When criminal charges were filed last week against former SF police officer Christopher Samayoa for the shooting death of Keita O’Neil on December 1st 2017, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin received many praises for the decision, that is marked for being the first time in SF history that a officer has been charged with murder while on duty. Samayoa was patrolling the Bayview neighborhood along with Field training officer Edric Talusan when the two had observed Keita O’Neil allegedly carjacking a minivan. After O’Neil was eventually blocked in an alleyway by police, the unarmed man had allegedly attempted to flee and that is when Christopher Samayoa shot Keita to death. It was also alleged that Samayoa did not turn on his police body camera until after the shooting and that lack of following protocol raised suspicion amongst the concerned communities and subsequently he was terminated from his job in early 2018. 

The other charges on file that Officer Samayoa must stand to face are involuntary/voluntary manslaughter, firing a semi-automatic weapon in a negligent manner and assault. The O’Neil family is being represented by Civil rights attorney John Burris and has been waiting three years for some form of justice that was long overdue. There is no word on if FTO Edric Talusan will be held responsible for any wrongdoing or brought up on charges for misconduct.

The task is to reconstruct the lie of privilege being the excuse for violating human rights with impunity because officers were sworn in to represent “law enforcement” not the “outlaw enforcement” behavior that contributes to an already “spiritually unhealthy” society without rules or morals. How can citizens, especially those of color “obey” and “respect” a system whose “agents of the state” possess the mentality of the “you can’t break the law, but I can” double standards? And when you add the poisonous roots of the false sense of superiority and racism it is bound to grow into a toxic tree that shadows the whole nation in a very negative way.

Officers Sgt. Albin T. Pearson and Dwight A. Pitterson from Newport News, Virginia were also brought up on murder charges during the recent “police accountability sweeps” in the shooting death of Henry K. Berry III that happened late December of last year. The 43 year-old man was shot while inside of his home over an incident involving a tussle over a taser. Berry, who was known to have mental health issues was accused of resisting arrest after police had arrived to slap Mr. Berry with misdemeanor charges over repeated distress phone calls to 911. Perhaps law enforcement was more irritated that Henry Berry was calling excessively but the “professionals” completely overlooked the theory that maybe Mr. Berry was calling out for help and the way the police had responded possibly had triggered him in such a way that may have led up to his demise.

The bottom line is that holding police accountable for murdering and violating the people’s civil rights is centuries overdue and it is not easy, especially for the descendants of colonizers to unpack the deeply-rooted “training technique” that has always been used as a strategy to uphold the worldwide stranglehold of white supremacy and oppression. On the flip side it is very courageous of the people to become more empowered by utilizing our voices-to be the change this world needs and no longer shall we wait in bloody vain for the “unjust” to create the change on the people’s behalf because it is a suicidal way of thinking and unrealistic. All that said- Power to the People!

CR Queennandi Xsheba PNN KEXU

528 years, 22 years and all of our lives of endless struggle....Poor People built this with a poem- a poem that wound thru shelter beds and tents, poLice sweeps and the lie of rent....

Dear Loving Family/ComeUnity,

We are writing to you with love, gratitude and tears of unbelieving in our hearts that us poor, houseless, incarcerated, disabled and indigenous peoples got this far in building Homefulness. We need your help to make sure that 9 more houseless, indigenous families and disabled elders become homeful and we finish Phase #6. (Donate Here or poor-magazine on Venmo)

Herstory

A dream that started on a shelter bed, park bench, bus shelter and backseat of a car by two houseless indigenous women is made into a reality....now here we are....living into , breathing into Phase #6 and we are asking for support to finalize each unit- so more houseless families can move in and be HOMEFUL- WE NEED appliances, floors, light switches, etc- each family slated to move in is already helping to make this happen- from painting days to writing the Peoples Manifesto and working on healing from krapitalist violence that seems to never end.

Meanwhile since the ongoing violence of poverty, PoLice murder, poltricks and Covid19 rages on- POOR Magazine expanded our weekly Sliding Scale Cafe on BlackArthur to Mercadito de Cambio (Little Market of Change) and ongoing #RoofLESSRadio which has been sharing food and supplies since 2011 and is now sharing masks and hand sanitizers two days a week in addition to resources and food in encampments with our brothers and sisters in Oakland and San Francisco. All of this happens with the help of the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations which is supporting over 700 families a week with diapers, food, masks and love and have 120 families on the wait-list to receive diapers from the Po Mamaz Diaper Fund- We have published two powerful books and led PeopleSKool on Zoom, We have launched a Homefulness #2 liberation. 

