aclu-nj.org — KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Open Government Resources The Sunshine Law (382k PDF) Open Public Records Act (369k PDF) Youth & Student Rights Resources Minors' Rights to Confidential Reproductive Health Care/NJ (1.8mb PDF) Students' Rights Handbook (1mb PDF) 4th Edition (Published September 2011) What to do if the FBI or Homeland Security Wants to Question You (435k PDF) What to Do If Questioned by Police, FBI, Customs Agents or Immigration Officers: Know Your Rights-English (450k PDF) Know Your Rights-Spanish (59k PDF) Know Your Rights-Arabic (217k PDF) Know Your Rights-Hindi (165k PDF) Know Your Rights-Persian (210k PDF) Know Your Rights-Punjabi (145k PDF) Know Your Rights-Somali (51k PDF) Know Your Rights-Urdu (212k PDF) Bust Cards - Wallet size version of Know Your Rights English Bust Card (1mb PDF) Spanish Bust Card (96k PDF) Portuguese Bust Card (1.3mb PDF) Immigrant Rights The Rights of Immigrants in New Jersey (826k) Conozca sus Derechos ante la Migra (85k PDF) Voter Protection 2010 Voter Protection Palmcard (148k PDF) Tarjeta de Protección del Votante 2010 (149k PDF) Right to Protest (41k PDF) RACIAL JUSTICE PUBLICATIONS Police Licensing Fact Sheet (61k PDF) Know Your Rights: Police Brutality (96k PDF) Racial Profiling Still a Concern in New Jersey (55k PDF) Use of Confidential Informants by Police (63k PDF)

ijnet.org —  Speak Up, Speak Out: A Toolkit for Journalists Reporting on Gender and Human Rights Issues by Margaret Looney Posted on Internews, Friday, March 2, 2012   Respect for the rights of women and girls worldwide continues to lag behind that for the rights of men. Domestic and sexual violence, exploitation in the workforce, human trafficking and many other human rights abuses disproportionately affect women and girls. Although 187 nations have acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), many have stipulated that they do not consider themselves bound by certain provisions.   When rights are violated, media can play a vital role in putting a stop to the abuses. Whatever the platform, media raise awareness about violations, inform people about their rights and encourage discussions about the role of governments, legal codes, and international mechanisms to safeguard those rights.   The Internews toolkit Speak Up, Speak Out: A Toolkit for Reporting on Human Rights Issues seeks to help journalists and other content creators learn the basics of reporting on women’s and other human rights issues.   It combines background information on international human rights mechanisms; guidelines on producing nuanced, objective reporting on rights issues; and practical exercises that walk users step-by-step through the production of a solid human rights story. The toolkit also helps journalists understand how international human rights mechanisms, laws and treaties work.   Global in scope and written in an easy-to-understand language, the toolkit is intended to be used as a training aid in targeted journalism trainings around the world. It is available in English online as a free PDF download, with French, Arabic and Spanish language translations planned for the future.   The toolkit is based on a series of trainings in human rights reporting that Internews conducted in several countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East between 2009 and 2011. It was developed and produced by Internews’ Global Human Rights Program.   Download the toolkit: Full Toolkit By section: Introduction & Table of Contents Section 1: Human rights knowledge Section 2: Journalism understanding, skills and tools Section 3: Guide for practical application Section 4: Appendices

ccrjustice.org —  If An Agent Knocks (the booklet) What to do if you or your organization are targeted by federal law enforcement Federal law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have a dark history of targeting radical and progressive movements. Some of the dirty tricks they use against these movements include: the infiltration of organizations to discredit and disrupt their operations; campaigns of misinformation and false stories in the media; forgery of correspondence; fabrication of evidence; and the use of grand jury subpoenas to intimidate activists. Today’s activist must know and understand the threat posed by federal law enforcement agents and their tactics as well as several key security practices that offer the best protection.

