2014

  • Ellis Act for Dummies

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Let me explain about the Ellis Act. It started out as a simple way of protecting private senior landlords. But its just like the favorite phrase goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Why do I say this? Well, it started in 1989 when San Francisco had a total of 300 major landlord agencies, better known as holding companies. Nowadays these 300 holding companies have been swallowed up by big business into 10. These 10 found a loophole inside the Ellis Act that says you can evict tenants if you agree to stop being a landlord. This is what the companies are doing: they are converting them to tenancies in common where they own the mortgages of the tenancies in common and also become the buildings' managing companies. Each tenant owns a part of the building. It is like a condominium but too complicated to explain in this article.

    With the Ellis Act they are kicking out tenants that have been there 20, 30 or more years. Some of the landlords do not go through the courtesy of the eviction process. They use harassment fraud and the whole kit and caboodle. Most of these seniors worked hard all their lives. They were not doctors, lawyers or college graduates. These are the day to day people that built the city you are living in today, your grandmothers, grandfathers and mothers or fathers. They get nervous with big fancy-titled lawyer’s envelopes in their mailboxes which offer $5,000 or more to move out. Meanwhile the average rent of a studio is $1,000 to $1,500 in the City of San Francisco. These rent-control tenants do not know the real value their apartment until they move out and look for a new place. They will sign under duress.

    The ones that try to fight it, they may get more money. Most elders, including my wife, held out and their health issues took over. Her feet were the size of an elephant's hoof. Other elders had heart problems and nervous ticks from the greedy behavior of the landlords. If I signed a contract for a TV set at Sears and the sales person acted that way to sell me something I didn’t need, he would have been arrested.

    There should be 2 amendments written on the Ellis Act if they're not going to repeal it. 1. No senior or disabled resident can be Ellis Acted; 2. You must own the property at least 5 to 6 years before you use the Ellis Act . This time period will give you some vestment in the community. This is the best I can do under legal terms in the present condition. This will keep away speculators from making profits on the backs of the elderly and the poor.

    To any reader that thinks I am a communist or socialist: I am a anarchist. If you make comments below, put that as a comment I am not a communist or a socialist because that system doesn’t work, and I am not a capitalist.

    Thank you, this is Bad News Bruce signing out.

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  • Leno and Ammiano try to Amend the Landlord Law-aka The Ellis Act

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    (Image of Remigio Fraga with Idriss Stelley Foundation outside the Ellis Act Evictions are Elder Abuse action sponsored by POOR Magazine, Idriss Stelley Foundation, The Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the SF Bay View)

    Co-editors Note-We evicted peoples wish these conscious senators luck- in the mean-time we continue with filing criminal charges on the spekkkulators)

    *** PRESS RELEASE ***

    MAYOR LEE & SENATOR LENO ANNOUNCE LEGISLATION TO AMEND STATE ELLIS ACT LAW TO PROTECT LONG-TIME TENANTS

    Closing Loophole in State Law to Prohibit Real Estate Speculators From Using the Ellis Act to Displace Tenants in San Francisco

    San Francisco, CA—Today Mayor Edwin M. Lee and State Senator Mark Leno joined State and local leaders, including Assemblymember Phil Ting and Supervisors David Chiu and David Campos along with tenant advocates, labor groups and business leaders to announce legislation closing a loophole in the Ellis Act that allows speculators to buy rent-controlled buildings in San Francisco and immediately evicting long-term tenants. To counter a recent surge in Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco, Senate Bill 1439 authorizes the City to prohibit new property owners from invoking the Ellis Act to evict tenants for five years after the acquisition of a property, ensures that landlords can only activate their Ellis Act rights once, and creates penalties for those who violate the law.

    “We have some of the best tenant protections in the country, but unchecked real estate speculation threatens too many of our residents,” said Mayor Lee. “These speculators are turning a quick profit at the expense of long time tenants and do nothing to add needed housing in our City. These are not the landlords the Ellis Act was designed to help, and this legislation gives San Francisco additional tools to protect valuable housing and prevent Ellis Act speculator evictions, which already displace working families and longtime San Franciscans. This carve out is a good policy for San Francisco, and I thank Senator Leno for being a champion on this issue. Together we have built a large coalition of renters, labor and business leaders to fight this battle in Sacramento to support middle income and working families here in our City.”

    “The original spirit of California’s Ellis Act was to allow legitimate landlords a way out of the rental business, but in recent years, speculators have been buying up properties in San Francisco with no intention to become landlords but to instead use a loophole in the Ellis Act to evict long-time residents just to turn a profit,” said Senator Leno. “Many of these renters are seniors, disabled people and low-income families with deep roots in their communities and no other local affordable housing options available to them. Our bill gives San Francisco an opportunity to stop the bleeding and save the unique fabric of our city.”

    Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have tripled in the last year as more than 300 properties were taken off the rental market. This spike in evictions has occurred simultaneously with huge increases in San Francisco property values and housing prices. About 50 percent of the City’s 2013 evictions were initiated by owners who had held a property for less than one year, and the majority of those happened during the first six months of ownership.

    In light of the growing problem of speculative Ellis Act evictions, Mayor Lee joined Senator Leno, Assemblyman Ting, Supervisors Chiu and Campos and a diverse coalition of supporters, including business leaders, property owners and developers, to reform the Ellis Act in Sacramento. Senate Bill 1439 was the result of this effort.

    “Rents in San Francisco are at an all-time high. My former neighbors and I, working families and seniors, were displaced from the place we called home for several decades,” said evicted senior Gum Gee Lee. “Those that have yet to receive an Ellis Act notice continue to live in fear, fear that they too will be evicted from their homes. For seniors such as myself who rely on public transportation and access to social and health services within our community, Ellis evictions cut our lifeline, our independence to thrive. For working class families such as my former neighbors from Jackson Street, they continue to struggle to survive in San Francisco. San Francisco is our home.”

    Enacted as State law in 1985, the Ellis Act allows owners to evict tenants and quickly turn buildings into Tenancy In Common (TIC) units for resale on the market. In San Francisco, the units that are being cleared are often rent controlled and home to seniors, disabled Californians and working class families. When these affordable rental units are removed from the market, they never return.

    SB 1439 will be heard in the State Senate Policy Committees this Spring.

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  • The New Greaser Laws

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body

    Editors Note: Jose is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents who was involved in the Hunger Strike to end all solitary confinement and the in-human treatment of all of our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

    The New Greaser Laws

     

    After the U.S. War on Mexico in 1848 when Aztlan (the south west) was stolen, there came what has been described as “The Gold Rush” which erupted when gold was “discovered” in California at Sutter’s Mill. This “discovery” resulted in a mass migration of settlers from across the U.S. as well as around the world. These settler immigrants flocked to California in a quest to exploit its resources.

     

    Suddenly post U.S. war on Mexico the peoples who had been living in California for hundreds of years and in some cases longer were now considered as competition to the settler. This resulted in racist legislation which codified national oppression. At this time the most successful mining operation came from those proto- Chicanos and Raza (Latinos) more generally who also migrated from Latin America. Raza were all lumped together by the settlers and referred to as “greasers”.

              

    Beginning in 1850, Amerika began implementing a series of laws that were aimed at Raza in California who were thought of and labeled as “greasers”, thus these laws were known as The Greaser Laws. In this way the oppressor Nation had institutionalized oppression, that is, they made it “legal”. The initial law that began the greaser laws was the Foreign Miners Tax Law of 1850. When we learn about a historical event such as the greaser laws, we should not just reflect on the law and the physical restrictions thereafter, but also of the effect this must have had on the psyche of Raza at the time and for generations thereafter, when a people suddenly become a “foreigner” in their land as happened post 1848 and how the colonizer began legalizing oppression thereafter.

               

    The Foreign Tax Law stated that a non U.S. citizen that wanted to mine needed to pay $20.00 a month for the license. $20.00 was a huge amount at that time and this was enacted as a form of controlling the newly colonized people. Although the foreign tax law also affected Chinese laborers who were a strong presence in California at this time, the greaser laws were primarily enacted to uphold white supremacy and to criminalize Raza. From this point on Raza culture was criminalized and this worked to criminalize all Raza under the label of “greaser”. To the public, “greasers” became synonymous with criminals hence began the idea of our barrios as criminal. The Greaser Laws targeted things like bullfighting and cockfighting, which were part of Raza culture, were suddenly turned into crimes in order to add another tool in the oppressor toolbox used in carrying out national oppression. It’s essential that we grasp why the state cahoots with white labor at this time worked hand-in-hand with the Greaser Laws. Sakai summed this up:

               “What was the essence of the ideology of white labor? Petit-bourgeois annexationism. Lenin pointed out in the great debates on the national question that the heart of national oppression is annexation of the territory of the oppressed nations by the oppressor nation.” (1)

               

    This I think cuts to the heart of the origins of the Greaser Laws and even more so speak to national oppression. Today the U.S. Prison population has skyrocketed, the quakers in their early experiments with prisons would probably be awestruck at the behemoth the dungeon has become. For our oppressor, this is only the beginning for the penological colonies. As Marx taught, matter is in motion, and prisons are no exception to this scientific rule.

