Patrick Wetter, brother, son, mechanic, long-time friend to many, and loving uncle, was just 25 years old, and living with his father, when he was brutally killed by Stockton police on January 6, 2015.  Patrick's death, unlike his life, was extremely violent.  A police dog was sicked on him, he endured six gunshots to his trunk, he was struck with a tazer.  In life, Patrick stood 6 foot 5 inches tall, and his friends and family refer to him as a “gentle giant” and he had the nickname of Tiny.  When he was little his older siblings and parents called him “pokie bear,” and when Patrick was “in trouble” his mother Holly addressed him with his full name of Patrick Wayne Wetter.  Patrick Wayne Wetter went out fighting for his life and died on the floor of his neighbor's home wearing handcuffs and in a pool of his own blood.

[image description:  Patrick, a white man in his early 20s stands tall in a white football jersey with the number 32 on the front, he has a beard on the bottom of his chin, a mustache and a round belly.  He has a crew cut, a sweet smile and a tiny birthday hat on the very top of his head.  He is surrounded by green trees and grass at a birthday party for himself and his young niece Gabby in 2012]

Only Patrick Wetter knows why he (allegedly) kicked in the door of his next door neighbor’s home, people he knew, one year ago today, which prompted them to call 911 on him.  When the police arrived, they claim they could see Patrick inside “trying to force his way into a bedroom,” where his neighbors were “barricaded.”  Police say they ordered Patrick to “stop and surrender” and when he “did not comply” the first thing officers on the scene did was release a K9 police dog to attack Patrick.  

The Stockton Police Department have a reputation for excessive use of force, specifically when it comes to police dogs, their K9 units.  There are many instances of the Stockton K9 dogs let loose to maul and attack people, in an unnecessary abuse of force.  In November of 2014 a young Black teenager named James Smith was profiled by officer Houston Sensabaugh (an officer who has killed at least two people on the job).  James, who is Disabled and whose disabilities include Cerebral Palsy, was in a crisis and needed help.  Instead of getting help, Sensabaugh escalated the situation, and aggressively subdued and handcuffed James.  Sensabaugh then released a department K-9, which first attacked a neighbor, Patrina Walker (a bystander), before mauling James, who was down on the ground on his belly in handcuffs.  James and his neighbor Patrina survived the attack.  James has huge scars on his torso and now suffers from PTSD.

Police training is in the use and science of Force rather than de-escalation.  What about the training of the K9s?  What would cause these dogs to attack bystanders and how are these animals treated by Stockton Police?  In June 2015 a police dog named Nitro was left in a hot squad car by a Stockton police officer, and died.  The police narrative mourned the loss of the dog and took no responsibility for the dog's death, and never named the police officer responsible for leaving Nitro in a hot car to die.  This endangerment of K9 life could provide insight into the violent behavior of the dogs.

The police narrative of the brutal killing of Patrick Wetter is easy to find in the mainstream press, framed as police killings are, as an “officer involved shooting” rather than a killing.  The reporting does not investigate those that did the killing at all (the police) and it criminalizes Patrick.  According to the “official statements” by the Stockton Police Department, officers Gabriel Guerrero and Mark Afanasev are the shooters that killed Patrick, and the K9 police dog involved is named Rocky.  The report says that Guerrero and Afanasev were given three days of paid vacation after killing Patrick and are back on the force.  The report states that when Patrick was being attacked by Rocky, he produced a “Dirk or Dagger,” and that he stabbed the police K9 in the shoulder area.”  They claimed Patrick to be in “close proximity with the two officers, then raised the knife over his head in a threatening manner.”   Guerrero and Afanasev then unloaded at least 6 bullets into Patrick's trunk, and he fell to the floor.  The police claim that Patrick fell “still holding the knife in his hand.”  The narrative continues, “Another Officer then deployed a taser striking the suspect. The suspect was then handcuffed and Officers administered first aid and CPR. Medics arrived and took over CPR and then pronounced the suspect deceased at the residence,” the report states.  It seems odd that first aid or CPR could be administered to someone in handcuffs.  The report also claims Patrick to be a “gang member” and talks about his criminal past.  It described his small clip on pocket knife as a “Dirk or Dagger,” and vaguely described the size saying “the blade was curved and appeared to be 3 to 4 inches in length.”

