Dear Friends and Family,

As you might remember, last summer, on Sunday, August 11, Dante was brutally beaten by the East Orange Police Department  in New Jersey.

He was in his home when he noticed a police officer in a car, inspecting his parked car. At the time, Dante didn't know that  the registration had expired. While the officers could have simply given Dante a warning or even a ticket, they instead demanded that the car be towed, and proceeded to illegally enter his home where he was beaten by six officers, and then arrested. He is now being charged with assaulting these officers, even though it was THEM who assaulted him.  

In the state of New Jersey, even if you are illegally arrested or a victim of excessive force, there is no accountability or justice, unless you can go to court and have a judge or jury rule in your favor.

Dante was the victim in this situation, and committed NO crime, yet he is being criminalized and prosecuted. So we are fighting for his justice and so that he doesn't get a criminal record for something he did not do.

To add to these systemic failures, last week the State of New Jersey furloughed his public defender, leaving Dante without adequate legal representation for a case they refuse to dismiss.

So, we need your help to raise money for a new lawyer, because there is a lot at stake in the legal battle ahead of us. Our goal is to have these charges dropped, but we are also preparing to go to trial.  We don't know what the trial will cost, but it will cost at least  $3,000 just to try to get the charges dropped.
 
This year, we’ve seen the largest protests in U.S. history spurred by this very issue- unchecked police violence. Please help us in his fight for justice.



Video of incident here captured by neighbors:

https://twitter.com/barbs73/status/1160769476381597697?s=20

https://www.facebook.com/naarc/posts/d41d8cd9/649394992217181/


#JusticeForDanteMickens

Sincerely,
Team Dante