Monthly Archives: September 2020

Cutting public transportation is a racial unjust act against particularly Black and Brown and low income communities. Working people, students, people with disabilities and elderly folks depend on the public bus system as part of their daily lives and would be further disenfranchised without it.

Joey Villarreal survived the SHU, Pelican Bay’s “torture cell”, finally came home to his community and has been building a life which nurtures his talents and inspires his community. Unjustly arrested and incarcerated again, his community rallied, raised exorbitant bail and succeeded in bringing their beloved son, father, brother, grandfather and friend home, again.

This election has led to a crossroads and COVID-19 has highlighted that our choices can lead to suffering or liberation. By reflecting on the journeys of some of those who have gone before like Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin and Coretta King, Elijah and Clara Muhammad and recently, Colin Kaepernick, we can take our own journey and vote because it matters.

As gentrification continues to gobble up the streets of San Francisco, Brenda Kittrell (1955-2020) is remembered as a well loved and respected member of the Potrero Hill community. She advocated tirelessly for public housing, safety and community on local state and national levels and supported the possibility of home ownership for low-income African Americans living in San Francisco.

Litigators request the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals review the reversal made by the three-judge appellate panel of the decision of the district court against California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. CDCR continues its epoch refusal to adhere to not only the letter of the Ashker v. Governor of California settlement agreement, but neither any modicum of the spirit of the agreement, thereby knowingly and intentionally perpetuating the torture of solitary confinement.

Prisoners at California’s largest prison, Corcoran Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (SATF), cry out their fear of a re-enactment of the recent deaths at San Quentin from the imposed COVID-19 outbreak. Transfers into SATF are being made with egregious disregard for health and safety practices, coupled with continued historical institutional abuse and neglect.

What began as a pebble dropped into the water, rippled life force into infinity. Formerly incarcerated, BL Shirelle unfolds the story of rediscovering her creativity, her passion to write songs and music that released the shackles and revealed the path to freedom, not only for herself, but for others, as well. BL Shirelle is proud to be back in prison.

Lynette Gibson McElhaney, as District 3 Oakland City Council member, continues to drive a relentless and passionate laser focus on her collaborative work, which is manifesting her vision for a vibrant, safe Oakland across the community spectrum – regardless of race, age, gender or socioeconomic standing.

A costly mistake at age 15 holds 26-year-old Eric Allen Jr. in prison serving a 50-year-to-life plus life sentence, plus COVID-19. Eric intimately shares his fear of dying in prison alone, about his being stripped of all human rights and dignity, dehumanized and treated as an animal in a 24-hour cage who can’t fend for himself, with no voice or caretaker and at the mercy of guards who lie and falsify documents to hide inhumane wrongdoing.

Nation Magazine sportswriter Dave Zirin, speaking to Ann Garrison, says that militarism is a founding feature of American football, not just a bug, but we don’t have to accept it in football or other team sports.

The Curtis Family Cnotes and Mother Brown’s Dining Room are collaborating to bring healthy food and soulful music to communities in need, which are about all you need to nourish the human existence, even, and especially, during a pandemic.

Kevin Cooper, still caged in San Quentin after 37 years, 35 years on Death Row, speaks with KPFA’s Flashpoints Dennis Bernstein in an exclusive in-depth interview. Cooper talks about simultaneously surviving Death Row and the COVID-19 pandemic, the blues and highlights the opportunity for Governor Gavin Newsom to order an Innocence Investigation, which will shine direct light on prosecutorial wrongdoings and new DNA evidence to support his innocence.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin appoints longtime San Francisco public servant David Campos as the new chief of staff for the SF District Attorney’s Office. With a long commitment of service to the Bay Area, David Campos brings deep and personal understanding to the challenges in achieving reform to the drivers of injustice for the most vulnerable in our communities.

Black NBA players are just beginning to understand the power of the attention and admiration they command, which is morphing into bringing their “messages” to the courts on their sleeves, chests and feet, along with other actions in solidarity with public demands from the streets.

San Francisco County, as of Aug. 10, 2020, will no longer generate revenue from incarcerated people and their families through phone calls. All phone calls and video calls from jails will be free under a first-in-the-nation fixed rate contract negotiated by the Sheriff’s Office. Additionally in April 2020, the Sheriff’s Office eliminated commission or profit in the jail commissary (jail store) and prices dropped an average of 43 percent.

Millions were spent by the tobacco industry to fight the efforts of lawmakers and citizens to stop killing smokers, primarily targeting Black communities, with constant invasion of poisonous addictive product. SB 793, which will prohibit the sale of flavored and mentholated products in California, awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

San Francisco’s Tenderloin is speaking up with the Aug. 10, 2020 installation of San Francisco artist Malik Seneferu’s massive “Housing Black” street mural on Golden Gate Avenue, a collaborative mural voice throughout the Bay Area this summer to highlight the needs and possibilities of our unhoused Black population.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood strong in the stature of a giant, and icon and a warrior for democracy during her 27 years on the US Supreme Court. Today the nation mourns the loss of the solid force for good that Justice Ginsburg brought to her relentless service to justice for women and for all people.

The ongoing reveal of the life-threatening contaminants plaguing the residents of the Bayview Hunters Point community was further enhanced by a recent virtual tour by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai and Dr. Mark Alexander imparting first-hand knowledge to attendees, including first-year UCSF medical students. Information focused on the toxic elements adding weight to the body burden as revealed by the biomonitoring program testing being done within the community.

Racist and dangerous politics by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), that target a Black elected lawmaker, draw disgust, condemnation and outrage from numerous entities and the people at large. The image of the “crosshairs” symbol placed over the lawmaker’s photograph and then posted on social media, represents an attack, as well as clear and present danger to the “target,” his family and our democracy by "peace" officers, who are sworn to protect.