Stay Woke Meeting - Police Interrogation

Any young person facing a police interrogation has the legal right to ask for a lawyer before answering questions. Youth have faced coercive police interrogation tactics for decades. The problem is particularly acute for youth of color. This was the main focus of this week's Stay Woke meeting, The youth Interrogation Bill. This Amends procedures required for the custodial interrogation of children to provide additional protections and for taking juveniles into custody. This has been a continuous problem in our society and along with the members of this meeting, I also believe there should be a solution that comes with evident change and progress. After reading these reports, you the reader(s) will most likely have the same opinions as the writers. 

  • Please visit our Instagram page @Trelliscrew, and if possible, please leave your feedback and thoughts on these reports.

Today we did an icebreaker, for the icebreaker we had to introduce ourselves as usual and state our favorite borough . I introduced myself and said my favorite borough is Brooklyn because that is where I am raised and where I grew up.  After that we watched a video documentary about police interrogation  . The video I saw was police interrogating a teenager . The police were also aggressively questioning the teenager . The teenager more than likely is not educated on his rights to remain silent and the police doesn’t seem too concerned about his rights . I feel like we should be taught more about our rights in school . That teenager wasn’t being supervised by an adult nor a lawyer. After the video We were asked what we thought about it . This also reminded me of something I had to watch in school for an assignment . For my anthropology class we had to watch a video that spoke about the dark side of the 13 amendment which abolished slavery but also allowed it as punishment in prisons . Also the “war on drugs” , which caused many African Americans to be incarcerated . Many of them were teens ranging from as young as thirteen to their early twenties . Things like the story we were shown happen all the time without being shown to the media . The media needs to cover and bring awareness to things like this so we can work on fixing and changing policies that allow things like this to happen .  

—Raphael Moreau

10/22/20

  During this zoom meeting we talked about how we are going to start a campaign for a bill. The bill name is youth Interrogation Bill. They ask us why this bill is important. I said that this bill is important because it will help kids be more aware of their rights and it will also stop the police from abusing their power. They then asked us what we thought was going to happen when this bill comes into effect. I said once it comes into effect people will be aware of their rights and the police won't be able to try to intimidate kids into doing what they want. 

We also talked about why it is important to vote. They said how our votes matter and how the youths need to vote because we are the next generation so we need to fight for our rights. We then started to brainstorm names for the campaign. We came up with quite a few names but the one that stood out the most was 2young2talk. I like this one better because it was short so a lot of people can remember and it has a good meaning to it. We then said how we should post more about this campaign on social media to get more people aware of this. We then watched a video about how the youths vote will impact the 2020 election. I found this video quite interesting because it talked about how a majority of the young people were in favor of trump getting re-elected. This showed that we have to educate the youth on how these candidates will impact our Community not just following what other people do. 

—Gabriel Moreau

10/30/20

This meeting we talked about the youth interrogation bill and Miranda rights.  As we discussed before when cops apprehend individuals they are supposed to state their rights . For example they say " You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.  Rather police are starting to bribe and get early/ forced confessions out of people which may get them wrongfully convicted for crimes . The main group of people being affected by this are teenagers . This is why we decide to start a campaign and create a social media hashtag to bring awareness to this because many young teens don't know about this at all . We made a list on whether the sayings would be powerful , clear and also brief so it  can be easily remembered.   The options we had were Protect and serve our Miranda rights , No youth interrogation without legal representation,  # 2Young2Talk, #Right2RemainSilent and # WhyITalked . The last two we came to an agreement on was #2Young2Talk and #Right2RemainSilent. I decided on the later one because it gets to the point and it is a popular saying when it comes to police apprehending people . It also is easy to understand and one of the Miranda rights that we have . After we voted we ended up choosing #2Young2Talk . This is a valid saying as well because it gets to the point even more thoroughly because the issue is youth interrogation and teens are two young to talk and also more likely to get convicted because of police poking at them without an adult or a legal lawyer being there .