               

    What has been detected, initially in U.S. prisons, is ‘The New Greaser Laws’ which have been mostly applied in California. Just like in the early days, during the birth of the Chican@ Nation, when the Greaser Laws first arose, so too are we seeing a revival of the Greaser Laws at a time when Chican@s’ are making a leap in consciousness within U.S. prisons. What has become apparent and what not enough has been discussed about is that once again Raza culture has been criminalized within U.S. prisons in a concerted effort for the state to thus criminalize Raza and particularly Chican@s’ in the popular sense. Only today we are labeled “gang member” or “security threat group” whereas the old Greaser Laws labeled Raza as “vagrants” or “bandits”.

               

    California prisons have been taking Raza culture and using our practice and enjoyment of such cultura to prove we are engaging in “criminal acts”, “gang activity”, or the newly worded “security threat group activity”. Today in California prisons drawings depicting Pancho Villa or Zapata, the hero’s of the Mexican Revolution are used as “gang symbols” by the state. Drawings or photos of art depicting Aztlan symbols such as the calendar, statues of depictions of warriors are used as points to validate us. The Aztec thunderbird that is used out in society to evoke the struggles of farmworkers throughout the U.S. is used against us to validate us as “gang members”. The Mexican Eagle which evokes the legend of Aztlan with the snake in it’s mouth and which is the flag of Mexico, is used to criminalize us.

              

     Language is not even safe, the use of Spanish, which is the Chican@ language, is used to brand us as engaging in criminal activity. Tattoos showing our history and culture are used as “proof” of us being criminals, gang members.

               

    The way we interact socially in ways that promote interdependence and community as Chican@s’ and Raza more generally whether it be sharing, eating communally and expressing ourselves as a group is criminalized in prison. This behavior has nothing to do with “gangs” it goes back to our indigenous roots of how we interact and how we raise our youth. This tradition is twisted into a negative phenomenon by our oppressor and used to further our repression, to increase our torture and justify our placement in these torture centers also known as S.H.U.!

               

    Our way of life, which has been passed on generation after generation, is criminalized in an attempt by our oppressor to sever us from our culture, from the very essence of what it means to be Chican@s’, of being Raza. This assault on the Chicano nation California in prisons is meant to discourage us from holding on to who we are and to stifle our political development i.e, to kill our consciousness. This is all re-run and is the same vein of oppression used on Raza in the original Greaser Laws- it is an attempt to assimilate s into Ameri-kkk-a!

               

    The New Greaser Laws that we are experiencing in California prisons have a direct link to the Old Greaser Laws of 1848. The old greaser Laws are linked to the land grab and Amerikan Imperialism, thus our oppression ultimately tethered to U.S. Imperialism. Stalin once said “Imperialism was instrumental not only in making the revolution a practiced inevitability, but also in creating favorable conditions for a direct assault on the citadels of capitalism” (2)

              

     Oh how his words ring true today in that the New Greaser Laws are actually the fuel in the engine of the Chicano nation that has been rekindled due precisely to the assault at Aztlan.

     

     

    Why the New Greaser Laws today?

               When we attempt to identify this stepped up assault on the Chicano nation, we must analyze the concrete conditions in the U.S. today.

                

    The population growth is one factor that is playing into the scheme of things. It we look back to 1980, the U.S. population consisted of 80% white, 12% Black, 6% Latino and 5% Asian. If we move forward 30 years to the year 2010 the U.S. population was 64% White, 12% Black, 16% Latino, 5% Asian. (3) As this data shows most folks had their population reduced or stayed the same for the most part while Raza population made a leap in the U.S. and this leap did not go unnoticed by the oppressor nation.

               

    This development ushered in more of these Greaser Laws and more enforcement of these assaults that came in many forms. Even the existing laws such as the California Three Strikes Law which is aimed primarily at the oppressed nations in the U.S. (Brown, Black and Red Peoples) began to increase. Indeed, almost 40% of California’s Three Strikes cases come from Los Angeles county (4) which, it should be noted, has the largest concentration of Chican@s’ in Aztlan.

               

    In a further attempt to curb the replenishment of Aztlan via newly arrived migrants, Amerika has created the “Secure Communities Program” which is another “Greaser Law”. The way it works is, anyone off the street who is arrested for anything, has their fingerprint sent to the FBI to check their legal status. As one writer put it…

               “Under the Secure Communities Program, those fingerprints are then sent to Homeland Security to check for immigration violations. People who are flagged are then examined by ICE and could be deported.” (5)

               

    This program heightens the assault on Raza where now every Brown person in the U.S. becomes a suspect and criminalized in the eyes of the state and public. This program has been abused horrifically, indeed a study in 2011 found that about 3,600 U.S. citizens had been wrongly arrested by ICE.

               

    What’s different from the Old Greaser Laws and the New Greaser Laws is today, many from within the oppressed nations have been bought off by the oppressor and end up unwittingly maintaining such low intensity war aimed at Aztlan. We know the “Secure Communities Program” is a product of the Obama administration, at the same time if we look at the numbers for those who voted to put Obama into office we find 93% of New Afrikans voted for Obama, 69% of Latinos, and 74% of Asians voted in his favor. (6) Ironically it is the Brown, Black and Yellow folks now feeling the brunt of the “Secure Communities Program”. The oppressed nations should take heed to these lessons because they we are to move forward. In our struggle for national liberation we cannot get lost in appearance, we should not be swayed by form but we should focus on content. When it comes to the oppressed nations there is class contradictions within each respective nation on these shores and Amerika's bourgeois politics attempts to lure the oppressed to get struck in its ballot box scam and conceal class contradictions at all costs. Mao spoke of class in his day when he said: "The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class forces them into numerous uprisings against its rule...it was the class struggles of the peasants the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real motive force of historical development in chinese feudal society." (7)

     

    Todays class contradictions affect all of the oppressed nations in the US and most prisoners derive from these oppressed nations and we will be the real motive force in ultimately resolving these class contradictions. Just as our efforts today to better our conditions and stop the the SHU torture are arriving via a United Front, so too will we reach national liberation in the future cia this same approved of the united front.

     

    One of the things the left in the US is leaving out of the equation and must be dealt with is the states targeting of Chicanos at an enormous rate for SHU torture. More Raza are placed in shu solitary confinement that any other peoples in california prisons (8). Of these Raza the vast majority are chicanos. The shu has been identified even by Amerikan "liberal" groups like human rights watch or even amnesty international as 'cruel and unusual' torture. It is well known that solitary confinement creates psychosis after long durations and even for as little as ten days can cause psychological trauma. What this means is in California Chicanos are being tortured and rendered mentally ill more than any other group of prisoners even though chicanos are not the majority population of California prisons. The closest phenomenon to this in the US prison system is the fact that new Afrikans are the largest population on death row, the only difference is new Afrikans are also the largest population of the prison system whereas chicanos are a minority in California's state prison system. They are facing a legal lynching and we are facing a psychological legal lynching.

     

    Those in the prison movement need to look more into this phenomenon and identify the changing contradictions for todays concrete conditions. We need to see more analysis of this phenomenon in movement publications to find ways to combat this situation and glean what can be gleaned to push the movement forward.

     

    This phenomenon of the control unit and specifically California's "shu" can thus be seen as another aspect of the New Greaser laws that are aimed at neutralizing the Chicano nation. The shu is a formidable opponent, it is a big gun in the oppressions arsenal, solitary confinement is its biggest stick. Today, nearly 100,000 people are locked in solitary confinement. This is something that prisoners across the US prison system experience at some time and the impact it is having on the people's mental capacities is only imagined at this time. Terry Kupers, a psychologist, states in a deposition "Everyone who is in a supermax has some kind of psychological damage as a result." (9) The evidence is there that solitary is neutralizing a person without a visible weapon but the state is doing this intentionally in my opinion. No longer are they using a whole town to lynch the oppressed nations in the town square, no longer are thousands rounded up and placed in ovens or gas chambers, instead we are rounded up and locked up for the rest of our lives in solitary confinement! It is a bloodless torture we suffer for being born with Brown, Black or Red skins. White supremacy has only become more sophisticated.

    The warden of pelican bay Greg Lewis has said, "In my experience ,the men that are housed within this security housing unit have suffered no ill effects from their segregation." (9) This is akin to Amerikkka telling the first nations that they suffered no "ill effects" from the trail of tears.

