News & Commentary

In the wake of yet another senseless killing of an unarmed black man by police, the ACLU continued our fight to address some of the issues that have created this unacceptable reality. Here in Rhode Island, we joined the community for discussion about urban policing, and called for a thorough public investigation into a police department’s practices given recent allegations of racism among officers.

In April of 2010, we sued the Division of Motor Vehicles for telling thousands of motorists that their license and registration were to be suspended due to unpaid fines without providing any information about the alleged offense, the penalty, or even the date that the offense supposedly took place.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is urging the Pawtucket Police Department to conduct an in-depth examination of some of its policies and procedures in light of “disturbing” allegations of racism among its officers described in a recent news article.

President of the American Civil Liberties Union Susan Herman will be in Rhode Island Wednesday to discuss urban policing with local officials and experts.

This week, we had the pleasure of working with some of the state’s top advocates to discuss women’s issues and gender equality here in Rhode Island. We also had another busy week at the State House where we testified on bills that would protect youth from certain life sentences and would limit out-of-school suspensions. We also have more to share about the ACLU’s work to address mass incarceration and other criminal justice issues.

Over the past few months, we've shared quite a bit of data about the school-to-prison pipeline and its disproportionate impact on Rhode Island's communities of color. We recently sat down with Jordan Seaberry, of the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Committee and Jim Vincent, president of the NAACP-Providence Branch to discuss the far reaching impact of these racial disparities and how the state must act to improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders.

By Megan Khatchadourian, assistant to the director

It can be hard to keep up on the all the latest issues during the workweek, but don’t worry, we’ve collected some of the civil liberties news stories you may have missed this week.