With the ramp up of ICE, sometimes dressed in camo like terrorists, with masks and huge guns, snatching people off the street without a warrant, legal observing becomes important. Be sure to document what you see (or video). Here's a website with info:
History of Legal Observing
The idea of community members watching law enforcement officers through organized patrols originates from the Black Power Movement. According to the NYC-based Justice Committee, the practice was started by the Black Panther Party in 1966. The Black Panthers conducted armed citizens’ patrols in order to monitor the behavior of law enforcement officers in the Oakland Police Department. This practice later became known as copwatch. Many local activist organizations continue to copwatch today.
The National Lawyers Guild, as the first integrated bar association in the U.S., took components from this practice and developed its Legal Observer® Program in 1968 in New York City in response to protests at Columbia University and city-wide antiwar and racial justice demonstrations. You may read more about NLG’s history in mass defense work here.
Today, legal observing is a distinct practice from copwatch. Legal observing acts as a direct form of protester legal support, connecting activists to a much bigger support infrastructure made up of arrest hotlines, jail support teams, community bail funds and legal defense funds, attorney referral networks, and more.
Monitor, observe, and document government conduct against First Amendment-protected activity,
Provide arrest support for protesters on the ground and help support teams track and help arrested folks, and
Empower activists and serve as a deterrent to unconstitutional behavior by law enforcement
Legal Observers® are one piece of a larger system of legal support infrastructure working to provide activists with the tools and confidence they need to make their voices heard. Official Programs provide their Legal Observers® with neon-green, trademarked hats, which have become a symbol of legal support for progressive movements in the United States and beyond.
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