Patrick's mom, Holly Quigley-Papke, said yes he carried a little pocket knife that he used as a tool for a lot of things and that the closest he ever came to being in a gang was that one of his favorite shirts was red.  She also said that in 2014 at the time of his arrests, Patrick was struggling and spent some time homeless.  Holly says that the arrests for “Dirk and Dagger” and resisting arrest happened when he was profiled for being Poor.  The two arrests on the SPD report happened within a month and a half of each other, and these two arrests are what the SPD are stating that establish Patrick as a life-long “criminal.”  Holly says Patrick got into a little bit of trouble and that he was no criminal.  She says Patrick spent a lot of time with his nephews and friends, and that he loved fishing.  She said he really loved being an Uncle.  Patrick's sister Suzan said that Patrick was “one English class away from having his diesel mechanics degree.”  She said Patrick “always kept in contact with his high school friends, along with making new ones along the way.

Patrick had a tight knit group of friends he kept since youth.  One of those friends is Anthony McHenry, Anthony's mom Roseanne Kimball wrote this about Patrick's wrongful death, in response to the mainstream media articles about Patrick:

“First of all, calling him a prowler was off base. He lived right next door. I was told by his sister that the person that he was looking for, was a young man who also lived in the home, who was not supposed to be living there with foster children, as he has a criminal record. Yet, in one news blurb that I read, it stated that someone thought he might be after the teenage girls, as they had grown up. The news reported that it was a group home, when in actuality it was a family home that had a couple of foster children living there.



I, nor his family, are condoning the fact that he broke into the home, but to shoot him not once, but SIX times goes beyond (what was) justified in such a small space.



My concerns as follows:

He was very tall, approximately 6 ft 5 inches. From photos that I saw of the dog wounds, (on foot, and on back) he would have to have bent pretty far down to stab. Why were 2 policemen unable to subdue him with nightsticks, flashlights, etc…while he was bent over stabbing the dog, if indeed this was the case?



Patrick had at least three bad dog bites on his leg. That almost surely would have taken him down, or at the very least stumbling and in extreme pain. If he was down, how could he have lunged at the officers to the point where they feared for their lives? Why were they shooting weapons when civilians were so close? Not one news agency reported the damage the dog did on his leg, which is when he produced his pocket knife and (allegedly) stabbed the dog.



The family states that the blood had pooled in Patrick’s face, which would have occurred had he been lying face down.  How was CPR purportedly administered if he was face down?

Are officers not trained to use less than lethal force? Especially against someone WITHOUT a violent past? Is that not why they are physically trained to be able to take someone down? Why not taze him, pepper spray him, or use another method to subdue him? He had no gun, and the dog was not gravely injured.”

Stockton Police radio transmissions show how fast Patrick's killing happened.  In a matter of a couple minutes of police arriving, Patrick was terrorized by a dog, defended himself, was shot six times, then tazed, then handcuffed, then supposedly given first aid and CPR.  Rather than talking with Patrick, or trying to de-escalate the situation, Stockton police officers used violence as the first and final plan of action.  Patrick Wayne Wetter, Loved One lost to police violence, is missed the most by his family and close friends.  

note:  The family of Patrick Wetter have asked that today, on January 6th, 2016, the one year angelversary of Patrick's death, that members of the community light a candle to remember Patrick, and to honor all of those that have been lost to police brutality.

Here is the facebook event for the January 6, 2016 call to action candlelight vigil  https://www.facebook.com/events/748377618628064/

Here is the facebook Justice for Patrick Wetter page https://www.facebook.com/Justice-for-Patrick-Wetter-335193886679418/  

#JusticeforPatrickWetter #PatrickWetter #Justice4PatrickWetter #LovedOnes #IdrissStelleyFoundation #POORmagazine

Lisa Ganser is a white Disabled genderqueer artist displaced from San Francisco and now living in Olympia, WA.  They are the daughter of a momma named Sam and this is their second story as a writer for POOR Magazine.

