September is National Preparedness Month
Plan for Disaster
Make sure everyone in your family is prepared for disasters: Establish a meeting place that’s familiar and easy to for everyone in your family to find – for example, your church or community center. Fill out a Family Communication Plan. Make sure every member of the family has a paper copy and keeps it with them in a plastic sandwich bag. For more information and safety tips visit Ready.gov.
Know Your Zone
Use the Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder to find out if you are in an area that may be affected by storm surge flooding. In the event of a coastal storm or hurricane, areas to be evacuated will be identified by the assigned zone.
Stay Informed
Register for Notify NYC, the City of New York’s official, free emergency communications program. You’ll receive information about emergency alerts and important City services via email, text messages, telephone, a mobile application, the Notify NYC website, RSS, Twitter, and American Sign Language videos.
Pack a Go-Bag
Being prepared means having enough food, water, and essential supplies to last several days. Your disaster supplies kit, or “go-bag,” should include the basic supplies your family needs in the event of an emergency, including water, food, tools, and hygiene products. Don’t forget cloth face coverings to protect against COVID 19, prescription and over-the-counter medications, cash, and important documents such as copies of identification and insurance plans. Store all items in airtight plastic bags and put the whole kit in one or two easy-to-carry containers such as plastic bins or a duffel bag. Pack a go-bag for home, for work, and for your car.
Protect Your Finances
In the event of an emergency, you’ll need ready access to your personal financial, insurance, and medical records to start your recovery process quickly and efficiently. Make copies of these documents and put them in airtight plastic bags. Keep them in your go-bag in your car and in your office.
Obtain homeowners or renters property insurance, health insurance, and life insurance if you do not have them. Homeowners insurance does not typically cover flooding, so you may need to purchase flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program.
From Here to There
Have a plan for traveling between your home and your work in the event of a disaster. Think about alternative ways to get to and from your job. How would you get home if you needed to take a different subway line? A bus and a subway? A taxi or ride-share? Could you get a ride from a co-worker or neighbor? Don’t forget to consider alternative transportation to other important places, too, like daycare, school, your doctor, and the grocery store. Fill out this Commuter Emergency Plan and keep copies in your home, go-bag, and office.
Queens Defenders Provides Summer Internship Opportunities for 56 Young People
The Queens Defenders Summer Youth Internship came to a close on Thursday, August 27th. This eight-week internship was created when the status of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program was cut by 40,000 slots due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s budget. With the support of our generous donors, we were able to offer eight-week virtual internships to 56 Queens youth — our largest cohort in the program’s history.
As an organization that has hosted large groups of SYEP youth for the past six years, Queens Defenders was unwilling to let the summer pass by without providing an opportunity for youth to work and grow while receiving financial compensation.
“While I loved pretty much everything about Queens Defenders, I think what stuck with me the most is how passionate everyone was about their community. I want to be a strong voice in my community and in many others to create real change. This was one of the most important takeaways from Queens Defenders – besides learning about the law – and I really want to be the change I want to see.”
Throughout the eight-week program, interns engaged in remote work including professional development and college and career readiness workshops. Interns learned about legal careers by participating in mock trials, workshops on the U.S. Constitution, and hearing from attorneys at Queens Defenders. We also hosted a series of guest speakers from BAM Creative architecture firm and Queens College during Career Week, who spoke about career fields in architecture, accounting, and politics.
“My biggest takeaway from the internship was everything that I learned. Not only did I learn new information about the law and various other social topics, I also learned more about myself through frequent group discussions with my peers.”
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the summer, according to the interns themselves, was the continued discussions about current events. Interns engaged in conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, women’s rights, rights for the LGBTQIA community, mental health, and more. The youth valued the time spent on these topics, citing that they felt safe to speak their mind and that everyone was always respectful of differing opinions.
