More Actions to Support Local Efforts to Stop the BBP in Louisiana

Last week, CCR took two more steps to support Louisiana activists and communities fighting to stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP). Some of the same corporations behind the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, have joined with Phillips 66, to form Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC and are proposing to build a pipeline across 162 miles of Louisiana. The pipeline would pass through 11 parishes and impact 700 bodies of water, including the Atchafalaya Basin. Last week, CCR filed a lawsuit against the St. Charles, Louisiana, Parish Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Greg Champagne, seeking the release of public records related to involvement in the law enforcement response to protests against the DAPL, as well as communications and records with companies involved in the proposed BBP. CCR also filed a second lawsuit, on behalf of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, seeking to force the Office of the Governor and the Custodian of Records to make public their records in relation to the Bayou Bridge Pipeline and affiliated companies, including meetings and internal communications. 

“We're living in precarious environmental times and it’s crucial that people in Louisiana have the information they need to understand the relationship between the state and this industry and how decisions affecting the futures, health, and lives of so many are made,” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pamela Spees, who grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the communities that would be affected by the pipeline.

These latest steps are part of CCR's broad effort to support those fighting the BPP on the ground. CCR staff also joined local grassroots groups to invoke a public records request to force the Bayou Bridge LLC to make its records, including internal communications, available to the public. Last month, they also petitioned the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners to participate in a hearing regarding the state licensure of the private security company TigerSwan, which is seeking a license presumably to support Energy Transfer Partners in its attempt to develop the BBP, as the company did with the DAPL in North Dakota. These various efforts aim to help build the power of grassroots activists and communities in their fight to stop the pipeline.

New York City - Take action today for police reform!

New Yorkers, please take action today and tell your council member to Vote YES on Int. 541-C and NO on Int. 182-D. Intro-541-C is half of the Right to Know Act and, if passed on Tuesday, will help end unconstitutional searches and protect New Yorkers from NYPD abuses by requiring officers to obtain proof that a person gave informed and voluntary consent to a search. Please also tell your city council member to vote "No" on Intro 182-D, which is a NYPD-proposed bill that guts transparency and protections for the majority of police encounters. Click here to learn more about why Intro 182-D is so dangerous and why members of the City Council have come out against this watered-down police reform legislation. The Right to Know Act was introduced over three years ago to improve the NYPD’s transparency and accountability, and CCR supported the original legislation as part of our broader effort to reform unconstitutional NYPD policing. Since then, portions of one bill have been revised to weaken reforms. That's why this week's vote is crucial.

Help us continue the fight in 2018!

As we close in on the first full year of a Trump presidency, CCR's work remains vital—and your support is more crucial than ever. We are in one of the most politically threatening eras of our lifetimes. Your continued support has allowed us to not only continue the fights we began before Trump—including ending indefinite solitary confinement in California, working to hold accountable private military contractors responsible for torture at Abu Ghraib, and correcting decades of racial discrimination in the New York Fire Department—but also to challenge emerging attacks from an administration openly hostile to human and civil rights. In 2017, your support allowed us to join the fight against Trump's Muslim ban, challenge the government's turning away asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border, support communities working to stop oil pipelines (here and here), and join the opposition to the FBI's labeling racial justice activists as "Black Identity Extremists." Under the Trump administration, CCR's dual efforts—to fight institutionalized power that subjugates vulnerable communities and build the power of social movements that strive for justice and equality—are even more vigorous.

We can't do this work without you. At a time when so much is at stake, please include CCR in your year-end giving. Renew your support and keep us fighting in 2018!