A state law against loitering has been ruled unconstitutional three times since it was passed in 1965, but the city has continued to enforce it, often using it as an excuse to round up the homeless in bus terminals and men whom cops perceive as gay and "cruising" for sex. In 2010 a judge held the city in contempt of court for failing to comply with orders to stop enforcing these loitering laws, and now, finally, a federal court has approved a class action settlement requiring the city to pay $15 million dollars to approximately 22,000 New Yorkers who were charged under unconstitutional “loitering” statutes between 1983 and this year. more ›

The Chris Christie civil rights apology tour continues! After flubbing his first apology by going and calling a New Jersey lawmaker "numbnuts," the Garden State gov took to the airwaves yesterday to again apologize to anyone he might have offended when he suggested white Southerners should have been allowed to vote on civil rights gains for blacks in the 1960s. But he's not sorry about calling Assemblyman Reed Gusciora "numbnuts," okay? more ›

Oh Christie, Christie, Christie. The New Jersey Governor today again tried to explain those comments last week in which he said that white Southerners should have been allowed to vote on civil rights gains for blacks in the 1960s. But while the big guy was talking he went and called an openly gay New Jersey Assemblyman "numbnuts." D'oh! more ›

Chris Christie has vowed to veto any gay marriage bill that passes his desk—causing him political headaches since it looks like he may have to put that vow to the test. Also giving the roly-poly governor of New Jersey headaches? A comment he made earlier this week suggesting white Southerners should have been allowed to vote civil rights gains for blacks during the 1960s. Let's just say some people respectfully disagree with the presumed 2016 GOP presidential candidate. more ›

Yesterday, the Department of Justice charged four East Haven, Connecticut police officers with "conspiring to violate, and violating, the civil rights" of Latinos: Sergeant John Miller and Officers David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo are accused of "conspir[ing] to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate various members of the East Haven community in violation of their constitutional rights... In some cases, the victims were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs when officers assaulted them." And what was the East Haven mayor's reaction? It's time for some Mexican grub! more ›

Westchester County prosecutors have agreed to drop charges against 15 Muslims who were arrested at Rye Playland last summer after women visiting the park were told they could not go on certain ride while wearing their hijabs. The chaotic melee started after some Muslim women demanded a refund, and text messages were sent amongst some of the 3,000 Muslims visiting the amusement park with the Muslim American Society of New York. As growing numbers gathered near the park police station, local police rushed to the scene, and the situation quickly escalated, with a park ranger allegedly yelling, "I don't give a f*ck about your culture." more ›

Today, the King Center unveiled the King Center Imaging Project, which offers thousands of documents from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other figures from the civil rights movement. According to the site, "There are nearly a million documents associated with the life of Martin Luther King Jr. These pages will present a more dynamic view than is often seen of Dr. King’s life and times. The documents reveal the scholar, the father, and the pastor. Through these papers we see the United States of America at one of its most vulnerable, most honest and perhaps most human moments in history." more ›

Last year, the federal authorities charged a police officer for violating the civil rights of a 31-year-old black man, claiming that officer Michael Daragjati falsely arrested him can called him a "n-----" Now, Daragjati's lawyer says they have a plea scheduled. more ›

Two months after Zuccotti Park was forcibly evicted by the NYPD, the metal barricades and constant security presence remain, making the space less like a public park and more like a frozen zone. Today the NYCLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the NLG fired off a letter [pdf] to Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri asking him to "ensure that Zuccotti Park is open and accessible to all members of the public on an equal basis." more ›

14 Muslim leaders have fired off a sternly-worded letter to Mayor Bloomberg announcing their intention to boycott his annual interfaith breakfast on Friday, which brings together religious and political leaders from all over the spectrum for a friendly coffee klatsch. At issue is a damning series of articles in the Associated Press detailing the NYPD's targeting of Muslim communities for surveillance. Commissioner Ray Kelly has firmly denied this, telling the City Council, "We don't do it ethnically, we do it geographically. We don't racially profile, we follow leads wherever those leads take us." The NYCLU, however, calls it a "rogue domestic surveillance operation," and in November hundreds of Muslims demonstrated outside police headquarters. more ›

