The February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo by police officers in the NYPD’s Street Crimes Unit triggered a broad public controversy about racial profiling and stop-and-frisk that continues to this day. Not only did the shooting prompt widespread protests, but it led the New York State Attorney General’s Office to conduct a detailed study of NYPD stop-and-frisk activity and led the New York City Council to enact legislation requiring the Police Department to provide quarterly reports about stop-and-frisk activity.

This report is the first-ever in-depth examination of the Border Patrol’s transportation raids in upstate New York. It paints a disturbing picture of an agency resorting to aggressive policing tactics in order to increase arrest rates, without regard for the costs and consequences of its practices on New Yorkers’ rights and freedoms. The report extends beyond transportation raids to other Border Patrol practices as well, raising serious concerns about an agency that appears to be driven by the belief that the regular rules of the Constitution do not apply to it.

The defining moment in the movement to create civilian oversight of the police department is often a violent confrontation: A police officer attacks or shoots. Justification appears absent. A civilian dies. There is widespread public outcry: Who is policing the police? After the violence quiets in the streets, a political "street fight" begins as politicians and community members attempt to negotiate the terms of greater oversight of the police.

This report, released in November 1998, provides a review of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board five years after the agency was established. The report maintains that the CCRB was implemented in a manner that virtually ensured it would not provide the oversight called for in the City Charter.

In August, 1988, the Lower East Side of Manhattan was rocked by one of the most shocking outbursts of police violence in New York City's history. Fifty-two civilians, the great majority of them innocent bystanders, required medical attention as a result of scores of assaults, often by groups of police officers, over a period of six hours.

Taking Tasers Seriously: The Need for Better Regulation of Stun Guns in New York analyzes 851 Taser incident reports from eight police departments across the state as well as 10 departments’ policies and guidelines for using the weapons, which deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity and have caused the deaths of more than a dozen New Yorkers in recent years. The report concludes that police officers throughout New York State are consistently misusing and overusing Tasers.

We are deeply disturbed about the horrific increase in violent bigotry in our city, including in our schools. In October 2010 alone, two Bronx teens and one adult were beaten and tortured by a group of attackers because they were gay, and a Staten Island freshman stopped going to school because of the consistent abuse and bullying he faced by a group of classmates because he was Muslim.

The New York State Constitution guarantees a free public education to all children in New York. In addition, both international human rights bodies and U.S. courts have recognized that a free education is the cornerstone of success and social development for young people. In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court unequivocally stated, “In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”

Voices from Varick analyzes one year of grievances filed by immigration detainees housed in the Varick Federal Detention Facility. It documents detainee stories of inadequate medical care and mistreatment by the facility’s staff. It adds to the growing chorus of voices that have concluded that the federal government has failed in its responsibilities to provide adequate care to detainees housed in immigration facilities.

New Yorkers have the right to engage in peaceful, protest activity on public sidewalks, in public parks and on public streets in New York City. This includes the right to distribute handbills or leaflets; the right to hold press conferences, demonstrations and rallies; and the right to march on public sidewalks and in public streets. The city can and does impose certain restrictions on these activities, and in some instances one must obtain a permit before engaging in certain activity. This brochure is intended to inform New Yorkers of the basic rules governing demonstration activity.