Results tagged “humanrights”

Mahender Sabhnani, who was convicted of enslaving two women in his and his wife's Long Island home, was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison. A judge decided that while Sabhnani did not physically harm the women, but he did permit these "dreadful things..to go on." Sabhnani's wife Varsha was sentenced to 11 years; she allegedly beat, tortured, and starved the two Indonesian women who had been employed as maids. Next, the judge will determine how much the couple owes the women in back wages.

Varsha Sabhnani, who built a successful perfume business with her husband Mahender, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for enslaving and torturing two Indonesian women who told prosecutors they were beaten, starved and that their pay was withheld. Sabhnani's lawyer had suggested her near-200 pound weight loss impacted how her behavior. Mahender Sabhnani will be sentenced today.

In violation of a ruling by New York State's Human Rights Division, the principal of W. Tresper Clarke High School stood in the schoolhouse doorway and refused entrance to 15-year-old John Cave yesterday, as long as he had his service dog with him. Cave is a deaf teenager with cochlear implants, and this week, the state's Human Rights Division Commissioner Kumiki Gibson declared the school violated two provisions of the Human Rights law (PDF) and ordered that Cave and his service dog Simba be allowed in school.

A NY-based nonprofit called Breakthrough launched a video game yesterday called ICED: I Can End Deportation (also a play on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department).

The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo.

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in...

The NY Times has a slide show of assorted items that could be perfect wedding gifts for book lovers. Suggestions range from whimsical bookshelves to personalized book plates.

Rosie O'Donnell made an appearance at BEA this past weekend, though her involvement with the expo was toned down significantly after The View fued. Variety reports:

The NYPD decided not to appeal a judge's decision that the NYPD should declassify its surveillance documents from the 2004 RNC, so it has set up a special NYPD RNC Documents website with the documents. Of course, you have to scroll down to the very bottom for a zip file of the 600 pages of documents. And what's above the documents is the NYPD's rather thorough explanation/ defense justifying why it did such extensive surveillance of disparate groups and people, listing various terror incidents between 2001 and the convention as well as other incidents of protest. Here is Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's statement:

“I think a close examination of the documents is going to show that the New York City Police Department did an outstanding job in protecting the City during the Republican National Convention. People wanted to come here and shut down the City, to replicate what happened in Seattle, Montreal and Genoa. We simply didn't let that happen, and I think it'll just underscore the outstanding work of the men and women of the Department. In terms of gathering information, the vast majority of information that was gathered was open-source information. It was gathered from the Internet; these groups that were coming here were advertising what they were going to do — bragging about what they were going to do. It wasn't particularly difficult to get the vast majority of this information.”

ACT UP, Sierra Club, City Council members (Charles Barron, David Weprin, Bill Perkins), Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Johnny Cash Bloc, MSNBC, A31 Coalition, NYCLU, NOW, Planned Parenthood, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Stuyvesant High School Students, Westboro Baptist Church, Indymedia, Democratic National Committee, Coalition of Fire and Police Unions, Grandmothers Against War, Falun Gong, Arab Muslim American Foundation, Time's Up, Billionaires For Bush, United for Peace and Justice, The Surveillance Camera Players, ACLU, Hip Hop Summit Action Network, The Federation of East Village Artists, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York

Congratulations to everyone graduating this month! As NYU's commencement was today, with speaker jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, we decided to list the many NYC commencement speakers, with help from The Chronicle of Higher Education (if we've missed any or gotten it wrong, let us know in comments):

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual rescue on Beverly Rd. in Brooklyn, a car vs. building incident at Myrtle Ave. and 74th St. in Queens, and a shooting at 125th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan.
• Matthew Goldstein, a CUNY alumnus and present chancellor of that school system, won the Carnegie Corp.'s Academic Leadership Award and will receive $500,000.
• Queens state assemblyman Rory Lancman wants an appointed member of NYC's Human Rights Commission removed for his involvement in a lawsuit against airline passengers who reported behavior they found suspicious. Bloomberg is backing his appointee.
• A temporary compromise is reached on big-dog and little-dog areas in Upper East Side dog run.
• The FCC wants in on the Don Imus fiasco and is reportedly investigating the controversial radio host.
• The detectives charged in the Sean Bell shooting appeared in a Queens courtroom today as lawyers and the judge worked on scheduling issues. Outside of court, advocates, supporters, and detractors for and against the defendants argued over who was conducting the worst public smear campaign.
• The city breaks ground on the 2nd Ave. Subway tomorrow; for the final time we hope.
• A 73-year-old woman fell partway into a gap between the station platform and an LIRR train this morning in Syosset.
• Get your hands on a printed subway schedule. It should give you something to read when your train is running late.