This year there has been so much liberation and so much sorrow, prayer love and struggle. We hold all of you in hearts for standing with us, walking with us and changing/transforming with us... WE are still here! ....And none of this would have happened without your ongoing love and redistribution -

Lifting us all up in prayer for the next year to come!!!!!   

In Love and Struggle, POOR Magazine Family- 

Avan was a teenager with a kind soul who was alone and houseless. He lived in a tent in San Francisco and struggled greatly trying to navigate the winding road called life. According to his close friends he barely had any family support nor guidance, so he had to learn how to take care of himself, which was a difficult task because after all, he was just a kid. It was said that earlier this month he was near his tent and allegedly fell off a cliff, suffered a severe head injury and drowned in the freezing bay water. Avan’s friends were having a hard time accepting the alleged “freak accident” calling the fall “suspicious” and “not taken seriously.”

A candlelight vigil was held for the teen by the water and many of his peers and family members attended to honor Avan. Although there were mixed feelings about how he was casted out and forced to fend for himself, his friends remained respectful to the elders and other folks who had allegedly forgotten about him.

Unfortunately, It is difficult to obtain stability in an unstable nation and it doesn’t matter if you are a man, woman, child or elder. What is the real slap in the face is that the “powers that be” deliberately cut budgets and push the need for basic human rights on the back burner with a blazing flame. Many people have lost their jobs, homes, dignity and even their lives relying on a “Sssystem” that has shown us time and time again that we are nothing but “expendable assets”

But what happens to the kids that have no one to support them?  What about the youth who have been shuffled around from foster home to foster home only to be given the boot at the age of 18, under the “maxed out, ass out” protocol? Many of these youngsters wind up in the streets engaging in any activity that encourages self-medication and self-criminalization thus further desensitizing any part of the being that is human only to be blamed by those who have contributed in one way or another to the hell we are all catching.

It is the hell of seeing young folks give up on life completely after trying to hold down a job while living in a car because the rent is unaffordable, only to end up dying in a doorway from a drug overdose. Or the young female who is easily misguided by a “wolf in sheep's clothing” because she never had anyone in her whole life teach her about her worthiness so she bends to the will of those who exploit her just to have a meal and a roof over her head. 

These scenarios mentioned are all too common nowadays with not only the youth but full-grown adults as well. When you throw in the pandemic and the hopes of politicians passing a vote that won’t allow the people to starve to death that is enough nail-biting stress within itself.

Insead of it being against the law for folks to be poor and houseless, it should be illegal to have legislation put in place that allows for children to become houseless in the first place- and in some states removed from their families because of poverty. It also should be illegal to incarcerate kids just because their elders want to come to a “great country” to make a so-called “better life” for the generations that are to come- after all, Angelina Jolie cannot adopt all of the children.

“I’m starting to think that the rich in the world is safe, while the po’ babies resting in a early grave”- Tupac Shakur

CR- Queennandi Xsheba PNN KEXU

The recent shooting in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district on June 22nd that left several people wounded was a sad reminder that even with the pandemic of covid-19 running rampant amongst us there is always room for not only police brutality, but for community violence. It’s horrible enough that we hold on to our families with paralyzing fear of police terror, we also have been cornered by a few unconscious folks from our very own communities that traumatizes us as well. 

In our hoods, there has been violence committed against elders at random, assaults on minors by adults and way too many unnecessary brawls where in some cases elders have egged on the youngsters, instigating fights that could have been avoided. Calling the police to deal with some of the issues had proven to be an epic fail as testimony from those in the community ranged from being treated fairly by very few authorities, to being made to feel inferior by officers who didn’t take the situation seriously and in one case, a cop smirked at a resident because he thought that the person was faking an injury. The question is what do you do when you have community conflict but no confidence in an institution that has taken an oath to protect and serve you? Who can broken people turn to when we cannot rely on a broken system that BROKE all of our spirits in the first place? How do you solve problems within the hood with only the input of just the hood?

