NLG CHICAGO

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Chicago Torture Survivors Reparations Ordinance

Please Support the Chicago Torture Survivors Reparations Ordinance!

This past fall, on October 16, 2013, Aldermen Howard Brookins and Proco Joe Moreno introduced an Ordinance seeking Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors drafted by the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) and the People’s Law Office. The ordinance has since been sent to the finance committee of Chicago’s City Council.

Please sign the  on line petition at:

http://www.change.org/petitions/pass-the-ordinance-seeking-reparations-for-the-chicago-police-torture-survivors

On (HEARING POSTPONED, TBD) Tuesday, March 4, 2014, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., the Finance Committee will be having a hearing on the reparations ordinance. Join us at the hearing in the City Council chambers on the 2nd floor of City Hall. A large turnout of supporters at the hearing will have a profound impact on how the Alderpeople hear our appeal and consider their support.

The Ordinance calls for a formal apology to the survivors; creates a Commission to administer financial compensation to the survivors; creates a medical, psychological and vocational center on the south side for the survivors and their family members; provides free enrollment in City Colleges for the survivors and family members; requires Chicago Public schools to teach a history lesson about the cases; requires the City to fund public memorials about the cases; and sets aside $20 million to finance this redress, the same amount of money the City has spent to defend Burge, other detectives and former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Chicago Police torture cases.

The torture survivors continue to suffer from the psychological effects of the torture they endured; many without any compensation or assistance or legal recourse for any redress. The City of Chicago is responsible for these undeniable human rights violations and it must make amends to the torture survivors, family members and communities of color affected by these racist, police practices. The Ordinance is an important and lasting way for it to do so.

You can read the entire ordinance at www.chicagotorture.org or www.peopleslawoffice.com

 

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Fred Korematsu Day

korematsu
Thursday, January 30th, 11:45am-1pm
DePaul College of Law, 25 E. Jackson Blvd, Room 903
Fred Korematsu is the Japanese-American man who would not consent to being interned after President Roosevelt ordered that all Japanese-Americans be interned as World War II began. He is also the individual responsible for the landmark Korematsu v. United States case.
Join us for a screening of the brief film “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs” about Korematsu’s life and a discussion about the racial profiling he endured then and the racial profiling too often experienced by people of color today.
Reflections by:
Kiyo Yoshimura 
Former internee in Japanese-American internment camps
 
Rabya Khan
Staff attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations

Sponsors: CAIR-Chicago, National Lawyers Guild-Chicago TUPOCC, Japanese American Citizens League, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, South Asian American Policy & Research Institute, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, The Chicago International Social Change Film Festival, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum-Chicago 

 

Student Group Sponsors: DePaul NLG, DePaul APALSA, Northwestern University South Asian Law Student Association, and Northwestern University APALSA, Chicago-Kent APALSA 

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TUPOCC Hot Chocolate Social

Come meet law students, legal workers, and attorneys and discuss how we can work with/in communities of color in 2014.

Join The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) as we warm up with a hot chocolate or a cafe´con leche and meet other radical people of color in the National Lawyer’s Guild.
When: Wednesday, January 22nd at 5:30pm
Where: Cafecito, 26 E. Congress Parkway (between State and Wabash)TUPOCC’s mission is to create a space within the National Lawyer’s Guild for attorneys, legal workers, and law students of color who are committed to people’s rights over property rights to build community, strategize for radical political change and provide support to the courageous struggles of communities of color.

Visit our Facebook page to find out more about TUPOCC Chicago and the NLG:https://www.facebook.com/TUPOCCChicagoChapter

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Next Gen Happy Hour at Cardozo’s Pub

Kick-Off the New Year and New Semester at the NEXT GEN HAPPY HOUR

When: This Friday, January 17, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Where: Cardozo’s Pub, 170 W Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602 (easily accessible from all L lines!)

We have the side room reserved.

Specials: Drinks are pretty cheap and this is a chance to see all your old (and future) NextGen pals

The Next Gen Happy Hour:  Every month, the Next Gen Committee of the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago throws a happy hour to bring together young, progressive, and radical attorneys, law students, and legal workers to drink, socialize, organize, and relax.  

Join us! We would really love to see as many people out for this happy hour as possible. With the convention right around the bend, let’s reconnect!

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NLG Applauds the Compassionate Release of Lynne Stewart

December 31, 2013

Contact: Tasha Moro, 212-679-5100, ext. 15
NEW YORK —Today Judge John G. Koeltl granted the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) request for the compassionate release of Lynne Stewart. This is heartening news. Ms. Stewart is 74 years old and has terminal cancer with a life expectancy of less than 18 months. She has been serving a ten-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center Carswell (FMC Carswell) in Fort Worth, Texas, in connection with her defense of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

As her condition has continued to deteriorate, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and several legal and social justice organizations have twice called on Attorney General Eric Holder to direct the BOP to grant compassionate release. Given that Ms. Stewart’s medical condition clearly falls within recent reforms to the BOP’s compassionate release program announced by Holder in August, and that the warden at FMC Carswell had earlier approved her release, the NLG urged that the process of consideration be expedited.

“From arrest to sentencing, Lynne Stewart’s case was used by the Department of Justice to send a chilling message to attorneys: think twice about who you represent! For speaking to a Reuters reporter about her client’s viewpoints – in violation of an administrative order – an ailing Ms. Stewart was sentenced to a decade in prison. Today’s small measure of justice does little to repair the damage wrought by the government’s unjust prosecution of an advocate whose service to society has been widely documented,” said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the NLG.

Robert J. Boyle, one of Lynne Stewart’s attorneys added, “We are gratified and thankful that the government has agreed to Lynne’s compassionate release request. She has dedicated her life to fighting for justice for the underserved and unpopular. Lynne can now return home to her family and to the community that loves her.”

Ms. Stewart is a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild. Since her initial indictment, Guild members have educated the public about the many ways her case runs afoul of the Constitution. The Guild’s 2005 publication The Case of Lynne Stewart: A Justice Department Attack on the Bill of Rights is available at nlg.org.

Contact

637 S. Dearborn St., 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60605

(773) 492-1405
chicago[@]nlg.org