Join us for a Legal Observer Training on April 7, 2021!
This training will be conducted through Zoom from 6-8pm.
This training will cover:
- A brief history of the National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
- The NLG-SF Demonstrations Committee
- Legal Support offered by NLG-SF
- The Legal Observer program: roles, function, and limits
- Legal Observer duties before, during, and after an action
- Legal Observing safely during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Next steps needed for registration, vetting, and confirmation as a NLG-SF Legal Observer
Please register for this training to receive the Zoom link!
Why a Legal Observer Training?
The National Lawyers Guild - SF Bay Area Chapter is holding a Legal Observer training to expand our capacity to support demonstrations in the Bay Area, particularly those organized by communities on the front line of state repression during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Legal Observers play a critical role by monitoring and documenting law enforcement activity, and serve as the first point of contact by which arrestees can access the legal support offered by the National Lawyers Guild. Legal Obsevers are also increasingly needed during the ongoing eviction crisis in the Bay Area.
Who is giving this training?
This training will be led by Legal Observer Coordinators who are members of the NLG-SFBA Demonstrations Committee.
The volunteers of the Demonstrations Committee stand against political repression and act in solidarity with all those who challenge the state, capitalism and other forms of systemic oppression and domination, regardless of tactics. We work both internally and externally to dismantle oppressive tendencies and work within an abolitionist framework. The NLG-SF believes that policing, prisons and the whole legal system is inherently white supremacist, patriarchal, exploitative and violent. We see movement legal support as harm-reduction work. The Demonstrations Committee is not a legal services agency, and we cannot always meet all legal support needs. We prioritize those organizing for their own communities’ liberation, those in frontline impacted communities, and those most targeted by the state.
Who should attend this training?
In addition to new trainee Legal Observers, we ask you to attend this training if:
1. You were previously trained as a Legal Observer but never volunteered at a demonstration;
2. You haven’t volunteered for at least 8 months, as we’ve revised some guidance based on learning in 2020;
3. You are an active Legal Observer in the South Bay, as we’re consolidating Bay Area-wide practices and need South Bay Legal Observers to be current on these.
Please contact demonstrations@nlgsf.org with questions.