Street medic training in Milwaukee: June 26th-28th

20-hour Street Medic Training

Forward Action Medics (FAM) is hosting a 20 hour street medic training in Milwaukee:

Friday, June 26th: 5:30PM – 10:00PM
Saturday, June 27th: 9:00AM – 6:30PM
Sunday, June 28th: 9:00AM – 6:30PM

Location will be shared with participants. We can help make transportation arrangements if needed.
You must be on time for the training. Individuals later than 30 minutes will not be able to attend. This is because there is a lot of information to cover in a very short amount of time, and what we cover in 30 minutes is the equivalent of one workshop’s worth of information…. so please be on time! If you know that you are often late to events, make sure you leave early to compensate.

This 20-hour training covers basic first aid skills and prepares you to help others stay safe and healthy at protests. It will also prepare you to meet health needs as part of a team in your organization, in your community, or as a member of Forward Action Medics, so that activists and communities can stay well and stay in the streets.

This training is rooted in street medics’ history of sharing first aid skills as a form of self-defense for our communities. It focuses on situational awareness and on issues that are common at protests including weather, delays in accessing medical care, and police violence. This training does not cover CPR.


Accessibility: While we strive to make these training opportunities accessible to all, some restrictions apply due to the intense physical nature of the training scenarios. Must be able to lift 30 pounds, move 25 feet independently, and easily handle and utilize first aid supplies. To request and/or discuss accommodations, please indicate so on the registration form and we will contact you.

Please register as space is limited. We will be in contact with participants before the training.
https://forms.gle/ThKnkAtmuSu96QvC6

Police Targeting NLG Legal Observers at Black Lives Matter Protests

https://www.nlg.org/police-targeting-nlg-legal-observers-at-black-lives-matter-protests/

Police Targeting NLG Legal Observers at Black Lives Matter Protests

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 7, 2020
Contact: communications@nlg.org

Since protests have spread to all 50 states in response to the police murders of George Floyd and countless other Black people, law enforcement has responded with a violent show of force against protestors as well as journalists, street medics, and legal support. Multiple National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Legal Observers (LOs) have been arrested or injured while monitoring demonstrations against racialized police brutality. The NLG strongly condemns this attack on Legal Observers, who attend protests to document police activity and ensure demonstrators’ legal rights. Guild LO’s wear neon green hats and other paraphernalia with the label “NLG Legal Observer” to identify their role, but this visibility has also made them a target for police. 

In the past week, police have arrested, attacked, and tear gassed LOs in a least a dozen cities. In Sacramento, LO Danny Garza was shot in the face with a rubber bullet while covering local demonstrations, and hospitalized due to a concussion. A Bay Area LO was shot with high speed impact munition by police in Oakland, and a San Jose LO suffered multiple contusions from rubber bullets. While legal observing in Chicago, Guild member Michael Drake was knocked to the ground and beaten with batons by at least five officers simultaneously before being arrested. Several LOs in Detroit were beaten with batons, punched, tear gassed and then arrested while trying to take names from arrested protesters. Multiple LOs in various cities have been detained or arrested for monitoring protests after the start of arguably illegal curfews, including Washington D.C. and New York City. Most charges against LOs include disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and breaking curfew.

Reports from NLG chapters in multiple cities lead us to conclude that police are intentionally targeting LOs. In Atlanta, LOs Megan Harrison and Asia Parks were arrested and held for 17 hours before being released. According to Harrison, she was walking down a line of protesters linking arms, taking names and dates of birth in case of arrest. When police attacked the crowd, she heard “get the girl in the green hat,” before being grabbed from behind and forcibly arrested. In Des Moines, LO Ryan Krause was physically detained by a group of police who tried to take his notes and called legal observation “suspicious activity” and “harassment.” In Kansas City, several LOs were physically shoved and pepper sprayed by police, while being told their “credentials would not protect them.” 

“The targeting of NLG LOs goes right to the heart of why we do this work. While the police enforce the law on protesters, who is there to monitor the police? The intentional targeting of NLG Legal Observers by the police is a showing of confidence and hubris that they expect to remain unaccountable,” said Garza. 