“This internship introduced me to many things. It showed me the importance of having a strong work ethic, it gave me a better sense of professionalism, and most importantly, it opened my eyes to the world of law and helped me gain knowledge in the field. My favorite parts were participating in the mock trials because that was a new experience for me and it helped me step out of my comfort zone.”
While the summer of 2020 did not look how any of us expected, Queens Defenders is thankful for our staff and donors who made this program possible. Queens Defenders is committed to providing opportunities to youth in the community, whether virtually or in-person.
Queens Defenders Attorneys Go Above and Beyond for their Clients During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Queens Defenders attorneys have not let the pandemic stop them from advocating for their clients. From the moment offices and courts closed in March, our attorneys adjusted to virtual practices and did not skipped a beat. Arraignments, hearings, and court appearances were held via Skype while all parties participated safely from home.
COVID-19 posed a serious risk to our clients both on Rikers Island and in their home communities, and our team prioritized the health and safety of our clients from the beginning of the pandemic. Since March, Queens Defenders has fought for — and won — the release of nearly 200 of our clients from Rikers Island who were most at risk of contracting COVID-19. Throughout the last six months, our attorneys continued to go above and beyond — from delivering clothing to clients and their families to raising money to pay their utility bills so that they could remain in their homes.
With courts opening up, Queens Defenders is working to ensure the safety of our staff, our clients, and their families. We will continue to provide zealous advocacy to our clients whether it is virtually or in-person.
NYC Public Defenders Demand At Least $1 Billion Cut to NYPD Budget
(NEW YORK, NY) – The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services, Queens Defenders, and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem sent a letter today to Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council reiterating their demand that lawmakers cut at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget and redirect those funds low-income communities of color across the city.
The letter states:
“Our clients are disproportionately stopped, ticketed, arrested, and punished because of the color of their skin and the communities in which they live. As public defenders, we see firsthand how the NYPD undermines public safety, perpetuating and exacerbating the conditions that trap people in a cycle of poverty and criminal legal system involvement through Broken Windows policing. We witness how targeted policing of communities of color reinforces state violence that too often costs Black and Latinx New Yorkers their lives. And now the general public has witnessed these atrocities, too. In recent weeks, viral videos of police officers violently abusing their power have increased the public’s awareness of what Black and Latinx New Yorkers have long known: It is long past time for transformative change.
New Yorkers recognize that bold action is necessary. Transformative change must start with divesting at least $1 billion directly from the NYPD’s almost $6 billion FY21 expense budget, but it cannot end there. We must dramatically shrink the footprint of law enforcement and reverse our decades-long defunding of social services and public infrastructure. It’s time to reject the impulse to arrest, punish, and incarcerate our way out of complex social problems. It hasn’t worked. Instead, as recommended by Communities United for Police Reform, New York City must invest in ‘strong, accessible, and culturally competent systems and infrastructure that center the needs of low-income Black, Latinx, and other communities of color.’”
“New Yorkers have taken to the streets over the past several weeks in response to the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and so many other Black people at the hands of police with a simple message: enough is enough,” said Justine Olderman, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders. “As public defenders, we witness every day how police surveillance, harassment, and violence creates intergenerational trauma and funnels hundreds of thousands of people into the criminal legal system. Elected officials have a unique opportunity to chart a new path for the city. One that dramatically shrinks the policing footprint and invests in community self-determination, health, and stability.”
“New York City’s budget is woefully disconnected from New Yorkers’ values, values that our neighbors have taken to the streets to reassert. The bloated NYPD budget threatens our Black and brown neighbors’ lives and starves communities like ours in upper Manhattan of vital resources,” said Alice Fontier, Managing Director of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “Mayor de Blasio and the City Council must respond to the demands of their city. It is time to cut at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget and to invest those resources in programs that reflect our city’s values and meaningfully serve New Yorkers.”
