Unexplained disappearance of 24-year-old has family puzzled

November 4, 2009

The family of a 24-year-old missing Black woman has made an appeal to federal law enforcement officials for help to bring her home safely and soon.
Mitrice Richardson went missing after deputies at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station released her into a remote canyon area in the middle of the night, without her car, any money, a cell phone or other assistance.

From U.S. to El Salvador, ‘gangs’ and the ‘global war on terror’

February 6, 2008

“We’re under domestic insurgency. If we don’t get it, it will get us.” – California Attorney General Jerry Brown, Anti-Gang Conference, Riverside, Calif., December 2007

“We’re mounting a coordinated, aggressive suppression strategy that targets the worst offenders and the most violent gangs. We’re converging local, state, federal and even international efforts … coming at them with everything we have.” – Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Feb. 8, 2007, press conference

Prison bill AB 900: a view from inside

August 22, 2007

California’s adoption of mandatory minimums, drive for three-strikes laws and participation in the nationwide “War on Drugs” campaign of the 1980s has created a burgeoning prison system fractured along racial, humanitarian and economic lines.