Tag: COVID-19

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday released his demands for six key priorities that he said must be included in the next round of federal economic relief for suffering Americans as the coronavirus pandemic cripples the country’s healthcare system and eviscerates the economy.

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.

Covering medical care costs isn’t part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed by the U.S. government. Politicians tell us testing for the virus, when it becomes widely available, will be free. If you get sick from COVID-19, you are on your own.

Twenty years before COVID-19, poor and people of color, some with disabilities, and low- and middle-income market rate renters were subjected to the island’s high winds carrying toxins creating a respiratory disease cluster.

The housing crisis, a shelter in place order and the National Guard: It’s not just coronavirus and disaster capitalism that we need to resist in these unsure times but the increased criminalization of people simply trying to survive.

The time to act has come. It is right now. It is tonight and tomorrow. We must demand the immediate release en masse of half of the 47,000 people inside Pennsylvania state prisons.

It’s important we avoid using “violent criminal” rhetoric to justify abandoning thousands of elderly people, which endangers us all. And, it is no longer acceptable to put white folks’ fears ahead of the safety of Black and Latinx people.

It’s important we avoid using “violent criminal” rhetoric to justify abandoning thousands of elderly people, which endangers us all. It is no longer acceptable to put white folks’ fears ahead of the safety of Black and Latinx people.

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.

As this story is posted, another death of a prisoner is reported at Oakdale. Officials of the guards' union there describe the prison as "ground zero" for the coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system.

The Pentagon has ordered all its commands, bases and personnel to stop reporting statistics on COVID-19 infections and deaths in the US military, citing “operational security concerns.”

In the wake of COVID19, working class people all across the city are being severely impacted. Their employers are asking them to resign, to use paid time off, to use vacation time, to reduce their hours, to work for less than minimum wage – and there is still no promise of compensation and coverage in sight.

While the City of San Francisco has taken dramatic steps in the face of the COVID-19 crisis – declaring a state of emergency, ordering shelter-in-place and opening the Moscone Center as an emergency shelter – very little of the response has been directed towards the Bayview. This is part of a longstanding pattern of ignoring the Bayview unless there are condos to build or a sewage treatment plant to locate.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and our communities are deeply and directly affected. We, a coalition of Bay Area organizations and inter-regional allies, are committed to working diligently to ensure that the repercussions and reverberations of COVID-19 do not lead to more harm and violence in our communities, but instead offer an opportunity to reshape our relationship to safety.

Just over a week into the “shelter in place” directive that is now statewide, COVID-19 has reached Santa Rita Jail. Alameda County confirmed on March 26 that a nurse working in one of the jail’s housing units has tested positive for the virus.

U.S. officials have often criticized Iran’s prison conditions. As awful as the prison conditions in Iran may be, Amerika, the proclaimed bastion of freedom and democracy, is much worse. Shane Bauer, the Amerikan captured and imprisoned for two years in Iran, bore witness to this.

DEFENDER Europe 20, NATO’s latest anti-Russian war games, began in February. On March 13, the German army announced that it would not participate and withdrew its troops for fear of spreading the coronavirus. On March 11, Norway’s armed forces canceled Cold Response, more anti-Russian war games.

Following up on “Justice organizations call on California Gov. Newsom to act now to reduce COVID-19 risks in state prisons,” The Justice Collaborative sent these more specific and detailed recommendations to key members of Gov. Newsom’s administration.