“The NYPD has nearly unfettered power to surveil, arrest, and incarcerate tens of thousands of Black and brown New Yorkers every year,” said Stan Germán, Executive Director of the New York County Defenders Services. “Recent reforms have shrunk the size of the criminal legal system, but the racial disparities at every stage of the process remain chillingly the same. We must find a new path. Good research has shown that decreasing the number of police can make our communities safer. Instead of wasting billions of dollars every year on the NYPD, we must now invest in the kinds of programs that make us all stronger: our schools, mental health care resources, and housing. We stand with the protesters to call for these long overdue reforms.”
“Brooklyn Defender Services joins people rising up in the wake of police killings of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd and so many others in demanding an end to racist police violence and defunding of police, said Lisa Schreibersdorf, Executive Director of Brooklyn Defender Services. “Every day, our attorneys and social workers serve Black people and other New Yorkers of Color who desperately need housing and healthcare, including mental healthcare, and yet instead face arrest, prosecution, incarceration, or worse. Defunding police means reinvesting funds to meet people’s needs and provide for true community safety.”
“As New York City reckons with structural racism and economic inequality that continues to plague Black and brown communities, those in government must respond with bold action not just cheap talk,” said Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society. “It is due time to cut the NYPD’s bloated budget by at least $1 billion dollars and use those funds to support education, housing and employment in the very same communities that have shouldered over-policing for decades. The New York City Council has committed, and now City Hall must join for what is right. New Yorkers are watching and are demanding real action.”
“At Queens Defenders we witness firsthand the impact of what intergenerational poverty can have on our city’s most vulnerable residents and communities – the same residents and communities that the NYPD has historically targeted leading to unprecedented levels of our Black and brown neighbors being behind bars,” said Lori Zeno, Founder & Executive Director of Queens Defenders. “The City agencies focused on lifting up vulnerable New Yorkers have for too long dealt with shoe-string budgets while the NYPD swelled their ranks. The time has come to redirect funding to where it can have the most impact on ensuring all New Yorkers can reach for and realize their full potential.”
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Queens Defenders Quickly Responds to Police Brutality Incident in The Rockaways
Less than two weeks after Governor Cuomo signed a ban on police use of chokeholds into law, a young Black man was choked unconscious in Rockaway Park. Videos of the event quickly spread on the Internet, and community members called out to Queens Defenders for help.
While Lori Zeno, Executive Director, went to the hospital to check on the young man, staff and attorneys gathered at the NYPD 100th Precinct for a peaceful protest. The quick response by Queens Defenders and other community members resulted in a swift investigation by NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea, leading to a suspension of the officer without pay.
“It is important that we keep holding police officers accountable for their actions. The officer involved here used a chokehold to strangle my client until he was unconscious, because according to the officer, ‘he was being disorderly.’ This officer needs to be fired and prosecuted. He is the one who committed a crime in this circumstance. We will not stop until the people of The Rockaways can feel safe as they travel through their own neighborhood. They should not fear the very people who are sworn to protect them.”
Lori Zeno – Executive Director, Queens Defenders
Read more about the incident in the New York Times here.
Photo Credit: Fuljens Henry, @FuljensHenry
Queens Defenders Celebrates and Reflects on Juneteenth
Today, Queens Defenders celebrates and reflects on Juneteenth: one hundred and fifty-five years since all people who were enslaved in our country finally learned of their freedom.
While we celebrate, we must also acknowledge that this day comes at a moment of reckoning, as our nation confronts the reality and history of systemic racism. As public defenders, we know this truth all too well. For hundreds of years, this distress has been an undercurrent in a country that has not addressed the enduring impact of slavery, racism against Black people, and the brutalities and inequities that have plagued Indigenous people of color in a culture of white supremacy. We remain committed to rejecting racism in all its forms.
Our actions must be rooted in reflection. To make this a priority, Queens Defenders is offering all employees a fully paid day off to recognize the significance of Juneteenth. We will take this time to consider how we can use our platform to further the fight for justice.
