Tag: Gov. Newsom

Vision, commitment to justice, deep education, and youth energy fire up the Reparations Task Force.

With determination, commitment and love, Kevin Cooper continues to fight for exoneration and freedom from oppression for himself and all who suffer the pain of the whip.

The four Prisoner Hunger Strike Movement representatives won their case against CDCR’s torturous solitary confinement only to have it replaced with Level 4 enhanced SHU and refusal of approved tablets during the pandemic.

A system designed to incarcerate Black, Brown and poor people, including children, is in the midst of a first step towards change for caged children, which has been taken in dismantling the remaining three California youth prisons and relocating those approximately 750 youth to rehabilitation facilities. While some are hopeful, others like Jamilia Land of Abolish Slavery National Network are cautious.

“Where is the humanity in that?” asks Nube Brown who pulls the lens in tight on the inhumane policies of the Prison Industrial Slave Complex perpetrated on all human beings suffering prison atrocities of torture, dehumanization, exploitation, extraction, starvation, death by health neglect and physical abuse, while making billions off the backs of those they hold captive.

Obviously conflicted about what to do when to ensure the desired outcome for his political career, Gov. Newsom continues to embrace political gain rather than do the right thing during trauma and death in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. By refusing to mass release prisoners from California’s overcrowded prisons, he provides safety and wellbeing for no one, the people, all of the people, he promised to serve.

Todd Ashker honors the prisoner class on the inside and supporters on the outside as the unstoppable force, standing strong and speaking truth to power in the work for human rights and dignity, and brings forward the collective committed voices of the three massive Hunger Strikes, the Ashker, et al., Class Action Settlement Agreement, and the Agreement to End Hostilities, all of which lead to the next steps in the ongoing struggle.

The June 2020 shooting death of Sean Monterrosa by Vallejo Police Officer Jarrett Tonn remains in limbo after all legal efforts have been exhausted, peacefully and respectfully. Ongoing disregard from Gov. Newsom has prompted an open letter to demanding action and revealing his inaction as justice delayed, which is justice denied, which is complicity.

As we transition between the trials and traumas of 2020 into the possibilities of hope and inspiration for 2021, Baba Jahahara remembers our new ancestors with honor, respect and love, notes the challenges ahead to infuse renewed energies into the call for reparations, Mother Earth love, freedom for our Political Prisoners and the new Biden-Harris administration’s debt to those who’s votes made the nightmare escape possible.

Writer Lin Robertson extols an iconic jewell from the Black community of the Bay Area. As a proponent of Affirmative Action, Fred Jordan is a man of principle, heart and humanity providing service, guidance and ultimately, his own brand of artistic gift giving to the people, standing tall, humble and driven to build on the roots of the Black community.

Barry Hermanson encourages advocates in the fight for good, affordable health care to embody the slogan “Don’t mourn. Organize!”, while acknowledging that winning is difficult, but not impossible. Hermanson also proclaims the reality of value in numbers – the more people engaged in the struggle, the greater the possibility of claiming the prize.

UCSF White Coats for Black Lives leaves no uncertainty how Gov. Gavin Newsom and his appointee, Kathleen Allison, are playing the shell game, toying with the lives of our elderly and infirmed caged community members, and all Californians. CDCr is exposing all of us to ravaging and likely death by COVID-19. Equally troubling is the mental torture of all prisoners, their families and loved ones.

At San Quentin Prison on Saturday, Oct. 10, a demonstration and vigil hosted by No Justice Under Capitalism, California Prison Focus and KAGE Universal (Kings & Queens Against Genocidal Environments) will take place to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Agreement to End Hostilities and recognize the ongoing history of prison resistance.

California scores another first in the country with Governor Newsom’s passage of The Families Over Fees Act by signing Assembly Bill 1869, widely applauded by advocates including Treasurer José Cisneros and Public Defender Mano Raju. AB 1869 eliminates the “high pain, low gain” fees of oppression on people who have paid their debt to society.

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.

Gavin Newsom seems more interested in protecting a future run for president than the health and safety of the state’s most vulnerable populations, whether they be undocumented residents or prisoners in our state’s sprawling gulag. Being “tough on crime” while preserving a generally liberal reputation is the cynical balancing act.

The number of unhoused people dying on the street in San Francisco is triple the number who died last year at this time. During this pandemic Mayor Breed called for the shelter in place order ahead of other cities and even ahead of Gov. Newsom. She understood the deadly nature of the virus and her responsibility to protect the people of her city.

Candice Elder, founder and executive director of the East Oakland Collective, is a force to reckon with in Oakland when the issue of homelessness is brought up. During this quarantine season, her comrades as well as herself have successfully organized a moratorium on the police sweeping of homeless encampments in Oakland, which was passed unanimously by the City Council.

Newsweek reports that more than a third of federally incarcerated people with coronavirus are now in one institution, Terminal Island Prison in Southern California.

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.