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December 21, 2023

Paul Chevigny, Pioneering Lawyer Who Took on Police Brutality, Dies at 88
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Influential civil rights lawyer, professor, and expert on police
brutality, Paul Chevigny has died at the age of 88. As a lawyer with the
New York Civil Liberties Union, Chevigny founded the Police Practices
Project and published two books on abusive policing, including the
seminal "Police Power." In the 1971 case Handschu v. Special Services
Division, he successfully challenged the NYPD's surveillance of
political organizations, which at the time included the Black Panther
Party and anti-Vietnam War activists. He went on to write about police
violence in other countries, including Brazil, Argentina and Jamaica. As
a professor at NYU Law, he inspired legions of students. Paul Chevigny
is survived by two children, including the filmmaker Katy Chevigny.


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