The brutal killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks have ignited a movement in our city and country. There have been a number of wins in New York, including the NYPD’s ban of chokeholds, and an increase in police transparency with the repeal of 50-A and new rules requiring prompt release of body-cam footage. These are initial steps to a long journey of reform. Let us not lose the momentum of this movement and what we’ve fought so hard for.
As an organization, Queens Defenders recognizes that as long as injustices exist, there is always room for growth. Our staff will engage in a series of workshops on implicit bias, microaggressions in the workplace, and a variety of topics addressing the effects of race, class, and privilege in our office and the justice system.
Queens Defenders Announces Borough's First Community Justice Center
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and city-wide closures, the grand opening of the long-awaited Rockaway Community Justice Center looked quite different than planned. Supporters tuned in virtually, partners socially distanced, and staff applauded from home. After eight years of planning and lobbying, despite these unforeseen circumstances, the project has finally come to fruition.
On Thursday, May 28, 2020, Queens Defenders launched the opening of its Rockaway Community Justice Center. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, City Council Member Donovan Richards, NYS Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato, and members of the Far Rockaway community joined Lori Zeno, Queens Defenders’ Executive Director, to make the transformative announcement.
Located in the heart of Far Rockaway, the Center is a restorative, accessible alternative to Queens County Criminal Court. Young adults ages 18 -24 charged with low-level offenses will be able to report to the Center, rather than travel over an hour and a half to the courthouse in Kew Gardens. The convenient location will result in increased attendance, and a decrease in fines, warrants, and jail time.
This peer and community-led court structure follows the restorative justice model. Rather than facing potentially harsh punitive consequences, the young adults will be able to accept accountability with dignity. “The needs of the victim, offender, and the community will be addressed, with an end goal of restoring the offender to his or her position as a productive member of society,” said Lori Zeno.
District Attorney Melinda Katz believes that prosecution is about justice. She announced that, “people deserve second chances; they deserve a right to see what their potential is and what the opportunities of life present to them. They can’t do that if a record follows them for the rest of their life.” City Council Member Donovan Richards agreed that “a low-level offense should not equal a life sentence for our young people.” The Rockaway Community Justice Center aims to ensure that the young people of Far Rockaway get that second chance.
Under the restorative model, the NYPD 100th and 101st Precincts, along with the Queens District Attorney, will refer eligible misdemeanors to the Center. Volunteers from the community will be trained to serve as attorneys, judges, and jurors. As DA Katz stated, this is “one of the most crucial aspects of this program.” These are the people that are familiar with the neighborhood, so it is critical that they have a say in the results of these cases. Individuals who participate in the RCJC will receive job training, skills development, and networking opportunities with local businesses and community leaders.
In addition to the community-led legal hearings, the Center will hold housing court mediations, restorative circles, employment-based services, as well as other social programming. Lori Zeno proclaimed that “here, the residents of the Rockaways will have access to fair, equitable, and restorative justice in their own community, by their own community peers.”
Queens Defenders is Awarded First Foundation Grant in its History by the Meringoff Family Foundation
Queens Defenders is pleased to announce its first private foundation funding awarded by the Meringoff Family Foundation. This $25,000 grant will support Queens Defenders’ Young Adult Leaders Program operating out of the organization’s Outreach Center in Far Rockaway, Queens.
The project will establish a professional development series and summer bootcamp to prepare Young Adult Leaders and Homework Helpers to offer free, high-quality tutoring services to local youth after school at the Outreach Center during the 2020-2021 academic year and via online sessions while social distancing measures are still in effect.
“The Meringoff Family Foundation is thrilled to be the inaugural foundation supporters of Queens Defenders’ Young Adult Leaders program. We admire how this program focuses on high needs communities that lack strong youth programming, particularly Far Rockaway, and that programming spans after-school tutoring for younger kids and professional development and career exploration opportunities for older kids.
