." One Instagram post featured a burning New York Police Department (NYPD) van.
The protest was overwhelmingly peaceful. However, less than an hour into the demonstration—and 10 minutes before an 8:00 pm curfew—a phalanx of heavily armored NYPD officers and cops on bikes began "kettling," or trapping, protesters so they could not leave. Attorneys for the arrested protesters—whose cases were ultimately dismissed—called it a "preplanned show of force."
After 8:00 pm, officers began violently attacking and arresting people for violating curfew. They beat demonstrators "packed like sardines" and unable to escape, with some officers standing atop vehicles swinging their batons down at bodies. Some protesters said they saw officers smiling as they swung into the crowd.
"We went there to protest police brutality and we became victims of police brutality," one demonstrator recounted.
Other officers shoved people to the ground or fired pepper spray in their faces and under their clothing. Arrestees' wrists were bound so tightly by zip ties that some of their hands turned purple due to lack of circulation.
"They dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons," one protester told Human Rights Watch after his arrest. "Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck."
According to the demonstrators' lawsuit: "Many protesters were left injured and bleeding. Some protesters fainted, or lost consciousness and went into convulsions."
24 Minutes in Mott Haven: Ikaikawww.youtube.com
Dr. Mike Pappas, a medical volunteer, recalled how "we were blocked off in a sea of cops. I was standing there watching people being carted out on stretchers with head injuries."
Among those arrested—and sometimes brutalized—were medical and legal volunteers, as well as journalists covering the demonstration and even passers-by.
Arrestees were held in "dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary detention conditions with many people who lacked masks, exacerbating health risks during the Covid-19 pandemic," according to Physicians for Human Rights. Many officers wore no masks.
Then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea defended NYPD tactics after the arrests, pointing to violence and looting at past protests. Shea said the operation was "executed nearly flawlessly."
NYPD subsequently said its policies for handling large demonstrations have been "re-envisioned."
If a judge approves the settlement filed Tuesday, the $21,500 per-protester payout would be one of the highest ever awarded in a mass arrest case. The agreement could cost city taxpayers as much as $6 million, according to the Times, which said that as many as 90 protesters have already settled their claims in separate complaints.
In 2021, Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James sued the NYPD over the Mott Haven arrests and "to end the pervasive use of excessive force and false arrests by the New York City Police Department against New Yorkers in suppressing overwhelmingly peaceful protests."
Last year, 12 legal observers from the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild who were arrested at the protest collectively received a $49,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit against the city.
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US Legal Observers Report 'Balanced and Transparent' Election Process in Venezuela
The federal government's "consistently false narrative of elections in Venezuela is formulated to legitimize the continuation of U.S. sanctions, which are violations of international law and amount to economic warfare," said the head of the National Lawyers Guild.
Nov 24, 2021
A delegation of observers from a New York City-based progressive legal group on Wednesday pushed back against the Biden administration's claims about Venezuela's recent regional elections in which allies of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist party were largely victorious.
"We observed a balanced and transparent voting process which voters expressed confidence in."
Allies of Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) secured 20 out of 23 governorships in the November 21 elections. The opposition coalition United Democratic Table (MUD) candidates succeeded in the Cojedes and Zulia states while Neighbors Force (FV) won in the Nueva Esparta State.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) delegation--among various international observers who traveled to Venezuela for the elections--shared its findings in a statement that began, "We observed a balanced and transparent voting process which voters expressed confidence in."
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the more conservative American Bar Association, the NLG sent eight observers to 12 sites in the Venezeulan capital Caracas as well as provinces in Miranda and La Guaira states.
"Overall we observed a climate of political energy grounded in an understanding that the voting day process, regardless of one's individual political ideology, functions fairly and is received as legitimate," the group said. "Also, we observed that the level of voter participation--almost 42% of registered voters in the context of a nonpresidential election, Covid-19, and severe economic sanctions--is significant and worthy of note."
The NLG said that "from a technical point of view, we observed an electoral system that was fundamentally transparent and facilitated by a workforce (poll workers, coordinators, table presidents) with strong technical competence regarding the functioning of the machines and the integrated election systems."
After speaking with voters at all sites, the NLG observers found that those "aligned with opposition parties also expressed confidence in the voting system. Additionally, the participation of opposition parties at polling sites, including as witnesses in opening and closing processes, strengthened the process and underscored the legitimacy of election results."
The NLG statement continued:
At a number of points throughout the day we witnessed voters frustrated with the heat, "wait times," some technical malfunctions, and occasionally with some confusion finding themselves on the voter rolls. These instances were not the norm at the sites we visited and therefore do not find that these incidents amount to systemic flaws or election "irregularities." Instead, they appear to be part of a complex, far-reaching, and broad election system intended to be accessible in all corners of a country of almost 29 million people, while under U.S. sanctions.