NLG Legal Observers are a core part of the NLG Mass Defense program, which began in 1968. For the past 50+ years the Guild has provided legal support designed to enable people to express their political views as fully as possible without unconstitutional disruption or interference by the police. The NLG will be putting the full support of our network of thousands of legal professionals into assisting protesters, including our LOs and the many journalists and street medics who have also been arrested or injured during these police riots.

We are deeply grateful to our LOs on the ground, and Guild members and staff are following up with LOs arrested or injured to assist with possible legal, physical, and mental health needs. We affirm our ongoing support for Black organizers and activists who continue to face the greatest amount of violence, harassment and intimidation by law enforcement. 

NLG Resources:

NLG Mass Defense Program
NLG Know Your Rights Materials
Bail and Legal Defense Fund Best Practices Guide
Recent NLG Statements and Press Releases
Find your local NLG Chapter

Image: NLG Legal Observer arrested by Atlanta Police, June 1 (John Bazemore/AP).

The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.

NLG National Office

         

NLG Statement on the President’s Unlawful Declaration of Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization

https://www.nlg.org/nlg-statement-on-the-presidents-unlawful-declaration-of-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2020
Contact: communications@nlg.org

In the long history of protest, governments have often sought to discredit political activists who challenge the status quo. President Donald Trump’s recent declaration, that “Antifa”—shorthand for “anti-fascist”—is a domestic terrorist organization, is no departure from this tradition. As protests continue to erupt around the country in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, people of all classes, races, genders, and political orientations are expressing outrage and grief in the streets and on social media. The demonstrators have been repeatedly and violently attacked by heavily militarized police departments using an array of tactics—including chemical weapons during a global pandemic—against people in the streets. In an effort to shift blame away from legitimate calls for racial justice and the violent police response to protests, the President is using his bully pulpit to obscure the fact that these demonstrations are supported by a broad majority of Americans.

The term Antifa originates in the 1930s when progressive activists organized to oppose far-right authoritarianism emerging throughout the world. In recent history, some have re-adopted the phrase as a political orientation opposed to the re-emergent ultranationalism in the US and throughout Europe and Latin America. Contrary to the suggestions of Trump and many of the right-wing politicians who support his presidency, Antifa has no leaders and it is not a formal organization, although activists who identify with the term often favor direct action instead of policy reform, as well as autonomous  mutual aid. It is not clear who or what the targets of a federal Antifa investigation would be, and whether such an effort would be lawful.

"When police continue to murder Black people with impunity and when calls for systemic change to policing and structural racism are ignored, popular unrest is inevitable," said National Lawyers Guild legal worker Kris Hermes. "Federal investigations and the targeting of antifa will unfortunately result in increased surveillance and repression, and must be resisted."

While the Department of Justice (DOJ) can indict people on federal terrorism charges, no clear legal authority exists for the President to designate Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.” Nevertheless, Attorney General William Barr quickly followed Trump’s declaration with an official statement announcing that the DOJ would use its existing network of 56 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) offices to investigate Antifa. DOJ investigations will only serve to harass protesters and provide the state with additional means to prosecute political activists. The Trump administration’s threats are nothing more than political theater and an attempt to sow division and intimidate those who exercise their right to fight injustice.

"Trump's declaration that Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization has no basis in fact or law and is merely an attempt to criminalize ordinary people who are exercising their right to protest," said NLG Mass Defense Director Tyler Crawford, "The NLG condemns any such attempts by the government to interfere with the right of the people to have their voices heard in demanding  justice for George Floyd and an end to racist police violence."

The NLG will continue to oppose any attempts to exploit this crisis to repress political activism and social justice movements working to end to white supremacy. The Trump administration continues to ignore the ongoing injustice wrought on Black communities by institutional racism, including police brutality, in favor of seeking to physically or politically punish those who are part of anti-racist and anti-fascist movements. The NLG will continue to provide legal support to activists as they take to the streets to call for justice for George Floyd, from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. and many other cities.

