Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a two alarm fire at 80 Washington St in Lower Manhattan; an aircraft emergency at JFK this morning; two pedestrians struck on E. 53rd St.; and a "possible A.I. job" (whatever that is) in Woodhaven. The NYCLU objected yesterday to the number of cases the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated. The board, which investigates police misconduct, only substantiated 5% of the cases, but that's actually higher than that of......

aboutmattlaw took this great photograph at the Ditmars Boulevard subway station stairs. It's a nod to Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone's proposed legislation to ban "non-sensual" peeping, with punishments like 90 days in jail and a $500 fine for first offense. Vallone said that his bill was prompted by some women's complaints that a "rather large pervert" was lurking under the Ditmars station's subway steps. Per the Queens Gazette, Vallone emphasizes, "These perverts use......

The NYCLU and ACLU are suing the Transportation Security Administration and Jet Blue over an incident where a passenger was forced to cover/change his shirt, which had Arabic lettering. Last year, Reid Jarrar, an American resident of Iraqi descent, was taking a JetBlue flight at JFK when a TSA official asked him to over his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both English and Arabic. The shirt's message is taken from the......

Almost three years after the 2004 Republican National Convention, the tactics the NYPD used are still being debated in court. Per the NY Times, federal judge James C. Francis ruled yesterday that "hundreds of field intelligence reports by undercover investigators who infiltrated and compiled dossiers on protest groups" must be disclosed. The city had been battling the NYCLU over the release of the intelligence reports ever since the revelation this past spring that the......

Last night, Picture New York held a First Amendment rally in Union Square to protest some wacky new rules the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcast. For instance, permits would be needed for a group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour as well as any group of five or more people who would be using a tripod......

We've been hearing about a plan to increase security downtown by placing security cameras and license plate readers in Lower Manhattan, "ring of steel"-style for a while, but now the NY Times has word on when it'll happen. According to police officials, more than 100 cameras will be in place by the end of the year and if it's fully financed, over 3,000 private and public cameras will be up and running. From the......

There are new details surrounding Sunday's 208 arrests at the Puerto Rican Day Parade: According to the NY Times, the police still claim that people were arrested for "specific illegal behavior," like blocking traffic, and not because they were wearing colors of the Latin Kings gang. However:Criminal complaints filed against 10 defendants show that the police were concerned about the risk that those arrested would engage in violent or threatening behavior or cause some public......

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......

A judge sided with the city and is allowing police files to remain secret. After the NY Times ran two stories about how the NYPD spied on groups at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention - and some of the groups did not seem to be intent on breaking the law - questions were raised about police conduct and whether the police broke the law (police cannot spy on organizations unless......

There's a big NY Times story about the NYPD's preparation before the 2004 Republican National Convention: The police started spying on protesters a year before the actual convention. For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and......

Last week, the NY Sun mentioned Cully Long in an article about websites documenting people's thoughts about the subway. Long uses his commute between 125th Street and 59th Street along the A in Manhattan to sketch commuters he sees and posts the ballpoint pen sketches on his site, a child of atom. Drawing and taking pictures on the subway is so common that it makes the attempted (and laughable) ban on subway photography seem......

Federal Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. banned the police's ability to routinely videotape demonstrations yesterday. Haight found the NYPD violated Handschu v. Special Services Division, a 1971 decision that established "consent decree"; Haight wrote in his decision, "Solely politically based investigations are flatly prohibited by the guidelines. In other words, there must always be a legitimate law enforcement purpose - having a purpose of investigating political activity exclusively for its own sake is never......

Today many will gather at Strawberry Fields in Central Park to hold vigil on the anniversary of the death of John Lennon, which took place 26 years ago today. The NYCLU has asked the city to lift the ban on music at Strawberry Fields for every day of the year, not just twice a year for Lennon vigils. Yoko Ono, who says she is still struggling to forgive the Mark Chapman, recently made a call......

- People are insane and our justice system is screwy as well, as New York Hack details an incident that boggles the mind - The NYCLU is expanding their lawsuit against the city about photography rights - The FDNY is trying to recruit more minorities and has removed the old requirement of needing some college credit to join - Bike messengers want to know about crappy buildings to deliver to - And we thought......