Indeed there was a time when strong, fierce but wise elders had taken on the duty of being the mediators and regulators in the neighborhood and the younger generation did not show disrespect to the solutions the elders set forth, nor did we disobey them. If there were serious offences then the fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins and grandfathers would stand up as enforcers to ensure everyone’s safety. Everyone came together to guide the children in the right direction and no crime a youngster had done, especially in the presence of an elder went unpunished. Young girls rarely went out after dark without being accompanied by a male relative and we were taught to be an upgrade from the previous generation by not following in the footsteps of the elders’ shortcomings. Unfortunately that way of life slid through the cracks of community responsibility and has gotten lost.

Police departments from California to Georgia have been catching heat for the recent deaths of unarmed black citizens and others of universal majority and poverty status. Protests erupted across the nation and worldwide condemning a crime that has been committed against black folks since the kidnapping of our Ancestors from the motherland centuries ago. However, if

we are to address the violence our neighborhoods endure, we have to go across the whole board and name every angle whether it be a cop or a miseducated knucklehead that affects our communities and our lives. To turn the other cheek to the crimes that are being committed against us out of fear only enables wrongdoers, no matter who they are, to stagnate progress and continue to violate us with impunity.

As far as the hood goes, I overstand that there is an indescribable amount of pain, trauma, anger, tragedy, ptsd (post traumatic stress disorder AND post traumatic slave disorder), poverty, death, addiction and homelessness but the fact is that we must come together collectively and heal from these community ailments. We must re-learn to unpack the generational layers of inhumane treatment that have some folks possessing the mindstate of beastiality similar to the oppressors. Educate the children with wisdom and teach them right from wrong, skool them on why it is important that we show up in large masses whenever there is an issue of unjust instead of showing up by the dozens to spectate a boxing match. It is a difficult task but with a deep breath and logical thinking it can be accomplished.

Queennandi

Growing up, as my Mama's Sun and a formerly houseless student of a revolutionary school called Deecolonize Academy, I have read many books about the true history of the United States, one that until recently, wasn't eagerly taught by our country's public education system. I have heard stories time and time again of the man who discovered the place I live in today, and the many ways he tortured innocent indigenous people from all over the world. I learned about what came after, the brutal colonization of this land, and the slaves from another land that were brought here to build this civilization. However, hearing it in this fashion, with the words soaking into my brain as easily as water does into a paper towel, made it all the more easier to understand, and the different information being displayed far easier to understand than before. Mumia Abu-Jamal didn’t only tell the now widely known story of colonization and genocide, no, he went in depth in the philosophies behind the men and women who committed these atrocities. He examined these philosophies and used them to connect with the conflicts against poor people and people of color in modern day United States.

I have a wealth of political consciousness, and a lot in this book I was already aware of. However, with everything, there were some amazing teachings that I soaked up from this book, like the history of the Aryan race. The myth was that the Aryans, originating in what is now known as Iran, (Iran deriving from the word Aryan) were a blond haired, blue eyed, unusually intelligent and strongly built race of people who was a natural “civilizer” a conqueror. As time continued, the aryans made the mistake of mixing with non-whites, and creating a crossbreed that was shunned and looked upon with disgust. This is what has dominated the collective consciousness of white colonizers for millenia, one of its most famous representatives and believers being the german politician Adolf Hitler, who sought out the return of the pure race, the aryans of old.

The bastard childs of the pure aryan race were born, as the story is told, and through the ashes rose a new civilization, one advanced, conquering nation called the Teutons, or as I like to think of them, Aryan 2.0. Theodore Roosevelt, the 27th president of the USA, in a speech in 1906, stated that “ the world would have halted had it not been for the Teutonic conquests on alien lands”. The idea of the white conqueror, coming to civilize new and foreign lands with their presence is the idea that America is founded upon. The story about the Aryan race sets the foundation for the reasoning that 16th to 19th to 21st century colonizers had to rape indigenous land and people, steal their culture, and never stop. Mumia weaves these intricate and in-depth facts about history that give an interesting insight on how colonized thinking went on in the beginning, and how it continues to show its face in the modern day.     

