http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/bronx-public-defenders-in-hot-water-after-appearing-in-uncle-murda-video/

A pair of Bronx defenders, Kumar Rao and Ryan Napoli, found themselves fighting for their jobs after appearing in Uncle Murda’s “Hands Up” video. According to the Village Voice “at least one attorney who appeared in a controversial rap video has resigned from his position with the Bronx Defenders, a legal nonprofit that represents indigent clients in New York City.”

“Kumar Rao submitted a letter of resignation this afternoon, according to his attorney. Meanwhile, NY1 reporter Dean Meminger has reported on Twitter that another attorney who was involved with and appeared in the video, Ryan Napoli, likewise resigned from the group. NY1 also reports that the organization’s executive director, Robin Steinberg, has been suspended for 60 days without pay.”

The Village Voice Writes:

These attorneys have abysmally failed to meet their obligations to their clients,” Peters said in a press release, “to the courts, and to the city as a whole.”

On their website and in their responses contained in the report, the Bronx Defenders said they didn’t know about the content of the song before they agreed to participate. A statement on their website read, “The Bronx Defenders abhors the use of violence against the police under any circumstance. We have always been an organization that is committed to preserving life, dignity, and respect for all people. The Bronx Defenders never approved the music video ‘Hands Up,’ and never saw it before it went online. We deeply regret any involvement with this video.”

Rao’s letter, addressed to Steinberg, explains that he is “heartbroken” to leave the nonprofit after six and a half years, but that he had “concluded that my ongoing employment with the office is no longer in the best interest of the organization.” Another Bronx-based public defender who has worked with Rao in the past told the Voice his loss would be a blow to the organization. A media representative at Bronx Defenders did not immediately return calls for comment.

The organization, which receives city funds to provide constitutionally mandated legal representation to those who can’t afford it — essentially acting as a public defender’s office would — has been under fire over the last week after a city report found that the group allowed its facilities and personnel to be used in a music video for a track called “Hands Up (Eric Garner Tribute).” The video, which was partially shot in the Bronx Defenders’ offices and which portrays Rao consoling a sobbing client, features rappers Uncle Murda and Maino holding guns to the head of a police officer. The Department of Investigation determined that the organization failed to properly vet the content of the song, a protest anthem that suggests killing police officers in response to the high-profile deaths of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Sean Bell in New York.

since they are fighting the good fight as public defenders, someone inviting them to a video thats a Garner tribute doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Those other scenes were spliced in probably after the fact

What did they think would happen?

...agreeing to appear in the vid would be a bad move. I wouldn't want them representing me in court if their judgment is THAT bad. Ol' 'we didn't know MC KopKilla was going to have messages about shooting cops in his video when we agreed to be in it' type niggas.


Since 1976

Have to do with the Bronx?

Nobody who grew up in the Bronx ever got anywhere by associating with characters named uncle murda.

It's a stupid outsider move.

Stadium around the corner live in the Bronx.

You probably think Derek Jeter has a penthouse on the grand concourse.

.

Prolly on one of the higher floors

Definitely in section 5, so he can get to the mall easily

Aka 'riverdale don't count'

You might as well say you live in westchester county

No cop actually gets shot in the video. I may have missed the line where either one of them explicitly says go shoot some cops as an instruction (maybe something along the lines of I feel like i gotta protect myself from them). The opening is full of clips of real shit that's actually happening, while the controversey is an imagined basically still image of something that doesn't happen.

Yeah I get why they pressuring these lawyers and perhaps actors would have been better than actual defenders, but they are in no way condoning violence against cops via heir actions in the video and honestly I'd rather they defend the first ammendment rights of the artists for that controversial image.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

people out of jail

Nobody cares if Uncle Murda goes to jail

argh

~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
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You cannot hate people for their own good.

Thanks.