—Raphael Moreau

10/30/20 








The closing of Rikers Island and it being compared to a Dungeon

Rikers Island is a 413.17-acre island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that is home to New York City's main jail complex. In May 2013, Rikers Island ranked as one of the ten worst correctional facilities in the United States. Violence on Rikers Island has been increasing in recent years. In 2015 there were 9,424 assaults, the highest number in five years. A lawsuit has landed a decisive blow to Bill de Blasio’s plan to replace Rikers Island with a smaller network of borough-based jails. New York City lawmakers voted to close the notorious Rikers Island jail complex and is scheduled to shutter by 2026, ending a decades-long run as one of the world's largest jails. Some of our crew members joined a meeting based on these facts and charged their opinions on the meeting. It’s very essential to be aware of what’s going on in our Country and they have the opportunity to do so. 

During this zoom meeting we had some new people so we did some icebreakers. We just introduce ourselves and talk about what we do and the group we are a part of. They then asked us what animal we would be. I said a cheetah because I have a lot of energy and I am always running around. We then started to talk about how Rikers Island was going to close. They then ask us why we think Rikers should be close. People said how the environment was not good and people were not being treated well. They wanted to reduce the number of people at Rikers. We had Sarita Daftary-steel tell us about what was happening there. She said everyone had to share a bathroom and that the place was not clean. People in there could easily catch covid from being in there. We then started to watch a video about people's experience in Rikers. The people in the video talk about the fact that they were treated unfairly and compared it to a dungeon. They then start to talk about their plan to try to change that. There is a campaign to try to close Rikers and to try to have a community center to help people that are going through this kind of thing. They then ask us what we thought of the video. I said that the people in Rikers were treated poorly and how we need to get more people to be aware of what is happening there. I also said that we need to change how Rikers are and to make it better. We then tried to think of a name for the campaign. 

—By: Gabriel Moreau


During the Stay Woke meeting, we talked mainly about Rikers Island and us as young black teens to know our rights. There are plans to shut down Rikers Island due to its unfair treatment to its inmates. The first goal was to reduce the number of people actually incarcerated in Rikers Island from 10,000 and cut that in half. This goal was met but mostly due to Covid-19. Rikers Island now only holds about 3,000-4,000 people as of right now. People are still concerned for the people still incarcerated in Rikers Island because of the mistreatment they are receiving. They want to make sure that these inmates are being treated fairly enough to survive there. The second goal was to open up the prisons in Brooklyn and Queens so that the inmates families would be able to see them more often. As you know Rikers Island is... exactly in its name an island. It’s miles away from the city and makes it difficult for most families to come and visit their families that are incarcerated. The only problem with the prisons in Brooklyn and Queens is that they are filled with dust and mold. That wouldn’t be a very good living situation for prisoners because that could end up leading to health problems since dust and mold carry lots of bacteria. They want to try and clean the prisons so that they could have a more comfortable living situation. We as a community have to come together to address the problems at hand. We need to keep speaking out, marching and making sure our voices are heard.

—By: Brandon Lino


In this meeting we first introduced ourselves to new members and did a little icebreaker.  They asked us the usual things, like to put in the chat your group name but today they decided to also have us talk about animals. They asked us if we had to choose an animal to be, or an animal that represented us, what would that animal be. At first I was just going to say a cool and popular animal like a lion, but then I actually put some thought into it and decided something else. When it was my turn to say what animal represents me I decided to say an eagle for me. This is because they can fly and they are free. Which also symbolizes freedom and relief for all of your problems which is a point where I dream to achieve in life. After that we watched a video about Rikers Island. People should be aware of the conditions in Rikers. We need to think about investment in mental health, investment in housing. We need to create a better system that secures our safety. We also talked about camping names and group names. We had to come up with something attention grabbing. Someone suggested Rights are right / wrong is wrong. They also talked about how it is easier for people in these prisons to catch COVID. Living in Rikers was compared to a dungeon and it was said to be dangerous living there, some of the inmates were treated inhumanely and a lot of them started developing mental health issues. There is a campaign to close Rikers down and to also start to build a community center to help people that are going through this kind of thing. 

