Miguel SR Photography

By Miguel Sanchez-Rutledge

Lauren Regan, founder and director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, works with non-profit organizations and activists to “dismantle the political and economic structures at the root of social inequality and environmental destruction,” according to their website. The goal for the CLDC is to provide support for activists and education about civil rights for anyone. Regan had an interest in animal and environmental rights prior to forming this organization. From this initial interest, Regan eventually made it into something substantial.

“I come from an environmental and animals rights background and that was the reason I went to law school,” Regan said. “When I first came out of law school I worked for a two-person small firm that did public interest and environmental law and I started doing activist defense after the Patriot Act was passed. I felt like there was a huge hole for more hardcore activist defense and activist legal skill. The stakes were getting a lot higher for people in that era. What was normally a slap in the hand was a federal indictment.”

As a result of this gap in legal activism and defense, Regan, along with other lawyers, started the Civil Liberties Defense Center. This organization sought to provide help for activists and to hold government institutions accountable for their actions. The CLDC has represented over 2,500 activists involved in environmental, animal and social justice causes according to their website. They help pass legislation in local and federal courts and provide free civil liberties training to community members.  In addition, the CLDC partners with other progressive organizations across the country to provide further support for activists and communities.

The use of interviewing is crucial for Regan. She has degrees in law and in psychology, to which she credits  for helping her understand intimidation tactics by police, which is a common occurrence for her.

She is constantly interacting with government officials, lawyers, activists and police officers. This requires a strong composure and knowledge of the questions to ask and how to answer the questions being asked of her. Regan admits it is often frightening dealing with police and that she must be fully aware of any situation where cops are present.

“The first thing is, which of course is fundamental of all interviewing, is for you to have done your research,” Regan said. “You have to know the people you are going to be interviewing. For me, in addition to a law degree I also have a psychology degree, so, in a similar way that the cops are trying to psychologically profile me, I am psychologically profiling them. Either based on their chain of command or their appearance. For instance, it’s really very important, especially as a woman, for me to make eye contact at all times with the cop that I am talking to.”

Last year, Regan spent a good portion of her time setting up the legal infrastructure at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, acting to protect activists and occasionally filling the role as a police liaison. A police liaison typically has legal expertise and acts as the mouth piece for protesters when dealing with law enforcement. She was not the police liaison at all times because she saw the risks of just one person representing the entire activist camp. Having one leader could mean extra surveillance or intimidation for that individual. The work was split up between different legal-heads from around the country.

“I was one of the lawyers very early on that went out to Standing Rock to setup the legal infrastructure,” Regan said. “To develop ‘Know Your Rights’ training for water protectors, sort of setup how criminal and legal structures were going to grow as the camp got larger. So, I went out there for at least once a month doing everything from legal observing to investigating police misconduct and basically became pretty trusted with some of the key organizers that were working out there. There was a real mix of lawyers; Sort of those that understood what was going on and those from big cities that had never really done any on-the-ground activist lawyering.”

As we have seen from the aftermath of the #NoDAPL movement, the police were heavily militarized, conducted pervasive spying on the camps and sought to extinguish any of the activism taking place by any means necessary. It is crucial for individual citizens to understand their rights as Americans or for immigrants spending time in the United States. Many civil liberties are not adhered to when in dangerous situations such as these and the CLDC’s mission is to change that.

The CLDC often conducts “Know Your Rights” trainings that are free and available to the public as well as having all the training documents available on their website for free. These trainings detail the multiple levels of interacting with police, from detention to arrest. These also provide you with the fundamental knowledge of your rights as a citizen as well as your rights as an immigrant.