The Center for Constitutional Rights is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights demonstrators in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

1998 Fall Docket, Center for Constitutional Rights

Ron Daniels began the briefing with some background information on the 32-year history of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The center was founded by four lawyers from the North --William Moses Kunstler, Arthur Kinoy, Morty Stavis, and Ben Smith-- white men who heeded the call of the Lawyers Guild to participate in Mississippi's Freedom Summer in 1964. Their lives were forever changed by the experience.

Today, litigation is the heart of what CCR does, connected to social, political, and economic movements of the people. Equally important is education, seminars, and conferences that better inform the public about constitutional rights. CCR is on the cutting edge of testing the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure they are used as instruments to expand freedom rather than to constrict the rights of groups and individuals.

Recently, CCR has become involved in cases of police brutality in New York City and elsewhere around the country. "We did not intend to become involved in this issue," stated Daniels, "but we were overwhelmed by the calls that we received for help." More than 40 local, state, and national organizations urged CCR to get involved. Since Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's "0-tolerance" policies have gone into effect, crackdowns on vagrancy and minor crimes have produced massive sweeps through communities, hitting the poor and people of color particularly hard. Improving the "quality of life" for some sections of the city has meant oppressing the lives of others. CCR's Movement Support Resource Center has developed a number of programs to educate and inform the public, provide hotline services for people in need, and collect and process data in order to assist the community in identifying police brutality.

"Policing is a critical issue in our society," said Daniels. "It is critical for peace, tranquility, and safety in the community. No one would question the need for respect for the law and living in safe, clean communities. Police should be community servants, clearly under community control, and using the community policing model. Unfortunately, in the United States, policing has been used to contain the aspirations of unwanted people--people considered undesirable or different. Both race and class have been used as criteria--a person's skin color and status in society--in determining how people are treated by police."

Daniels recalled that as the industrial revolution unfolded, huge numbers of peasants were thrown off the land in Great Britain in a policy called the Enclosures, in order to make way for the sheep industry, to fuel the growing textile industry. These peasants came into the cities where there was no work for them. Laws pertaining to vagrancy and loitering quickly became prevalent and the prisons were filled with poor people who had committed petty crimes under the law. These same people were then leased out to industries to work as cheap prison labor. "There is always a relationship between what goes on in terms of economic policies and people's economic opportunities in society, and how they are abused," noted Daniels. Very often the law is used as a way of containing these "malcontents," who have been shut off from economic opportunities or who have been dislocated. Daniels related the situation to the Prison/Jail Industrial Complex today, in which prisoners continue to be leased out to industry as a source of cheap labor. Many people have a vested interest in preserving the system.

Defining the police as community partners rather than an occupying army in poor neighborhoods will mean addressing several problems that prevail in the New York Police Department. Daniiels cited poor training, racial/class/gender biases, corruption, and the fact that many police officers are nonresidents of the communities that they police. The task of police education is made more difficult by the current policies that put more money into building jails and adding more police to the streets rather than dealing with the underlying problems that produce criminal behavior--the need for better schools and the creation of more jobs in the community.

The CCR Movement Support Resource Center has developed the Police Brutality/Misconduct Accountability Initiative. Using the Bay Area Police Watch model, a method of recording and tracking police brutality complaints in the San Francisco Bay Area supported by specially designed computer software, CCR can collect and maintain independent data about cases of police brutality. CCR hopes eventually to replicate the Bay Area Police Watch model all over the country. A police brutality hotline gives community residents an opportunity to report instances of brutality within their neighborhoods. When brutality is brought to litigation, cases can be referred to the National Lawyers Guild for legal help.

Advocacy to change existing laws is another aspect of the Movement Support Resource Center. Currently in New York City, a code of silence policy allows police to be shielded from any inquiry for 48 hours after an incident of brutality is reported. The family members of a victim may not even be notified during that time. Another rule bars the public from reviewing statements taken by the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. CCR is in the process of investigating possible litigation to make the police more immediately accountable for their actions.

Ron Daniels believes that all citizens should become involved in the issue of police brutality. He characterized brutality as a threat to democracy. "Efficiency should not be at the cost of people's liberties. Too many police officers take liberties with the law. Instead, if they're engaged with the community, the community will protect them." Although he admits that persuading communities of color to trust the police will be a major battle, the combination of reform within the city and police department and community partnership and grassroots efforts to offer better economic opportunities and quality education in public schools will go a long way to curbing police brutality.