The NYCLU is working with the FBI as the federal agency investigates whether the NYPD violated civil rights of protesters during the Republican National Convention in 2004. The FBI only confirmed they did send a letter to the NYCLU, but luckily the NYCLU has a PDF of the letter here. The FBI is looking for Dennis Kyne, whose arrest was thrown out after "videotape contradicted" the police officer's account. Interesting - and we're sure......

The NYCLU is trying to stop the NYPD from videotaping political protests, saying that the surveillance would prevent people from demonstrating anonymously. On September 10, 2004, after the Republican National Convention, the police adopted Police Interim Order 47 which allowed them to tape political activity in order to fight terrorism; Handschu v. Special Services Division is the 1971 decision that established "consent decree" when the Black Panthers sued the police for surveiling their political activity.......

The NYCLU is getting involved with the case of Michelle McCusker, who was fired from her Catholic school teaching job for being pregnant while unmarried. St. Rose of Lima School in Rockaway says that McCusker violated the "tenets of Catholic morality" (the principal wrote, "When a situation becomes evident that a teacher's life can not [sic] witness what the Catholic Church teaches, then termination of contract must occur"); the NYCLU is claiming gender discrimination, asking......

The NYCLU's lawsuit against the city over the subway bag checks gets a little bit of controversial national figure action with the deposition of Richard Clarke, aka the pre-Homeland Security days terrorism adviserr under Presidents Clinton and Bush who claimed that the Bush administration was lazy and didn't do enough to prevent the September 11 attacks. Clarke thinks the bag searches are a great idea, but that may be because the NYPD consulted with Clarke......

The testimony for the NYCLU's lawsuit agains the NYPD for the subway bag searches has ended, and after reading the NY Times article, it seems that both sides pull out the stops for crazy quotes. NYPD did admit that the bag searches occur very rarely, but tried to scare Judge Richard M. Berman. Deputy Commissioner for counterterrorism Michael Sheehan said, "There is no doubt in my mind that the introduction of bag searches - even......

Judge Richard M. Berman, a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan, will hear from lawyers contending that the subway bad searches are unconstitutional. The NYCLU sued the city on behalf of subway riders in August. The NYCLU also conducted its own survey between August 25 through September 16, finding that 34 searches were being held across 5,500 subway turnstile entrances. Per the AP, the NYCLU feels "the search program in the 468 subway stations serving......

Udi Ofer,
Director,
NYCLU's Bill of Rights Defense Campaign...

The NY Civil Liberties Union released their report of problems during the Republican National Convention yesterday and you can read it in its 65-page PDF glory here. The NYCLU has many recommendations, from starting an independent agency to oversee the planning and management of protests to not detaining arrestees (of minor offenses) for long periods of time. Basically, treat protests and demonstrations more like street fairs and outdoor concerts, because protesting the government is akin......

The plaintiffs in the NYCLU's lawsuit against New York City spoke up about why they felt the subway bag checks violated their rights. The NYCLU has profiles of the plaintiffs, including why they filed the lawsuit. Norman Murphy told an officer he couldn't check his bag, and ended up walking to another subway station, while Andrew Schonebaum had his bag searched and a police officer said, "Aren't you happy to have your bag searched?" What's......

The NY Civil Liberties Union is filing a lawsuit against New York City that questions whether the NYPD's subway bag checks are constitutional. The NYCLU argues that the bag checks are "virtually certain neither to catch any person trying to carry explosives into the subway nor to deter such an effort" and "unprecedented in terms of the threat it poses to core constitutional rights." There are five plaintiffs on the suit, one who is......

Prosectors have dropped charges against over 200 Republican Convention protesters that had been arrested near Ground Zero during the second day of the convention. According to the Post, Assistant D.A. William Beesch said, "No useful purpose would be served by continuing the prosecution," and the judge complied. Considering one of yesterday's defendants from the War Resisters League protest was Richard Hardie, 73 year old major and combat veteran who flew in the Korean and Vietnam......

Convention protest buzz - Both the NYPD and protest groups are claiming victory with a federal judge's ruling that (via NY1): - Police cannot search demonstrators' bags unless they can show a specific threat to public safety; - Police can conduct less-intrusive searches, such as using metal detecting wands - Police can use metal pens to control protesters, but not to contain them However, the Daily News says the NYPD is actually very upset,......