A NJ mother is extremely unhappy about the hubbub over her middle schooler's suspension, which she believes is related to her child's Confederate Flag clothing. So the next step is obviously threatening a lawsuit: Jane West tells the Times of Trenton that she wants "the school to formally apologize to her daughter, rescind her suspension and grant the teen permission to attend school outside the district." West warns, "If I can’t get those things I’m suing." more ›

An eight year NYPD veteran assigned to patrol Staten Island was arrested this morning and charged with civil rights violations in connection to an April stop-and-frisk arrest in Stapleton. On April 15th, officer Michael Daragjati and his partner stopped an unidentified 31-year-old black man who was walking alone with his hands in his pockets. Naturally, this suspicious activity warranted further investigation, so Daragjati allegedly pushed the man against a parked van and "roughly" frisked him. Finding nothing, the individual was sent on his way, but while walking away he dared to insult Daragjati. Oh yes he didn't! more ›

The Reverend Al Sharpton is broadcasting his radio show live from Zuccotti Park to highlight the Occupy Wall Street protests, "to show that those that are raising issues on Wall Street are as concerned about the economy and that Blacks and Latinos have grave concerns about economic issues and jobs," his organization said in a statement. Sharpton just said that he wanted to bring down a group of ministers to spend the night to show that the movement "is about all of us." In that case: hide the cocaine! But why isn't Al putting them on his new TV show? Is he saything that the protesters have faces for radio? more ›

Are your kids in the next room playing with their Candy Tails? Google "Santorum." You'll notice that the first result is a website that defines the word as, "The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex." This is because sex columnist Dan Savage vowed to repay bigoted failure and GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum eight years ago for the hateful things he says about the gay community, and BOY is it working. Charlie Cook tells the Daily News, "There is nothing that Santorum can do but just try to ignore it." Or he could whine to the media! more ›

Though the vote has been stalled through the weekend, with the backing of New York's two most powerful people, Andrew Cuomo and Lady Gaga, marriage equality legislation still stands a better than decent chance of passing. And because people often need a financial incentive to do the right thing, the legalization of same-sex marriage is expected to generate $184 million for the state's economy, $142 million of that for New York City alone. "It's going to be a huge expanding market for all of us in the business," one glitzy wedding venue owner tells the Daily News. Sheesh can we at least pretend that we're thinking of true love and not cold hard cash, at least until the bill passes? more ›

Because Governor Cuomo's proposed same sex marriage legislation is a single tantalizing vote away from affording all residents in the Empire State equal protection under the law, opponents of the bill are scrambling to mount a last gasp appeal of what they believe is an affront to the "institution" of marriage. Yesterday saw "nearly a hundred" clergy at "A Rally For Traditional Marriage" in front of City Hall organized by the City Action Coalition. The CAC's leader, Bishop Joseph Mattera, warned SILive of the "large percentage of people in New York City and state who are very uncomfortable with the concept of gay marriage." Most uncomfortable of all may be Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who wrote in his blog that "God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage a long time ago." Was that before or after He settled whether the earth revolved around the sun? more ›

The New York State Court of Appeals ruled in two cases yesterday that same-sex parents have similar rights as biological parents—even if there was no official adoption. The first case ruled 4-3 that a woman has the right to seek child support from her former partner, even though she is not the child's biological parent. The second case, Debra H. v. Janice R., ruled 7-0 that a nonbiological parent should have visitation rights with the child. more ›

Yesterday, the Rev. Al Sharpton kicked of the three-day National Action Network Convention in Midtown, welcoming Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. Steele gave the keynote address, "One thing I've learned is that you can't please everyone. But you can certainly make them all mad at you at the same time." more ›

A retired NYPD officer and his wife are suing the city in federal court, alleging that their civil rights were violated after an ugly altercation in a Harlem police station landed them in jail. As you may recall, retired officer Merault Almonor is facing felony assault charges for allegedly punching a female cop so hard in the face that she's suffering partial paralysis. The fight broke out when Almonor and his wife, Wilma Dore-Almonor, went to the station house on March 20th to pick up their 13-year-old son, Devin, who had been arrested after a stop-and-frisk on West 141st Street. Naturally, the Almonors and the police have wildly differing accounts of what went down. more ›

