About Us

In 2020, the Justice Center of Rensselaer County was created to achieve equality and to promote a welcoming and diverse community by addressing persistent and structural prejudice in the political, economic, educational, and social systems in the County.  Bob Doherty, the Justice Center’s co-founder and first president was a former Troy city council member and chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee where he led an investigation into alleged police misconduct.  He was soundly troubled by an incident in 2016 in which a Troy police sergeant killed an unarmed black man, Edson Thevenin.  Bob fervently believed that had it not been for structural racism in our political, economic and social institutions Mr. Thevenin would be alive today.  It was this strong conviction that led Bob to form the Justice Center with a group of like-minded Troy citizens.