Category: Archive
Human Rights Watch: “Kettling” Protesters in the Bronx
“Human Rights Watch analyzed 155 videos that were recorded during the protest, some of which were posted on social media and others that were shared directly with Human Rights Watch. We also reviewed social media posts related to the protest and police scanner recordings from the 40th and 41st precincts on the evening of June […]
Blavity: Judge Orders Release Of 26-Year-Old Gambian Immigrant Detained At ICE Facility For 3 Years
“A federal judge ordered ICE officials at a jail in New Jersey on Monday to release Ousman Darboe, a 26-year-old undocumented immigrant from Gambia who has been detained for more than three years, according to his lawyers at The Bronx Defenders. Darboe, a Black Muslim, was pardoned by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in February but has […]
WNYC: Held By ICE Longer Than Any New Yorker, Bronx Man Is Finally Freed
“Ousman Darboe arrived from Gambia at age 6. He was locked up by ICE more than three years ago — an extraordinary length of time even more notable because in February, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pardoned him for the alleged crime that landed him in detention: robbing gold chains, which he said he didn’t do. Sophia Gurulé, […]
City Limits: Opinion: Disinvestment Deepens the Impact of COVID-19 and Racism in the Bronx
“The twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice that have ripped through this country the past six month have exposed and exacerbated long-standing inequities in our collective health, prosperity, and safety. Thousands of low-income people of color have died, millions of low-wage workers are out of a job, and Black people are experiencing violence, trauma, […]
Civil Rights Group Demand AirBnB Reform Discriminatory Policy on Arrest and Conviction Records Used to Ban People from Platform
A broad coalition of civil rights organizations sent a demand letter to Airbnb today urging them to end a company policy that discriminates against individuals with arrest and conviction histories and allows users to be banned without explanation or a meaningful chance to appeal. New York, NY – A broad coalition of civil rights organizations, including […]
The Wall Street Journal: Algorithm Helps New York Decide Who Goes Free Before Trial
“You’re codifying these structural inequalities into the tool,” said Scott Levy, chief policy counsel at the Bronx Defenders, a public-defender organization. “That is particularly pernicious because you are doing it under the guise of science.” Read the full article here
Gotham Gazette: Time to Say Goodbye to NYPD Buy and Busts
“The protests following George Floyd’s murder have amplified two different, yet intertwined demands: to hold police officers accountable and to defund the police. In New York City, the NYPD’s continued use of predatory “buy and bust” operations, which target poor people of color and are conducted by detectives with long misconduct histories, exemplifies the imperative […]
The City: Former Inmates Threatened with Early Checkout from Taxpayer-Funded Hotel Rooms
“The program has improved the chances of people getting released from city jails and state prisons, said Julia Solomons, senior policy social workers for the Bronx Defenders. Prosecutors, judges and prison officials are more likely to agree to let people out when they know there’s a hotel bed available as opposed to a packed shelter, Solomons […]
ACLU: For Black Immigrants, Police and ICE Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
“We are setting up Black communities, and the Black immigrants who live in those communities like in the Bronx, to fail,” said Sophia Gurulé, Darboe’s attorney and a policy counsel at Bronx Defenders. “He was basically plagued by constant policing and criminalization since he was a teenager.” Now, Darboe faces the prospect of deportation back […]
Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent: The Role of Prosecutors, Police and Other Law Enforcement
“This is a report about the role of official misconduct in the conviction of innocent people. We discuss cases that are listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, an ongoing online archive that includes all known exonerations in the United States since 1989, 2,663 as of this writing. This Report describes official misconduct in the […]