NYU Law Community Letter in Support of Colinford Mattis ’16 and Urooj Rahman
An Open Letter from the NYU Law Community:
We are over 850 current and former NYU Law students, student organizations, faculty and staff who write to express our deep concern with the federal government’s aggressive charging and pursuit of pre-trial detention of Colinford (“Colin”) Mattis, a 2016 NYU Law graduate, and another young lawyer, Urooj Rahman. Colin and Urooj are public interest-oriented attorneys of color and respected community members who were arrested on May 30, 2020, while protesting the murder of George Floyd and systemic police brutality. This recent police brutality has prompted a broad reckoning with this country’s history of systemic racism against Black and brown communities and a widespread mourning over lives cut short by police violence.
We believe that the Department of Justice’s prosecution and aggressive efforts to jail Colin and Urooj are a gross overreach of federal law enforcement power and an attempt to stifle and delegitimize dissent against police brutality. Colin and Urooj are facing charges of attempting to burn an unoccupied and already damaged NYPD police vehicle during city-wide protests. No one was injured. The alleged damage to the police vehicle was charring of its central console. Despite these facts, Colin and Urooj are being aggressively prosecuted, and are now sitting in federal jail and facing federal charges that carry a 45-year mandatory minimum sentence, and up to life in prison.
Throughout recent nationwide protests, we have witnessed the Trump Administration’s attempt to fan emotional flames in order to distract from the very real problems of police brutality, whether this be President Trump’s promotion of conspiracy theories about Martin Gugino, the 75-year old protester who was hospitalized after he was assaulted by Buffalo police; or his tear-gassing of protesters to clear space in front of the White House for him to take a photo with a Bible. In contrast, the two federal judges, District Judge Brodie and Magistrate Judge Gold, who presided over Colin and Urooj’s arraignment, issued well-reasoned decisions based on the facts presented in their cases. Both found that Colin and Urooj could safely be released with electronic monitoring and home confinement. Colin and Urooj fully complied with these conditions in the days between their release and the hearing on the DOJ’s bail appeal.
We believe that these decisions to release Colin and Urooj were the correct ones. Colin and Urooj are life-long New Yorkers, and respected attorneys who have given back to their communities in numerous ways. Colin has long been a devoted advocate for Black and Latinx youth and his commitment to race equity has profoundly enriched all the communities he has been a part of. As a law student, Colin volunteered in New Orleans at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights and during his final year at NYU, Colin worked with lawyers at Brooklyn Defender Services to represent low income families in Brooklyn family court through the university’s Family Defense Clinic. While in college at Princeton, he served as the President of the Princeton Black Student Union and at NYU, he was an active member of NYU’s Black Allied Law Students Association, where he served proudly as Political Action Chair. Since graduating from law school, he has been recognized by Her Justice for his outstanding pro bono advocacy for low income women. Outside of work, Colin has played an indispensable role in his family after the death of his father during law school and the recent devastating loss of his mother, Edith, last year. In the wake of these losses, Colin has provided for his family with emotional and financial support and taken on the responsibility of raising three young foster siblings.
Urooj is a graduate of Fordham College and Fordham Law School, and until her arrest, worked in the Bronx providing legal services for low-income tenants in housing court. She has long been engaged in advocacy on the over-policing of Black and brown communities in New York, and particularly around the targeting and over-surveillance of Muslim communities after 9/11. She has also worked with migrants and refugees internationally. Urooj lives with and cares for her elderly mother in Bay Ridge, where she grew up.
We the undersigned stand with Colin and Urooj and call on the federal government to drop these politically motivated charges and their aggressive pursuit of detention without bail. Our community is well aware that Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who murdered George Floyd, was granted bail, while these Black and brown members of our community who harmed no one are languishing in jail in the midst of a pandemic in an institution that has systematically failed to protect detainees from COVID-19. Two well-respected federal judges both decided that Colin and Urooj should safely await trial in their communities. The federal government should not be allowed to use this prosecution as a weapon to silence the voices that are calling for the change that this country desperately needs.
In solidarity,
The NYU Law Community
