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2014 October

Monthly Archives: October 2014

Tehachapi SHU is the worst of any SHU, prison or jail I have seen...

On Aug. 28, 2014, I spoke with the Corcoran State Prison Step Down Program (SDP) facilitator who confirmed I was on the list to be transferred to Tehachapi (California Correctional Institution, or CCI) and that I would be stepped up a step – from Step 2 to Step 3 of the SDP. On Sept. 16, 2014, I was advanced up a step, to Step 3, so that’s all good. But the big lie is that there is a functional Step 3 and 4 program at this prison.

Joe Debro on racism in construction, Part 7

The history of technology in the United States is inextricably related to Negro labor and business conditions. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the country was characterized by its rural and agricultural nature. With the advent of mass production, a steady and inexorable shift occurred, resulting in an urban, industrial society with many people leaving Eastern and Southern farms and towns and migrating to Northern and Western cities.

Still no resolution: an interview wit’ Sheikh Hashim Ali Alauddeen, the Imam of Malcolm...

Oct. 8 will mark the 30th birthday of Young Malcolm Shabazz. It’s been over a year since his murder in Mexico City. As time goes by, it becomes clearer and clearer, even to the most skeptical of people, that this was a straight up assassination, like what was done to Malcolm’s grandfather and great grandfather. It is a must that we regularly commemorate the people who mean something to us, especially those who have fought for our human rights.

Wanda’s Picks for October 2014

Sunday, Oct. 12, marks our 19th Annual Maafa Commemoration. This is a time when we gather to remember our African ancestors, especially those who endured the transatlantic slave trade or the Middle Passage, the Black Holocaust. It is a time for Pan Africans to gather and celebrate life and recommit ourselves to the work of liberation: spiritual, psychological, economic and political.

Rwanda attacks political prisoner Victoire Ingabire’s family (with French translation)

Victoire Ingabire has become an icon of peace and democracy in the war ravaged Great Lakes Region of Africa. She returned to Rwanda in 2010, announcing her intention to run against sitting Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who responded by imprisoning her instead. Opponents in Rwanda are neutralized, and they try to do that with people abroad too. This is what is happening now with Victoire Ingabire’s husband Lin Muyizere.

Public Defender, Quattrone Center to study consequences of race, justice in SF

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office has partnered with a national research and policy hub to embark on a broad study to identify racial disparities in San Francisco’s criminal justice system. The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School will work hand in hand with the Public Defender’s Office to gather a broad range of statistics providing insight into drug arrests, traffic stops, plea deals, sentences and bail.

More Black people killed by police than were lynched during Jim Crow

Most Americans tend to think of lynchings as a dated form of racial violence that suddenly disappeared with the ending of Jim Crow; however, America’s proclivity towards slaughtering Black people lives on through the country’s police departments. Instead of Black people being presented as savages and beasts like they once were, the media perpetuates the notion that Black people are gangbangers and thugs.

Jacqueline Hairston to receive Howard Thurman Award

Noted composer, arranger, pianist, music educator, vocal coach, liturgical musician and clinician, Jacqueline Hairston will be presented the Howard Thurman Award at Fellowship Church’s 70th anniversary celebration and 19th annual Howard Thurman Convocation. Founded in 1944 by Drs. Howard Thurman and Alfred Fisk, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples is the nation’s first fully interracial, interfaith congregation.

Governor veto of prosecutor misconduct bill criticized

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano released this statement on Sept. 29 in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of Ammiano’s AB 885, a bill that would have created a modest sanction in the courts for prosecutors who try to win trials by withholding evidence. “I’m not just disappointed at the governor’s veto of this bill, I’m angry,” Ammiano said.

After many long years in solitary confinement, I’m just asking

How can we the people of this nation and world end the suffering of countless men and women held inside man-made, manufactured torture chambers called solitary confinement? Can we call on the humanity of this nation and world to lend their voice, their time, their strength and heart, their money toward ending torture in Amerika? I’m just asking.

Da Cotton Pickas

Da Cotton Pickas have emerged from the constant witnessing of the blatant disrespect that is daily being poured into our communities and our households nationwide. The time has come again for rebellious, radical, revolutionary, spiritual and gangsta music to be brought to the forefront with no apologies and no fear of repercussions.

Sen. Holly Mitchell’s California Fair Sentencing Act, ending crack disparity, becomes law

On Sept. 28, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Fair Sentencing Act (SB 1010) authored by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles. The legislation eliminates the groundless disparity in sentencing, probation and asset forfeiture guidelines for possession of crack cocaine for sale versus the same crime involving powder cocaine that has resulted in a pattern of racial discrimination in sentencing and incarceration in California. The law takes effect in January.

California transfers Pelican Bay SHU prisoners to general population despite calling them too dangerous...

It has been a few months since my release from 20 years of solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison (SHU) to Step 5 of the Step Down Program (SDP). I thought I should pen this communique with an update on my travels from one place to another – the new location, experience, encounters and situations – as everything has unfolded.

Oakland, thank God you haven’t lost your soul

Ma’am, I have to admit, I was watching you. You probably didn’t notice me sitting across from you on the AC Transit bus leaving the Oakland Coliseum. It was a warm day and I was sweating, glad to have gotten a seat. I’d just come from SF, where I’d taken part in a rally for housing rights. So many evictions across the Bay in San Francisco. You’re probably aware of the situation but one can’t assume.

National Afrikan Amerikan Family Reunion Association brings families together to free themselves from poverty

The National Afrikan Amerikan Family Reunion Association, NAAFRA, a non-profit family movement, is working to bring those families who have not yet experienced the joy of family reunions – and all Black families – into one national movement. Our family movement needs these families to come together in NAAFRA’s Family Operational Unity Plan for positive change.

‘Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’

The question of who ordered the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. is a vital one. Those who dismiss the notion that the United States government would engage in assassination willfully ignore the 1975 Church Committee Report that exposed covert, illegal government activities and the many CIA-orchestrated assassinations and coups d’etat from Africa to Latin America.

Unanimous vote renames Bayview Library for Linda Brooks-Burton

In response to a community-led proposal, the San Francisco Library Commission voted unanimously in favor of renaming the Bayview Branch Library by adding the name of Linda Brooks-Burton. Ms. Brooks-Burton was a beloved figure who advocated tirelessly for the needs of the community and served as a role model and mentor for youth and all who used the library. She worked for the San Francisco Public Library for 30 years.

California prisoner representatives: All people have the right to humane treatment with dignity

We are the prisoner class representatives of what’s become known as the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement. Last month we marked the first anniversary of the end of our historic 60-day Hunger Strike. Oct. 10 we mark the two-year anniversary of the Agreement to End Hostilities. This is an update on where things stand with our struggle to achieve major reforms beneficial to prisoners, outside loved ones and society in general.

Robert C. Fuentes, ‘poet, jailhouse lawyer and humanitarian in the hunger strikes,’ dies of...

Robert Fuentes was an award-winning poet and essayist. PEN America awarded him the Dawson Prize in fiction in the 2010 Prison Writing Contest for a piece titled “Lessons,” which begins: “Well, I originally contemplated about trying to sugarcoat what I had to say; but in the end, I arrived to the conclusion that it was best to not mince words and to just say things as they are … prison life is fucked up.”

Why did you shoot me?

On Sept. 4, a white South Carolina highway patrolman, Sean Groubert, shot a Black motorist in Columbia, South Carolina. LeVar Jones, the shooting victim, survived a bullet in the hip. Richland County’s chief prosecutor had Groubert arrested and charged with felony assault and battery. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke to Kevin Alexander Gray, a South Carolina native and co-editor of “Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence.”