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New York Times
22-03-2025
- New York Times
Man Accused of Shoplifting Dies at Brooklyn Courthouse
A man accused of stealing power tools from a hardware store died in a holding cell at a Brooklyn courthouse just before his scheduled arraignment on Friday, according to court records and the police. The man, identified as Soso Ramishvili, 32, was being held in police custody at the Kings County Criminal Courts Building in Downtown Brooklyn. He faced charges of petty larceny and possessing stolen property and cocaine, the authorities said. After his arrest on Tuesday, Mr. Ramishvili had been scheduled for an arraignment on Wednesday morning. But the hearing was postponed several times this week and rescheduled for Friday morning, court records show. Then, just before Friday's scheduled appearance, Mr. Ramishvili was discovered unconscious by the police at 8:25 a.m. Emergency medical workers were called to the courthouse and pronounced him dead, the police said. The cause of Mr. Ramishvili's death was not immediately clear. But the police said he had been taken to the hospital multiple times after his arrest on Tuesday. Still, his death has caused outrage among lawyers and public defenders as well as renewed criticism of the treatment of people accused of crimes in New York City. 'The callous disregard that law enforcement continues to show towards New Yorkers is deeply shocking,' the Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services, two public defense organizations, said in a joint statement on Friday. The groups also called for an 'urgent, thorough and independent' investigation into the matter. Mr. Ramishvili did not have a lawyer because he had not yet been arraigned, Legal Aid said. The authorities said that a security guard saw Mr. Ramishvili take power tools and other items from the shelves of a Home Depot in the Old Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, hide them under his jacket and walk out without paying. The guard, who noticed Mr. Ramishvili on surveillance footage, said he had stolen goods valued at $213 from the store, according to the authorities. He was also carrying a vessel of cocaine at the time, they said. Four other people have died this year in city jails or just after being released from custody. On Thursday, a woman who was being held at the Rikers Island jail complex was pronounced dead after being discovered unresponsive, according to the Department of Correction. Earlier this month, Ariel Quidone, 20, who had been accused of robbery, died in a hospital after collapsing in his Rikers cell. Two other men who were being held in New York City jails died within the same week last month.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Know Your Rights: Here's How to Defend Immigrants Against the Most Common ICE Tactics and Unconstitutional Actions
All products featured on Teen Vogue are independently selected by Teen Vogue editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Anadolu/Getty Images Knowing your rights, exercising your rights, and informing others about their rights is not a crime. It's a constitutional right. We are living at a moment when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is threatening not only to arrest and deport immigrants but arrest and prosecute everyday people and leaders simply for educating people about their constitutional rights when approached by ICE agents. Sharing information is more critical than ever. Helping to defend our immigrant communities and neighbors is one clear action that we can all take right now. To that end, We Have Rights is an animated 'know your rights' short film series in eight languages, co-written by immigrant communities and immigration attorneys on how to defend against the most common ICE tactics and unconstitutional actions. Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take The We Have Rights film series was launched by Brooklyn Defender Services in 2018, during Trump's first term in office. Brooklyn Defender Services, where I long worked as a public defender, was one of the few offices in the country with dedicated funding to provide free legal representation to immigrants facing deportation. Unfortunately, there is no right to counsel for anyone in immigration proceedings yet recognized in the United States. Facing overwhelming numbers of cases, our office's immigration attorneys were struggling to find materials to hand out to people and families that they represented who faced the possibility of ICE detention and deportation. Everything that we found was full of legal jargon, hard to understand, and available in only one or two languages. So, in close partnership with those we represented, production and creative agencies Media Tank and Variant Strategies, and some big names including actors Jesse Williams and Kumail Nanjiani, and singer and activist Fiona Apple, we created our own. Since Trump's Inauguration, this series has already reached over 75 million new people on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X. The site, which includes information on Emergency Preparedness Plans and includes all films, is being visited between 10,000-20,000 times per day. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want more Teen Vogue immigration coverage? The School Shooting That History Forgot I Was Kidnapped After Coming to the U.S. Seeking Asylum Ronald Reagan Sucked, Actually The White Supremacist 'Great Replacement Theory' Has Deep Roots