WeSearch Policy Group (WPG) Data Release 2016
UnHoused residents of San Francisco Data Collection
2015- 2016

Tent City WeSearch Statement Demand summary (see below for detail):
SF Mayor Ed Lie and Supervisor Scott Weiner claim they want "homeless people" to "go away" for the multi-billion dollar plantation sports event called The Superbowl. We the houseless, displaced gentrFUKed, evicted, criminalized, disabled and now living on the streets in Tents, Cardboard motels and tarps are demanding the return of thousands of dollars stolen by "sweeps" of our medicine and belongings as well as open land that we can set up our tents or build our own housing - this would be modeled after the Homefulness project - a poor people-led solution to Homelessness

Who are the POOR Magazine WeSearchers:
Data Creators/Collectors: 86 un-housed San Francisco residents dwelling in tents, sleeping bags and cardboard on Duboce, 14th st, Trainor, Cesar Chavez Freeway underpass (*Separate document includes data collectors/creators from Oakland behind Target, on 7th street railroad tracks and behind Peralta street: *Note this is a small sampling of the thousands of un-housed people residing in San Francisco
60% are women ages 24-40
30% are  Peoples of color from all 4 corners of Mama Earth
30% are men
10% trans & non-gender-conforming
60% became houseless after displacement from long-time homes and neighborhoods
80% are living with untreated psychological disabilities
70% are people living with physical disabilities

Theft of Belongings:
    •    100% of un-housed residents have experienced countless incidents of the theft of belongings by DPW/SFPD sweeps in a one year period. (see below) including but not limited to Medicine, Clothes, technology-phones, iPads, chargers, etc
    •    60% of un-housed residents experienced loss of personal effects /belongings with a value of over $2,000
    •    94% were unable to retrieve belongings from the City
    •    100% were unable to replace belongings due to poverty
-Dollar Amount of Belongings Theft from 86 people:
$109,000

Sweep Documentation of 86 Participant WeSearchers:
(below includes ticketing and arrests)
January 2015 thru January 2016

January -March 2015
-24 sweeps of individuals reported on Duboce st
-22 sweeps under 101 freeway - Cesar Chavez   
-12 sweeps of south Van Ness
-23 sweeps of trainer street behind Office Max

March 2015-May 2015
-28 sweeps duboce street
-27 sweeps under 101 freeway
-8 sweeps of S Van Ness
-15 sweeps of Trainer st

May-august 2015
25 sweeps of Duboce at
23 sweeps of under 101 freeway
10 sweeps of S Van Ness
16 sweeps of Trainor

August -November 2015
46 sweeps of Duboce st
33 sweeps of 101 freeway underpass
18 harassment, arrests, seizures S Van Ness
45 sweeps of Trainor- (Tickets increased)

November 2015-January 2016
121 sweeps of Duboce
 47 sweeps, ongoing harassment, seizures of 101 underpass
45 seizures, 13 sweeps, 26 arrests of S Van Ness
52 sweeps, harassment calls, seizures and 10 arrests of trainer st

Demands of UnHoused Resident WeSearchers:
    ▪    -$109, 000 returned for loss of belongings
    ▪    -The Immediate cease and desist of all sweeps, harassment and arrest of un-housed people for the act of sleeping or sitting while homeless
    ▪    -Open and safe liberated land in Yelamu Ohlone territory (San Francisco) to set up tents and run a safe tent city or an abandoned building to build a poor people-led, indigenous people-led, self-determined housing, garden and healing project to build Homefulness - a poor & indigenous people-led solution to Homelessness. ( modeled after Homefulness in Huchuin Ohlone land (Oakland)

The WeSearch Policy Group (WPG) is a project of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE- a poor and indigenous people-led, very grassroots, art-based movement. Please credit POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE WeSearch Policy Group when re-printing

A cherry lipstick red 1974 Chevrolet glided down 24st street in “la mision” as it’s called by La Raza and so many other working class communities throughout the centuries who built this beautiful barrio after the missionaries stole it from the Ohlone Nation. As the Chevy rolled past each block, Its shining gold rimmed tires seemed to fly above the newest invaders, the hipsters and tech workers, tipping over their 4 dollar coffees and vegan donuts as they walked along the street like they had always been here, displacing rooted communities with every step, profiling young brown and black residents like Alex Nieto with every gaze. When the Chevy stopped in front of the Brava theatre where the new movie Lowrider Lawyers - putting a city on trial, about the community taking back the courts for justice for Alex Nieto, a  young Xicano man emerged. he was wearing a red 49ers jacket and a snap-back cap. He moved slowly toward the front door of the theatre and then disappeared into the atmosphere.

The Brava theatre was filled with amor for Alex on Sunday, Jan 3rd. Alex Nieto, a life-long Mission resident and scholarship student’s humble spirit danced on the backs of the theatre chairs and throughout the audience. His quiet revolutionary love surrounded the sold-out crowd of attendees. His sweet soul who had never done anything but be a good sun to his parents, a good friend to his homies a good worker at his job and in his community and a good student to his studies was there in the theatre with us. And he was full of love.

