FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2015
Colin Starger
National Lawyers Guild, Maryland Chapter
Colinstarger@gmail.com
917-749-7867
BALTIMORE—The Maryland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) decries the arrests of twelve NLG Legal Observers on Saturday night. Wearing clearly identifiable green hats with the words “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer” printed on them, these neutral observers were documenting police behavior during the enforcement of Baltimore’s curfew. It is well known that NLG observers do not participate in protests and are trained to never interfere with the police. The harsh and unjustified action of the police in arresting neutral observers directly illustrates the counterproductive and unconstitutional nature of curfews generally.
National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Coordinator, Abi Hassen explained, “the events of Saturday night vividly illustrate how the curfew itself created the very problems it purported to solve. Curfews are an unacceptable exercise of police force and violence that promise to provoke rather than quell further resentment and unrest.”
“The Constitution does not have office hours. No city should be in the practice of revoking its peoples’ First Amendment and other constitutional rights,” says NLG Maryland Mass Defense Committee member and University of Baltimore Assistant Professor of Law Colin Starger.
Contacts:
Colin Starger (See above)
Abi Hassen, NLG Mass Defense Coordinator
abi@nlg.org, (347) 470-5859
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