Monthly Archives: January 2013

Oakland’s mayor, chief of police, and city manager announced their intentions to contract with William Bratton as a consultant to the Oakland Police Department. Oakland has become the epicenter of anti-brutality campaigns, so those who want the brutality to continue are bringing in their big guns. Join the Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition and allies on Tuesday, Jan. 15, to tell the Oakland City Council that we reject Bill Bratton and his racist, fascist policies. Meet up at 5:00 for a rally with the meeting at 5:30.

Robert Allen Saulson of San Francisco passed away quietly in his home due to complications of liver cancer. He spent his final days on earth surrounded by loved ones and died in the arms of his only son, Scott Saulson, on the night of Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013. Robert was 70 years of age at the time of his death. The Saulson family needs your help.

California Department of Public Health director and state health officer Dr. Ron Chapman has unveiled new ethnic-market advertisements that will continue to educate Californians on the harmful effects of tobacco use. The advertisements, which include radio and print ads for the African American market, will start airing in early January and can be viewed at TobaccoFreeCA.com.

I am writing to inform you of the scare tactics that California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) here at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (PBSP SHU) uses in order to intimidate our families, friends and associates away from corresponding with those of us who are held in these solitary confinement units – AdSegs and SHUs.

The state of California filed another response to the federal court order to reduce dangerous overcrowding in California’s prisons, urging the court to end the 137.5 percent population cap. Gov. Brown’s 2013-14 budget echoes comments earlier this week that the administration has deserted plans to shrink California’s over-sized prison population, ignoring clear messages from voters.

On Jan. 9, MASSIVE demonstrations throughout Haiti supported former President Aristide after he was summoned to court on frivolous charges seen as political persecution. People say that putting Aristide on trial is the same as putting the Haitian masses on trial and that the charges are meant to divert attention from the third earthquake anniversary and the theft of billions in aid. Speak out against the Red Cross for building a luxury hotel with aid funds. Rally Friday, Jan. 11, 4:30-5:30 p.m., outside Red Cross headquarters, 3901 Broadway, near MacArthur BART, Oakland.

No sir, they don’t want another Jonathan Jackson. They want a masked man, later identified as a Black man. It’s more mysterious. Our enemy is serious. And I’ve been saying this before the planes came and the plain Jane drowned her kids. I awake to the sound of kids playing in the park. Gunfire interrupts their joy. The cops killed a baby holding a toy ... gun. Labeled as boy one – boy two is you, me ...

A new Bayview Branch Library is currently under construction at the corner of Third Street and Revere and the branch will open to the public early in 2013. Friends’ Bayview Branch Library Campaign Committee hosted an essay contest, asking, “How can the new Bayview Branch Library help to build a stronger Bayview community?”

While addressing the news about California’s voters overwhelmingly supporting the Three Strikes Reform Act, Prop 36, one district attorney stated that there are about 250 people from Kern County who are eligible for resentencing under Prop 36. And it is her job to make sure that none of them are released. That sentiment is shared by other district attorneys and judges throughout the state.

Bruce Dixon, managing editor of the Black Agenda Report and author of “Did Bloody Hands, Not Black Womanhood Sink Susan Rice Nomination?” spoke to KPFA about U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s withdrawal from consideration to become President Obama’s next secretary of state.

This week, PBS will air “The Abolitionists,” a movie about people who during the 19th century spoke out against the evils of chattel slavery. The Abolitionist Movement has been subject to historical revisionism and an attempt by white America to pick our heroes. African Americans must become experts in the field of their own history, as no other racial group would dare trust the interpretation of their culture to others.

Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement aimed at eradicating nuclear power. They sit in a seismic zone vulnerable to tsunamis. Faulty steam generators have forced them shut for nearly a year. Tell CPUC ‘No nukes!’ Shut down San Onofre permanently! Tuesday, Jan. 8, hearing 10 a.m., rally noon, 505 Van Ness Ave. at McAllister, San Francisco.

Zimbabwe is a sovereign African nation exercising its right to self-determination. Is that wrong? I’m calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to remove the illegal sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Zimbabwe. Take a minute to sign my petition and get your friends to also, and together we will STOP THE SUFFERING NOW!

A Dec. 4, 2012, ACLU letter to SF Mayor Ed Lee urged rejecting any SFPD proposal “to deploy tasers or other conductive energy devices”. The letter emphasizes that costly tasers would generate heavy legal fees from officer overuse and abuse, posing serious injury and death risks, especially to SFPD’s targeted populations: people in public mental health crisis and people of color.

This year, on the 150 anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, we all need to heed the words of Sister Jayne Cortez: “And if we don’t fight / if we don’t resist / if we don’t organize and unify and / get the power to control our own lives / Then we will wear / the exaggerated look of captivity ...” And don't miss Wanda's excellent, no holds barred reviews of “Django Unchained,” “Lincoln and “Red Hook Summer,” plus Dr. King birthday events listing and much more

The Campaign for Prison Phone Justice applauds the FCC’s action to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which marks a turning point in the 10-year effort to make the price of interstate calls from prison affordable. Costing up to 24 times a normal call, prison phone rates unfairly punish inmates’ families, who are forced to cover these calls.

Tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating in Haiti for months. Three years after the earthquake, despite billions donated by a generous public, hundreds of thousands of people are still struggling to survive in tent cities, surrounded by rubble. They are still without clean water or food security or income, still fighting the cholera imported by U.N. troops.

What are the effects of long-term incarceration on prisoners? In a country where mass incarceration has become the norm, what responsibilities do the state and the community have to prisoners and to protecting some of their most basic freedoms – access to health and freedom from torture being chief among them?

Going back to nature is going back to what’s natural and good for your health and wellbeing and going back to your natural selves. Going back to nature is going back to Black, Mama Nature’s original people. We should teach our children about the cycles of the moon and the difference between planting and harvesting seasons, the ancient Afrikan Sciences of the Years.

In what is clearly a continuation of the Feb. 29, 2004, U.S. instigated coup d’etat against Haiti, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been called before Martelly’s handpicked government prosecutor Lucmane Delile in what is widely believed to be an attempt by Martelly, the U.S. and France to wage a campaign of political persecution against Aristide, Fanmi Lavalas, and the democratic process and progress in Haiti.