ruckus.org —  Security Tips & Resources   Here are a few tips & resources we've compiled that can help folks communicate and operate in a more secure manner.   This is not an exhaustive list! Please note that while total security isn't really possible, it is possible to conduct activities in a more secure manner. Taking precautions such as the following will help you assert your expectation of privacy. 1. First, here's a good intro article we wrote about why security is important and how it is an issue of solidarity for our movement building. 2. For secure(r) communications, we recommend: -Keep anything sensitive - and anything about plans - off email. In general, use good non-attachment philosophy and delete, delete, delete as a general practice! (ie Regularly purge email, texts, everything. Doing this as a regular practice will make it so there's nothing left to turn over to a court if it gets subpoenaed - remember to purge sent messages too!) -Use Email Clients: Using an opensource email client such as Thunderbird to download your email is better than keeping all your email online such as on gmail or yahoo (not to mention they are both notorious for scanning and basically owning all your data). You should enable SSL or TSL security authentication. -Hushmail is generally considered a fairly good secure email option: anyone can set up a free hushmail.com account. You have to log in at least once every 3 weeks in order to keep it active.  While this is better than regular unencrypted email, you should still practice good purging habits and always consider that nothing you send through here is ever totally secure; it's just better.  It is still hosted by a third party that you do not know. -Instead of email, use IM (instant messaging) as much as possible, through Pidgin with the "Off The Record" plugin. Make sure to enable the functions that do not save archived conversations. OTR allows you to authenticate who you're chatting with in a few different ways, and then encrypts the messages that you send live. -A helpful work-planning and info-sharing tool is Basecamp. In very small print below the big boxes you'll see that they actually offer a free plan, which can hold one 'project'.  This is a great space for people to manage tasks, etc. and use writeboards (like wikis) to keep track of plans, notes, etc. rather than emailing them back and forth.  Make sure to enable the SSL-Security function in the account settings! -In the security hierarchy scheme of things, landlines are generally considered 'better' than cellphones. -Use opensource software such as Openoffice.org for documents, spreadsheets, etc. rather than Microsoft Word. 3. For slightly more advanced/intensive security precautions, you may want to look into: -Computer Operating Systems: Macs are generally considered more secure than Windows (windows are easier to hack), but both are corporate and log your data. Lynux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu are better (note: this is easier to run on a PC than on a mac). -TOR is a tool that protects anonymity and privacy in all online activities. -Email Encryption: you can encrypt your email through PGP or PHP or GPG which uses private shared key-rings to authenticate who is receiving your messages, and your message then travels to the recipient in an encrypted (or 'scrambled') way, so that no one else can see it (unencrypted email basically travels like a postcard and many people along the way see it).  A good encryption resource to start is Enigmail.4. Know Your Rights Midnight Special Law Collective runs great trainings on security and know your rights legal issues.   Here are some great resources from them on their website.

