06/02/2020
I'm proud to be a member of the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild!
The National Lawyers Guild of Chicago (NLG Chicago)is working around the clock to support Chicagoans taking the streets to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and all Black people killed by police violence. There are reports of, more than 2,000 people who have been arrested in the City of Chicago since Friday. We are working with dozens of law students, legal workers, and lawyers to leverage our chapter’s existing resources and build infrastructure to support this wave of resistance sweeping across the entire country.
NLG Chicago has a Mass Defense Committee whose goal is to support progressive and radical social movements, including by minimizing and mitigating possible criminal repercussions. From the moment people began taking action last week, NLG Legal Observers--the folks in the neon green hats--have been in the streets aiming to support people expressing their political views as fully as possible without unconstitutional disruption or interference by the police. More than 30 Legal Observers have volunteered hundreds of hours of their collective time and expertise to these efforts. If you would like to request Legal Observers at an action you’re planning, contact Chicago.LO.Program [at] gmail.com.
On Saturday morning, NLG-Chicago began to get calls on our Mass Defense Hotline (773-309-1198) about the dozens of people who were brutally attacked and arrested by Chicago Police overnight in the Loop. Since that morning, our phone has been ringing nonstop with reports of arrests and police violence. Within 48 hours, we had recruited and trained 19 NLG members to staff this de facto hotline and answer these requests. Every day, our hotline is being staffed from the early morning hours through midnight.
Our hotline volunteers are also helping funnel information to the Cook County Public Defender’s Police Station Unit in the hopes that people arrested can speak with an attorney while in police custody. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our allies in the Public Defender’s office, this has not been possible. Throughout the weekend, the Chicago Police Department’s Central Booking number was largely unavailable, making it nearly impossible for anyone to locate people in police custody. Additionally, Chicago Police have set up roadblocks at every turn to prevent attorneys from meeting with their clients in police custody. We are committed to working with our allies in the Public Defender’s office and the private bar to find ways to work around these issues and best support people in police custody.
Our legal support hotline is also helping us gather information so that we can pair people who have been arrested with volunteer criminal defense attorneys who can represent them in court. We are simultaneously working in close partnership with Chicago Community Bond Fund to identify protesters with money bonds and ensure their release from out of Cook County Jail and safe return to their communities. All of these efforts are made infinitely more effective by the hundreds of volunteers doing jail support outside police stations and the jail, coordinated by Black Lives Matter: Chicago, Black and Pink: Chicago, the Let Us Breathe Collective, and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Chicago and supported by mutual aid groups and dozens of other organizations and individuals.
Since Saturday morning, NLG volunteers have fielded hundreds of calls and are currently tracking more than 300 people who have been arrested so that we can provide them with legal support. If you or someone you know has been arrested protesting in Chicago and would like support from the National Lawyers Guild, please call 773-309-1198.
From the moment this uprising began, we have been flooded with requests from attorneys who are looking for ways to use their skills to help people in the streets fighting for a better world. We are doing our best to find ways to connect these people to our efforts. If you’re an attorney looking to plug into our efforts, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEDSngmxz1I2ZAb042oeFAeOvKhzV_3zn7JAiRTKrD1ZwXIw/viewform
The National Lawyers Guild is proud to say that we are an explicitly abolitionist organization. We stand in full solidarity with the thousands of brave people who have put their lives on the line to fight for a world without police violence. In 2015, the national NLG adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of all prisons and of all aspects of systems and institutions that support, condone, create, fill, or protect prisons. We are committed to doing everything in our power to support the organizing necessary to achieve that goal.
If you would like to support the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago’s efforts right now, you can donate here: https://nlgchicago.org/donate/
