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If you would like to join us, sign up for our next virtual training on 4/10 from 7:30-9pm. bit.ly/introcwnyc

If you are a trained watcher, check your email for more information on how to sign up for shifts!

Our goal is to have a court watcher at every single shift in the month of April, especially in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Abiding by the rules of the state still leads to irreparable harm. This cannot continue.

One difference from last week’s tragedy is that the man who lost his life this week had not been kept waiting for more than the legal twenty-four hours. It is clear that waiting for arraignment for any length of time is not humane or safe.

No one should die waiting to be arraigned, for any alleged crime.

We are watching, we are witnessing and we will continue to share what we see.

In Solidarity,
Court Watch NYC

Our thoughts are with the man who needlessly lost his life at the hands of this terrible system on Friday morning, his loved ones, and all of those who remain cruelly caged by the state.

While the amount of time they had been held was atypical, the stories of how a single arrest sets in motion events that can upend and destroy lives are devastatingly normal stories that our watchers see every single day in court.

Throughout Friday afternoon, our watchers also saw multiple people arraigned who had been held for 40+ hours, including people who had been fasting for Ramadan, someone who had been denied a phone call to ask for someone to feed his dog, and someone who missed a scheduled surgery.

The events on Friday crudely underscored the unnecessary cruelty of detention for crimes of poverty.

This shows clearly that when the system feels exposed, it starts letting everyone go. If these “offenses” are worthy of prosecutors requesting bail for one day and suddenly not the next, then clearly these categories are arbitrary and meaningless.

In a courtroom suddenly packed with people bearing witness, the prosecutors didn’t ask for bail in a single case—no matter how “serious” the charge. Instead, they consented to release or supervised release for each person.

What our watchers then saw on Friday afternoon was a highly unusual series of arraignment hearings that laid bare the grotesque absurdity of this system.

Court Watch NYC mourns this tragedy, as well as the tragedies of the 4 other people who have been killed by the actions of cops, judges, and prosecutors—shielded by the NYC carceral system—in the past month.

Our watchers were in arraignments on Friday to observe a moment of silence for him.

He allegedly stole $213 worth of goods from Home Depot — an accusation that, under the 2019 Bail Reform law, should have resulted in a ticket.

He should never have been arrested, let alone held for over 3 days.