aclu.org —  Know Your Rights: Photographers Taking photographs of things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a constitutional right – and that includes federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. Learn more >> >> Know Your Rights: See more essential resources from the ACLU Your rights as a photographer: When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of public oversight over the government and is important in a free society. SPECIAL FEATURE > Article: Law Enforcement Harrassment of Photographers > Learn More: Filming and Photographing Police When you are on private property, the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs. If you disobey the property owner's rules, they can order you off their property (and have you arrested for trespassing if you do not comply). Police officers may not generally confiscate or demand to view your photographs or video without a warrant. If you are arrested, the contents of your phone may be scrutinized by the police, although their constitutional power to do so remains unsettled. In addition, it is possible that courts may approve the seizure of a camera in some circumstances if police have a reasonable, good-faith belief that it contains evidence of a crime by someone other than the police themselves (it is unsettled whether they still need a warrant to view them). Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances. Police officers may legitimately order citizens to cease activities that are truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations. Professional officers, however, realize that such operations are subject to public scrutiny, including by citizens photographing them. Note that the right to photograph does not give you a right to break any other laws. For example, if you are trespassing to take photographs, you may still be charged with trespass. Using the ACLU’s “Know Your Rights: Photographers” resource, HitRecord – a collaborative artist production company – produced an animated video about the right to photograph in public, featuring music by the Gregory Brothers and directed by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube's privacy statement on their website and Google's privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU's privacy statement, click here. If you are stopped or detained for taking photographs: Always remain polite and never physically resist a police officer. If stopped for photography, the right question to ask is, "am I free to go?" If the officer says no, then you are being detained, something that under the law an officer cannot do without reasonable suspicion that you have or are about to commit a crime or are in the process of doing so. Until you ask to leave, your being stopped is considered voluntary under the law and is legal. If you are detained, politely ask what crime you are suspected of committing, and remind the officer that taking photographs is your right under the First Amendment and does not constitute reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Special considerations when videotaping: With regards to videotaping, there is an important legal distinction between a visual photographic record (fully protected) and the audio portion of a videotape, which some states have tried to regulate under state wiretapping laws. Such laws are generally intended to accomplish the important privacy-protecting goal of prohibiting audio "bugging" of private conversations. However, in nearly all cases audio recording the police is legal. In states that allow recording with the consent of just one party to the conversation, you can tape your own interactions with officers without violating wiretap statutes (since you are one of the parties). In situations where you are an observer but not a part of the conversation, or in states where all parties to a conversation must consent to taping, the legality of taping will depend on whether the state's prohibition on taping applies only when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. But that is the case in nearly all states, and no state court has held that police officers performing their job in public have a reasonable expectation. The state of Illinois makes the recording illegal regardless of whether there is an expectation of privacy, but the ACLU of Illinois is challenging that statute in court as a violation of the First Amendment. The ACLU believes that laws that ban the taping of public officials' public statements without their consent violate the First Amendment. A summary of state wiretapping laws can be found here. Photography at the airport Photography has also served as an important check on government power in the airline security context. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) acknowledges that photography is permitted in and around airline security checkpoints as long as you're not interfering with the screening process. The TSA does ask that its security monitors not be photographed, though it is not clear whether they have any legal basis for such a restriction when the monitors are plainly viewable by the traveling public. The TSA also warns that local or airport regulations may impose restrictions that the TSA does not. It is difficult to determine if any localities or airport authorities actually have such rules. If you are told you cannot take photographs in an airport you should ask what the legal authority for that rule is. The ACLU does not believe that restrictions on photography in the public areas of publicly operated airports are constitutional.

organizingcoolstheplanet.wordpress.com —  Organizing Cools the Planet! Posted: October 10, 2011 Get copies of Organizing Cools the Planet here! Organizing Cools The Planet offers a challenge to all concerned about the ecological crisis: find your frontline. This booklet weaves together stories, analysis, organizing tools, and provocative questions, to offer a snapshot of the North American Climate Justice movement and provide pathways for readers to participate in it. Authors share hard lessons learned, reflect on strategy, and grapple with the challenges of their roles as organizers who do not come from “frontline communities” but work to build a movement big enough for everyone and led by the priorities and solutions of low-income people, communities of color, Indigenous, youth, and other constituencies most directly impacted by the crisis. Rooted in the authors’ experiences organizing in local, national, and international arenas, they challenge readers to look at the scale of ecological collapse with open eyes, without falling prey to disempowering doomsday narratives. This booklet is for anyone who wants to build a movement with the resiliency to navigate one of the most rapid transitions in human history. Praise: “There is no task more urgent than to organize a mass popular movement to deal effectively with the looming environmental crisis. The barriers are high, the forces opposed powerful. All the more reason to dedicate ourselves to the kinds of efforts outlined Joshua Kahn Russell and Hilary Moore’s booklet.” —Noam Chomsky “In an atmosphere heavy with doomsday predictions and fear, this booklet is a breath of fresh air. Joshua Kahn Russell and Hilary Moore weave together stories and organizing tools to create a vision for practical transition amid the climate crisis. Organizing Cools the Planet confronts pressing questions of our time.” —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Founding Director, Indigenous World Association “Joshua and Hilary’s manual will be useful to all who want to make change creatively and peacefully in our brutal times.” —Dr. Vandana Shiva “As the climate crisis becomes increasingly unignorable, our movements must learn to navigate a rapidly changing and high-stakes political landscape. Our times demand we think bigger, push harder, and reimagine the possibilities for twenty-first-century movement building. This potent booklet is a great place to begin the conversation. Authored by two visionary young leaders who share their personal struggles and hard-earned lessons from organizing at the intersection of justice, ecology, and change, Organizing Cools the Planet is required reading for anyone who gives a damn about the future. Tune in for some indispensable analysis, provocative thinking and a healthy dose of people-powered optimism.” —Patrick Reinsborough, cofounder, smartMeme Strategy & Training Project   Order hard copies from PM Press here! If you are interested in using Organizing Cools the Planet in your organization, discussion group, classroom, or political work and want to order multiple copies, email us at organizingcoolstheplanet@gmail.com to get information on bulk discounts of 60% off. Download a high resolution PDF of this booklet for FREE here! Or buy an e-Book for your tablet here!

