Monthly Archives: November 2010

“How can you trust a criminal to preside over their own trial? We already know that the people who are supposed to be watching out for the health and safety of the community are paid contractors with the Lennar Corp."

Judge Robert Perry has sentenced former BART transit cop Johannes Mehserle to the minimum sentence of two years in state prison for the shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant. Judge Perry gave double credit - 292 days - for his time served. Tune in KPFA 94.1FM or kpfa.org 4-6 p.m. for a special report on the Mehserle sentencing hosted by Minister of Information JR with Davey D and Sabrina Jacobs. Their guests include Cephus Johnson (Oscar's Uncle Bobby), Jack Bryson, John Burris and M1 of dead prez.

Allen Jones, a prison reformer in San Francisco, is calling out all so-called Black leaders for being silent on the recent court order by three federal judges to release 44,000 inmates from California’s overcrowded prison system.

There is a something dangerous about the pervading view of justice for Oscar Grant that constrains the perception of injustice to the bullet in the back, the soft verdict, the light sentence. For an alternative view on the day of Mehserle's sentencing, Friday, Nov. 5, 4-6 p.m., tune in KPFA 94.1 FM for special coverage with guests Cephus Johnson, Oscar's Uncle Bobby; Jack Bryson, Oscar's friends' father; Oscar's family's attorney John Burris; journalists Dave Id and Thandisizwe Chimurenga; M1 of dead prez; and Askia Sabur, whose Philly police beating was, like Oscar's murder, caught on video.

We must protect Hard Knock Radio, Flashpoints and Full Circle from the KPFA chopping block because in essence we are protecting our right to an accessible community radio station, where we can learn, teach and participate in local struggles for community power.

Bill Clinton is the one who established the stranglehold that the murderous gang of Gen. Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda have on the people of central Africa. As millions of civilians were being butchered, Clinton doubled his support for these murderers.

An international defense campaign for both the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal and for the elimination of the death penalty in the United States has grown since the early 1980s. On Nov. 9, 2010, when a critical hearing is scheduled in the case of Mumia, protests will be held around the world.

The whole prosecution story of an execution-style slaying of the officer by Abu-Jamal would appear to be a prosecution fabrication, complete with coached, perjured witnesses, undermining the integrity and fairness of the entire trial, as well as the subsequent death sentence.

Mumia's legal situation is extremely dangerous. His life truly is on the line. Rallies are being held on Tuesday, November 9th, in Oakland and Philadelphia.

Michelle Alexander's most salient point in her book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” is her finding that America’s Black population constitutes a “racial caste” that feeds and perpetuates mass incarceration.

With the elimination of the Calworks Stage 3 child care program, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it clear that he cares nothing about the struggling working families of California. Without child care, parents of over 8,000 children in the Bay Area may lose their jobs. TAKE ACTION NOW! Flood the governor’s offices with calls, faxes and email. Demand that he reverse his decision to eliminate Stage 3. Call the State Capitol at (916) 445-2841 or fax (916) 558-3160. His San Francisco office can be reached by phone at (415) 703-2218 and by fax at (415) 703-2218 or (415) 703-2803.

DeWitt Lacy, who has made defending poor people his career, writes: “I need your vote to make sure we finally get our fair share of city services and resources (and) to put a voice in office that will not cave in or crumble under the many political pressures of City Hall.” If you live in San Francisco's District 10, the Bay View strongly urges you to vote for DeWitt Lacy as your No. 1 choice. If you're in District 6, make James Keys your No. 1 choice. They will open doors to the many who have been locked out. VOTE 100% on Election Day, this Tuesday, Nov. 2!

The question Bayview residents should be asking themselves is what’s more important, pensions or schools? After-school programs for kids or pensions? Parks or pensions? Health services for seniors or pensions? Join Jeff Adachi and the SF Bay View newspaper in voting YES on Prop B.

If you want to do your part to help our young people, you will vote. You must vote yes on Proposition 19, the marijuana constitutional amendment. The war on drugs is a war on the little dope dealer. Those who profit the most are immune from arrest and prosecution.

A group of artists, the Sit/Lie Posse, has liberated six San Francisco billboards and 60 bus shelter ads to defeat Proposition L which would ban sitting on the sidewalk. “Symbolically we are asking: Who owns the city, who controls public space and what is the fate of San Francisco?”

Cholera, a "disease of poverty" caused by lack of access to clean water, has spread to Haiti's capital city of Port au Prince. At a small, desolate camp of ripped tents nearby, a gleaming water tank is propped up on bricks. But it’s empty.

With the upcoming sentencing of Johannes Mehserle on Nov. 5, the rebellions of January 2009 that brought about his arrest could very well be set off once more. And once again we expect to hear the mantra blaming "outside agitators."

Victoire Ingabire, widely regarded as Rwanda's opposition leader, was arrested on Oct. 14, 2010, after a week long police siege on her home. She is charged with the formation of a terrorist organization with the aim to disrupt the territorial security of Rwanda.