"We are clear that in all parts of the world, including in the United States, there exist Election Day dynamics which can complicate the electoral process, but which do not undermine or delegitimize an open and free process such as this," said NLG delegate Vladimir Martinez.
The European Union also sent election monitors to Venezuela. They expressed concerns about the disqualification of some opposition candidates and the death of a voter in a shooting near a polling station but also highlighted improvements, according to the Associated Press.
"The regional and municipal elections of November 21 were a first and crucial test for the return of most of the opposition parties to the elections in Venezuela," the E.U.'s initial report said. "The electoral process showed the persistence of structural deficiencies, although electoral conditions improved compared to the three previous national elections."
In a lengthy statement Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that "the Maduro regime deprived Venezuelans yet again of their right to participate in a free and fair electoral process."
"Fearful of the voice and vote of Venezuelans, the regime grossly skewed the process to determine the result of this election long before any ballots had been cast," Blinken said. "Arbitrary arrests and harassment of political and civil society actors, criminalization of opposition parties' activities, bans on candidates across the political spectrum, manipulation of voter registration rolls, persistent media censorship, and other authoritarian tactics all but quashed political pluralism and ensured the elections would not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people."
The NLG delegates said they "reject" the Biden administration's characterization of the elections in Venezuela, which is enduring an economic crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions.
NLG President Suzanne Adely, a member of the delegation, suggested Blinken's comments were motivated by justifying the administration's policies, which include maintaining sanctions imposed under former President Donald Trump and continuing to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the South American country's "interim president."
"The U.S.'s consistently false narrative of elections in Venezuela is formulated to legitimize the continuation of U.S. sanctions, which are violations of international law and amount to economic warfare," said Adely. "The U.S. sanctions harm the Venezuelan people and aim to undermine and destabilize Venezuela in order to further U.S. interests in the region."
Sunday's elections were the first since 2017 in which main opposition parties participated. Voters elected not only governors but also 253 state legislators, 335 mayors, and 2,471 municipal councilors.
Writing Monday for Common Dreams, Leonardo Flores, a Latin American policy expert and campaigner with the anti-war group CodePink, outlined five reasons for the Venezuelan left's success over the weekend:
- Good governance in health, housing, and food;
- The economic situation is improving;
- The left is united (mostly);
- The opposition is divided; and
- The opposition is deeply unpopular.
According to Flores, "These elections should put the Biden administration on notice that continuing to support the MUD, and in particular, the fiction of Guaido as 'interim president,' is a failed policy."
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National Lawyers Guild Urges Biden to Align US Israel-Palestine Policy With International Law
"The United States cannot turn its back on the atrocities, including war crimes, enabled by U.S. policies, particularly its decadeslong policy of shielding Israel from accountability."
May 03, 2021
Less than a week after Human Rights Watch published a scathing report accusing the Israeli government of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution for its treatment of Palestinians, a leading U.S. legal advocacy group on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Biden administration outlining the legal basis for reversing Trump-era pro-Israel policies that violate human rights and international law.
"It has long been obvious to anyone paying attention that U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel does not match its rhetoric nor the ideals that it claims to stand for--freedom, human rights, and democracy."
--NLG
The memo (pdf), authored by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) International Committee's Palestine Subcommittee, notes that after four years of "bullish and detrimental" U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel under the Trump administration, "the health, human rights, and humanitarian situation for Palestinians--both in Palestine and in the refugee camps of surrounding countries--is dire."
"From withdrawing vital funding from humanitarian organizations that provide basic needs to Palestinian refugees and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, to targeting human rights advocates in the United States, the Trump administration enacted a number of policies that have harmed both Palestinians and U.S. citizens, and continue to do so today," the memo states.
"Further, in enacting the aforementioned policies, the Trump administration ignored many of the international commitments that the United States is charged to abide by, including core principles of international law," it continues. "The Biden administration must not only correct course; it needs to go beyond Obama-era policies to affirm and demonstrate its commitment to civil and human rights and international law, both at home and abroad."
The memo's authors urge the Biden administration to take steps including, but not limited to:
- Relocate the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv;
- Reverse the Trump administration's repudiation of a 1978 State Department legal opinion declaring Israel's settler colonies in the occupied West Bank to be illegal;
- Rescind the previous administration's rule requiring "Made in Israel" labeling on goods produces in the unlawful settlements, as well as former President Donald Trump's formal recognition of Israel's illegal annexation of Syria's Golan Heights;
- Reinstate aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency;
- Call for an immediate end to Israel's 15-year closure and blockade of Gaza;
- Refrain from further interference in International Criminal Court proceedings and consider ratifying the Rome Statute;
- Reverse Trump's order falsely conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism; and
- Affirm that boycotts for human rights such as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement "are a form of highly protected speech under the U.S. Constitution."