ruckus.org —  Action Strategy: a how-to guide   Actions can empower a generation, catapult an issue onto the international stage, and force political change.  Yet, actions can also be poorly executed or harmful to your group and goals. This guide is here to help you design a strategic action.   Click below to download our free Action Strategy Guide!   If you can, please consider making a small donation to help us continue providing action training, resources, and hands-on support for our movements for justice! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Download: RuckusActionStrategyGuide.pdf

ruckus.org —  Action Planning Manual The Functions of Direct Action As we discuss the uses of direct action, remember one thing: almost all successful actions occur within the context of an ongoing campaign. This means that political - not only logistical - work has been done before the action. This improves the chances that your action will be understood and successful. This also means you intend to follow up on your action. Intervention demands responsibility. Action Development Although each action is different and in its course takes on a life of its own, there are a series of more-or-less standard steps to develop one. These steps presume that you are developing your action within the context of an ongoing campaign. The Action Planning Manual The Action Planning Manual starts with an introduction to direct action, discusses the functions and symbolic nature of direct action, and provides steps for action development. The Symbolic Nature of Direct Action There is much debate over "hard" vs. "soft" action. You hear it at meetings, around campfires, or read it in an eco-journal: folks advocating "harder" action and often criticizing "soft" action as being "just symbolic." This argument has at times even kept groups on different sides of the divide from working together effectively. But this argument shows a misunderstanding: all direct action is symbolic by nature.

ruckus.org —  Media Manual The Media Manual provides an introduction how the news media works (or doesn't), and covers wire services, newspapers, radio, and television. A checklist for effective direct action media is included.   Media Manual Coordinating media for a direct action is more art than science, and sometimes owes more to luck than either. News is a quirky, complicated, unpredictable endeavor - much like an action itself. Put the two together, and it can seem like a miracle when an action actually communicates the intended message to the desired audience. As media coordinator, your job is to work miracles. How the News Media Works (Or Doesn't) The structure of the U.S. and global news media is undergoing rapid change - change that may soon make outdated the concept of news (as opposed to entertainment or other "soft" information media). Wire Services In the U.S. there are three main wire services: the Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters. AP is by far the dominant player, with UPI struggling with near-bankruptcy in recent decades and Reuters, based in Britain, still building its American base. Newspapers Conglomeration is shrinking the number of dailies, so that most cities support only one main metropolitan paper. There are very few afternoon papers left, so newspapers are often reporting stories broken the day before by TV and radio. This can work against action coverage - what seems exciting on live radio or TV may be shrugged off by the newspaper as old news. Radio News radio is in some ways the most desirable coverage for an action. It's live and dramatic; during morning and afternoon "drive time" it reaches large, captive audiences; and radio reporters live for catchy soundbites (as opposed to TV reporters, who value good video footage.) Television The most famous description of American TV is "a vast wasteland" - and that was 40 years ago. Now it's much worse: A study by Rocky Mountain Media Watch found that the average local TV station runs so much mayhem and fluff - crime, disaster, pets, sex, showbiz - there's almost no time for real news. The networks are more serious, but focus heavily on Washington politics. Still, a creative, timely direct action with good visuals can get coverage - and the vast wasteland has a vast audience. Checklist for Effective Direct Action Media Multiple checklists to go over months, weeks, days, moments before the action, and after the action has passed.

ruckus.org —   Climber's Knots Manual Introduction to Terminology Fisherman's Knot Single Bowline Prusik Knot Hitches Water Knot