ACLU Condemns NYC Schools, Praises Police Commissioner
In a supplement to the ACLU Annual Report issued on this day, the New York Civil Liberties Committee accused the New York City schools of disciplining teachers and students who express “unpopular” views or who criticize school policies.
The annual report also praised the new NYC Police Commissioner, Lewis Valentine, for his “understanding and cooperative attitude” regarding freedom of speech and assembly issues in the city. It found Valentine to be a refreshing change from the previous police commissioner on civil liberties issues.
The ACLU had a long struggle to win the right to speak in New York City Schools. See May 21, 1926, March 19, 1928, November 27, 1928 (when it finally won the right to speak in the schools, but only temporarily), and April 19, 1929.
The ACLU’s “honeymoon” with the NYPD was short-lived. On August 13, 1950, the police banned a peace rally that opposed the Korean War. On August 25, 1959 NYPD officers beat up jazz great Miles Davis for the crime of standing in front of a jazz club with a white woman. The then-Police Commissioner declared on September 10, 1965 that the U.S. Supreme Court was making law enforcement “more difficult.” And on June 17, 2012 a large silent march protested the NYPD’s unconstitutional stop and frisk program.
Learn more about the history of the ACLU: Samuel Walker, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1990)
And about the ACLU today.
Learn more about what counts as police misconduct –the the remedies here