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Daily Archives: April 3, 2013

‘Rolling’: an interview wit filmmaker Damon Jamal

Damon Jamal is one of the household names in the Bay when it comes to creating music videos. Recently he has been stepping his game up by moving his base of operations to Los Angeles and trying his hand at full length feature filmmaking. His new film, “Rolling,” will premiere at the Oakland International Film Festival on Saturday, April 6, 9 p.m., at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center.

23 years of solitary: Beyond ‘cruel and unusual’

I have not hugged my brother Ronnie in over two decades. He has been in solitary confinement in the Pelican Bay SHU since 1990. Ronnie could have been home 17 years ago; he has been eligible for parole since 1996. But, in a waking nightmare, prisoners are routinely told they’ll never make parole while in the SHU – but getting out of the SHU is virtually impossible.

Inmate slavery and the prison industrial complex: Resilience vs. docility

The much-publicized brutality and inhumane conditions suffered by prisoners in solitary confinement worldwide has once again sparked global debates on the unprecedented urgency of prison abolition and, by default, on the implementation of community-led restorative justice programs. Over the past two to three decades, the global penal system has turned increasingly roughshod and its practices have grown greatly abusive.

Ban Ki-moon: What about the people of the Congo?

Late last week, the Security Council approved the creation of what it called its first-ever “offensive” combat force, with a mandate to carry out targeted operations to “neutralize and disarm” the notorious March 23 or M23 militia, as well as other Congolese rebels and foreign armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Until now, U.N. peacekeeping forces’ only explicit mandate has been the protection of civilians.