In 1865, slavery was offically abolished in the United States. Abraham Lincoln single-handedly destroyed one of its biggest money making industries. Most of the people who led that industry ran the country, and influenced the passing of the bill that outlawed slavery, the 13th amendment, by adding things to it. They added that slavery wouldn’t take place “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This in turn created a whole new money making system for this country, the prison industrial system. People who are imprisoned work in slave-like conditions for the country, and in doing so create substantial revenue for it. Production of clothing, food development, recycling, and furniture production are a few modern factories that are run in prisons, but in California, a state known for its wildfires, the main prison occupation is firefighting.

California has been very good at its firefighting business, due to the fact that 60% of its firefighters are paid at most 1.15 USD an hour, and are bound by the prison system. Given the same training and stricter supervision than official firefighters, detained firefighters work for years for slave-like profits to get time off their sentences. After they are released, because of the criminal charge on their record, fire stations don't take them in and they are left with years of experience going to waste. In a time when forest fires are stronger than ever, California needed to make a change.

“CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform. Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter. Today, I signed #AB2147 that will fix that.” Those were the words of California's Governor Gavin Newsom, on the new bill he signed. Many people believe this is a step in the right direction, however, many more know that he has the power to completely dismantle the prison slave labor system in California, and is only putting this law into place because of necessity. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many different people in different ways. In the case of the prisons, hundreds of inmates are dying because of improper management of these incarceration systems. Because of this, most prison inmates cannot fight fire on the front lines, and fires have raged in California further and less controlled than in recent years. One of the things that bother me about this, among the many civil and human rights violations, is the handling of COVID-19 in prison systems. I’m no genius, but I feel that with this whole outbreak, the prison systems could have improved drastically the way they handled COVID-19 in their penitentiaries.

In the constitution, declared by the 13th amendment, slavery was never officially abolished in the United States. For the past 100+ years the loophole of slavery being allowed in our prison system has served companies and the country in general very well. However, once a virus that doesn't allow them to use these slaves to the utmost breaks out, they need to pass a law giving those slaves and former slaves rights. The government of California is clearing the records of many reformed and most often not even guilty individuals who have put in years of work, but not paying them for the work they did. They are treating this small gift as an unbelievable act of kindness and not something that should have never needed to be done in the first place.    

This summer's People Skool for people with race, class and/or formal education privilege is coming up on August 29 and 30th! This workshop is aimed at service providers, media creators, educators, organizers, researchers, artists, legislators, policy-makers, donors/philanthropists, students, community members- anyone who wants to learn about following Black, Indigenous POC and poor leadership and aligning your work with poor people-led self determination movements. 

Fill out the application here or go to racepovertymediajustice.org to download a paper application and learn more. Please fill out the application by Tuesday August 25!

(please note- the application is long- it is the first step in the learning of this workshop, and includes reflecting on your life and circumstances).

Contact deeandtiny@poormagazine.org if you have questions, or if you want to find out about People Skool for poverty skolaz)

I'm Ziair and in my neighborhood West Oakland, hearing gun fire is normal. My brother got shot in the same hood where I live, so I really know how it is to have a family member shot. In West Oakland little kids as young as 11 have and play with guns. Kids that I hoop with carry weapons.

Me and my family have been impacted by gun violence when I lost a loved one.

Natalia Wallace, age 7 from Chicago. Natalia was “sweet, shy, loving, and good at math” said her family. In Chicago an innocent kind kid's life was taken, first degree murder. The getaway driver was found and denied bail. She was killed after being struck by a stray bullet at a family 4th of July party in the 100-block of North Latrobe Avenue.

Natalia was playing on a sidewalk when police said three armed men got out of a white car and fired more than 20 times in the direction of the people holding the party that police said included many children  Natalia was killed while playing with her cousins In a yard In the Austin neighborhood.

Losing my brother Torian was horrible. I didn't think it was real. I thought no, not my brother.

Everybody knew him and he knew everybody but some envied. Torian was killed by a black on black crime. He died in a park. Iit was traumatizing for me because my brother smiled at me while he was in the emergency car at the same time slowly dying. It really hurt me. I never knew somebody that close would die ,little did I know that would be the last time I would see him.

In the year 2020, we have been experiencing the terror of these recent forest fires. The United states has so many firefighters engaging the heat but they now have become stretched thin. With these new fires our government has introduced new incarcerated fire fighters, and have now gotten backlash for their compensation of these new firefighters, some saying it is a new form of slavery.

