Barbara Handschu
{{Short description|American lawyer and civil libertarian}}Barbara Ellen Handschu (born June 28, 1942) is an American political activist and lawyer, whose surname was memorialized on a set of federal guidelines "[ordering] restrictions on police surveillance ... signed by the city [of New York] in 1985", which became known as the Handschu decree.{{Cite news |last=Finn |first=Robin |date=2007-02-23 |title=Making Police Obey the Rules That Bear Her Name |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/nyregion/23lives.html |access-date=2022-08-22 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |last=Katz |first=Matt |date=2021-09-07 |title=NYPD's Legacy Of Police Surveillance, From Black Panthers To Mosques To Black Lives Matter |url=https://gothamist.com/ |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=Gothamist |language=en}}
Early life and education
Handschu completed her undergraduate studies at New York University. She later earned her law degree at the University of Michigan Law School in 1963. She began her career as a law secretary to Justice Hilda Schwartz until her 1969 arrest at a squatters' demonstration in Manhattan caused her to switch careers to criminal defense lawyer.{{cite web |url=http://www.dobrishlaw.com/attorneys_Barbara-E-Handschu.php |title=Barbara E. Handschu |website=Dobrish Michaels Gross LLP |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601005148/http://www.dobrishlaw.com/attorneys_Barbara-E-Handschu.php |archive-date=2015-06-01 }}
Career
Handschu was an activist lawyer, representing, among others, the Young Lords of Spanish Harlem (to one of whom, Robert Lemus, she was briefly married), the Black Panthers, the Chicago Seven, and participants in the Attica Prison riots.
She had been a resident of Buffalo, New York, and now is exclusively practicing matrimonial and custody law in New York City; she no longer practices criminal law. She served as the first female president of the New York chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in the mid-1990s{{Cite web |last=Searls |first=David |date=22 August 2007 |title=A LAW ALL HER OWN |url=https://www.superlawyers.com/new-york/article/a-law-all-her-own/bf611382-07a8-4730-b3e0-aab811a0a34c.html |access-date=13 March 2024 |website=Super Lawyers}} and served as president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers from 2002-2003.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-21 |title=Past Presidents - aaml.org |url=https://aaml.org/past-presidents/,%20https://aaml.org/past-presidents/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=aaml.org |language=en-US}} As of 2016, she worked in New York as a divorce attorney.{{Cite web |title=For NY lawyer, a 45-year-old surveillance case is her legacy |url=https://apnews.com/article/452c1f776f9d48c2adc1b8ae30494034 |access-date=2022-08-09 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}
Handschu has appeared in court multiple times regarding the original lawsuit filed against the New York Police Department in 1971 (over how the department spied on protestors during the Vietnam War era),{{Cite web |last=York |first=Associated Press in New |date=2013-08-28 |title=NYPD secretly labels mosques as terror groups and spies on them |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/nypd-surveillance-mosques-terror-spying |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} including in 2013, when the department came under scrutiny for targeting Muslim communities following a rollback of the Handschu guidelines by a judge in 2003.{{Cite web |title=Lawyers want judge to stop NYPD monitoring of Muslims |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lawyers-nypd-stop-monitoring-muslims-article-1.1473635 |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=New York Daily News}}
Personal life
Handschu lives in Manhattan, returning to the city in 2013 after living in Buffalo for decades. Handschu participated in political and non-political protests over issues like Vietnam, women's rights, and race.{{Cite web |date=2016-05-28 |title=For NY lawyer, a 45-year-old surveillance case is her legacy |url=https://apnews.com/general-news-452c1f776f9d48c2adc1b8ae30494034 |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=AP News |language=en}}
Handschu Decree
For a more detailed history see Handschu decree main page.
Barbara Handschu’s name was first on the list of plaintiffs in a May 1971 lawsuit challenging “how New York City police officers conducted surveillance of political activities.” The results of this lawsuit led to a consent decree which was signed by Federal Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr. in 1985 and became known as the Handschu Decree.
In 2019, the New York City Municipal Archives “digitized more than 140 hours of 16mm surveillance-film footage created by the New York City Police Department (NYPD)’s photography unit between 1960 and 1980” and is “closely related to the historical paper records, often referred to as the “Handschu” files.”{{Cite web |date=2024-03-08 |title=Handschu — Blog - For The Record |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/tag/Handschu |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |language=en-US}}
See also
- [http://www.nyclu.org/content/testimony-police-surveillance-of-political-activity-history-and-current-state-of-handschu-de Police Surveillance of Political Activity -- The History and Current State of the Handschu Decree]. Testimony of Arthur N. Eisenberg Presented to the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. New York Civil Liberties Union (May 21, 2003).
References
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Category:New York University alumni
Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni
Category:American women lawyers
Category:Activists from New York (state)