D.C. Justice & Solidarity Collective

DC April 2002 Action Support

The April 2002 Legal Team

The collective was just one member of a (radical) legal team that provided support during and after the April 19-22, 2002 actions here in D.C. The D.C. Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) coordinated with criminal defense, civil and immigration attorneys to provide a broad range of support before, during, and after the actions. The support included trainings and participation as legal observers on the streets, and provision of legal aid in the courtroom. NLG lawyers worked on constitutional rights issues, including those related to: harassment and stops and searches by the police, police misconduct during the actions, distribution of flyers and postering, and protection of meeting spaces from police raids, as well as permits for and access to public spaces.

The DC Justice and Solidarity Collective (the local activist law collective), along with other law collectives and volunteers: helped coordinate legal trainings, staffed a phone bank during the actions, helped facilitate jail and court solidarity, and worked with the criminal defense lawyers as needed. We had collective volunteers (separate from the NLG legal observers) on the street to hand out Know Your Rights information, to make sure that all folks have the phone bank hotline numbers, and to keep lawyers and others aware of "hot spots," or areas where police misconduct, arrests, or standoffs between demonstrators and police or counter demonstrators are occurring.

There were two phone numbers available from April 19-22. One for those in trouble or in jail, and another for friends, and family of those who may have been arrested and for general legal updates.

There were 104 arrests over the 4 days of action. Forty-one were arrested and charged with failure to obey a lawful order during the critical mass bike-ride on Friday. Twenty-five (the 'stir-fry 25') were arrested on Saturday and charged with unlawful entry, and Thirty-seven were arrested on Monday morning during the Colombia Mobilization's march with an obstruction of a roadway charge. All arrestees were released within a day. Court dates for the Stir-Fry 25 were held on May 2nd and 7th. Those arrested at the Colombia Mobilization protest had court on May 8th.