“Alex Nieto, you made the world better...When you visited there was always laughter...,”  Margarita Bac Sierra, Ben Bac Sierra’s 12 year old daughter opened the beautiful event with a poem of love to the “Tio” (uncle)  who she had known all her life before he was killed by police for being brown as he peacefully ate his burrito on Bernal Hill before he had to report to his job as a security guard. Her poem was part of a power-FUL opening program that included hip Hop skolaz Equipto and Dregs 1 and the beautiful, undying love and scholarship of Ben Bac Sierra, poet, organizer, teacher, writer and director of this new film.

“How did you know he was a gang member?,”  Questioned the lowrider lawyers in the peoples trial that unfolded on screen to a man called Mr. Wolf  hilariously played by community organizer Al Osorio who told the man who eventually called the po’LICE on that fateful Friday night of March 21, 2014, that Alex had a gun instead of a taser

“Because he was wearing a red jacket,” Mr Wolf confusedly answered

“How do you know that a red jacket and cap means he is a gang member?” the lowrider lawyer continued to probe.

“Because i have seen them on TV’ Mr Wolf concluded looking blankly

This brutal testimony by the three new mission "residents" including a man who wasn't in agreement that the police should have been called were from the depositions by the new residents of the mission who were taking their dogs up to the Bernal Hill with no concept of who lived in this barrio for years before they ever arrived. Holding racist, classist stereotypes of young men of color which sadly so many middle class white people do hold, proving that like we at POOR Magazine and so many other conscious people said when we first found out about Alex’s murder, Alex was not only killed by police who shot over 49 bullets at this innocent man but he was killed by the benevolent violence ofgentrification.

But thats why this movie is such a powerful and urgent example of what we at POOR Magazine call poverty scholarship, La gente/ The people taking back the kkkorts, the institutions of so-called justice, power and oppression that constantly support the testing, arresting and incarcerating of every poor and person of color they get was seized by the people . Taken back by the impacted peoples, those of us who like Edwin Lindo said, a conscious life-long San Franciscan who is running for District 9 in San Francisco, are counted on to fail by the systems in place.

Written and directed by Benjamin Bac Sierra and filmed and edited by Peter Menchini with music by Dr Loco (Jose Cueller) and Favi Estrella, and lowrider lawyers played by community leaders, Frisco residents, mission homegirls and homeboys and the amazing Ben Bac Sierra.

“Community media, social media, these film showings and the rallies are all so important to keep the truth coming out, said Adante Pointer, conscious lawyer who is representing Alex Nieto’s family in the upcoming trial beginning March 1st at the post-film community panel which also included Roberto Hernandez, Edwin Lindo and Thea Mathews, “because the mainstream media will come out with their usual narrative which will be an attack on Alex’s character and we need to counter that with the truth.” Pointer concluded.

Ben saved the best for last, closing this magical day of spirit and art with Alex Nieto singing La mananitas ( Happy Birthday) carrying us out of the theatre with his amor.

The movie is a must see, deep and real and dense with life and musica and truth, too short like my fellow POOR magazine staff writer Leroy Moore who went with me said. And like the rhythm from the Aztec danzantes huetlhuetl (drum) from the opening scene in the courtroom which penetrated the settler colonial laws that protect the modern day settler class, with spirit, truth and consciousness, Lowrider lawyers is not only an act of artistic liberation but of our collective liberation as peoples, as youth, as community in unity,

Ben is asking all conscious community to join the family at the upcoming court trial which will begin on March 1, 2016. For more information go on-line to facebook- justice for Alex Nieto killed by SFPD

Leroy F. Moore: Jr.: Thanks you so much for agreeing to do an interview it means a lot to me. You are the son of a great Folk/Blues artist/activist, Josh White Sr. What have you learned from your father musically and social justice?

Josh White Jr.: Dad used to say if you don’t believe what you saying, then those you are singing to won’t believe you and when you are going to sing, make sure your every word can be understood.

Leroy F. Moore: Explain your music and how you come up with topics of your songs being a social activist?

Josh White Jr.: All one needs to do is listen and observe and if you can’t find your own words, there will be writers out there who will and you will have a source to hold on to.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: You have a song that I use in my workshops because it’s a true story of a Black blind musician, CORTELIA CLARK. Please explain his story and why you wrote this song to us.