     

    The new greaser laws are creating new contradictions and new struggles within prisons that have not been seen in decades. This mobilization of the lumpen works to combat the new greaser laws in the form of a united front against prison repression. But in our efforts we must raise this aspect of todays repression when we can and get prisoners and our outside allies to grasp this form of development. Our strategy on the ground should raise the consciousness of the U.S. left by being able to translate the changing face of today's prison oppression.

     

    Revolutionaries commonly read, study and declare the Marxist method of the material world being in constant motion. Most people grasp this in theory, in practice however is a different story. Many have failed to implement this method when it comes to the assaults aimed at Aztlan. This parochialism leads to disconnect where nobody identifies the changing conditions and thus the proper response is not coordinated.

     

    Today's lumpen experiences a multifaceted assault which has changed in some ways since the 1970s which was the pinnacle of the prison movement's last development, we as revolutionaries and activists whether in prison or out in society must change our response to the changing developments on the ground. should we apply a 1970 approach to today's contradictions, we will stray off the path of advancing the new prison movement and making real strides for people. but prisoners must take more responsibility for progress made and advances in the prison movement, it is after all us who are buried in this trench of despair. Our external allies may hand us a shovel and feed us oxygen but ultimately it must be us who dig ourselves out. In some ways, those of us in SHU have become slaves of the state since we exist in a caste like existence. One writer has put it this way..."The racialized idiom of slavery in the American social order depended on the legal fiction of 'civil death'; the state of a person who though possessing natural life has lost all civil rights." (10)

     

    We are definitely alive and breathing yet we exist on life support obtaining sustenance to keep us breathing but without experiencing what it means to be human and stripped of civil rights like our counterparts in Guantanamo Bay.

     

    We are seeing that todays prisoners are not mute partisans of violence but people who no longer will suffer in silence, our voices will be heard and voices shall be amplified by those who remain loyal to something called humanity out in society. the power we see manifesting in the strikes are symbols of solidarity of the lumpen class. the strikes coupled with the call to end hostilities reflect developments in U.S. prisons. These developments for prisoners are a leap from a quantitative stage to a qualitative stage or as Engels described simply from 'quantity to quality.' Where the imprisoned social forces have demonstrated a certain amount of consciousness to identify our common oppressor and the class contradictions that exist even in prisons, this knowledge was then used to make a decision to act as a class to advance out class interests. This action was a development not seen in the U.S. prison system since the uprising in Attica in the 1970s! This of course is great but our analysis and future struggles must go deeper and farther if we are to regain our humanity as people and our civil rights as prisoners.

     

    Ultimately, like most contradictions in Amerikkka that result in the interests of the oppressed nations, the fight against the new greaser laws, supermax torture, the Anti-SHU struggle or prison conditions, more generally will only come from how we explore United Front efforts, that is manifested in a lumpen class-wide movement. Prisoners in some aspects exist as the canary in the coal mine where we serve as the social thermometer to where the state is going in its repression projects that will be used on the broader society at some point, so we play an important role in identifying which way the wind blows behind prison walls but this can only be done if prisoners are conscious and able to put critical thinking to the task. To satisfy our responsibility prisoners need to study the contradictions in today's society which revolve around Nation, Class and Gender. Only in this way will we find solutions and understand the interconnection of us and the outside society, only then can we attempt to add to what is bubbling in today's theoretical realm in the internal semi-colonies here in the U.S. and internationally.

     

    The stranglehold of U.S. prisons will continue with employing the New Greaser Laws and other modes of repression until all our energies can be properly harnessed to breaking this link that is one of many in the long chain of oppression unleashed by U.S. Imperialism.

     

    By Jose H. Villarreal

     

    Notes

    (1) J. Sakai, "Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat," Morning Star Press, 1989. pg 32.

    (2) J.V. Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism."

    (3) Analysis of census data by Barnett Lee, John Iceland, Gregory Sharp at Penn State's Dept. of Sociology and Population Research Institute.

    (4) Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine. April 11, 2013, "The Stupidest Law Ever."

    (5) Alan Gomez, USA today, Nov 6, 2012 "Immigration Policy Review Delayed."

    (6) NEP Exit Poll 2012

    (7) Mao Zedong, "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party." (December 1939), Selected Works, Vol II, p. 308

    (8) April 26, 2013. The Michael Slate Show, KPFK Radio, Los Angeles.

    (9) Jeff Tietz, Rolling Stone Magazine. Dec 6, 2012. "Slow-Motion Torture."

    (10) Colin Dayan, "The Law is White Dog," Princeton University Press, 2011. p 44.

     

     
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  • Clown Suit

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

     

     

     

     

    I was with a friend

    The other day and as

    We walked down Market

    Street I thought I’d

    Seen the circus

     

    6 or 7 people stood

    Around and they appeared

    To be wearing clown

    Suits

     

    Are those guys with

    The circus? I asked

     

    Are you crazy? My friend

    Replied, those are the

    Fare inspectors, they

    Inspect the buses for

    Fare cheats

     

    Fair inspectors? I asked

     

    Fare inspectors, my friend

    Answered

     

    And I continued watching

    Those fare inspectors

    Whose  clown suits were

    Some sort of skin

     

    Made of high quality

    (or semi-high quality)

    synthetics that, judging by

    the ill-fitted appearance on

    the human (or semi-human)

    bodies they clung to, appeared

    to be of the one-size-fits-all-variety

     

    And with the

    Authority of the clowns

    They boarded the bus

     

    And with clown authority

    Pulled a few people aside

    And wrote them tickets

    On clown pad and paper

     

    Taking their sweet

    Clown time as

    They did it

     

    and the passengers

    look on in silence, as

    if they were being reprimanded

    in some kind of clown classroom

     

    If you really want

    To fuck something

    Up

     

    As the song says

     

    Send in the clowns

     

     

    © 2014 Tony Robles

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  • Papa Bear's PNN Street Report March 2014

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Phillip Standing Bear
    Original Body

    Co-editors Note: Papa Bear Transitioned to his Spirit Journey on or around March 10th- POOR Magazine will be holding a humble homegoing ceremony for him on the street corner where he lived and worked at Geary & Van Ness on Tuesday, March 25th @ 7:30pm - bring a flower or a prayer to share. Papa Bear, a survivor of the US Military Industrial Complex and the poor people hate law called Sit-Lie, shared his monthly reports of living and working as a panhandler in the racist classist streets of Amerikkka every month at POOR Magazine's Peoples Newsroom we call Community Newsroom- here is his last report, translated by PNN Poverty skola Leontyne Smith-

    As people know, Papa Bear comes to newsroom every month with a report straight from the streets of Frisco, as tired as he is from pan-handling all day and getting harrassed by the police. He said recently the police have expidited their patrols to three to five minutes. They are taking photos of the dope dealers and beating them up.

    Even though he talked about the usual stuff that goes on in the Tenderloin he brought up the problems with power washing. A lot of people are dying because of what the Department of Public Works put in their washing chemicals. Some people think this is happening on purpose to demean the homeless and make them know the are supposed to be inferior.

    I read on Google the only harm that happens to the homeless is self-inflicted, and they should just die without food and shelter. This month at Newsroom the news about how homeless folks in the room are getting treated is absurd. At shelters they make you sign in at five oclock in the morning and you are never gauranteed a bed. They are ususally infected with bed bugs which are really hard to get rid of and usually you get bites all over your body instantly.

    Other people in the room talked about how the staff are worse than the clients, and they do not care. Being that i have been working with Poor Magazine, a lot of people were homeless and/or living in low income housing, which in itself costs way too much now.

    At the end of Papa Bear's update, he talked about getting another warrant which is number nineteen now and he is aiming for twenty. Police have broken his ribs for sleeping on the streets and now they are even closing parks just to give homeless people a hard time. Golden Gate Park closes one hour before midnight, and that is making trouble with people enjoying the earth and people who need to sleep there too. Parks are nature and that is something that brings peace and contentment of mind. I used to love writing in my journal in the cuts of the trees in Golden Gate Park when i was a teenager. That was my escape from everybody and everything. It was like hiding out in a little forrest where nobody could find me. Something about breathing in the trees, flowers and the beautiful plants.

    I am not homeless and I am seriously mad as hell because nature is a safe-haven for some people. Papa Bear has been homeless for a long time after serving his country for half his life and what does he get? Racism and warrants, wow.
     

