FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2014
Contact: Tasha Moro
Communications Coordinator
212-679-5100, ext. 15
*National Lawyers Guild Condemns Ongoing Arrests of Legal
Observers in
Ferguson*
*Police Arrested Three NLG Legal Observers Friday*
At approximately 10:30 PM on August 21, St. Louis County
Police arrested three National Lawyers Guild (NLG)-trained Legal Observers
during a demonstration in Ferguson, Mo. protesting the fatal police shooting of
unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. All three volunteers had traveled to
Ferguson together from Detroit, Mich. as part of a delegation organized by
former Black Panther, Blair Anderson.
The first arrest occurred during a protest Thursday
night, when a Legal Observer was taking photos of a police command station. She
was arrested soon thereafter. The two other Legal Observers arrived on the
scene to document her arrest when they themselves were taken into custody. They
were booked at the county jail in Clayton and released around 2:30 AM the following
morning.
One of the arrestees, Dennis Black, said: “The police
militarization in Ferguson is just a glimpse of what is to come nationally when
we realize that police brutality and the killing of unarmed black men by police
is the rule rather than the exception.”
Three days prior, St. Louis County Police arrested
another NLG volunteer from Chicago – bringing the total number of Observer
arrests to four – in a similar pattern of police repression against Legal
Observers who are monitoring and documenting police activity in Ferguson. The
NLG Legal Observer program is designed to enable people to express their
political views as fully as possible without unconstitutional disruption or
interference by the police and with the fewest possible consequences from the
criminal justice system.
For the past week, the NLG has had a team of Legal
Observers on the ground in Ferguson to monitor police activity and offer legal
support to protesters. The NLG has been documenting rampant police abuse at
demonstrations, working with local groups such as the Organization for Black
Struggle (OBS), coordinating bail and providing other legal support, and
organizing criminal defense attorneys to represent arrestees.
Blair Anderson, a lifelong activist, former Black Panther
and client of the NLG’s during the civil rights movement in Chicago, organized
and trained the Detroit delegation that brought the three arrestees to
Ferguson. He said they came not only “to help monitor for civil and
constitutional rights violations,” but also “to see what an occupied community
looks like.” Anticipating the resumption of community protests in response to
today’s lift on the water shutoff moratorium, Anderson said, “Detroit could
very well end up like Ferguson.”
“I see this going well beyond the front pages of the
story [of Michael Brown],” Anderson stated. The protesters “want to create a
legacy… and are a role model for the mobilization of black communities around
the country and around the world. And they [people of Ferguson] are handing this
with great dignity,” he said.
Blair Anderson and the other Detroit arrestees will
continue serving as Legal Observers in Ferguson. They paid their respects at
the funeral of Michael Brown, held yesterday.
*The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the
nation’s first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the
protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.*
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Tasha Moro
National Lawyers Guild
Communications Coordinator
212.679.5100, ext. 15
____________________________
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visit the Jay Leiderman Law Homepage
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