Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

COMMITTEE AND CHAPTER UPDATES
Coming Soon to a Location Near You!
Cardozo School of Law Sponsors Official Legal Observer Training Film
SCENE: Some morning, some day,
September 2006, a phone rings at the
NLG National Office
“Good morning. Míchel Martinez,
student organizer—how can I help you?”
“Hey, Míchel. I’m a student in the KU
chapter. There’s a big demonstration
next month and we want to hold a legal
observer training.”
New staff person panic sets in.
KU. Is that Topeka? Wichita? Lawrence?
It turns out that it doesn’t much matter
which city in Kansas that KU is located—
we don’t have a Guild member to lead a
legal observer training anywhere near
their campus (Lawrence, for those of you
still wondering).
Actors turned Cardozo law students draw on their theater backgrounds to produce the Official
Legal Observer Training Video.
PHOTO: MICHEL ANGELA MARTINEZ
This happened repeatedly during my
first months at the NLG and continues
to this day. Students will call or write,
hoping that I can find them a local Guild
member to lead a Legal Observer
Training so that they can be prepared to
protect the people’s rights of free speech
and assembly at an upcoming protest—
and I tell them that I can’t help. I have to
tell them, “I’m sorry, but there simply
aren’t any Guild members around and
there’s no money to fly someone in.”
Many students involved in our campus
chapters do not have the luxury of local
NLG staff and members to help with
events and trainings, or serve as mentors,
and the like. They work incredibly hard,
and the National Office tries to offer
support, but there is nothing quite like
having the support and resources of local
members.
Borne of the frustration of being
locked in New York City and my deep
desire to help students everywhere get
more from the Guild came an idea: what
if we could hold a formal, scripted NLG
Legal Observer training and film it,
distributing the product to students and
other Guild members who don’t have
local Mass Defense Committee members
or Legal Observer trainers nearby?”
What was once a pipedream has
become a reality—albeit, two years later.
Persistence is a virtue.
On October 30, 2008, after a
few months of script-hashing and
money-haggling, the Official Legal
Observer Training Video was taped.
Hosted and funded by Cardozo Law
School NLG, coordinating with the
National Office and the NYC chapter
on the concept and script, the taping
was a huge success. Students Jaya
Vasandani, Kimberly Wong, and Joshua
Moskovitz headed up the organizing
effort on campus. Actors turned
Cardozo law school students—some
with SAG credentials—came through
with brilliant vignette performances,
playing police, protestors, and legal
observers. CUNY law student Insha
Rahman, recent grad/attorney Mark
Taylor, and veteran Mass Defense
committee member Bruce Bentley, were
our top-notch trainers. The production
would not have been possible without
generous filmmakers—and new friends
of the Guild—Justin Lange, Ted Walter,
and Matthew Landfield.
In a few months the video will be
complete, edited and ready for release.
It is meant to be used in tandem with
the official Legal Observer Training
26 • GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008