SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share the extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Arrested Just For Being Homeless
Janet Bell, a resident of Boise, ID, became homeless more than ten years ago, but it was only after she was arrested for sitting outside that she took the city to court.
Janet, who lost part of her left arm, and nearly her life, from an infection that she caught living outside received her first of multiple citations simply for sitting on a riverbank with another individual. Janet, like most homeless people, couldn’t afford to pay the tickets and eventually she was arrested. The city targeted many other homeless individuals in this manner.
Their Day in Court: Obtaining Justice for New Mexico’s Poorest Workers
Robert was attacked by a bull while working at the dairy where he had been employed for seven years. His injuries left him permanently disabled. He had no health insurance and no workers’ compensation. In almost constant pain, he could not work. Although his wife began working three jobs, they still lost their home. Two years later, the strain broke up their family. Robert became homeless and estranged from his children.
Gun Violence – We’ve Had #Enough!
Bullets and Basketball – Taking the Profit Out of Supplying Gun Criminals
It was an August night, and Danny Williams, a rising high school junior, was playing basketball near his home in Buffalo, New York. Danny’s coach said he “could have been one of the best point guards in Western New York.” That was before the ball bounced into a neighbor’s yard, before Danny went to pick it up, and before, out of nowhere, a car drove up, a gun emerged from the driver’s window, and fired a bullet into Danny’s abdomen.
Danny was a good kid. It was just a case of mistaken identity: wrong place, wrong time. Danny survived, but his dreams of playing basketball at a NCAA Division I college and beyond, died that August night.
Danny’s shooter, it turned out, was a known gang member who mistakenly believed Danny was a member of a rival gang. Police found the shooter’s 9mm Hi-Point handgun on the floor of his car when they arrested him.
The story of how this Buffalo gang member got his gun tells us a lot about how criminals are armed in America—and how we can stop it.
When Is A Park Not A Park? - Saving Coney Island Boardwalk Garden
One if the issues in the Coney Island Boardwalk Garden case that I discussed in my previous post boils down to a simple yet vexing question:
What is a park?
To most of us, a park is the playground down the block; the soccer fields where our kids play; the riverfront where we picnic and walk our dogs. But what about those lands that are open to the public but lack the grass or trees that we generally associate with parkland? What about beaches, or lakes, or sandlots? And what about land that is used like a park but actually sits on private property—like gardens outside of commercial buildings, or college campuses, or outdoor malls?
Here, in the Coney Island case, we have a plot of land was owned by the City, managed by the community as a park and garden, used for distinct park-related purposes, and labeled as a park on nearly every city map (though not, it must be noted, on the official hand-drawn borough map, which can be viewed only by visiting the Brooklyn Borough President’s office).
In other words, we have land that bears all the hallmarks of a park, yet lacks an official “park” designation. This then lead to the next question: Why at all does this matter?
A Fresh Start For Asylum Seekers
ABT Class Action Settlement agreement enables asylum seekers to live out of the shadows
Ms. M- is a young, indigenous Guatemalan woman who fled severe domestic violence and discrimination in Guatemala to seek asylum in the United States. She arrived at the U.S. border in December of 2014, was detained by immigration, and transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. With the help local advocates and community members, who raised a bond for her, she was released from detention. However, her first immigration court hearing was not scheduled until over a year later, in April of 2016.
Under the old system, before the ABT settlement agreement, this would have created untold hardship for her as she would not have been eligible to even look for work to support herself. First, by law she would be required to wait until the next hearing, in April of 2016, to submit her asylum application. Then, she would not be eligible to even apply for employment authorization until six more months had passed.
A parent’s perspective on inclusion of children with disabilities
I have discovered the key to inclusion of people with autism in school and the community. You see, it is all a matter of perception. Instead of trying to explain my son through the confines of autism, I have discovered a much more enlightening explanation. I now tell people that he’s French. After all, the signs are there: He speaks an incomprehensible language; has a unique style of personal grooming, demonstrates a disdain verging on revulsion of American cuisine, and is maddeningly aloof.
Justice for People with Disabilities – Huronia Class Action
Imagine living in a cramped and segregated hospital-style ward, with no privacy, no personal control over your daily life, no chance to form intimate relationships, and no ability to leave. Overcrowding, under-funding, a lack of qualified supervision, as well as a lack of residents’ abilities to advocate for themselves, led to these toxic environments being a daily reality for widespread alleged abuse for thousands labeled with cognitive and developmental disabilities in Canada as recently as 2009.
When a Park Stands Between New York City, a Real Estate Developer, and an Underserved Coney Island Community
A coalition of environmental advocates and community members join together to protect green space and support a long-ignored urban community.
Like so much public interest litigation, this is a case that never should have ended up in court.