Civil-rights lawyer to introduce film

Detroit-based civil rights lawyer Bill Goodman will introduce the film "1971" at a 7 p.m. screening tonight at Cinema Detroit. Goodman has more than 40 years of experience in constitutional and civil rights law and international human rights, including representing Wayne County Jail inmates over inhuman conditions, prisoners in the Michigan Department of Corrections for long term lockdown, the ACLU in action against the FBI for assaults on Freedom Riders in the 1960s, the NAACP in cases against the insurance industry for red lining. More recently, Goodman has concentrated almost exclusively on matters of police and law enforcement misconduct, including serving as Special Council to the Detroit City Council in its investigation of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's settlement of certain cases for private gain as opposed to public benefit; proceedings that ultimately led to the removal of the mayor from office. In addition, Goodman teaches a seminar on constitutional theory at Wayne State University School of Law. "1971" features the highly secretive activist coalition that called itself "The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI" coming forward to tell their story for the first time. John and Bonnie Raines were two of the eight ordinary citizens who broke into an FBI office in a small town just outside Philadelphia on March 8, 1971. They took hundreds of secret files, and shared them with the public. They wanted to expose agents' infiltration of local peace groups, but instead they uncovered the FBI's vast and illegal regime of spying and intimidation of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights - COINTELPRO. The previously unknown, very illegal operation was revealed, but the group behind the heist was never found. "1971" is their riveting story. Showtimes for "1971" are: Fri, March 27: 7 p.m. Sat, March 28: 7 p.m. Sun, March 29: 3 p.m. Mon, March 30: 7 p.m. Tues, March 31: 7 p.m. Weds, April 1: 7 p.m. Thurs, April 2: 7 p.m. Tickets are $9 and are available online at http://bit.ly/1tLJrVX or at the box office during business hours. Cinema Detroit is located in Midtown at 3420 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 48201, just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, on the east side of the street. Published: Fri, Mar 27, 2015