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  • Jahi McMath: A Hellthcare Nightmare

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body

     

    The Jahi McMath story is one that inspires us to stand firm in our faith. It also inspires us to not always take the word and opinion of those who "practice" medicine- or what we at poor like to call it "wite science" as the last and definite answer. After a tonsil operation went awry early December of last year, Jahi McMath was written off and declared brain dead by staff at Children's Hospital in Oakland. The spirit  crushing way the staff handled the situation-and not owning up to their "practices" not being perfect in any way was insensitive. The attitude of "oh well, she's brain dead" was the obvious vibe that tell us that the hellthcare system is not a 100% human one. No one has the right to tell a family, or to make them feel like they should just give up on a loved one, and with the venom of taking offense as if the family is doing something wrong by fighting for their child's life. Is having faith and fighting to save a life a crime? Or have these staffers at CH been exposed as the hypocrites-with money that they are? I'm sure had it been one of their loved ones, they (with mad money) would have bent every rule or broken every bone to make sure that everything possible was being done for their child.
     
    So this goes back to the age old wite nonsupremacy  unjust rule of who's deserving or undeserving. Money talks, and the underprivileged gets written off, plain and simple. I remember when I was pressured to take my younger brother off life support, because his organs were "needed". I refused and allowed for my brother Marcus to pass on his own, when it was time. It's bad enough I had to endure losing him, but to have the hospital staff nag me about pulling the plug so he could hurry up and pass away was a kick to the heart that I still feel to this day. I still had faith, why try and crush that? Worst yet, I received a $1800.00 bill for a headache pill and some water when I fell to the ground after I couldn't take seeing him the way he was.
     
    Taking it back to our hoods, I have spoken personally to several different families about the hellthcare system, and how it serves us "common folks". I heard an frightening, exodus of stories- from being misdiagnosed, and being sent home with errors, leading to death. Like in the cases of Mama Dorothy Whitfield and Mama Trisha, sent home with internal bleeding and other ailments just to suffer and transition on. Just written off!
     
    There are many, many stories of poor people and people of color not receiving the proper hellthcare due to lack of funds and inhumane attitudes. Mama Carol X was fine when she created her own medicine, using only natural medicine. Once she started the wite science medicine she transitioned on in a very short amount of time. I guess it pays not to deal in chance.
     
    QUEENNANDI X, PNN...
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  • Insane Profits for Nonprofit Housing Devil-opers

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body

    Oakland - As the massive automatic across-the-board sequestration budget cuts continue to devastate the poor in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, greedy nonprofit developers are pushing for Rental Assistance Reform (RAR) legislation that would result in higher rents for the poor, the acceleration of the privatization of our public housing sites all across the nation, and the loss of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers for the poor.

    The wealthy nonprofit developers want more Section 8 vouchers to be taken away from the poor so that they can be converted into project-based vouchers for their projects.

    Meanwhile, as the massive sequestration budget cuts continue to harm the poor, the executives in the nonprofit so-called affordable housing industry continue to demand higher rents from the poor, at the same time they receive massive bonuses and increases in their salaries and wage compensation.

    At this point, I am demanding a freeze in rent increases on the poor in all so-called affordable housing projects being operated by nonprofit and for profit so-called affordable housing developers.

    I am also pushing for a salary cap of $125,000 in salaries and wage compensation for all the executives in the so-called affordable housing industry that have projects subsidized by local and federal tax dollars.

    I am demanding that the executives immediately reduce, and freeze their salaries at the level of $125,000 annually.

    I am asking for community support in demanding an end in rent increases on the poor in so-called affordable housing projects, and ask for community support in pushing for a salary cap of $125,000 for all executives in nonprofit and for profit housing organizations that have so-called affordable housing projects subsidized by local and federal tax dollars.

    Click below for a list that includes some local nonprofit so-called affordable housing developers in the East Bay...

    http://www.ebho.org/get-involved/membership/our-members

    See the latest in salaries and wage compensation for some of the top executives from some local 501 c3 charity nonprofit housing corporations operating in Oakland, according to some of the latest 990 tax forms filed with the federal government that are available for
    public viewing.

    EAH Inc.; In 2012, more than 11 executives at EAH Inc., earned well over $100,000 per year, including 2 people raking in well over $200,000 a year. Leading the pack, Mary Murtagh, President, was paid $298,850 in 2012. Laura Hall, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $208,286. Cathy Macy, CFO, was paid $186,709. Stephen Lucas, VP Acquisitions, was paid $182,991. Dianna Ingle, VP Re MGMT, was paid $163,324.

    Affordable Housing Associates; In 2010, Susan Friedland, Executive Director of Affordable Housing Associates, was paid $133,731, but was paid $152,966 in 2012, a huge wage compensation increase of $19,235 during a period of massive budget cuts to the nation's housing programs during that same period.

    Bridge Housing; In 2011, the top executive at Bridge Housing took in well over $300,000 that year, with 6 other top executives pulling in well over $200,000 annually, including an additional 6 other top executives raking in well over $155,000 that year. Leading the pack, Cynthia Parker took in $330,249 in compensation during 2011. Rebecca Hlebasko was paid $278,224. Kimberly A McKay was paid $255,665. Susan Johnson was paid $235,875. D Valentine was paid $235.840. Lydia Tan's compensation was listed at $224,474 for 2011 (Severance pay on 1/3/2011, of $118,244, and distribution of an additional $106,230). Brad Wiblin was paid $200,887. Ann Silverberg was paid $196,499.

    Christian Church Homes: In 2011, Don Stump, President/CEO, was compensated $181,874. Cynthia Lappin, VP Operations & COO, was paid $157,295. Winthrop Marshall, VP Finance & CFO, was paid $151,687. Leilani Siegfried, VP Human Services, was paid $138,810. Geoffrey Morgan, VP Development, was paid $130,948. Sheryl Stella, Controller,
    was paid $123,832.

    Eden Housing; In 2011, Linda Mandolini, Executive Director, was paid $188,834. Jan Peters, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $187,538. Terese Mcnamee, CFO, was paid $175,804.

    Satellite Housing; In 2011, Ryan Chao, Executive Director, Satellite Housing was paid $175,321. Dori Kojima, was paid $105,179. Miriam Benavides was paid $100,093.

    East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation; During 2011, Jeremy Liu, Executive Director, was paid $125,217. Peter Sopka, CFO, was paid $125,101. Mary Hennessy, COO, was paid $110,126. Carlos Castallenos, Director of Real Estate Development, was paid $103,329. Records also show that in 2009, former Executive Director of EBALDC, Lynette Jung Lee, earned as much $140,536 that year, including an additional $5,942
    in other compensation. Joshua Simon is the current Executive Director, of EBALDC.

    Resources for Community Development; In 2011, Dan Sawislak, Executive Director, of received a total compensation of $127,330.

    Lynda Carson may be reached at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • PNN-TV:Artist Profile of Poet,Writer Kinara Sankofa

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Muteado
    Original Body

    Last month’s Community Newsroom at POOR was in honor of Black History Month ( even though we know at POOR Magazine, that every month is Black History) One of our guest speakers, named Kinara Sankofa, blew the crowd away. Being that I graduated from an Africana Studies program his name automatically intrigued me because Sankofa is an important part of black history. Though our guest did not talk about the meaning of ‘Sankofa’ I thought it was important to understand the history context of this historically significant name. According to Black Student Union coordinators at the University of Illinois:

    “The concept of ‘Sankofa’ is derived from King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Africa. ‘Sankofa’ is expressed in the Akan language as ’se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki.’Literally translated, this means ‘it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.’ ‘Sankofa’ teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone, or been stripped of can be reclaimed, revived, preserved, and perpetuated. Visually and symbolically, ‘Sankofa’ is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg (symbolizing the future) in its mouth. This ties with our motto: ‘In order to understand our present and ensure our future, we must know our past.’ “

    Kinara Sankofa is an inspiring artist, entrepreneur and leader. He has been writing poetry for years. When I asked him what kind of poetry he writes, he said his biggest dream is to write about love and the beauty of the black women. He went on to explain how valuable black women are and that we deserve to have good men in our lives. He moved to Australia for about twenty years where he fell in love with a woman who inspired much of his poetry. He also talked about how men are disconnected from their femininity. He said that for men to cry and show vulnerability is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. In an insightful linguistic flip, he used the term “white inferiority” instead of white supremacy, and he made it clear that we have to stop blaming other people for our problems. He said that we need to educate the next generation of powerful black revolutionary leaders by teaching our history in our communities (such as the often forgotten fact that Oklahoma used to be the black Wall Street) and celebrating people such as Malcolm X, Assata, Muhammad.

    Among his many accomplishments, Kinara Sankofa has also written a book, and started a clothing line. Black Power Clothing has a beautiful logo of a black fist with African colors. Visit his website at www.ashaybythebay.com.