Josh White Jr.: I was and still am a big fan of MICKIE NEWBURY who wrote the song and from the first time I started to learn C.C, I thought of my old man about his beginnings.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: As a Black Disabled researcher, journalist and music scholar, I was excited when I read the book Josh White: Society Blues about his life. That is where I learned that he was a guide to most famous Blind Blues artists all through the South. Did your father share with you some of these stories?

Josh White Jr.: Leroy, he never talked about the blind men he led. There were 66 different blind black street singers my old man led. From the age of 7 to 16 and a half, none would teach him how to play. So he would pick up the guitar of whomever he was leading at the time when they would go off and do whatever they were going to do without their guitar and dad would play it in whatever tuning it was in and with his own raw talent he found his way.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: I have always had this dream to walk your father’s path that he led blind Blues artists throughout the South. Did he ever share to you his path that he set in the South?

Josh White Jr.: Dad never did. The one story he did recount was watching the hanging of three young black men. I know whenever sang Strange Fruit, he was singing from the eyes of 7 years old.

Leroy F. Moore Jr. From the DVD "Josh White: Free and Equal Blues." he explained about how the streets were full of blind men artists back then. In your view what was the attitudes back then and how did the industry treat Blind Black Blues artistes back then compare today?

Josh White Jr.: In the early 1900s there were many Black blind street singers all across the south and they were not begging, they would stand on the different streets and EARN a living. The record industry had their pick of Black blind singers to record.

Leroy F. Moore Jr. Your website says you’re a social activist. Tell us about your social activism and do you think if your father was alive would he be involved in this moment of heighten police brutality? And have you wrote a song about police brutality?

Josh White, Jr.: Anything that is inhuman… from coal miner’s plight to really any human injustice. I live with do unto others as you would have others do unto you as opposed to, do unto others BEFORE they do unto you. For years I went with a buddy and created music with incarcerated boys. We put music to their writings they gave us from their journals. From two different universities I’ve gotten honorary degrees. When I did the one man show of my father’s live in Lansing, Michigan, that year May 23, 1983 was declared Josh White, Jr. day in the state of Michigan. There are a few more, but this should cover what I am about. If my old man had lived to a 100, he would have been in the forefront of social change.

Leroy F. Moore: How did blind Blues artists get a hold of your father back then and was there other guide persons at that time?

Josh White Jr.: I’m sure it must have been word of mouth, from blind man to blind man. He wasn’t the only lead boy.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: You started performing with your father at four years old so you like your father must of saw the good side and bad side of the music industry especially back then being Black. Please share a story from your childhood that sticks out.

Josh White, Jr.: Let me tell you what my old man used to do, and that I will do today considering the circumstances. Since I was 4 I have sung to white people so most of the places worked again were in a white community. So either at the gig or when going to a joint to eat you always back into your parking space so if you need to leave in a hurry, it is just one move and you’re gone.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: I’m a poet and songwriter and also involve in Black Disability Coalition where we are creating Black Disability Studies and I do believe that story telling is huge using your father’s and your song/s can bring a positive imprint on not only Black disabled/non-disabled but all students. Tell how you use story telling in your school presentations?

Josh White Jr.: All I do is first; carry my old man’s book for all to see. Secondly, I start out with the song “hard time blues” about the southern black man’s plight. Thirdly, telling them about the old man being the first black man to sing at the white house. Four, being one of the first black men to be put on a United States 2postal stamp. Five, the first black singer to have a million seller, the song, “One Meat Ball” Six, his first tour in Europe with Eleanor Roosevelt and lastly, the first black musician for whom Ovation Guitar makers built a Josh White model with his signature on the head stock.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: I truly believe that the struggles of Blues artists are what many Hip-Hop artists went through when Hip-Hop started. What can the founders Hip-Hop who are getting older becoming disabled learn from your father and founders of the Blues?

Josh White Jr.: I am not sure about the word disabled. If you are already a performer there is no reason to stop. Some of the best singers I have ever heard couldn’t get out of their wheelchairs. There is no reason to stop performing; there will always be ears out there to hear.

Leroy F. Moore Jr. I wrote a poem about your father leading Black Blind Blues men throughout the South. How can we pass down this story to others?

Josh White, Jr.: I am not sure but if get in touch with my manager he might be able to direct you. HIS NAME IS DOUG YEAGER,  I WILL EMAIL YOU HIS NUMBER.
 

