Know your Rights: The Community Wants to Know Forum

Know your Rights: The Community Wants to Know Forum 

March 5 2016 at the New Mount Olive Baptist Church

      FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — The T.J. Reddick Bar Association, Incorporated will host a know your rights forum on Saturday, March 5th, in which panelists will engage in a discussion panel to address numerous criminal justice issues that affect and are important to the community. The forum begins at 10:00 a.m. and will be held at the New Mount Olive Baptist Church, 400 N.W. Ninth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The T.J. Reddick Bar Association, Incorporated will host the event in partnership with the Urban League of Broward County Young Professionals Network and the Chi Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

The Panel of esteemed justice system experts will include Sheriff Scott Israel, State Attorney Michael Satz, Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, NAACP President Marsha Ellison, Judge Elijah Williams, Attorney Skinner Louis, State Representative Shevrin Jones and ACLU Attorney Barry Butin. Moderated by Suzette Speaks, representatives of local bar associations, community organizations and the Broward com-munity at-large will also be in attendance.

The symposium is geared toward educating youth and adults of their constitutional rights and how to interact with law enforcement during a police encounter. Our goal is to provide the audience with information on how to effectively communicate with police to foster mutual respect while protecting the civil rights of the community. The T.J. Reddick Bar Association, Incorporated is addressing this issue because of recent instances where interactions with law enforcement yielded deadly results: Corey Jones, Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

“We want get answers to many questions that the Black community in Broward County have about the extent to which police can use deadly force and gain knowledge about the justice system in general. The desire is to have an open and honest forum to discuss critical issues with these who are at the forefront of the justice system. We encourage this dialogue with the hopes to inform and prepare the community to take steps toward making their voices heard. There is an inherent problem when the community is in fear of the police that are entrusted to protect and serve and vice versa,” says Ruby Green, President of the T.J.  Reddick Bar Association.

Free and open to the public.