    He closed out his presentation at the POOR magazine newsroom with a poem entitled “The Coldest Summer Ever.” He captured the moment with his last sentence in the poem saying, ‘niggas’ spelled backwords is ‘saggin.’  This poem was awesome and really got the newsroom thinking. There were no disagreements with anything he was preaching. After his poem, we finished with a drum circle and a prayer. What can you get that is better than that?! Even though February is the shortest month of the year, we celebrated Black History Month with unity and community at POOR magazine.

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  • Three Stories from Benito

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body

    Painting by Tiffany Aldridge

    News room was crowded and popping as usual. Before I started asking questions of this new guest we had named Benito, I saw a man playing a drum. Drumming in my mind automatically reminds me of the root of music with indigenous people. I know this because as a graduate out of the Africana studies department I studied music relating to Africa. I learned people in Africa used the drum as a means of communication and expression without words, and sometimes the women would dance and move to touch the earth mentally and physically. 

     

    The guest known as Benito had already attracted everybody spiritually when I saw him playing on his drum. When it was his turn to talk about his story he talked about being a first generation Filipino-American in 1950. HIs last name was senator, and his family destined him to become a lawyer. He expressed how he learned how to meditate because he was always forced to stare at the wall when he got in trouble in school. Then when he didn't own up to his parents dreams in 1971 he decided to do dance theatre at SFSU with an emphasis in creative arts. 

     

    He came from doing gigs around the bay area to working for the San Francisco Unified School District working with children that have been diagnosed with ADD. He has worked at Philip Burton high school since 1999. He expressed how he is the only one who can get to the kids because of his skills with a drum. The hardest kids that supposedly never listen light up when Benito has a drum circle every week, and invites everybody. Even if you are in a wheelchair or if you are deaf, he wants everybody to come to the drum circle. The other teachers are amazed because all of the children behave (even the one's they usually cannot control). Benito came outside the box. He is bringing children back to the indigenous way of healing and fun. He said the children got heart and everyone has to release in a positive voice. He feels he is the spokesperson for people who cannot speak. He feels that he could leave (die) right now and still be blessed. He loves to use his drum to make a connection. Not rainy whether or anything else will ever make him stop. 

     

    Despite this story the real experience he wanted to talk about was how he got attacked by skin heads. There were a couple of white men in a car, and they stopped for him. Not knowing these people were racist they ran him over as soon as he walked the crosswalk. He flew out into the street, and to this day he doesn't know what happened until he woke up in the hospital. He couldn't move and now after hella physical therapy, he wakes up around four o'clock in the morning straightening out his spine, because he refused to get surgery after the incident. 

     

    Last but not least he was really at news room to advocate for his housing. So, this article became three stories in one. What I admired about Benito was that he did not talk about his tragic experience of getting forced to leave his home, but he talked about his experience with children and the drum. 

     

    Under the Ellis Act, Benito has been given an eviction notice. POOR magazine is filing a law suit against his landlords and he is thankful. He said he does not have a second plan on where to live but he was still smiling no matter what. At the end of this magical story about him he lead a drum circle with a prayer and closed the whole news room down. People were touched by his drum and his beat, along with his ability to talk to Mother Earth.

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  • Africana Studies Empowered My Soul

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Bad News Bruce
    Original Body

    Co-editors Note: Recent changes in statewide curriculum requirements are attempting to reduce or eliminate Ethnic Studies programs across California. Ethnic Studies departments, such as the Africana Studies Department at San Francisco State University, were implemented as a result of hard-fought battles for racial equality and justice. For many people of color, Ethnic Studies have been an opportunity to become conscious of our own history/herstory and have inspired political engagement and community organizing.  The recent cuts to Ethnic Studies departments reflect the degradation of Civil Rights victories. This article by Leontyne Smith is an example of how Africana Studies can uplift, awaken and activate revolutionary scholars. The move to downsize ethnic studies departments is a part of the war on Black and Brown folks in Amerikkka.

     

    Adults in this era do not know their true history, because a lot of schools do not teach the truth of African indigenous ancestral heritage. I know this for a fact, because from the first day of school to the last day of high school I did not have a clue about people like Marcus Garvey, Frank Douglas, Malcolm X, and every positive aspect of black history. Western European theories consider black people to be savages.

    A reality check came to me my first year of college, when I took a class called West African tribal customs. My mouth dropped when I saw all of these classes named after African traditions and African Americans. Honestly I didn’t know that there was a difference. After taking this class with Doctor Wobogo, I fell in love with these classes, because we learned about the real customs of womanhood, manhood, in the context of our ancestral history. For example women were treated like royalty and men were treated with dignity and respect at a young age. In fact, in the tribe we studied, boys went into training around the age of five and were taught how to take care of a family and own their own land by the age of seven. Men would provide a hut, land, and animals, as well as skinning their own meat, and how to strategically how to hunt.

    Learning about West Africa was awesome; I went through college without thinking about my future and what struggles I might have by majoring in Black Studies. I chose classes like Afro-centricity and the Dawn of Science, Black Religion and even a Black Journalism class. I wondered why black people in different majors would say the Black Studies major was a cop out. Still I didn't understand why people considered the Black Studies program a joke. Even some of the teachers would ask me, "Did you choose this major because we do not require statistics as a requirement?” This is absurd in my opinion. I didn't understand the politics with the Black Studies department and how we struggled so hard for this program to come into fruition. The BSU and Greeks were fighting when I attended and I would have to say Brother Maurice, and Brother Black put in blood sweat and tears. They stayed in school postponing graduation just to keep up the BSU, and what SFSU stands for. Brother Maurice always talked about unity, and people would hate on him because he was a fighter for indigenous people, even people outside of our race. He was straight out of Hunters Point and people thought he was ghetto because he grew up in the hood, but he actually stayed on the deans list and got straight 4.0 every semester. I really felt for some of the coordinators of the BSU, because a lot of people gave them a hard time. I came to a conclusion that your own people will turn on you, and a lot of people want to be the leader. Egotistical stuff ruins things, but despite all the challenges, they did keep up the kings and queens meetings.

    Nine years passed by and I graduated in May of 2012 with a bachelors degree in Black studies. Every agency I sign up with for help tells me not to mention to a potential employer I have a Bachelor’s in this ethnic background. They tell me to just say “social sciences.” Now I believe people do not go to college to learn; they go to college for a high paying job in the future. It is said if you graduate from college you are guaranteed to have a job because of a piece of paper. I worked so hard in college and honestly I am proud to have a Bachelor’s Degree in Black Studies, because teachers like Nobles, Tsuruta, T Shaka and etc empowered my soul. They made me feel like I am somebody. I got a lot of support from my academic advisor. He was the only person who believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. He was also African American, and he ran the whole undergraduate advising center. All of our teachers would send us to Marcus Bookstore for our textbooks, and a lot of the teachers wrote multiple books.

    Establishing a Black Studies major was a hard-fought battle. There were riots and people died to have the chance of having something of our own. Black people in the past demanded a lot more than just having a Black Studies department, but they negotiated and even established Malcolm X plaza, and the Cesar Chavez student plaza. Even though I cannot get a job (which has been a huge struggle for me), I am going to graduate school for to get a Marriage and Family Therapist License. I will carry all the knowledge I received from my elders at SFSU. I can teach children to love themselves just based on their history, and talk to them with an Afro-centric approach and teach them what I know they will not learn in school. Hopefully I can work at the youth guidance center or a place with troubled people and help them with my knowledge of Black Studies along with the MFT license.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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  • Rise Up and Walk

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Rise Up and Walk.

    That's what Mom said.
    But the thing is, I couldn't--
    I was already dead.
    It isn't like I didn't know how,
    I used to love walking...One foot
    After the other, just eating
    Up the distance between where I was and
    Where I wanted to be...

    It was good, good to walk,
    And as I walked and sometimes stopped to talk to people I met,
    Or the animals I'd see along the way, I would
    Even have
    A word or 2 for the flowers
    Along my path,
    The ancient trees who leant me shade, or
    Clouds that trailed lazily along with me.

    Sometimes I even spoke to the Man.
    The one who wanted me to get up,
    And get walking again. I assume that's the reason
    He was talking to me now.
    When I thought about it and remembered how
    I would sometimes ask him for things, beg Him for help.
    Curse Him in my pain, and he would take it
    All in stride, as long as I
    Kept on walking.

    So I guess that explains why He told me to do it.
    Thank You.

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  • Open Letter to the DOJ about Police Brutality

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    February 12, 2014


    State of California, Department of Justice
    Office of the Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris
    Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
    P.O. Box 944255
    Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

    To Attorney General Kamala D. Harris:

     As a California resident who has lived here my entire life and as a Legal Advocate who works with mentally ill communities in California, I am writing you this letter in regard to the recent mass influx of police brutality that continues to be committed against our citizens, children and communities throughout California in near-epidemic proportions. Police brutality is rapidly increasing each day, where unnecessary brute force by sworn-in, P.O.S.T. law-enforcement officers/peace officers is being against our citizens, children and communities.