—By: Raphael Moreau 

Trellis Crew members share their experiences being in a CEC District 13 meeting

The CEC District 13 zoom meetings are a safe place for members of the community, including the school community to express their thoughts, opinions and inquiries. There are usually one to no students during these meetings and this is a sad but true fact. Some student crew members recently had the opportunity to join a CEC District 13 meeting. They were able to express their thoughts and opinions and had some of their questions answered by the host. These reports were written to enlighten us on the experience they had. 

CEC Dristict 13 council..jpg

  In the start of the meeting the staff were very welcoming. I met tons of CEC staff and they had some really great ideas and things like that which they shared during this zoom. This meeting was very helpful to me especially because I am a high school student. At the end we joined breakout rooms and talked among ourselves about the schools and introduced ourselves. My CEC breakout room leader was Faraji Hannah Jones. He and the other CEC members and the parents asked me a lot of questions with me being the only student there. Someone mentioned having a adequate ventilation system to proceed with allowing students into the building, which I do agree because yes we can wear mask , social distance and sanitize but having a great ventilation system is key because sometimes schools don't open their windows which keeps all air and germs in the same room not allowing it to flow in & out. Something that I mentioned was that teachers lack of keeping on top of their work and making sure students are okay and understanding the work. For example today i needed help with an assignment but I couldn't reach my teacher. I remember last year my algebra teacher had an open zoom meeting for students to join in time of need which I think all teachers should be doing. One goal I noticed they had was to ensure anti racist learning which is a great thing. I would like to end off by letting you know what CEC is , they are a program that helps parents ensure that their kids have the best experience in school. I truly enjoyed this meeting & can't wait for the next on October 6.

—By: Jalil Smith 09/22/20

We went over what a CEC was in the introduction then some of the leaders introduced who they were  and why they were there and they talked about their roles in the group. Rev Greene went over  what the group is in charge of title 1 schools and what a title 1 school is which is a school that has 60% or more free kids lunches or reduced lunches. Rev Greene then went over how much he wants to change district 13 and how he would love feedback he mentioned your name and how you were coming up with surveys so that you guys could hear concerns. We then went over vacancy  and how Covid-19 is changing the world and how they would like to include students  voices in the group. Working on creating a anti racist district and how equity would look across the school district. 

Samuels talked about how he dealt with pre K and Janice deals with high school some of the things I learned during the meeting was that even though there is diversity in schools there might not be enough to deem it a non racist environment. I was kind of shocked but not really that racism and or inequality in the school system still exist. I'm glad that me or anyone I know hasn’t had to experience this. Karen watts expressed how much she enjoyed seeing teachers and student interact with people virtually Janice implied that all 47 high schools are doing ok the percentage of remote learning through the school districts .went over the goal of reopening all 47 high schools and steps took to make sure everybody is ok when re opened launching website soon Rev Greene wanted to talk more on vacancy during the pandemic. Samuels shared the slide on building readiness shared experience with his child and virtual learning (Accountability-high expectations-equity-access-diversity) i agree with all these steps and think that these rules or this motto in the school system would be great for creating  diversity. Going over the racial demographics in schools, something that was kind of weird to me was how the Latino and Hispanic were the highest race on the chart. This stood out the most to me. If I had the slide I would add more details on the subject. On the last slide we talked about economic advantage and economic disadvantages Other areas of racial inequity Implementation in remote environment Community engagement strategy.  

We finished up by going into breakout rooms and we discussed what the people in the breakout rooms did by the time the live was coming to end and we were in breakout rooms we discussed what we did and who we were all of the people in my room were adults so I didn't feel the need to share in this breakout rooms they're daily lives and interest were interesting though. 

 A take away from this life  or something I learned is what the CEC does and how it plans on making all schools in district 13 title 1 schools. 

—By: Jalen Powel