New York Law for Activists

Posted 12 years ago on July 29, 2011, 8 p.m. EST by jart (1186) from New York, NY

Please post as much information as possible in this thread about New York law relating to activism. We need to know our rights!

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[-] 3 points by zoe (67) 12 years ago

Palm Card: Demonstrating in New York City http://www.nyclu.org/node/1047

Palm Card: What to Do If You're Stopped by the Police http://www.nyclu.org/node/1046

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[-] 1 points by jart (1186) from New York, NY 12 years ago

Copied from the NYC General Assembly mailing list:

I’ve made some important headway on understanding the legal nature of organizer’s attempts to create an encampment on Wall Street on September 17. To recap for everyone, according to a federal court ruling in 2000, the use of "public sleeping as a means of symbolic expression" is allowed on public sidewalks in New York City. (METROPOLITAN COUNCIL, INC., Plaintiff, -against- HOWARD SAFIR, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, et al., June 12, 2000 [99 F. Supp. 2d 438; 2000 U.S. Dist.]).

The demonstrators of Bloombergville employed this tactic during an occupation that lasted for a few weeks; due to a prohibition on camping by the NYC Parks Department, the encampment was forced to move several times due to its being located on/just outside of City Hall park. Once it finally moved across the street to the sidewalks on the corner of Broadway and Park Place, it was stable for the remainder of its time, being constantly monitored by officers of NYPD but drawing little serious interference.

In pursuit of further clarity on the public/private nature of streets, sidewalks and the general area in the Pit of Wall Street (intersection of Wall Street and Broad), I undertook an extensive search today, from NYC City Planning, to Department of Transportation, and eventually all the way to the 1st precinct of the NYPD. At each location, I gathered the understanding that there are virtually no private streets in Manhattan, that while the pit of Wall Street is prohibited to almost all vehicular traffic it remains open to pedestrians, and that, aside from the fenced-in area just in front of the NY Stock Exchange, the sidewalks on Wall Street and Broad are PUBLIC SIDEWALKS (this came from the mouth of the NYPD officer herself!)

While I am no lawyer, this leads me to believe we have the very real potential to establish a legal encampment on Wall Street. I am trying to contact a Community Affairs officer in the NYPD to discuss any NYPD concerns about such a legal encampment; it is my belief that transparency may be the most powerful tactic we have to keep Wall Street on its toes and the police on our side (remember, they are workers too!) To begin testing this hypothesis, members of the Arts and Culture committee have elected to do a test run of sleeping out on Wall Street tomorrow night, September 1st.

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[-] 1 points by Solinvictus (4) 12 years ago

Thanks for the info

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[-] 1 points by mary (5) 12 years ago

pamphlet: National Lawyers Guild: Know Your Rights

http://www.nlg.org/resources/know-your-rights/

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New York Law for Activists

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