Rep. Charles Rangel was on NY1's Inside City Hall last night. And he had some forceful words about those who protested against health care reform, "I was involved in the civil rights marches in the '60s. And I have been badgered, cursed at and spat at by groups in the South and I want you to know and your viewing audience to know that the group that were in Washington fighting against the health bill and fighting against the President, looked just like and sounded just like those groups that attacked the civil rights movement in the South." more ›

A prison term of 20 years to life will end for the man who shot Malcom X at Manhattan’s Audobun Ballroom in 1965. Thomas Hagan, who’s applied for parole 16 times, had his request granted yesterday. He's already been on a work-release program and spends only two days/week in jail, but on April 28, the 69-year-old will walk free. One of the slain civil rights icon’s daughters, Illyasah Shabazz,spoke last night at the scene of his death and said she was ready to forgive Hagan, a former militant member of the Nation of Islam: "I would really think that at this point in his life he's regretful for having been a pawn, one of the pawns in killing my father." Two other men who were implicated in the killing, but didn't confess, were released twenty years ago. more ›

Judges squabbled over what to do with 70-year-old civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart, who's been convicted on charges of helping a jailed client communicate with his followers after he plotted to bomb NYC, but faces a resentencing in April. All wanted a lower-court judge to extend her sentence, but, unusually, each issued a statement criticizing how the others had handled the case. According to the AP, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs said the judge should start his sentence from scratch since Judge John Koeltl didn't take into account the terrorist consequences of Stewart's case, but another judge fired back. more ›

A day after federal investigators announced that there is "insufficient evidence" to pursue a civil rights case against the officers who shot and killed Sean Bell, relatives of the 23-year-old said they are after the officers' badges. "Myself and my family are going to do everything possible to see that these police officers are fired," said Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell. "There is a history of black men being killed by police officers, and something needs to be done ... We're hoping to eventually meet with President Obama, and that he'll do something, because this is a national problem." more ›

Rev. Al Sharpton said today that federal prosecutors will not pursue a civil rights case against the police officers who shot and killed Sean Bell in a barrage of 50 bullets outside a strip club on the day of his wedding. According to 1010WINS, after reviewing the shooting, federal attorneys decided against pressing charges. Though the police officers involved in the incident were acquitted of manslaughter charges in 2008, friends and family of Bell—who recently had a street renamed in his honor—urged authorities to take the cops to court for violating the 23-year-old's civil rights. But Sharpton said Bell's family has been informed that there will be no federal case. more ›

A judge turned down a request by former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) to halt his expulsion from the legislative body, but the disgraced politician isn't giving up his fight. Though the federal judge declined Monserrate's bid for an immediate stay on his senate expulsion and on Gov. David Paterson's call for a special election, Monserrate will continue the legal battle in which he has cast himself as a victim whose civil rights have been trampled. more ›

What with being slammed as racist and losing funding for 16 fire houses the FDNY is having a tough year so far and street alarm boxes are next up on the chopping block. Bloomberg’s rationale? "In the days where everybody has cell phones ... the city would be just as safe without them." The mayor might have a point: 85 percent of the time people use the street boxes to make prank calls and out of 26,666 structural fires last year, only 140 were reported from the phones, reported the Daily News. Getting rid of them would also save the department $2.5 million (still only half of what Anderson Cooper’s historic fire house cost). Other cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago have already trashed their boxes, so what’s stopping New York? Before eradicating the outdated system it will have to come up with a new way for the deaf to quickly contact authorities. more ›

Demonstrators are suing the city after the NYPD rejected their application to protest charter schools and school closings directly in front of Mayor Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse. The plaintiffs claim the NYPD "unconstitutionally and without any legal basis" denied their application to march single file on both sides of 79th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenue on Jan. 21. "Our voices haven't been heard, so we thought that the best way for the mayor to hear us would be for us to take our voices to his block," said protester Julie Cavanagh. more ›

A bill that would have granted same-sex couples the right to marry has been voted down by the New Jersey State Senate. Just over a month after New York State Senate rejected a similar piece of legislation, Garden State pols following suit, voting 20-14 against it. Gay marriage advocates had been trying to push the bill through before Gov. Jon Corzine, who supports gay marriage, leaves office on Jan. 19 and is replaced by Gov.-elect Chris Christie, who opposes it. more ›