Dear friends,
Last week, Judge Laura Swain declined to use her power to place Rikers under federal control.
Stabbing and slashing incidents at facilities on Rikers continue to rise this year and 18 people have died in custody this year. Use-of-force incidents by corrections officers have also risen.
Before the court hearing on Thursday, a group of dozens of people directly impacted by Rikers and community groups gathered in Foley Square to demand the federal takeover of Rikers.
“All of [the nearly 6,000 detainees’] loved ones who are in our communities live in constant fear of getting the call that their loved one is dead,” said Henry Robinson, a leader at the Katal Center, which led the rally.
A bill before the New York City Council was introduced in September in response to
a report that found the New York City jail system often fails to protect, identify and care for transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and or intersex people in custody.
The bill would screen people before making housing assignments that might place them in additional jeopardy.
Please urge your city council rep to support important legislation to reduce the victimization of people who are incarcerated.
In 2020, the Fire Department determined that 44 fires were caused by faulty e-bike batteries; in 2021 there were 104. So far this year there have been 191.
As Council member Gale Brewer said,
“NYCHA has parking lots, outdoor parking lots that seems to be the best location to put a charging station. If we can do Citi Bike e-bikes can’t we also do charging stations for 65,000 delivery people?”
Tell your council member to support battery-swapping and outdoor charging stations for e-bikes. This has been updated.
Senator Elizabeth Warren offered some advice before we knew that the House would change hands.
[Republicans] believe economic chaos weakens President Biden, so they are itching to use their leverage to hurt working families. This is the same strategy Republicans used after the 2010 midterms when they set off a debt-ceiling crisis, then demanded family-crushing austerity.
Warren is correct that we need to nail down some common sense reforms so that we can focus on our recovery from January 6 and the pandemic. Let’s fill up some Congressional in-boxes before they return for the final, pre-Christmas legislative push.
Contact your Congressional delegation and urge them to pass electoral count reform and to end the debt ceiling. This is ready-made!
Somehow, I wrote about labor news on Friday and forgot to mention the strike at the New School for Social Research, where 1500 adjunct professors are striking for better wages.
Those workers make up 87 percent of instructional staff, but their salaries represent no more than 8.5 percent of the school’s budget.
If you have ties to the New School, let them know where you stand on the strike.
with love,
L