LINKS

LAWYERS


Logo Hutchison & Stoys - Warriors for Justice (from website)Hutchison & Stoy, PLLC is currently only representing clients in the state of Texas.


VICTIMS SUPPORT & ACTION


Black Lives Matter Logo from website

#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.


Know their Names

Black People Killed by the Police in the US

Al-Jazeera’s interactive gallery with portraits and details of the cases.


THIS IS SEAN MONTERROSA

He was literally kneeling down with his hands up when Vallejo police shot and killed him. He deserves justice.


7 Last Words of the UnarmedMichael Brown. Trayvon Martin. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Kenneth Chamberlain. Amadou Diallo. John Crawford.

These African-American men–each killed by police or by authority figures–are the subject of a powerful multi-movement choral work by Atlanta-based composer Joel Thompson titled Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.  The piece was recently premiered by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club under the direction of Dr. Eugene Rogers, associate director of choirs and professor of conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Though over one hundred black men have been murdered in the last decade, this website only focuses on seven whose last words most align with the text structure of the composition.


RESEARCH & ADVOCACY


CCR Logo from websiteThe Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, we have taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works creatively to advance and defend the constitutional and human rights of social justice movements and communities under threat and helps them build power. We are committed to dismantling systems of oppression and fighting for justice through litigation, advocacy, and narrative shifting.

  • Litigation: What is legal is not always just. We use creative and aggressive legal strategies to fight the most virulent forms of oppression and push the law to meet the demands of justice. We are lawyers who center our legal strategies around the aspirations of progressive social movements and those with the least access to justice.
  • Advocacy: We prioritize forms of advocacy that complement our legal strategies with short- and long-term campaigns, policy work, trainings, public education, and thought leadership. Alliances with communities, organizations, activists, and storytellers help build power where it’s most needed, among communities who have been pushed to the margins.
  • Narrative shifting: We use media and thought leadership to challenge dominant narratives and make space for the voices and experiences of those who have been pushed to the margins. These tactics allow us to shape public opinion about the issues we fight, which can initially be seen as controversial, and create opportunities to dismantle institutionalized power while building the power of social movements.

Gun Violence ArchiveThe Gun Violence Archive is an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. GVA is an independent data collection and research group with no affiliation with any advocacy organization.

Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is a not for profit corporation formed in 2013 to provide free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States. GVA will collect and check for accuracy, comprehensive information about gun-related violence in the U.S. and then post and disseminate it online, primarily if not exclusively on this website and summary ledgers at www.facebook.com/gunviolencearchive and on Twitter @gundeaths. It is hoped that this information will inform and assist those engaged in discussions and activities concerning gun violence, including analysis of proposed regulations or legislation relating to gun safety usage. All we ask is to please provide proper credit for use of Gun Violence Archive data and advise us of its use.

GVA is not, by design an advocacy group. The mission of GVA is to document incidents of gun violence and gun crime nationally to provide independent, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy or writing.


Killed by Police logo from websiteYearly Databases of people killed by police from 2015 to 2020. Regularly updated.


ProPublica-Data-Store-color.pngThe NYPD Files

Search Thousands of Civilian Complaints Against New York City Police Officers

This free download is a database of more than 12,000 civilian complaints filed against New York City police officers.

After New York state repealed the statute that kept police disciplinary records secret, known as 50-a, ProPublica filed a records request with New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates complaints by the public about NYPD officers. The board provided us with records about closed cases for every police officer still on the force as of late June 2020 who had at least one substantiated allegation against them. The records span decades, from September 1985 to January 2020.

We have published, and are releasing for download here, a version of the data that excludes any allegations that investigators concluded did not occur and were deemed unfounded.

We chose to include the basic information disclosed by the CCRB about allegations that investigators deemed unsubstantiated. Unsubstantiated means the CCRB, which has limited investigative powers, was not able to confirm that the alleged incident happened and that it violated the NYPD’s rules.

We also chose to include cases where an investigator found that what a civilian alleged did happen but the conduct was allowed by the NYPD’s rules. The Police Department’s guidelines often give officers substantial discretion, particularly around use of force. Those cases are classified as “exonerated.”

All this information can help readers examine the records of officers who have been the subject of a pattern of complaints.

Each record in the data lists the name, rank, shield number, and precinct of each officer as of today and at the time of the incident; the age, race and gender of the complainant and the officer; a category describing the alleged misconduct; and whether the CCRB concluded the officers’ conduct violated NYPD rules.

Every complaint in the database was fully investigated by the CCRB, which means, among other steps, a civilian provided a sworn statement to investigators. The CCRB was not able to reach conclusions in many cases, in part because the investigators must rely on the NYPD to hand over crucial evidence, such as footage from body-worn cameras. Often, the department is not forthcoming despite a legal duty to cooperate in CCRB investigations. The CCRB gets thousands of complaints per year but substantiates a tiny fraction of them. Allegations of criminal conduct by officers are typically investigated not by the CCRB but by state or federal prosecutors in conjunction with the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau or the FBI.

The download includes the information on this page, a layout table and basic glossary for the fields included.

Updated 7/27/20: Download was updated to include expanded documentation and shield numbers.

[Search the database online here : ProPublica NYPD Files]


American Human Rights Observer Logo from websiteAmerican Human Rights Observer

Mission

The mission of the American Human Rights Observer is to monitor and publish reports about potential violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the United States of America.

Responsibilities
  • Maintaining a web page at in order to provide crucial information on how to report human rights violations securely from the United States.
  • Publishing and distributing uncensorable reports, articles and media about human rights violations in the United States.
  • Reporting to the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council and referring war crimes and crimes against humanity to the registrar of the International Criminal Court.

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Work In Progress by Gleb Khorunzhiy (the Noun Project)