"The policy recommendations made herein represent the minimum required to reverse the damage done by the Trump administration and begin to bring United States policy and practice on Palestine and Israel in line with international law," the memo states. "The United States cannot turn its back on the atrocities, including war crimes, enabled by U.S. policies, particularly its decadeslong policy of shielding Israel from accountability."
"Thus, the United States has a legal and moral responsibility to act expeditiously," the memo adds. "It has long been obvious to anyone paying attention that U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel does not match its rhetoric nor the ideals that it claims to stand for--freedom, human rights, and democracy. The Biden administration has an opportunity and an obligation to correct course and to pursue policies grounded in integrity, human rights, equality, and respect for the rule of law."
"Rescinding Trump's recognition of Israel's annexations should have been done on day one of the Biden administration."
--Huwaida Arraf, NLG
Memo co-author Huwaida Arraf, a human rights attorney and co-chair of the NLG International Palestine Subcommittee, said in a statement that "rescinding Trump's recognition of Israel's annexations should have been done on day one of the Biden administration, and although [President Joe] Biden has stated that he would not relocate the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv, this position cannot be reconciled with a stated intent to 'respect the rule of law.'"
As the restoration of $235 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians earlier this month demonstrated, the Biden administration is expected to place more emphasis on Palestinian human rights than its predecessor. However, unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel--currently about $3.8 billion per year--continues despite human rights advocates accusing its government and military of crimes including illegal occupation and settler colonization, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocidal policies and actions.
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'Outrageous Behavior' as Boston Judge Holds National Lawyers Guild Attorney in Contempt for Reading Case Law in Court
"By compelling arraignment in every case, the judge punished the exercise of individuals' First Amendment right to protest."
Sep 04, 2019
After a defense attorney for nonviolent demonstrators arrested in last weekend's alt-right "Straight Pride Parade" in Boston read the letter of the law in protest of Municipal Court Judge Richard Sinnott refusing to allow the Suffolk County District Attorney's office to drop charges, the judge threw the lawyer in jail for contempt of court, the latest in a string of incidents in the city courtroom with respect to the protests.
Attorney Susan Church, who works with the National Lawyers' Guild of Massachusetts, was released a few hours later.
"All I was trying to do is to read the law to the court, and I was summarily arrested, handcuffed, brought down to the holding cell, held there for hours," said Church.
Sinnott sent the lawyer to jail on contempt after she read him case law that contradicted the judge's decision to reject Suffolk County D.A. Rachel Rollins' decision not to press charges against the demonstrators.
"This was outrageous behavior," Church said.
Other members of the legal profession agreed.
"This is out of control," tweeted law firm PiltserCowan. "Arresting a defense lawyer for doing her job crossed the line from abuse of authority to needing to be removed from judicial office."
The protestors were arrested for actions over the weekend in opposition to a racist, extreme right political march dubbed a "Straight Pride Parade" by organizers. The march ended with clashes between police and the some demonstrators, resulting in a number of arrests.
In his courtroom on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sinnott repeatedly denied requests from the district attorney's office to drop the charges for most of those arrested.
As The Boston Globe reported:
As members of the police union looked on, Sinnott agreed to drop charges against just two of the 16 protesters who came before him Tuesday: a 63-year-old Vermont woman charged with disorderly conduct and a 21-year-old man from Worcester accused of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Prosecutors asked for dismissal of nonviolent charges against seven more people, most in exchange for eight hours of community service. Sinnott denied the requests. Prosecutors did not ask Sinnott to drop any charges of assault or of violence against police.
Rollins, in a series of tweets Tuesday evening, said her office's decision to forego prosecutions should not have been overruled by the judge.
"By compelling arraignment in every case, the judge punished the exercise of individuals' First Amendment right to protest," said Rolllins.
She added that her office would work to overturn Sinnott's decision.
"For those people now tangled in the criminal justice system for exercising their right to free speech--many of whom had no prior criminal record--I will use the legal process to remedy the judge's overstepping of his role," Rollins said.
As the National Lawyers Guild pointed out in its statement on Church's arrest, Sinnott has regularly acted to stymie the Rollins agenda, which aims to bring a more measured approach to law enforcement in Suffolk County.
"This is in gross violation of the separation of powers and has the impact of obstructing the policy priorities of the Rachel Rollins administration," wrote the guild.
The move was "lawless," Judge Nancy Gertner told WBUR.
In a tweet, New York City public defender Sam Feldman said he hoped there would be consequences for Sinnott's actions.
"Hoping against hope that Judge Sinnott's flagrant violations of the law result in his removal from the bench," said Feldman.
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