Tag: coronavirus

“Imagine you taking (the COVID-19 virus) home to your mama, grandmama, sister. You’re gonna be responsible for that death, the loss of one of your loved ones,” said Kev. “Hopefully somebody like me getting it will wake people up.”

The Clements Unit, a large Texas prison, is knowingly allowing guards infected with the coronavirus to work at the prison. In its early stages of infesting the prison, the coronavirus had gone undocumented in the month of March 2020, despite sick prisoners and rampant signs of the virus everywhere.

April 18, 2020 – Like many of you in the free world, I have been monitoring closely the daily COVID-19 briefings broadcast from the White House. I have also been observing and analyzing the propaganda disseminated by the mainstream media in regard to the deadly pandemic.

Hundreds of people rise to become “Radical Redistributors” in this time of COVID-19: “I have a case of toilet paper. I’ll bring it over tomorrow,” said Reena, a now unemployed accountant from Alameda; “I have a box of organic vitamins,” said Mr. Johns, an architect; “I will bring two bags of non-perishable groceries over,” said Linda, a landscape gardener; “I have so many masks – we had hoarded them after the fires,” said Gene, an UberEats driver.

Community organizers Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), Justice LA and Color of Change mobilized more than 770 people to provide public comment yesterday to the newly formed Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on COVID-19. The comments demanded a “Decarceration Budget” that shifts spending away from corrections and incarceration and toward community-based services and housing.

We must demand that the U.S. Congress as well as U.S. Attorney General William Barr create some flexibility and include language in the law, the CARES Act, that will allow the immediate release of our elder and infirm comrades! We must not let them die in prison from Covid-19!

“I can say, first of all, we really need to take care of ourselves and stay home. Stay off the streets. Stay away from gatherings. This is really serious,” said the highly regarded visual artist Tarika Lewis, known historically as the first woman to join the Black Panther Party.

On April 9, the Kitsap Sun reported that Pentagon and Navy brass were in conflict about whether there’s a COVID-19 outbreak on the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Chester Nimitz docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. I grew up in Bremerton, so much of this story is familiar to me, but like all COVID-19 stories, it’s changing fast.

Melanin is one of my favorite Bay Area painters because of how he melds history, culture and politics into a futuristic vision. I met Melanin years ago, when he was a member of the legendary Black Diamonds Shining Art Collective. I was an instant fan of most of the crew’s work.

April 15, 2020, marks 36 months since a Black 19-year-old Humboldt State University (HSU) student, David Josiah Lawson, also known as DJ and Josiah, was murdered on April 15, 2017, while attending an off-campus party in Arcata, Calif.

Ivan Kilgore is retaliated against for speaking out about inhumane conditions amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in California’s prisons, and Talib Williams denounces CDCr’s irresponsible handling of the crisis.

As COVID-19 outbreaks continue to explode in prisons and jails across the United States, a new report challenges governors to make full use of their executive power to release larger numbers of people from detention in order to create less crowded, less dangerous conditions in the face of the pandemic.

The average age of people who die in New York’s prisons is 57. Many who are worthy of release will die in prison (from the coronavirus). The only humanitarian solution is mass de-carceration, with the oldest prisoners released first.

What happens when an unselfish Black woman steps up to the plate? San Francisco Mayor London Breed didn’t play politics with our lives, but instead built a coalition with other communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to initiate the first shelter in place order in the USA.

“I’m COVID-19 positive. I’m doing well. I’m isolated in my house. I will be out of commission for two to three weeks. I have cared for several COVID-19 patients. One was not recognized initially and this may have been the one that the infection came from. Can’t wait to get back in the fight.”

Asante Sana to the dedicated nurses, techs, housekeeper, doctors, food service and support staff at our hospitals and clinics for their extra-special care for me and all patients.

Malik Ali chronicles the atmosphere at San Quentin State Prison amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are 2.3 million people incarcerated in America. I am one of them.

We’ve never had to deal with a pandemic like COVID-19 that upended our lives overnight, with schools, universities and most businesses shut down, hospitals scrambling to prepare for an onslaught of novel coronavirus victims, and government orders to stay at home indefinitely.

San Francisco – ​In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, San Francisco Mayor London Breed has refused to use executive powers to house San Francisco’s 9,000 homeless residents living in the City’s streets and shelters.