Related Links & Resources:

• NLG Know Your Rights Guides
• Directory of NLG Chapters
• NLG Mass Defense Program
• Movement for Black Lives
• Law for Black Lives
• Directory of US bail funds by the National Bail Fund Network
• Black Lives Matter petition to #DefundThePolice 
• 6/1/20: NLG Condemns Violent Police Response to Black Lives Matter Protests Nationwide
• 5/28/20: NLG in Solidarity with Minneapolis Following Police Killing of George Floyd

The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
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NLG Condemns Violent Police Response to Black Lives Matter Protests Nationwide

https://www.nlg.org/nlg-condemns-violent-police-response-to-black-lives-matter-protests-nationwide/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2020
Contact: communications@nlg.org

NOTE: As this press release was being published, we learned about James Scurlock, a 22-year-old Black man, shot and killed during a protest last night in Omaha, NE by an alleged white supremacist yelling racial slurs. Support the Scurlock family at this GoFundMe here.

Spurred by the uprising in Minneapolis last week in response to the police killing of George Floyd, demonstrations took place in more than 75 cities over the weekend of May 29-31 as thousands of people protested to demand an end to racialized police violence and justice for Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many others. National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Chapters across the country have mobilized to provide legal support to these people’s movements and will continue to do so for as long as necessary. As a grassroots organization led by volunteer members who take direction from movements on the ground, we remain committed to the struggle for Black lives and an end to white supremacy.

“Racialized, violent policing of Black, Brown, and Indigenous bodies has always existed in this country. Now is the time for accountability. Property can always be replaced. Black lives can not,” stated NLG Executive Director Pooja Gehi.

The unwarranted and excessively violent police reaction to demonstrators was strikingly similar across protests: NLG attorneys and Legal Observers consistently report accounts of police attacking people with batons and bicycles, running protesters down with horses and police vehicles, and freely deploying tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and flash-bang grenades. In addition to both mass and targeted arrests of protesters, police also arrested journalists, legal observers, medics, and bystanders. Multiple NLG Legal Observers, clearly visible in bright green caps, were injured by police as they monitored the demonstrations.

By late Saturday, mayors and governors began calling in the military and National Guard, and imposing curfews in an attempt to shut down protests. Currently, more than 40 cities are under curfew and the National Guard has been activated in 15 states and Washington, D.C. In Minneapolis, video footage of National Guard and state troopers shutting down streets and attacking people on their porches went viral. In Chicago, police violently surrounded and mass arrested demonstrators. “The Chicago Police rioted. Police violently attacked hundreds if not thousands of people demanding an end to police violence. This response was unacceptable and unnecessary,” the NLG Chicago Chapter and Chicago Community Bond Fund said in a joint statement yesterday.

Video and witness accounts indicate that far right nationalists and white supremacists were in attendance at many of the demonstrations, further stoking conflict by brandishing guns and arrows. Rather than condemning these actions, Trump has instead attacked left-wing activists and declared he will designate antifa a terrorist organization.

The number of arrests continues to grow. While many have been detained, not all have been charged and processed, making it difficult to give exact arrest numbers. However, NLG chapters report arrests in almost all cities, ranging from a few dozen to nearly 1,000 depending on location. As of now, protesters are being charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and failure to disperse. NLG Chapters have been continuously providing Legal Observers, running legal support hotlines, tracking arrests, and coordinating representation for those arrested.

The NLG denounces the violent and in many cases openly racist attacks of the police. In solidarity with movements for Black lives, the family of George Floyd, and all victims of racialized police violence, we are demanding a full, transparent, and independent investigation into his murder and the Minneapolis Police Department. We also call for investigations into the many law enforcement officers who have been documented brutalizing protesters this weekend, as well as all police officers who have records of complaints for violence. Finally, we call for the defunding and demilitarizing of the police, an investment in community resources including housing, healthcare and income and reparations for the families of those murdered. Please read, sign and share this petition from Black Lives Matter to #DefundThePolice.

Donations to the NLG Mass Defense Program can be made at nlg.org/donate/massdefense.

Resources:

• Find your local NLG Chapter
• NLG Mass Defense Program
• Movement for Black Lives
• Law for Black Lives
• Directory of US bail funds by the National Bail Fund Network
• Black Lives Matter petition to #DefundThePolice 

Statements by Local NLG Chapters and How to Help:

• NLG Chicago & Chicago Community Bond Fund
• NLG Chicago Call for Volunteer Attorneys
• NLG San Francisco Bay Area
• NLG Massachusetts
• NLG Los Angeles: Support for DTLA Protesters
• List of NLG Chapters

The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
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