    Most importantly, police brutality is being used against our citizens, children and community members who have either mental illness or are having a mental crisis at the time of incident, where in most instances has lead to inexcusable death committed by a law enforcement officer. This includes but not limited to incidents with citizens, children and community members who were unarmed or posed no real threat at the time of incident, being wrongfully harmed by improperly trained law-enforcement officers, who either lack and/or have no education, training or experience dealing with citizens who have mental illness and/or a mental crisis.

    It is clearly imperative at this point that you Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and The Department of Justice of the State of California implement legislation that would establish an independent, non-law enforcement involved review board specific to this issue, mandating that all law enforcement agencies in the State of California who are involved in such acts of police brutality, be subjugated to a full investigation by this board on each individual case when a citizen has been wrongfully either verbally and/or physically brutalized, abused and/or killed by any P.O.S.T. law enforcement officers from any law-enforcement agency in the State of California (ie: Highway Patrol, County Sheriff’s Department, Municipal Police Department, Transportation Law-Enforcement agencies/BART Police; with several agencies listed here, but not limited to).

    Not only should a full investigation be conducted in regard to each specific case in the instance where law-enforcement officers have inflicted severe physical harm to a citizen, leading to either injury and/or death, but that full judicial due process be mandated through legislative law and policy which would hold any of the law-enforcement agencies involved, who have committed such wrongful acts of police brutality fully accountable monetarily to those affected by such egregious acts of terror and violence upon citizens in compensation for incurred costs (medical bills, financial hardship, funeral costs, etc.).

     

     

    In addition to this legislative law, it would be required that all involved P.O.S.T. law enforcement officers and/or law enforcement agencies in the State of California be held fully liable and accountable for their wrongful conduct and acts of violence, being tried with due process in criminal court and that those affected by such (ie: victims, affected family members, impacted community members, etc.) have the option of filing criminal charges against any law-enforcement agency and/or the law-enforcement officers involved in the wrongful act of police brutality. This would also pertain to any instance during the time of investigation on an open case/matter that any law enforcement officers involved in such an incident of police brutality to not be awarded with ‘paid leave of absence’, including being prohibited from active duty/serving the community.

    At a time when this trend of police brutality is on the rise with the rapid increase of wrongful death incidents of unarmed citizens and children in California, it is also critically imperative that the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights in California be extensively reviewed by an independent citizen-based/non-law enforcement review board in an effort to implement up-dated, just and fair amendments to this bill with legislation that would protect citizens from acts of police terror/violence being committed upon them by law-enforcement agencies and/or officers in the State of California. It is time that we here in California begin this process, so that the inexcusable act of police brutality and violence will stop in our communities. As a former victim of police brutality myself, due to wrongful identity by a law enforcement officer, I thank you for your time in reading my letter.

    Sincerely,

    Vivian Thorp 

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  • Privatization = Eradication: Black Families Face Criminalization While Public Housing is made private

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    “They just told us they sold the building, none of us knows whats going to happen but now we know why all of our young people are being criminalized and their families evicted,” said Mary X, one of the long-time residents of the now no longer public housing project known as Plaza East. She was referring to a confusing announcement made by Housing Authority on Friday, Feb 28, 2014

     

    The newest revelation in the shadowy world of RAD-gate- just got more shadows. According to Sara Short from the Housing Rights Committee, (in a post on Facebook) one of the prize jewels of the Housing Authority known as Plaza East was already sold to a private housing corporation who is partly owned by Goldman Sachs, known as MacCormack & Barron So who do we trust, and what are they hiding?

     

    Goldman Sachs???!

     

    If you read my original story written back in September 2013, the proposals of a new acronym known as RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) which to put it simply is the selling off of all public housing buildings across the US to private investors like Goldman Sachs was “presented” to an already bought in/mayor appointed Housing Authority board as the way “to save public housing”.

     

    This pseudo-public meeting of the San Francisco Housing Authority, held just two weeks before the “deadline” to turn in the RAD proposal, was attended by a very small pre-selected group of non-profit housing organizations, many of whom would be beneficiaries of the RFP’s that would go out to “control” read: receive funding, to manage the housing authority buildings.

     

    This meeting was the first time I or any of my fellow public housing warriors heard about the RAD program.  And I only happened to be there because I had to advocate for a tenant on an unrelated matter.

     

    “The RAD program will enable these buildings, many of which were in serious (intentional) dis-repair to be saved, was the constant refrain from careful speaking Mayors office representatives selling the meeting on RAD’s benefits.

     

    Public housing needed to be “saved” we were told, because the perfect storm of (intentional) “bad management” and (politrickster-stolen) stripping of funding from HUD made them uninhabitable so the only ‘answer’ presented was non-profit and for-profit privatization of public housing buildings. This budget genocide to HUD’s budget which began as far back as Nixon has been painstakenly researched and documented by poverty skolaz at Western Regional Advocacy Project

     

    But this clean, simple corporate-esque solution was missing so many pieces, like what about the intentional blighting and boarding up of unit after unit of repairable housing in Hunters Point, Sunnydale and Alice Griffith?   What about the endless jaws of John Stewart and Lennar waiting in the wings with millions of dollars for redevil-opment, buy-outs and removal, followed up by racist, plantation worksites that don’t hire locally and racist plantation management that create age-separated capitalist ghettos, demand credit checks, incomes and place insane rules on their tenants.

     

    No, family- RAD, just like its older brother Hope IV is a deep, dark lie of corporate mayors and corporate gentriFUKation and actually part and parcel of a more frightening process to control, eradicate, remove and criminalize public space, and us black, brown and poor people who convene, shop or live there.

     

    RAD Evictions begin with Our Black and Brown Youth

     

    “I can’t control my 19 year old son,” Sabrina Carter, African-American single mama and life-long resident of public housing in San Francisco, who is but one of over 7 families whose children have been criminalized, have been forced to sign stay away orders against for their own children, followed up by insanely unfair stipulated judgements which are adjudicated by San Francisco Judge Quidachay and end up in their eviction.

     

    I a 10 year resident of Asheville Housing Authority in Asheville, NC. Last year our Housing Authority told us that they was applying for RAD and promoted to the residents like nothing is wrong with it and its there only option because they are running low on funding. I wanted to know if there is anyone we can contact to get help on how to address this. (comment to PNN)

     

    Notwithstanding all the “confusion” about when Plaza East was privatized and why, what we know for sure is the criminalizations and evictions that Sabrina and so many families from San Francisco to North Carolina who just received in public housing have recently been increasingly facing  are but a small taste of what we as public housing tenants have to look foreward to as we face the privatization of what used to be public housing.

     

    This a clear example of the overall plan to send poor people across the US to the other “Public housing” aka plantation prisons, all locally all the remaining low-income peoples of color out of this increasingly wite, rich City.

    Click here to see the buildings in San Francisco approved for RAD funding


    POOR Magazine is seeking a conscious law firm to represent the families of public housing in a class action suit. Any families who would like POOR Magazine to come out to your buildings and help you organize about RAD please email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

    Please join us in Singing in Sprit for Our Families in Struggle Action at SF CIty Hall @ 9am, Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

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  • My Ghost Will Haunt This Place Forever

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Until the bulldozer scrapes the landscape of this plantation,
    I'll remain.
    My phantasm in residence
    Long after my body is unchained.

    Strange to think I ever see
    That day from where I'm sitting now.

    But that's the illusion they want me to believe in--
    That I'm never getting out.

    I know better at some level
    That I consciously keep submerged and hidden.
    Lest the overseer see it in my eye,
    And decide to kick my shit in.

    My spirit must always appear to be broken.
    My shoulders round in defeat.
    No elbows out, or nose open in defiance
    Compliance evident, Colonization Complete.

    But as I said, My Ghost, My Ghost,
    Will haunt this place.
    Will always be here waiting for
    The bulldozer that brings the smile back to my face.

