2012
Yearly Archives: 2012
In celebration of true revolutionaries
A now famous quote from Ernesto Che Guevara says, “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
The legacy of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense has proven this repeatedly, even though the city in which the party was born continues to shower those who struggle within her boundaries with the most heinous disrespect.
Survey questionnaire from the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement First Amendment Campaign
Is your mail to or from a friend or loved one in prison being intercepted? The data gathered from this survey questionnaire will be utilized as material evidence in an ongoing case aimed at obtaining a permanent injunction in court. At your earliest convenience, please answer the questions and mail in your completed survey questionnaires.
Rock the vote! Rock the boat!
In this country they sing, “God Bless America,” but they mean, “except if you live south of the border or in the hood or if you’re a person of color, a woman, poor or an activist for the common good.” Rock the vote and rock the boat by shopping locally! My Buy Black Wednesday Business of the Month is MG Enhancez Hair Shop.
Proposition 36 on the Three Strikes Law: a poverty skolar’s report
The reform of the Three Strikes Law with Proposition 36 will take a tool away from the police and DAs that has been used to oppress low-income and people of color communities. Any respite from the oppression of racism and capitalism on poor folks is worth voting for. So I say yes on Proposition 36.
Obama in Africa: Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago and the Indian Ocean
Ann Garrison asks, “What do you think of the first four years of the administration of Barack Obama, the first African American president?” Silvio Michel of the Green Party of Mauritius' response is typical of conversations with people on the African continent, Green or not, though there are certainly exceptions who still admire Obama’s defeat of the color bar to become this country’s highest elected official.
San Francisco Sheriff’s Department registers record number of inmate voters
San Francisco the leader in county jail inmate registration and voting in the state of California. In the November 2011 election, over 90 percent of the registered voters in our jails actually voted. For much of our incarcerated population, this registration drive is the first time they have been engaged in the voting process.
Black media’s quarterback: an interview wit’ journalist Kevin Weston
On Monday, Nov. 26, at Yoshi’s in Oakland, we will be honoring Kevin Weston and a number of other Black media-makers who represent for the Black community in Northern California. Everyone is invited. The night will be a celebration of life and resistance in the home of the Black Panther Party and independent rap music. Until then, here is Kevin in his own words.
LWOP: Death sentence by another name – Vote No on 34
Darrell Lomax is an innocent man who has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California for over 15 years. A poet, musician and activist, Darryl has been fighting for his freedom and advocating for justice. Here, he explains what’s at stake in the Proposition 34 ballot initiative that would replace the death penalty with sentences of life without the possibility of parole.
The Rastafarians of San Quentin
The House of the Lions of Judah Ecumenical Rastafari Service at San Quentin State Prison is a universal Rastafari mystic community. Some of the Rastafarians at San Quentin attend the religious services, some don’t.. Terrence Keller said, “Whether we attend the services or not, or whatever the reason – we Rasta! The sphere of love and guidance goes with us wherever we go!”
California’s Prop 34: Yes or no, the death penalty remains
Voting against Proposition 34 means I want the state to continue to actively kill people by shooting poison in their veins. Voting for it means I want the state to sentence more people to the slow, excruciating, grinding form of the death penalty that is life without parole. In the end, I really have no choice but to abstain.
Gang investigators call sacred Mayan numeral a gang symbol
It is ridiculous and insulting for IGI to call a numeral of the great Mayan civilization that facilitated its advanced mathematics and architecture a gang symbol. The number 13 has great importance in my religion and my indigenous race, Mexical. To punish me for the use of this sacred religious number is in direct violation of my First Amendment rights, which include freedom of religion.
San Francisco post offices spared the axe
In Bayview Hunters Point, we love our post office and the friendly, convenient service provided there. Horrified when we heard it was on the chopping block, neighborhood folks worked with post office staff signing and distributing petitions and speaking out at meetings. Now we can celebrate victory!
City College belongs to us: Three faculty perspectives
As the largest community college in California, CCSF serves almost 100,000 students annually. The City is full of our former students. We touched their lives, and chances are a day doesn’t go by without a City College graduate touching yours. And now we need your help. Vote for Prop A on the local ballot and Prop 30 on the statewide ballot this November.
California’s cruelest prisons
It is well established that solitary confinement is cruel and psychologically damaging. Many of the SHU’s indefinite residents haven’t even broken prison rules. They are there because the California Department of Corrections claims they are connected to prison gangs. Such arbitrariness and cruelty has no place in a constitutional democracy. California should reexamine this practice.
End of hostilities holds in prisons statewide and spreads to the streets
Whether committing to end hostilities is called a “peace treaty” or “unity,” what’s starting to grow is a powerful force of strong minded individuals - in prisons statewide and on the streets - putting aside their differences with one another and standing up against the system to take back what’s rightfully theirs as human beings: their human rights!
Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on more than just NYC
Sandy wreaked havoc in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. More than 60 people have been killed in those neighboring countries. Haiti has lost her crops. Over 200,000 are left homeless with far fewer resources than New York City to rescue and restore what was lost.
Hurricane Survival
From Philly to New Jersey, from the South Bronx to Haiti, us po’ folks don’t need Hurricane Sandy to have a crisis, ‘cause we already in Hurricane Survival. Between gentriFUKation, removal, violence, poverty and struggle just to be housed and clothed and fed and safe, the crisis called Sandy is just one more thing to deal with in an already impossible situation.
SFPD chief invites the community into the taser debate, shuts down people of color!
Police Chief Greg Suhr scheduled six community forums in September and October to discuss tasers replacing guns in mental health crisis situations. When a citizen group kept showing up at hearings asking questions about hundreds of taser deaths and maimings and supporting SFPD Crisis Intervention Team training in verbal de-escalation, Chief Suhr cancelled the community forums.
UK rethinking budget support to Kagame’s Rwanda
The International Development Committee of the British Parliament’s House of Commons has announced that it will examine the controversial decision to disburse budget support to the government of Rwanda after first withholding it in response to U.N. investigators’ reports that Rwanda is behind the M23 militia fighting and seizing territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Implicated in Congo crimes, Rwanda’s Gen. Kagame has bigger headache than silencing Victoire Ingabire...
The sham treason trial of Rwanda’s top opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, has finally ended with her expected conviction. The U.S., which recently cut aid to Rwanda for its role in Congo atrocities, must call for Umuhoza’s release. She has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a kangaroo court. Her conviction by the kangaroo court must be set aside.