AF3IRM NYC

Resistance can change things.
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ICE Agents to Leave Site of Volatile Protests at Detention Center Clashes between protesters and armed federal agents have erupted at the parking lot of Delaney Hall in Newark since the Memorial Day weekend.

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On a recent scalding Monday afternoon, hundreds of attorneys and advocates gathered outside the Kings County Criminal Court to protest the most recent violation of humanity to unfold in the Brooklyn courtroom. The previous Friday, May 15, minutes before midnight, someone waiting to be arraigned had given birth while handcuffed during open court. The woman, Samantha Randazzo, was afforded neither privacy, nor dignity, nor competent medical treatment—which was not surprising to the public defenders assembled. In a system that has all but normalized lives’ ending in custody, a person being forced to give birth there wasn’t so far afield.

“This is not the first time that something like this has happened,” Olga Karounos, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told me at the demonstration, which was organized by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (UAW Local 2325). Three people have died from insufficiently treated medical issues in the 120 Schermerhorn courthouse since early 2025, all arrested for minor charges, and “no changes have happened from that,” Karounos said. “So I think people just really felt like [Randazzo’s giving birth] was the last straw.”

Among the many professionals present during court proceedings, there are no doctors, the public defenders I spoke to noted. They have been trying to change that since last September, when the community of legal advocates issued a 10-step plan calling on the mayor and City Council to implement policy “to Address Growing Crisis of Deaths in NYPD Custody,” including staffing courtrooms with independent EMS personnel. Those workers would supplement existing correctional health staff who sometimes, at the behest of police officers, screen people waiting to be arraigned. The plan also calls for better mental health and substance use services, regular inspections of NYPD policy and central bookings buildings, and the end of custodial arrests for low-level crimes. So far, that 10-point plan is still just a list of unmet demands. Read more from Sophie Mann-Shafir: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/brooklyn-courtroom-birth-public-defenders/

Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), USA – 84.8 million travelers annually. 200 international flights into JFK per day with 97,000 arrivals/departure. 65,000 international travelers per day in Los Angeles. GOOD LUCK, Mullin.

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On March 25, 1911, hundreds of young immigrant women were sewing blouses inside New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory when fire tore through the building. Many were teenagers. Some had only been in America a few years. The doors to the stairwells had been locked — supposedly to stop theft and workers from taking breaks. When the flames spread, girls were trapped inside.

Some burned alive at their sewing machines. Others crowded at windows high above the streets of Manhattan with nowhere left to run. Witnesses watched in horror as desperate young women jumped from the building rather than be consumed by fire. In less than 20 minutes, 146 workers were dead.

The tragedy shocked America not only because of the deaths, but because it exposed how cheaply the lives of working women were valued. These girls worked long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay, surrounded by piles of flammable fabric and locked exits. Their deaths became a turning point in labor history, helping force new workplace safety laws, fire regulations, and protections for workers across the country.

The Triangle girls did not set out to change America. They went to work that morning expecting to come home. Instead, their deaths became one of the most important moments in the fight for workers’ rights and women’s labor history.