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  • Call it Frisco

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

    Frisco was born in the back
    Of the bus
    Frisco grew up with sirens
    In his ears
    Frisco was the family
    Fuck up with a good heart
    Frisco walked down the street
    With knives hidden
    In her hair
    Frisco stayed up all
    Night with eye sockets
    Filled with light
    Frisco bore the skin
    Of tree branches and
    Lashing whips
    Frisco was blackboards
    That were brown and
    Yellow and black and
    Blue
    Frisco was ancient pots
    With built-on grease
    Built-on year after
    Year, generation after
    Generation
    Frisco was squeaky
    Victorian bones
    Soaked in thick soy sauce
    Fog
    Frisco was your father’s
    Foot in your ass
    Frisco was nightsticks and
    The sign of the cross
    Frisco was poets with
    Calloused tongues
    Talkin’ that Frisco shit
    Frisco is ears filled
    With wax voices of
    That “Don’t call it
    Frisco” dumb shit

    Hella frisco shit
    ‘sup blood
    Tha’s what’s up

    Frisco was dad’s
    Janitorial job that
    Kept food on the table
    And toilet paper in the
    Bathroom

    Frisco was dreams
    On display in
    Pawnshop windows
    Horns waiting to be
    Blown, conga drums waiting
    For the beating caress

    Frisco was bilingual
    Trylingual
    Beef
    Pork
    Lengua
    Menudo
    Fish heads
    Pig ears
    Pig nose
    guts

    Yesterday’s leftovers
    Tomorrow’s hunger

    Frisco was a black
    Radio with static
    From a can of beer

    Frisco is abuelita
    Balancing the world
    On her head

    Frisco is
    Straight F’s

    Frisco
    Frisco
    Frisco

    Frisco is an evicted
    Poem with
    Everything to show
    For it

    Frisco is burned
    Into our arms,
    Our flesh, our
    Memory

    Its sound
    Its life
    Swims across
    Our skin

    Skin
    To
    Skin

    Swirling
    On our
    Tongue

    Call it
    Frisco

    © 2014 Tony Robles

    Tags
  • Tenants Con-vention

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    The San Francisco Tenants Convention held on February 8th, 2014 was cited as the largest one since the late 70’s by the organizers ,The Anti-Displacement Coalition. I attended and recognized several familiar faces including former supervisor Chris Daley and current supervisors John Avalos and Davis Campos.

    The event was held in an elementary school and it was not so much a convention as it was a one-room meeting. It was hosted by one of the many “non-profits” in this city who manage to make money off your name or warm body (requiring your signature upon entrance so they can get funding), and yet somehow do nothing to actually help you. It also felt like an infomercial for the supervisors who were there to champion their cause. (The ones in attendance are admittedly likable people, but isn’t that the point?)

    Sorry if I sound jaded, but once you’ve gone to as many non-profits in this city as I have, you can’t avoid feeling that somehow it is a preconceived conspiracy. Each time I’ve tried to receive help from these non-profits, I’ve been told instead to go along with the “man’s” demands. I actually thought I’d get somewhere when they asked me to describe the “wrong doing” of the other party, but it never amounts to anything. I believe that what happens instead is they take that info and pass it along to the other party (which is highly illegal). This is racketeering and nobody seems to do anything about it, not even the FBI or city attorney - who is suppose to protect consumer rights! I believe this happened when I was evicted by Tenderloin Housing Clinic (one of the biggest housing poverty pimps in San Francisco whom I am certain is affiliated with The Anti-Displacement Coalition).

    During the Tenants Convention, one of the Co-editors/Poverty Scholars from POOR Magazine was admonished for speaking on the direct action we at POOR Magazine did in front of 850 Bryant St. because we are not affiliated with the Anti-Displacement Coalition. POOR magazine organized a powerful action at the Hall of Injustice in which we formally filed murder charges - for evicting elders who subsequently died as a result of being forced into homelessness - against the following landlords: Elba Borgen, Benny Chetcuti , WB Coyle , Kausik Mulji Dattani, Ashok K. Gujral and Todd W. Rhodes, Ted Hulbrush and Ron Jankov, Sergio Iantori,  Thomas Iveli and Bog Sigmund, David McCloskey,  Matthew Miller, Bonnie K. Spindler, Kwong Chung Wong and Har Wan Luk. These landlords had been warned that this would happen and did so regardless.

    Ellis Act Evictions help real estate speculators evict tenants simply for profit through a loophole in tenants’ rights. Now in Sacramento, there are efforts being made to remedy this situation by creating statewide legislature that would reverse the Ellis Act.

    Tags
  • Racist Cops in Yolo 2014

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Let me get one thing absolutely clear from the gate. I am NOT in the
    habit of pulling the race(ist) card without being 100% certain of my
    facts.

    Here are my facts:
    1) The Yolo County Sheriff's Department has discriminated against me
    personally for taking a stand against racism. (Documentation
    available)
    2) The Yolo County Jail has disproportionate numbers of African
    Americans housed in its high security sections, including myself (as opposed to medium security).*
    3) The Yolo County DRC (Day Reporting Center) in-custody programs have
    zero African Americans attending.**
    4) Yolo County has maintained a policy of total discrimination against
    southern Mexicans and does not offer DRC services to them at all in
    custody. Northern Mexicans have free reign.
    5) Yolo County Sheriffs do not offer female inmates the same access to
    programs (DRC in-custody), nor do they house them in medium/low
    security. The former female low security unit was turned into MORE male
    housing years ago.

    Inequal treatment, racial- and gender-bias are serious accusations, I
    understand and respect. I fully expect that EACH of these items might
    be explainable or seem reasonable in and of themselves, however they
    represent IN TOTALITY a pattern, a systemic oppression, and evidence
    of preferential treatment of one group over another. Welcome to Yolo
    County Plantation.

    * Michael Glynn is currently in Yolo County's version of the Pelican Bay SHU. He is allowed 30 minutes outside his cell per day, for shaving, showering, checking mail, etc.

    ** The DRC is Yolo County's attempt at a deterrent to recidivism. It is soaking up public funds as quickly as the prisons themselves. The county jail and the DRC are constantly wrangling for the same pot of money, and the county jail staff is notoriously resentful of the program.

    *** Written by Michael Glynn "in the hole again" March 10, 2014

    P.S. The personal oppression I mentioned in this: I chose not to
    attend a DRC class on MLK Day to observe the holiday (I must stress
    that DRC is NOT mandatory--totally voluntary!). For that I was
    subjected to punishment which includes three days loss of "Good Time,"
    meaning I do three days in the cell for Dr. King. I've got all the
    paperwork for it, even my grievance forms accusing the racist sergeant
    of being unfair and discriminating against me. Am I doing too much
    fighting, here?

    Tags
  • Resistance In Animated Music Video (Interview) & 411 on The Movie- FOREVER-LAND by Jim Lujan starring Kounterclockwise

    09/24/2021 - 08:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Leroy
    Original Body

    Author note’s:  WHIP, the music video, has so many deep meanings in and outside of Krip-Hop Nation for me its social justice and collective resistance through video & song.  Wife and husband, Kaya  Carine Gabriel and Deacon Burns, team makes up, Kounterclockwise, a punk/hip-hop band from OH.  Deacon is a wheelchair user and with Kaya has experienced raw discrimination on many fronts of race, sex, class & disability.  With fabulous animated video/movie expert, Jim Lujan, both have created (in my book) the first animated music video representing Krip-Hop resistance toward avenues of oppression i.e. police brutality among others, call WIPE.

     

    ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR NEW ANIMATED  FILM, FOREVER-LAND (Press release after the interview below.)

     

    Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) First of all explain what this video/song WHIP means to you all and how all of us can relate to it and give us the roots of this song/video?

     

    Kounterclockwise: The song Whip is basically about getting whipped and deceived by the government.  We are being whipped into submission.  It's based on Alex Haley's book "Roots."  Remember when Kunta's slave master kept whipping him and forcing  him say his slave name Tobey, "What is your name?." and he answered Kunta he was whipped again, "What is your name," until he finally submitted and said Tobey.  We as a people are still being whipped and oppressed into submission.  This song is a call to reverse and instead whip the oppressors.  In this video we win as all of us disabled and oppressed people get together and whip oppression.

     

    KHN:  Tell us how did you all meet and explain the working process on this video.

     

    Jim Lujan: Deacon and Kaya online contacted me. They had seen some of my cartoons on YouTube, and really liked my work.  I had other offers to do music videos, but their genuine love and knowledge of my work sold me. They gave me creative freedom on all the videos and I ran with it. Really inspiring working with them.

     

     

    KHN:  We have come a long way!  I read that MTV back in the day gave Stevie Wonder a hard time about his video because of his blindness.  Now today we have your video and other outlets.  What is the future of this music video and do you think the music video channels are ready for it?

     

    Jim Lujan: I don't think its even a question if the world is ready for it. I think its about being so good they can't deny you. Make them want what you do and they will make themselves ready. It's time now.

     

     

    Kounterclockwise: We totally agree with Jim,  In 2013 it's time for us to be heard and people are more then ready to embrace our unique style.   The doors have definitely opened, now we have to push through them and give it all we can. 

