POLICING

In September 2015, officials from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will be visiting cities in the U.S. to review the human rights record and document state violence against Black people. Below is a brief explanation of the process.

In December 2014, the Community Justice Project worked with leaders on the ground in Miami and Ferguson to capture and submit testimony of civil and human rights abuses, with a special focus on police brutality and state violence, to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. Their statements for the written record are below. 

HUMAN RIGHTS

Advocacy on Behalf of the Family of Israel "Reefa" Hernandez-Llach

CJP works with the Dream Defenders, Power U Center for Social Change and other groups working to combat police brutality, racial profiling and other forms of state violence, including the killing of young artist, Israel "Reefa" Hernandez-Llach by Miami Beach Police. In conjunction with these groups and the family of Hernandez-Llach, CJP filed a shadow report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UN CAT Committee) about the case in November 2014. In advance of the CAT Committee review of the U.S., the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police submitted its own letter responding to our report directly to the UN. In March 2016, CJP submitted a 1-year follow up report to the UN CAT Committee, updating the UN on the lack of response on the issue of Tasers and police accountability in the U.S. Reports may be found at the links below:

Advocacy with Ferguson to Geneva Delegation

CJP also supported work by grassroots organizations in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Mike Brown at the hands of local police. The parents of Mike Brown, local grassroots organizations MORE and Organization for Black Struggle, with technical support from CJP, also submitted a shadow report to the United Nation's Committee Against Torture. Learn more about the human rights campaign at www.fergusontogeneva.org

DIRECT ACTION SUPPORT

CJP provides in-depth legal support to our client organizations engaging in direct action and non-violent civil disobedience.  In 2014, organizers from the Dream Defenders effectively used direct action tactics to secure a meeting with the Miami Beach Police Department and US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Later that year, organizers from Ferguson, MO and Ohio joined Florida youth in Orlando to demand justice for the countless Black and Brown lives lost to police brutality from Police Chiefs meeting for their annual IACP conference.