Congratulations to our Phenomenal Student Chapter 2018!

As part of the festivities of this year’s Annual May Day Party, the NLG-Chicago board awarded the Chicago Kent College of Law Student Chapter the Phenomenal Student Chapter Award in recognition of their excellent work and organizing. Here are but a few things they did last year:

• Hosted the 2017 NLG Midwest Conference
• Hosted the city-wide 2017 DisOrientation
• Held multiple Week Against Mass Incarceration events
• Organized a panel on the Water Protector Legal Collective
• Made holiday cards for young people behind bars
• Built community and supported allies such as: FDLA, Black & Pink, CCBF, Community Justice Project, Critical Resistance, Students Against Incarceration, USW, Liberation Library, and many more

Thanks for all your hard work, Kent Students. You’re an inspiration!

Between March 5 and 7, the Kent NLG student chapter hosted three events for the NLG Week Against Mass Incarceration.

On March 5, Kent put together a panel discussion about the Chicago gang database and how ICE is using it for immigration enforcement. Officially known as the Strategic Subject List (SSL), the gang database is a “predictive policing” tool that CPD uses to surveil and target black and brown communities. The content of this deeply flawed database is being shared with ICE, leading to arrests, detention, and deportation actions against Chicago residents.

Activists and lawyers from Organized Communities Against Deportations,The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center, working in various capacities on this issue, shared their experience and insight.

For more background information on ICE’s use of the gang database (and the gang database in general), check out these articles:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/08/28/how-ice-uses-secret-police-databases-to-arrest-immigrants

http://blackyouthproject.com/chicago-gang-database-deportation/

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/what-gets-people-on-watch-list-chicago-police-fought-to-keep-secret-watchdogs/

http://www.businessinsider.com/chicagos-experimental-policing-tool-is-hurting-people-2016-8

On March 6, Kent students organized a bake sale and raffle to raise $144 for Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez and his family. Mr. Catalan-Ramirez did not receive sufficient medical care for his gunshot wounds during his 10 months in detention following a warrant-less, and violent raid that left him with a broken shoulder on March 27, 2017. While he has been released after a long fight, he requires long-term medical care and therapy and cannot work to provide for his family. Mr. Catalan-Ramirez’s online fundraising is still active, if you didn’t get the chance to give please visit https://www.youcaring.com/wilmercatalanramirezandhisfamily-1075617

For March 7, Kent Students had First Defense Legal Aid give a training on station house defense. Law students and graduates eligible for a 711 license were trained to provide direct legal representation to clients in police custody all over Chicago for the period before a public defender is available.

Station house defense is a unique volunteer experience, and is part of the movement for police accountability, and helps protect Chicago residents from coercive police tactics. FDLA sponsored law students and graduates who are eligible for a 711 license, and applications were provided at the training.

On behalf of the NLG Chicago board members and staff, thank you to our attendees, planning committee, and sponsors for making this years Midwest Conference a success!

Michael Deutsch of People’s Law gave the opening keynote address Saturday night. During his address, he described his first trial, defending the Black Panthers in Carbondale, IL. He won that case – not guilty on 47 counts. Deutsch shared his next principle of putting “the State on trial. Raise the political nature of the case at every step in the case.”

Timothy Rose, of Peoples Response Team, along with Debbie Southorn, from American Friends Service Committee, gave a panel on organizers and lawyers who have played a role in campaigns confronting racist policing.

They talked about “copwatch” training and the work of Protect Rogers Park. Southorn recommends The Reader’s article for more info. The moderator, Joey Mogul of People’s Law, encourages everyone to read the forthcoming book “Invisible No More”.

This year’s impressive environmental justice panel included Emily Coffey from the Shriver Center, and Bob Gough, Bruce Ellison, Carolyn Raffensperger from the Water Protector Legal Collective. The panel was moderated by Robin Martinez, a board member of the Heartland Conservation Alliance. Emily Coffey shared the story of East Chicago lead contamination harming low-income residents, which you can read more about in this Chicago Tribune article.

Another important panel this year was the “Community Responses to the Targeting of Immigrant Communities” panel which consisted of Mony Ruiz-Velasco the executive director of PASO Action, Reyna Wences of OCAD, Ana Guajardo founder of Immigrants Workers’ Project, and was moderated by? Lilian Jiménez Policy Director for 7th District Commissioner Chuy García. Reyna Wences described OCAD’s collaboration BYP100, Arab American Action Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice & others to expand the concept of sanctuary.

National Lawyers Guild president Natasha Lycia Bannan gave a talk about movement lawyering, militarized policing, Water Protectors and immigrant defense in Chicago.

The evening dinner and celebration was at Nellie’s Puerto Rican Restaurant. Jan Susler and Jose Lopez spoke of Oscar Lopez‘s return to Paseo Boricua next month.