     

    KHN:  Please name the characters in the video and the plot:

     

    Jim Lujan:  Whip takes place in "Hell County" (population zero) and features "Sheriff Evile and his wicked posse." They harass Kounterclockwise for no reason, arresting them and taking them to jail. Kounterclockwise use their one phone call to contact the Krip-Hop Army to come rescue them. All hell breaks loose.

     

    Kounterclockwise: Yes and Leroy Moore calls the Krip-Hop Nation army into action to set us free and incarcerate the villain's of injustice.  We win!!!  Justice prevails and we all celebrate in a huge parade.


    KHN:  Jim tell us was it hard to draw characters with disabilities and did this project change your view around issues concerning people with disabilities?  Also explain your process of putting together the story line.

     

    Jim Lujan: Wheelchairs are hard to draw, but I've kind of made up my own version. A cartoonish wheelchair.  Not super-realistic, but functional. I think the more non-disabled people are exposed to and entertained by disabled artists, the ground will become more equal and any stigma goes away. Everybody has something to bring to the table. Just because someone has wheels under them, or a physical, intellectual disability, that doesn't make them any less of an artist.

     

     

    KHN: As a husband and wife creative team tell us how this video and its storyline represents oppressive realities you two have to deal with out in the community.

     

    Kounterclockwise: We have always experienced various forms of racial profiling and being stereotyped even before my accident.  Now that I’m disabled we experience it on a whole other level.  Our eyes have been opened to just how much more injustice people with disabilities experience.  We have grown closer and are fighting harder then ever before to see change.  We always fought for the misfits but now we are fighting on such a larger scale.  To expose the injustices of all people as we are all one in this fight for freedom and equality.  "Times New Roman"">

     

    KHN:  I know you all are working on something big.  Tell us!

     

    Kounterclockwise:  "Times New Roman""> We are working on our first full-length feature film called Kounterclockwise in Forever-Land.   FOREVER-LAND is a film about a hidden dimension where strange characters, creatures, and lands exist under the iron harsh rule of Infinitus…destroyer of all things funky. Kounterclockwise has been transported to this dimension to retrieve “the glove”, an item of cosmic importance, from the clutches of Infinitus. “Who shall wear the glove shall rule the funk of 40 thousand years”. Can Kounterclockwise save the universe from the reign of Infinitus, restoring the order of the funk , and rock the crowd in the process? HELL YES.  FOREVER-LAND is an animated hand drawn musical film created by Jim Lujan starring us and is currently in production . We’ve been wanting to do this for-eva…for-eva? For-eva-eva??

     

    KHN:  Jim being from LA and into film/animation, do you think WHIP and the other work with Kounterclockwise will have an audience inside and outside of bling bling Hollywood?

     

    Jim Lujan: I think the work I've done with Kounterclockwise is really powerful on a few different levels. I think general audiences will grasp the look and music right away, but there is always a really interesting subtext. It's pretty subversive, yet easy on the eyes and catchy to the ears. Our collaborations always run deep. Lots to notice with multiple viewings. Make good stuff and people will respond.

     

    KHN:  Also this video/working relations breaks so many grounds beyond disability.  Jim you are Latino and Kounterclockwise are Black so in reality this video is a collaboration between race and disability.  Each one of you tells us your hopes around this video and future work for the brown/black community using cultural and video avenues.

     

    Jim Lujan: I think we've connected so fast and deep that the issue of race has never played a role in defining our work together. Never ignored, but never something that consciously has effected us. At the same time, we'll always be whom we were born as. You need different flavors to make a great recipe. That is some love right there…true harmony!

     

     Kounterclockwise "Times New Roman"">Absolutely!  This is what it's all about.

    KHN:  How can people help in spreading not only your work but also your social justice message?

     

    Jim Lujan: People can pass word along to their friends. Facebook, Twitter, email links to our work. The more eyeballs that see…the more fans we can pick up. The more fans, the more the message gets out.

     

    KHN:  Give us your contacts and again what are your new projects together and separate from one another.

     

    Jim Lujan: My own website is www.jimlujan.com. People can subscribe to our YouTube pages: www.youtube.com/jimlujan and www.youtube.com/kounterclockwise. The Jim Lujan Animation Page is on Facebook, too.

     

     Kounterclockwise:  The Jim Lujan Animation Page is on Facebook, too. We have a mixtape called Pills in the works and it should be out by the end this summer. (the song "Whip" will also be on it)

    "Times New Roman""> and we are working on another video for "Up The Nose" which is also featured on Pills and will be directed by William Neiheiser.   We will also put out the Forever-Land movie and soundtrack album by the end of this year. 
    Here are some of our links:

    "Times New Roman";color:black">www.kounterclockwise.com

    "Times New Roman";color:black">www.reverbnation.com/kounterclockwise

    "Times New Roman";color:black">www.facebook.com/kounterclockwise

    "Times New Roman";color:black">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kounterclockwise-in-Forever-Land/513153038737526

    "Times New Roman";color:black">and you can contact us at kounterclockwise@gmail.com

     

    Kounterclockwise in Forever-Land, a Jim Lujan Movie

     

    (March 3, 2014) The KOUNTERCLOCKWISE in FOREVER-LAND Movie is Cleveland’s first sci-fi animated single hand drawn film based on the location of Cleveland created by Jim Lujan starring Kounterclockwise.

     

    FOREVER-LAND is a hidden dimension where strange characters, creatures, and lands exist under the iron harsh rule of Infinitus…destroyer of all things funky. Kounterclockwise has been transported to this dimension to retrieve “the glove”, an item of cosmic importance, from the clutches of Infinitus. “Who shall wear the glove shall rule the funk of 40 thousand years”. Can Kounterclockwise save the universe from the reign of Infinitus, restoring the order of the funk, and rock the crowd in the process?

     

    This positive, inspirational movie is produced by Jim Lujan who is known as an underground animated filmmaker for the following pieces of work: "Freakdaddy", “Spike and Mike” and Creator of “Sanjourno Must Die” on Rugburn” by Titmouse/Six Point Harness and is now working on a new feature film; Revengeance with music by Kounterclockwise along side Oscar nominated independent animator Bill Plympton.  Jim is also the winner of the Bill Plympton Indie Animation Award.  Jim really believes that this film is something special as "the film was an organic creation that just took off. It just happened because there was so much love for it. We've been having fun every step of the way and challenge each other (Deacon Burns) creatively. While I did have a road map, it's been a lot of fun to just go crazy and let it go where it goes. This film will do a lot of good. I truly believe that." Starring role Deacon Burns of Kounterclockwise wants the world to watch this film because “Kounterclockwise in Forever-Land is the first ever disabled hip hop inter-galactic animated hero that saves the day in a wheelchair! Now that’s some gangsta s!@# right there”.  Jim and Deacon have never personally met but have worked together for a straight year, and through the magic of technology completed this masterpiece.

    Kounterclockwise was born out of Cleveland Heights as an alternative punk-hop act over a decade ago.  Lead, Deacon Burns is known for has worked with artists such as including DJ Swamp, Source, Yela Wolf plus many more.  Kounterclockwise has also scored the music for full-length feature film; Love Rome by Carter B. Smith and their beats were featured on the television show “Skate Maps.”

They have an album out named “Daylight Savings Time”.

In 2007, as the group was courted by several indie & major labels; fate took a wrong turn when Deacon had a tragic accident – breaking 5 vertebrae, several ribs, collapsed both lungs and had a hairline neck fracture. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury that resulted in paralysis of both legs. As a true entertainer, Deacon decided that the show must go on no matter what. Their concerts have been labeled as “visual art” and now turned actor and moviemaker, they premiere their first film - Kounterclockwise in the Forever-land Movie.  Jim & Deacon also produced the soundtrack for the movie, which includes 17 tracks.

     

    The movie will be available March 11th on https://www.youtube.com/user/jimlujan.  Additionally, there are plans to premiere the movie in Cleveland after this date.  They are currently looking for distribution strategies for the movie.

     

    For more information go to http://www.forever-land.com

     

     

    About Jim Lujan: http://www.jimlujan.com

    About Kounterclockwise: http://www.kounterclockwise.com


     


    Web Site: http://www.forever-land.com

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kounterclockwise-in-Forever-Land

    Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CviZG74eW14&feature=youtu.be

    Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0RG1v-LyI

     

    Release date: March 11th, 2014

    Genre: Sci-fi Animation

    Starring: Kounterclockwise

    Directed by: Jim Lujan

    Written by: Jim Lujan and Deacon Burns of Kounterclockwise

    Screenplay by: Jim Lujan

    Produced by: Jim Lujan & Scott Hinze

    Music by: Kounterclockwise & Jim Lujan

     

    For more information, please contact:

    Mai Moore

    Knowledgeable Marketing

    +1 216-785-0010

    mai@knowledgeablemarketing.com

    www.knowledgealblemarketing.com

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