The fight for voting rights remains as critical as ever, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We talked to leading voting rights experts in Maryland: Joanne Antoine, Executive Director of Common Cause, Reverend Kobi Little, President of the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP, and Dana Vickers Shelley, Executive Director of the ACLU of Maryland. We talked about our voting rights, the challenges of voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what you need to know to exercise your vote by Tuesday, Nove...
Aug 25, 2020•43 min
With police spy planes, everywhere Baltimore goes, the government will always know. Spy planes carry sophisticated cameras developed for the military, mounted on airplanes, that can see the entire city, and that track the movement of every person or vehicle moving outside. Baltimore has a terrible history of racial bias and a lack of accountability for abuses by police. It should be the last place to use a program of mass surveillance. In this episode, we talk with Dayvon Love, the Public Policy...
Jul 21, 2020•1 hr
Too many people have lost their lives at the hands of police. But perhaps the saddest thing is that many of these deaths were unnecessary and could have been avoided. Today, we will be joined by Tracy Shand, sister to Leonard Shand, and Shamāiah Manriquez, sister to Emanuel Oates, to share their experiences about how the killing of their brothers by police could have been and should have been, prevented. We will also talk to Jay Jimenez, our Legal Program Associate, about some of the trends we a...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Knowing your rights is vital. Especially during police interactions. You cannot assume that officers will behave in a way that protects your safety or that they will respect your rights even after you assert them. That’s why the ACLU of Maryland developed our free Know Your Rights program so that you can know how to exercise your rights and what to do when your rights are violated. This month, we talked to two experienced Know Your Rights Trainers, Kimi Washington and Gus Griffin, along with Amy...
May 05, 2020•25 min
During these difficult times, the ACLU of Maryland is here to defend and protect our civil rights and civil liberties. We are providing guidance to our elected officials, so they can craft a COVID-19 response that is compassionate and protects the populations most vulnerable to harm, including immigrants and those caught in the legal justice system – as well as all Maryland voters. As always, we will provide people with action items you can do to support this vital work.
Apr 02, 2020•44 min
For Women’s History Month, we are highlighting the issues facing women exiting the criminal legal system and why we need a dedicated pre-release facility for women. The number of women and girls in the criminal legal system has grown substantially over the past several decades. The over-incarceration of women devastates families, because 75% of women who are incarcerated are the primary or sole caretakers of children. Currently, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services operates ...
Mar 05, 2020•32 min
We want officers to speak up against racist police practices and sexual harassment to help change the culture of policing. But when officers of color speak up against these unconstitutional practices they often experience discrimination and retaliation. For this Black History Month, we sat down with an African American officer, Lieutenant Sonya Zollicoffer, second vice president of the United Black Police Officers Association and with a Latino officer Retired Captain Joe Perez, president of the ...
Feb 05, 2020•46 min
Another Maryland Legislative session is upon us, with the General Assembly set to start on January 8, 2020. This session, the ACLU of Maryland will be working on six priority areas: 1) Race and wealth equity for Maryland’s school children, 2) the Trust Act to defend the rights of immigrants in our communities, 3) equality in support services for women exiting the criminal legal system, 4) transparency in policing, 5) the right to vote for Marylanders behind bars, and 6) due process for children ...
Jan 02, 2020•31 min
Maryland students have a right to a high-quality public education guaranteed by the state constitution. But for far too many students, that right is undermined by generations of underfunding. This has most deeply impacted students from families with low income and Black and Brown children. Janna Parker, a former educator and a public education advocate, and Kimberly Humphrey, Esq., Legislative Counsel for the ACLU of Maryland, talk about how you can help to address racial and wealth inequities i...
Nov 22, 2019•39 min
For years, people sentenced as children to life in prison with the possibility of parole, and their families, have tried to get Maryland to live up to the promise of second chances that a parole-eligible sentence is intended to provide. However, many barriers exist that stop this from happening. Many criminal justice stakeholders have turned to technology to help make parole decisions through “risk assessment tools.” Also labeled artificial intelligence, these tools have been touted as carrying ...
Oct 27, 2019•38 min
Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and the fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties rest. But the right to vote and participate in our democracy is currently denied to thousands of people in Maryland, those who who are incarcerated. Dating back to the racist Jim Crow era state felony disfranchisement laws were created to prevent Americans with felonies from voting. After the Civil War, there was a concerted effort to incarcerate thousands of newly freed slaves and these laws ...
Sep 26, 2019•22 min
The First Amendment was meant to serve as the backbone of our democracy, allowing people who are critical of the government the right to speak. Historically, white supremacists have co-opted the First Amendment to advance hate and incite violence. At the same time, we have seen People of Color’s First Amendment rights violated when they speak out against oppression and racism. The First Amendment is a vital tool that can be used to advance racial justice. That’s why survivors of police brutality...
Aug 23, 2019•28 min
Our immigrant communities need to be supported. Instead, their lives and rights have increasingly been attacked, especially under the Trump Administration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has prioritized building more 287(g) partnerships, where local law enforcement officers are deputized as federal immigration agents. Local police only have to go through a month of training to be fully participating officers and there’s little accountability for rights violations. Across the coun...
Jul 15, 2019•27 min
