This TED Talk features community organizer Raj Jayaev, recorded live at TEDx Binghamton University 2018.

This is my favorite protest shirt. It says, protect your people. We made it in the basement of our community center. I've worn it at rallies, at protests, at marches,

at candlelight vigils with families who have lost loved ones to police violence.

I've seen how this ethic of community organizing

has been able to change arresting practices,

hold individual officers accountable,

and allow families to feel strong and supported in the darkest moments of their lives.

But when a family would come to our center and say, my loved one got arrested, what can we do?

We didn't know how to translate the power of community organizing

that we saw on the streets into the courts.

We figured we're not lawyers, and so that's not our arena to make change.

And so despite our belief in collective action,

we would allow people that we cared about to go to court alone.

Nine out of ten times, and this is true nationally, they couldn't afford their own attorney.

And so they'd have a public defender who was doing heroic work but was often under-resourced and

stretched bare with too many cases. They would face prosecutors aiming for high conviction rates,

mandatory minimum sentences, and racial bias baked into every stage of the process.

And so facing those odds, stripped away from the power of community,

unsure how to navigate the courts,

over 90% of people that face a criminal charge in this country

will take a plea deal,

meaning they'll never have their fabled day in court that we talk about

...