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Vol. 30, Issue 52 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN Dec.27, 2019-Jan. 2, 2020
Supporters attend the launch of ‘Erase the Database NYC’ campaign at City Hall. Redmond
Haskins, The Legal Aid Society
By Nelson A. King
Representatives from local
criminal justice advocacy
organizations and area public
defenders, elected officials and
New Yorkers from over-policed
communities gathered at City
Hall last Thursday to announce
a new campaign — “Erase The
Database NYC” — to abolish
what they said is the New York
City Police Department’s (NYPD)
secretive gang database.
Since 2014, advocates say
thousands of New Yorkers -
including hundreds of children
- have been added to the NYPD’s
gang database.
The campaign’s demands
include: Stop criminalizing people
as “gang members”; abolish
gang databases (of any kind);
discontinue all “focused deterrence”
and other “precision
policing” initiatives; stop using
large scale “gang takedowns,”
including the employment
of state and federal conspiracy
charges; and end the use of
Continued on Page 6
By Bert Wilkinson
Trinidad’s government is
moving to the courts system
to scrub convictions for small
amounts of marijuana from
the records of dozens of men
after authorities rewrote the
rules regarding marijuana possession
for personal and religious
uses in recent weeks.
On Friday, titular President
Paula Mae Weekes signed off
on legislation decriminalizing
marijuana possession for adults
found with up to 30 grams of
weed for personal and religious
uses. Households are also now
allowed to have four plants in
yards for family use without
facing criminal prosecution.
Fellow Caribbean Community
member Antigua also has similar
legislation.
The move means that Trinidad
is now the latest nation in
Continued on Page 6
‘Erase the Database NYC’ campaign
NEW
WEED
LAW
Trinidad moves to scrub
marijuana convictions
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