About

Our Mission

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Vision Statement

Envision an America where every citizen posseses both the knowledge and means to assert his or her rights under the law.

Envision an America where unlawful searches, racial profiling, and other forms of misconduct by our law enforcement officers are merely transgressions of our speckled past. See a nation that focuses its valuable and limited resources against those who pose real threats to society. See a justice system where convictions against those individuals are secured because of good policework instead of coercion and exploitation, and are subsequently upheld not because courts redefine after-the-fact their interpretations of the law, but rather because police played by the rules.

Envision an America where disabled persons know how to enact the protections afforded them by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and actively encourage our academic institutions, government entities, and places of business to abide by its provisions.

Envision a generation of Americans that understands, embraces, and is prepared to stand up for the constitutional protections that made this country great, rather than cynically casting them aside as if they no longer apply in these United States.

Mission Statement

To achieve our vision, Know My Rights conducts seminars and workshops to teach people about their legal rights, and when and how to assert those rights. Knowledge is the best and most effective means toward positive social change. Education is the answer.

Our History

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Know My Rights was born of a reaction to three police officers who willfully overstepped their bounds in a failed attempt to create a situation in which they could fabricate some justification to make an arrest. The officers, while trespassing in a private residence where they were never given permission nor had any cause to enter, were demanding that an invited guest, present with the consent of the property owners, leave the premises. He refused, and during their exchange of words, the officers were incessantly trying to set traps in which an average American, not understanding the motivations behind the precise manner in which the officers phrased their statements, might reasonably say or do something that the officers could exploit as cause to arrest him. The education this individual received in law school, however, allowed him to see through the officers' traps, and he knew how to avoid them while properly asserting his rights under the law.

Ultimately, the situation resolved itself in his favor and one of the abusive police officers was terminated for his actions, but he never lost sight of how easily that encounter could have gone the other way. He was thankful that those police officers decided to pick a fight with him that night rather than one of half-a-dozen other people who were in the house. People who would not have so easily identified and avoided the police officers' traps. People who, more likely than not, would have fallen victim to these officers' abuses.

The police officers' actions were clearly not isolated to this incident, and he was unwilling to stand idly by and merely hope that the next person these officers targeted possessed the same ability to avoid their traps. He questioned why he should be so fortunate as to escape such injustice because of having gone to law school, whereas people who do not have the benefit of a law school education should have their futures jeopardized solely for the personal enjoyment of a few rogue police officers.

And so, Know My Rights was born -- formed to educate people about the basic legal principles and procedures that they, in the course of their daily lives, may at some point be faced with. By empowering more people with the knowledge and means to assert their rights properly, those looking to circumvent your rights will become increasingly unsuccessful in doing so and will have to face the consequences of their failed attempts. Society needs to change, and education is the best and most effective means to that end.

Our Programs

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Know My Rights is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote social change through civil rights and other legal education.

We conduct programs in high schools, colleges, and communities across the nation, teaching people not just what their rights are, but also how to properly assert those rights when necessary.

It is our sincere hope that by educating people about their legal rights, they will gain not only the requisite knowledge, but also the confidence to assert those rights when needed.

With the ever increasing number of incidents of police misconduct, slumlord abuses, infringements on consumers' rights, and more, it is becoming all the more important for people to know how to protect themselves.

Knowledge is the best weapon to fight such injustice, and it is the most effective means toward positive social change.

Our Beliefs

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The need for people to understand, appreciate and assert their constitutional rights grows increasingly more urgent as these rights are being eroded from the fabric of our society each and every day.

In recent decades, police agencies have adopted increasingly invasive and controversial tactics which turn innocent citizens into suspects. Concurrently, the Supreme Court has usually ruled in favor of expanding the scope of police power -- especially for the purpose of fighting illegal drugs.

One of the most disturbing consequences of this apparent "drug exception" to the Constitution has been the use of racial profiling to determine which drivers will be stopped for minor traffic offenses in order to be searched for contraband.

In 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attack, Congress hastily passed the USA PATRIOT Act, further eroding constitutional protections of our privacy and liberty. Sustaining this erosion of traditional constitutional rights is a complicit citizenry, which has become dangerously permissive of everyday abuses of police power. For example, most people during the course of a traffic stop are likely to waive their rights without even knowing it.