One of our goals in making this grant is to leverage this funding to help Queens Defenders attract new donors to support their continuum of diversionary programs operating in Far Rockaway and Jamaica, Queens.”
– Stuart Post, Executive Director, The Meringoff Family Foundation
Queens Defenders’ Young Adult Leaders program provides after school options for young people from the Far Rockaway and Arverne communities age 16-21 looking to gain work experience, explore possible career opportunities, and become leaders in their community. The program helps Leaders build both the hard and soft skills they will need to be successful in pursuing their future ambitions, including college and entering the workforce.
“Queens Defenders is honored to establish this partnership with the Meringoff Family Foundation and we are extremely grateful for their generous support of our mission, programs, and especially the aspirational young people with whom we work through our Young Adult Leaders program.
The project funded by the Foundation will help our young people further develop their tutoring skills to better serve the 150 elementary and middle-school students who receive after-school support annually through our Outreach Center in Far Rockaway.”
– Lori Zeno, Founder & Executive Director, Queens Defenders
All youth involved in this program set a post-secondary goal of college, vocational training, or full-time employment. Queens Defenders’ Community Outreach team of social workers, youth developers and support staff ensure they are prepared to meet this challenge. Once involved with Queens Defenders, young people learn what it means to work hard, to be relied upon by their peers and community, and – most importantly – develop confidence in themselves and their abilities to see a future filled with possibility.
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About the Meringoff Family Foundation: Founded by Stephen J. Meringoff in 2008, the Meringoff Family Foundation’s mission is to make hands-on philanthropic investments primarily in NYC-based nonprofits that are working to level the playing field for young New Yorkers and invest in local kids to help them build a future. The Foundation’s primary focus is enhancing public education outcomes in NYC and in furthering critical programs in cutting edge medical research and innovative public health interventions.
Learn more at meringofffoundation.org.
Joint NYC Defender Statement On NYPD Brutality
(NEW YORK, NY) – Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, The Legal Aid Society, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Queens Defenders, and New York County Defender Services issued the following statement on New York City Police Department (NYPD) brutality:
“White supremacy, structural racism, and state violence are deeply embedded into the fabric of this nation. The protests in NYC and across the country were not triggered by a few isolated incidents of police brutality; but rather are rooted in the deep-seated racism and perpetuation of inequity that this country has continuously shown to Black, brown, and Indigenous people.
We mourn with the families of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery. Their lives were snuffed out because of this country’s refusal to face our history and disrupt our legacy of anti-Black racism. New York City bears responsibility as well. Although we hold ourselves up as a progressive bastion, our city is home to some of the largest and most under-resourced communities of color in the country. New Yorkers who consider themselves “liberal” wrap themselves in white immunity while perpetuating entrenched stereotypes and harm. Amy Cooper instinctively weaponized her privilege against Christian Cooper because she knew that if she combined and repeated the words “African-American man” and “threat,” the police would not only come but they would immediately accept her word over any evidence to the contrary.
As New York City’s public defenders, we work for and represent those who are the targets and victims of police intimidation, threat, and violence. Thousands of people each year, the vast majority of whom are Black and Latinx, are funneled into the criminal legal system because of the deep-seated structural racism that we are collectively witnessing here in NYC. The disturbing videos and reports of the violent attacks by NYPD on protestors and the media, while traumatizing to watch, are all too familiar to us. They mirror the stories we hear every day of police acting with impunity, targeting, attacking, beating, lying, abusing, and disrespecting Black and brown people in the communities we serve in all five boroughs.
The people we represent live under a constant threat of surveillance, harassment, violence, and incarceration simply because of the color of their skin. They live their lives knowing they will never be given the benefit of the doubt. They will never be presumed innocent.
Despite campaigning on a message about racial justice, Mayor de Blasio has done nothing to address the many layers of systemic racism in our city. Instead, he has reduced the budgets for much-needed health, mental health, housing and educational resources in the communities that need them the most, while growing the NYPD’s bloated budget, adding more officers every year, and adding a level of militarization that has empowered the worst and most frightening version of police force.