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: Doing research on blind/disabled Black Blues artists, I realize that there is a lack of Black blind Blues women. What are your view and did your father ever led Black blind women who were Blues artists?

Josh White, Jr.: Good question. I could mention Bessie Smith and other female blues singers but the old man never spoke of them and I checked with a good friend of mine who had a blues show on NPR for years and he could not remember any Black blind women street singers, it might have been too risky.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.: What is your next project and how can people stay in contact?


Josh White Jr.: Just go to my web page, JOSH WHITE JR .COM
 

Leroy F. Moore Jr. Any last words?
 

Josh White Jr.: Thank you for being interested, and if there is anything else, let me know.

PEACE JWJ

Gripping the steering wheel so tightly my hands hurt, I saw my mama so many years before, looking straight ahead to the road, trying to not let the mountain of tears crush her soft face. Now it was me and my sun alone on the highway, 30 years later, trying  to drive away from my torn and  crumbled  heart.. No matter how fast i went it wasn’t fast enough to leave the pain  It was in this ride that the story of houseless mama Lakeisha Holloway floated through the corporate media dial. This in-struggle mama drove her car into Jesse Valenzuela, killing him and injuring several more people while her three year old was in the backseat.

Media reports claimed that Holloway, who lived in her car with her baby, was reportedly 'stressed out' after being chased by security guards from parking lots where she had been trying to sleep before the crash. The corporate media went to great pains to put the words stressed and out in quotations, implying a veneer of disgust for this mama in struggle, a consistent theme I have witnessed with reports of poor mothers who commit crimes of desperation like these.

Having a child in poverty anywhere in the world is unspeakably hard. Of course variables exist. In the global south the conditions might be much worse than in LA, Texas or Las Vegas. But like my mama always said, the experience of not having access to food or a safe place to take care of your child is universal. From Salinas to Sao Paolo more and more mothers and fathers are unable to secure safe lives for our families and this experience causes a dangerous level of stress. As a parent we are already naturally stressed. Add on the insane stress of poverty and houselessness, as well as many other forms of trauma that many of us poor folks still carry in our hearts and souls after our lives of generational poverty, white supremacy and colonization, and you have a completely unbearable situation. Many of us parents hold on by a thread and raise our children in trauma. Many of us just crack.

In 2005 I wrote about LaShuan Ternice Harris,  another 23yr young mama who “cracked”.  In her case she was dealing with houselessness and untreated mental health when she ended up committing the almost unthinkable act of throwing her three babies off of pier 7 in San Francisco. In 2011 I wrote about Rachelle Grimmer, mama of two children from Texas who shot herself and her children in the Laredo county social services agency, after trying, unsuccessfully to get her meager food stamp allotment. Food stamps usually run $180.00 to 340.00 per month. Try feeding your children on that.

Lekeisha, LaShuan and Rachelle aren’t “bad” mothers as many people might be quick to say.  What they were were overwhelmed, unhoused, unhelped, extremely depressed and worst of all, completely alone.  In the case of LaShuan and Lekeisha, their depression was untreated because there are no proper mental health services if you are poor, and in all three cases these mamas were isolated with their trauma, depression and impossible situations. Their stories are like my poor single mama’s story, trying to raise me first through welfare crumbs, then as a working poor mama, then becoming disabled when i was 11 and finally becoming  houseless because of what she described as “too many little murders of the soul”. We were without a roof, a network or a solution. This kind of aloneness, specific to US capitalism, which normalizes isolation as “independence”  with no regard for how hard it is for single parents to raise our children without any support  This pathological isolation which is supported by a US “bootstraps” ideology of making it on your own leaves us single parents alone with our pain, our grief and our children.

And if you still think these mothers are “bad” then I am “bad”. Twice in my life as single parent I have envisioned myself in violent, horrible scenarios because my trauma-filled mind was unable to handle my personal crises as well as the stress of raising a child. In 2005 when my Sun was just 2 years old and he and my very sick mama, who I was the sole caregiver for  and I were in extreme poverty, again houseless and forced to steal food so my sun could eat, my mind wandered into a hole of suicidal thoughts. and then just recently, after struggling with a very serious personal crisis my mind fell into a horrific scenario of running my car into a pole, only being able to stop myself when I remembered my now 12 year old Sun was in the back seat. In the most recent situation,  one of the only things that kept me ok was repeating to myself, its going to be ok when i get home. That I even had a home, albeit humble, to get warm in, cook food for my sun and myself and most important of all to hide in, kept us alive.