Fortunately, these trends are neither inevitable nor irreversible!

Just as regular physical exercise strengthens muscles atrophied from underuse, innocent citizens must know and assert their constitutional rights in order to keep them strong and secure. Moreover, the simple and proper assertion of these rights is a citizen's first and best protection from the indignity and inconvenience of improper police searches and arrests, consumer fraud, slumlords, and other abuses.

Our Staff

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Brandon G. Little
Executive Director

Brandon is the President and Founder of Know My Rights. Having previous non-profit as well as college/youth marketing experience, Brandon is an excellent candidate to oversee the continuing growth and development of Know My Rights. He operates a marketing and media management firm specializing in youth marketing and print media. An avid surfer, his second home will always be the beaches of South Florida, and when the ocean goes flat he can often be found tucked away in his workshop designing and manufacturing custom surfboards. These creative outlets have forever made him an innovator and free-thinker, and it is these qualities that make Brandon an invaluable asset to the future success of Know My Rights.

The preceding story is his, and Know My Rights is the result. With the exception of that one experience, he has never been arrested, nor has he ever been charged with any crime... Ever.

Evan S. Rosenberg, Esq.
Associate Director

Evan is the Treasurer and a founding board member of Know My Rights. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor's degree in Legal Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice (2005). He earned a J.D. at the Florida International University College of Law (2010) and, there, was the President of the Jewish Law Students Association, a Representative in the Student Bar Association, and an active member of the FIU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Presently, Evan is an Assistant Public Defender handling felony cases. He is a motivated and hard working individual with a keen ability to think outside the box. Since the inception of Know My Rights, Evan has wholly shared in Brandon's goal of making a better educated and ultimately more just society through civil rights activism and legal education. KMR could not function if not for Evan's continuing hard work and dedication.

Jeffrey Molinaro, Esq.
Associate Director

Jeff is the Secretary and a founding board member of Know My Rights. After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Florida Atlantic University (2003) where he served as an officer in the Political Science Honors Society, Jeff entered the education field, teaching middle and high school in Broward and Palm Beach counties before embarking on a new career path in the law. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Florida International University College of Law (2010), ranked 3rd in his class. While there, he worked as a research assistant for Professor Thomas Baker in the fields of Constitutional Law, Supreme Court Jurisprudence, and Federal Appellate Practice. The combination of his legal knowledge and past experience as a school teacher brings unique insight to the direction in which KMR programs are constructed. A long-time football player and coach, strategic planning is almost second nature to him. That, coupled with his familiarity with and understanding of the target demographic for KMR programs is instrumental in constructing lectures and workshops that are ideally suited for the people Know My Rights wants to reach.

Presently, Jeff is an associate with Fuerst Ittleman. He focuses his practice in the areas of Administrative Law, Anti‑Money Laundering, and Civil and Commercial Litigation. He is also experienced in Health Law and Appellate Practice. He originally joined Fuerst Ittleman as a law clerk during 2008, and during his time with Fuerst Ittleman, Jeff has assisted in the effective representation of clients in litigation and appellate practice against several federal agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He has also assisted in the successful representation of clients before the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration both before the Division of Administrative Hearings and Appeals and the Florida First District Court of Appeal. Jeff has assisted in drafting numerous pleadings and motions for the firm's civil and commercial litigation practice. Additionally, he has assisted in the drafting of legal opinions regarding anti‑money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

Muhammed Malik
Director of Community Relations

A Miami native, born from a fusion of what some might consider "conflicting" Kashmiri, Pakistani, Nepalese, and Indian heritages, Muhammed was raised to cherish racial and cultural cooperation. Throughout his life, however, he experienced racial and cultural conflict while living in rural Georgia, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Pakistan, and in Haitian and Jewish communities in Miami-Dade County. These images of cooperation and conflict, harmony and discord, fascinated him and motivated him to pursue a double major in International Relations and Sociology/Anthropology at Florida International University, where he also pursued a graduate degree in Religious Studies. Muhammed currently balances his time between work, socio-political activism, the arts, and writing. He previously worked for the Human Services Coalition as its project support specialist, and is currently involved with the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Amnesty International's Corporate Action Network, Imagine Miami's Civic Action Network, Cop-Watch Miami, and the Center for Pan-African Development.