And now, despite daily acts of violence and excessive use of force against non-violent protesters, de Blasio commends the NYPD’s actions, further emboldening officers already acculturated to see Black people as the cause of every “problem” and dehumanizing the very individuals they are sworn to serve.
We demand accountability and radical change. We demand that the City Council and Mayor de Blasio significantly reduce the size and budget of the NYPD. We demand that candidates for elected office decline contributions from law enforcement PACs and unions, and return the thousands of dollars they have accepted over the years. We demand that our government at every level acknowledge the first amendment rights of the protesters and denounce the NYPD’s violent response to such constitutionally-protected political protest. We demand police transparency and a repeal of 50a, the law that keeps police records a secret and allows officers to violate the civil rights of individuals over and over again with impunity. We demand investment in the communities most impacted by over-policing and police violence. And we demand that those harmed by centuries of oppression be allowed to decide for themselves how to deploy those resources to heal, provide, and thrive.
As the police continue to harass and attack peaceful protesters exercising their constitutional rights, we stand ready to zealously defend them. We stand in solidarity with the protestors taking to the streets, the bail funds working to get people released from jail, and everyone else who has responded to this moment by letting their leaders know that enough is enough.”
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Queens Never Gives Up
Queens Defenders’ motto is “we never give up.” We fight for justice every day for every client to ensure we achieve the best outcomes. The COVID-19 crisis has brought a new urgency to our mission. In light of the significant health risks facing inmates who contract COVID-19, we want to get all our incarcerated clients in New York City correctional facilities released.
Thanks to our collaboration with Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and her staff, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the Office of Court Administration, the Parole Board, and our colleagues at Legal Aid, we are succeeding. As of the end of the day on April 1, 2020, 47 of our incarcerated clients had been released.
Using a triage approach, Queens Defenders attorneys and legal staff have literally worked around the clock for the past three weeks sorting through more than 30,000 records to identify more than 220 incarcerated clients who fall into one of the at-risk categories. These categories include persons over age 50, persons with chronic health issues, those serving a sentence of a year or less, those who are incarcerated on a parole violation hold for a misdemeanor and bail of $1 or less, and those who are incarcerated because they could not afford to pay bail at arraignment.
Every case requires a tailored strategy because each client’s circumstances are unique. Continuing in the spirit of the new criminal justice reforms, we will collaborate with our partners until all of the clients we’ve identified are released.
We are also providing COVID-19 resource referral services through Queens Defenders Rockaway Justice Center at (718) 261-3047 x 618 and putting together emergency food baskets distributed by the NYPD 101st Precinct.
Our community outreach staff is ensuring that the young people we serve are engaged despite social distancing. Rockaway Justice Center Young Adult Leaders designed their own advocacy campaigns about issues related to the pandemic that are important to them. They created actions plans, identified government officials, organizations, and other influencers to contact, and sent letters. Youth enrolled in our mentoring program are participating in a virtual media literacy program to understand and identify “fake news.”
Our hearts break for the families who have already lost loved ones to the virus and for those people who are struggling with it now. We are concerned for the welfare of healthcare workers, immigrants, those who are homeless or may become homeless, and those who are incarcerated and at high risk should they contract the virus.
We are inspired by the intrepid, devoted staff at medical centers and hospitals, especially those at Elmhurst Hospital, a facility that serves primarily low-income people. Volunteers throughout the borough are making sure that people have food, can pay their rent, get medical treatment if they need it, and have someone to talk to about their anxiety and fears.
In the days and weeks to come, things will likely get worse before they improve. Life may be very different once the pandemic is over, but it will be better thanks to the energy, commitment, compassion, and creative innovation that the borough’s response to the virus has spurred.
Queens never gives up!
By Lori Zeno, the executive director of Queens Defenders