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.