PJLC Expands to Include Police Misconduct Project
With the addition of Ameena Qazi as the PJLC’s second staff attorney, the PJLC is expanding to add a focus on police accountability in Orange County.
Orange County has an unmet need for community lawyering focused on routine police misconduct such as unreasonably long street-corner detentions, excessive force during an arrest that does not result in serious injury, and property damage from unnecessarily aggressive home searches. Orange County’s civil rights bar lacks the capacity and tools to focus on routine police misconduct and the county’s criminal justice advocacy groups generally lack staff attorneys to leverage the courts to address this kind of police misconduct. The result is an unmet need for a police accountability program housed in a public interest law firm like the PJLC that will offer pro bono legal services to address the kinds of police misconduct that doesn’t typically result in lawsuits.
The PJLC is planning a Police Misconduct Project that will 1) partner with community-based organizations to host police accountability legal clinics and setup an in-house infrastructure for intakes, 2) support community-based Cop Watch programs and policy reform campaigns, 3) use lawsuits under the CA Public Records Act to make police practices public, and 4) file § 1983 and other claims to leverage the power of the courts to address police misconduct.
Through partnerships with community groups and by leveraging the courts, the PJLC hopes this program will reduce state violence, increase public safety, and make policing in Orange County more equitable.
PJLC Client First to Win Gang Injunction Hearing; Second Client to Appeal.
The PJLC has been working with community members in the Townsend Street neighborhood of Santa...
The PJLC Represents Chicanxs Unidxs and ACLU in Racial Justice Data Lawsuit
Chicanxs Unidxs and the ACLU Foundations of Southern California and Northern California,...
PJLC Petitions the CA Supreme Court to Hear OC Gang Injunction Case
The California Court of Appeals in Santa Ana has denied an appeal by one of the PJLC’s clients...
The PJLC Joins Panel on Law and Racism Hosted by BASF
Today, the San Francisco Bar Foundation hosted a panel of experts on law and racism from across...
The PJLC and Allies Meet with CA DOJ to Discuss OCDA Todd Spitzer’s Racism.
Following a damning report on racism in the office of the Orange County District Attorney...
PJLC Represents the ACLU in Lawsuit Demanding Documents from Inglewood PD
The ACLU has retained the PJLC to represent the organization in seeking a temporary restraining...