Have you ever been at a foreign restaurant and gotten the sneaking suspicion that prices for native speakers and you are different? Well, it turns out that in one Chinatown restaurant, that's true! A discrimination complaint by the city's Human Rights Commission was filed against the Canal Seafood Restaurant for allegedly giving Chinese customers a menu with lower prices. Can't we all just get along...and order the same $3.99 lunch specials? The initial complaint with the city was filed by a Wisconsin man who noticed that his party was being charged extra for rice, while the Chinese customers were getting rice with their dishes. Price comparisons of the English and Chinese menus found that dishes averaged $1 difference. As New Yorkers, is anybody really surprised? Maybe they were just given a tourist menu. Lawyers for the restaurant deny that there are different menus for non-Chinese people, only that there is a take-out and eat-in menu.

Lawsuits claiming hostile work environments have now hit the gym. A group of janitors claim that while working at Equinox fitness club locations, the Post excitedly details, they were "exposed inappropriate, lewd, embarrassing and humiliating sexual behavior and activities occurring in the showers, saunas, steam and [men's] locker rooms."

On Friday, NYC freelance journalist Bradley Roland Will was killed while covering a protest in Oaxaca. Will had been reporting on the human rights violations in Mexico for IndyMedia, and it seems that plainclothes paramilitary opened fire on a crowd of protesters. Will was shot in abdomen and died at a Red Cross Hospital; two others were killed and Will's photographer Oswaldo Ramirez was injured.

, were on hand last night for a post-screening discussion about conditions inside the Cuban base sponsored by the ACLU. Hosted by the IFC Center as a part of their ongoing Q&A series, the panel led by ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero brought home the responsibility of all people who care about human rights to speak out against the conditions and unlawful status of Guantanamo.

ART OPENINGS: Ann Craven's latest ?

Sure, you might think of Christopher Meloni as the always angry Detective Eliot Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but he's also had some indelible roles in The Runaway Bride, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Wet Hot American Summer and, of course, Oz. We were perusing the official Christopher Meloni website when we found this great speech that Oz (and Homicide) creator Tom Fontana gave for him at a Human Rights Equality Awards dinner:

When we were shooting OZ, there was a scene where the character he played, Keller, was in the Hole and had to take a piss. Chris got the script and came to my office: "I want to do this," he said, "I want to actually take a piss on camera." Normally, a scene like that would involve prop men and tubes and other special effects, but because Keller was naked, Chris' instincts were a hundred percent correct -- the scene would have more impact if he actually peed. Now, I don't know how an actor prepares for that, whether he uses Stanislavsky or Pellegrino - but the moment came, we're on the soundstage, the director calls action, the camera pans down and Chris starts peeing -- on cue. The shot is perfect. Except for one slight technical glitch. Okay. Take two - same deal, action, camera pans, Chris starts to pee on cue. The shot is even better. I'm happy. The director's delirious. Chris says, "Do we want to do it again? 'Cause I got another one in me."

Miriam Datskovsky, Sex Columnist, The Columbia Spectator

Kerry Shapleigh,
Foreign Service Brat, maybe Lifer

The United Nations has launched effort to say sorry to New Yorkers. But the U.N. is not apologizing for oil-for-food or for delegates who don't pay their parking tickets (it's city revenue!): They are apologizing for the gridlock that will come with next week's World Summit. And they want to let New Yorkers know that serious stuff is going to be discussed. Hmm, we wonder if the UN's consulting firm told them to make this pre-emptive ad blitz after Donald Trump went to Congress last July to complain about the UN's development plans. But, really, people just want to know if Angelina Jolie will make an appearance.

Can you believe it's just about a year since Bush and his band of Republicans invaded Gotham with their rhetoric. It was quite a time, barricades, protests, mass arrests, etc.

Aaron Lubarsky,
co-director/editor,
Seoul Train

Jonah Peretti, Director of R&D, Eyebeam

The weekend is here, and unfortunately our run of nice weather has run out. The rains will be coming. Luckily the city is prepared with plenty of indoor activities to enjoy, and if you're not scared of getting a little wet there is some outdoor fun to be had as well.

the women's room. Please, it's the Manhattan Mall - Gothamist is so sure that a transgender woman is not the oddest thing to be in that bathroom. And other shoppers were actually very supportive of Bogan using the ladies' room. We're actually pretty impressed that the City Commission now has such a wide interpretation of the law. But to tell the truth, even though they don't identify themselves as men, tons of women bum rush men's rooms since the women's room at various concert halls, ballparks, and theaters are too crowded. In fact, Gothamist is more concerned about equalizing bathroom rights for men and women; we wonder what happened to the City Council's old proposal.

Some lawmakers didn't think the reforms went far enough (NY State Senator Thomas Duane said "Rockefeller drug reform - ha! - I don't think so") but the NY Times reports that Russell Simmons, who campaigned for the repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, is happy with the State's decision and credits the hip-hop community for helping "raise awareness" of the issue.

Margaret Jiang, Falun Gong Activist