Welfare or Hell-fare?

I can’t explain in mere words the simultaneous beauty, blessing and struggle of being the sole caregiver for a human who has only you to turn to. It is why our multi-nationed, pre-colonized ancestors from all four corners of Mama Earth knew that the village was not only important but necessary to support the proper raising of a child. Isolated single parents who are often just barely out of childhood themselves, navigating the impossibility of the capitalist hamster wheel with no support system to turn to and the scarcity model of welfare or hell-fare’ as us poor mamas at POOR Magazine call it, is insanely hard.

Once we complete the 55 page proof of income forms and endless applications required for any kind of medical, food stamps or housing support and then if we are lucky and we qualify for the tiny scarcity model crumbs we barely recieve as poor parents for medical, food or housing support, our lives are criminalized for receiving them.  if we have $5.00 dollars to our name and don’t claim it, if we are living with anyone and don’t “claim it” we face immediate disqualification from aide and similarily if we do it claim it we are disqualified. If we are “found” out to be houseless in most states we are at risk of losing custody of our children. And then if we do receive the tiny crumbs of aid we are constantly being threatened with the loss of those crumbs because of one of the aforementioned “crimes of poverty”.  Finally, we live in a time when most major cities have serious housing shortages due to the over-building of luxury housing by mayors who pander to real estate developers and most recently, the newest threat on the last form of poor people housing = privatization across the nation of our public housing, i.e., selling it off to private corporations and on the stock market so more houses can be available to higher income people and no housing is reserved for us poor folks

Poor Mamas create our own solutions

I’m not saying US scarcity models, homelessness, isolation and lack of services kill families, but they certainly add to the violence of US poverty and the extreme stress of life as a poor parent. It is why we poor mamas created MamaHouse - a collective home for low-income single parents and children. It is why we poor mamas launched the welfareQUEENS poetry and activism project which teaches both service providers and educators how to properly advocate for mothers and fathers in desperation, as well as to provide an outlet to other poor parents to heal through poetry and story-telling  It is also why we poor folks are working so hard to build and teach on Homefulness a landless peoples land liberation movement that is built on interdependence, not furthers the lie of capitalist independence which isn’t good for anyone, much-less poor, single parents.

In the mean-time with the extreme rise in poverty and the growing number of houseless families across the nation I am  asking all people to hold a little more compassion for all families, in all of our moments, good and bad.   

Side by Side 

chair frames and baby toys, 
jackets, toothbrushes coffee cans and pillows
wrapped up in paper made of memories…

“These businesses around here have called the police on me 15 times just today, for just being here, in my tent. I don’t do drugs, I’m not panhandling, I am not bothering anyone. Actually, Im the same as you, I just don’t have a roof." Partice x, Unhoused born and raised San Franciscan resident, who up to six months ago was housed in the Bayview before her rent was raised beyond what she could afford on her $12.00 per hour salary, and now lives in a tent on 14th street was one of 85 WeSearchers collecting data on how our unhoused live, “In a desperate attempt to get housed, i have started another job, i am trying to save money, but it truly seems like I will never be housed in the Bay Area again.

nylon homes buried under lives made of storms
these aren’t the storms of rain and thunder 
sleet or hail- these rain drops include sheriff’s boots
and eviction notices,

I first met Partice when our POOR Magazine family launched our Tent city WeSearch Data project in three locations in the Mission; Duboce street, 14th st & Trainor and all along South Van Ness. We as poor, houseless and formerly houseless folks at POOR Magazine launched this WeSearch (Poor people-led research) because many of us live in these tents or have lived in the cardboard motels, as my mama used to call them when we were houseless throughout my childhood, and we are tired of the lies constantly perpetrated about us without us.

“We aren’t conducting anymore sweeps for the Super Bowl, not any that i am aware of,“ said Sam Dodge from Mayor Ed Lie’s office to multiple news sources who were inquiring about the increased Super Bowl arrests.. The recent statement from the Mayor’s office was rebuked when POOR Magazine held an emergency press conference at Duboce and Trainor streets on Thursday to release the WeSearch data. At 11am in the middle of the press conference not one, but two DPW trucks rolled up on Duboce and began seizing belongings and throwing them in their trash truck.   

