Tag: COVID-19

Across the globe, prisoners are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Overcrowded facilities, shortages of food and medicine, and inadequate testing expose prisoners who are disproportionately poor and afflicted with prior conditions that render them vulnerable to the disease.

While the U.S. media plays politics and continues to drum up support for the Gates Foundation’s alleged forced mass vaccination program, I wanted to fill the readers’ minds with information that is actually more comprehensive about our health and how to protect ourselves from this invisible enemy, COVID-19, beyond being told to socially distance, use hand sanitizer, and wear masks and gloves.

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s CalEnviroScreen confirmed that Bayview Hunters Point is one of the communities in the state most vulnerable to pollution, due to environmental, health and socio-economic disparities.

Tuesday night Soledad State Prison officials decided to raid the cell of the Black Muslim activist for no other reason than because he wrote a negative story about them in the newspaper.

On the morning of April 17, a protest took place at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mansion in Tallahassee, Florida, demanding the governor take immediate action to protect prisoners from COVID-19. Protestors demanded that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch take immediate steps to act.

Families of incarcerated people and criminal justice advocates condemned the failure of state officials to act urgently in order to protect people in prisons, one of the populations most vulnerable to severe illness and death caused by the coronavirus.

Mayor London N. Breed and Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax today released a new map that displays confirmed cases of coronavirus in San Francisco by zip code. The map shows that the populations and locations in the City that are most affected by health disparities, income inequality and structural racism are also the most affected by the pandemic to date.

“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.”

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.

Do prison authorities see prisoners as worth saving? Some prisoners say: “Prisoners will not be at the top of the list for any kind of medical treatment. They will be forced to die a lonely death inside their cell, by way of suffocation.” Others say: “We are a commodity to these people, an asset that brings money to them. When you live in a capitalist society, the key is to protect your assets.”

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.

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.

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.

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.