POOR Magazine launched this WeSearch effort because not only were so many of us unable to afford to live under a roof in San Francisco and Oakland, but because our lives, our temporary homes were being targeted for arrest, seizure and police harassment more than the usual harassment we always get living outside, in preparation for the pending plantation, corporate sports game called the Superbowl. 

this thunder is made of the sound of your home bouncing on the pavement
the lightening is a po'lice flashlight shining on car windows
and hail filled slices of
foreclosure ….Outside by Tiny, Po Poets Project

“Just in the last week, DPW (Department of Public Works) has taken my belongings and thrown them in the trash over 20 times, if i leave for even an hour everything i own will be gone,” William P explained in his WeSearch report, “what if someone came in your house and took all your stuff while you were gone, I am not living in this tent cause i want to be, this isn’t fun you know,” he concluded. 

WeSearch is a concept I created as a poverty skola who has been researched and pimped multiple times for “studies” about poverty and houselessness. WeSearch is led by us, the usual “targets” of big “research grants” i.e., the poor, disabled, indigenous, houseless, incarcerated/criminalized, institutionally schooled youth and/or ghettoized  elders rather than an academic institution or a non-profiteer who only gets “involved” in researching and studying us when there is grant money, endowments being offered or a school project with a grade.  

There are so many untold stories of how and why people become un-housed. Loss of a job, a partner, the onset of an illness or a crisis, but most of the time, in the Bay Area, its because of a greed-inspired landlord raising rent, evicting for profit so he or she can house the droves of 20-30 something wealthy, mostly white people streaming into town for the Tech industry. When I was a child with my mama our hosuelessness was caused by another little murder of the soul as she called it, losing her job and already being fraught with the trauma of her life as a mixed race, unwanted orphan who barely made it into adulthood, she became disabled after her last job loss and was unable to work, We moved in to the cardboard motels and our car when we had one. and stayed there for over 10 years. Crisis like that doesn’t just go away and it certainly doesn’t go away by being arrested. 

One of the many findings revealed from the WeSearch data is that over $109,000 in personal belongings were seized (read stolen) by DPW and Po’Lice from 85 unHoused San Francisco in the the three SF locations over 2015-16 and $62,000 from 45 un-Housed Oakland residents in 3 outside locations. These are things that are never returned notwithstanding the claims otherwise by DPW and the Mayors office. From jewelry to blankets, to watches, bikes and technology, once its pulled onto the recycling trucks, its gone. And then even more tragically, when poor peoples valuables are stolen by DPW and Po’Lice, it is not considered theft. That somehow just because folks are unhoused we don’t have the right to privacy, to have momentoes, or anything valuable.When me and my mama lost precious family photos, we never saw them again. Its why i now only have one picture of my mama and one baby picture of me.When me and my sun were evicted from MamaHouse for a $700 rent increase, three low-income single parent families were scattered. It took several years to be re-housed safely, and none of us have truly recovered.
  
The other factor thats very important is that from San Francisco to Salinas, so-called public space under 21st century settler colonial laws is no longer public. True, it was never really public, since the beginning of the theft of this 1st Nations territory ( Turtle Island) from Indigenous peoples and the theft of African peoples to work on it, this land has NEVER been free. English settler laws always incarcerated people for being poor and disabled before they even landed on Turtle Island, so the colonizers brought those same laws and institutions here and perpetrated even more. but now they have become deeper and harsher. With the advent of Sit-Lie, Stop and Frisk and Business Improvement Districts, there is a constant attack on our poor bodies who end up without a roof. And as well, contrary to the perception being held in place by these anti-poor laws in the US, just like in global south countries, there are millions of houseless families, elders, children and single adults,  , we just aren’t “allowed” to be seen, because the anti-poor laws which are all raced and classed depending on your melanin, your age and the price of your clothes, don’t allow us to be poor and houseless in public.If you are waiting in line for a new iPhone at a Mac store or a new product at a Best Buy, you can camp, sit, put your backpack down or lie on the sidewalk or in parks for days. 

In the end the WeSearchers created 3 simple demands, including land to build Homefulness in San Francisco ( Yelamu Ohlone Territory) modeled after the houseless peoples land liberation movement in Deep East Huchuin Ohlone land Oakland and the return of the $109,000 dollars lost to theft of belongings and the immediate ceasing of this insane arrest and seizure policy. the cry was simple, “ Ed Lee and Scott Weiner, Give Us Land or We Aren’t Going Anywhere.