Another problem is how most of these incarcerated fire fighters when they are released, most because of their rap-sheet cannot get a job as a firefighter. Brandon Smith, a formerly incarcerated firefighter, says he was making $57 a month, while the average firefighter was making $37,000 a year.

On January 31, 1865 the thirteenth amendment was made in order to abolish slavery, under this act slavery could only be used as a form of punishment to a person if they did a crime. Though you can see this amendment does not age well especially for these inmates who are trying to survive the fires themselves, same as regular fire fighters, with very little payoff.

Recently Gavin Newsom Governor of California has approved of a new law that will help incarcerated firefighters get a job in the world. This law is called AB 2147, and it is meant to help incarcerated firefighters by expunging them of their criminal records. Meaning they will wipe the slate clean from these people’s plates so they could get another meal for themselves and their families.

For me these people are my heroes. People that did something now trying to do something good. But while most of these inmates have the intentions of doing their job in good will, the corporations like the penitentiary institutions systems are trying to make as much money as possible off of people's heads. If giving a payout of only 57 cents an hour is a strategy, they’ll take it.

Image: Secoriea Turner
 

Over the course of my life, I have learned much about guns while laying in bed. I learned that there are guns that fire really quickly, but don't make a lot of noise. Those are light machine guns. I can usually only hear those when I concentrate. I also learned about the louder guns, the ones that usually follow up with screams of terror, and those are assault rifles. Finally, one of the least common that I hear are shotguns, which have a really loud boom and after four or five rounds created a silence that seems as if time itself stopped in that moment. 

The sounds at night that I hear are sounds of gun violence. People being killed, families losing a loved one, and faces being put on t-shirts aren't a rarity in neighborhoods like the one I live in, and in the night I can hear all of it. These days, gun violence doesn't have rules. There is no “don't harm women or children” any more. Whoever stands in the way of the barrel is killed. 

Over the July 4th weekend, as we all know, there are an abundance of fireworks being lit. This allows for far more gun violence and crimes using guns to be committed unchecked. That is how Secoriea Turner was killed in Atlanta on July 5th, only 4 days before this was written. Turner was killed while in the backseat of a car with her mother that was going towards her cousin's house. It was an act of senseless violence against a car amidst anger caused by the murder of Rayshard Brooks by police officers in front of a Wendy’s in that area. 

“Nobody helped me, I prayed to God and He didn’t help me. My baby died in my arms.”

Those were the words of Secoriea’s mother Charmaine, who fortunately was not severely injured by the gunshots. I have heard many cases like these in neighborhoods like mine, and they break my heart every single time. In all of the neighborhoods I have lived in there have been countless unnecessary deaths of people in the community, whether due to gang violence, stray bullets, domestic violence but most of all police brutality, and not in the ways that many might think. 

There have been many cases I've seen or heard of where the government provided ammunition and/or drugs to gangs to keep them fighting. Police officers would cause wars between gangs by telling one that another said this, and so on. This is police brutality. Many of these cases where the police interfered to harm the community have caused many of these deaths. In this case, I am not aware of the specifics as to why they opened fire on the car Secoriae was in, but I am aware that it had some connection to the murder of Rayshard Brooks, who was killed by the police less than a month earlier.

These neighborhoods that I grew up in aren't filled with so much violence and hate for no reason. When cities were first being mapped out, the rich white owners would use a process called redlining to section off specific areas of the city reserved for black and brown people. Those areas would purposefully have reduced funding for schools, city management, and if you are from there you would have a smaller chance at a job going forward. This is institutionalized racism that continues to this day, and has caused so much pain and hurt to powerful people, by encouraging and teaching them to hurt themselves and each other.  

Oakland Implements Apartheid for Unhoused Residents 

At yesterdays Oakland city council meeting the extremely dangerous Encampment Management Policy was unanimously approved, which will result in the forced removal, further criminalization, poLicing and even death of hundreds of unhoused residents from safe places to rest, sleep and live.

"This is the implementation of apartheid for the poorest Oakland residents, the violent war ON our poor bodies continues, and has now become more deadly, "said Tiny Garcia, formelry houseless co-founder of Homefulness. "From Shannon Marie Bigley to Desireee Quintero when our unhoused bodies are removed from safe places to rest we face death," Tiny concluded.

In addition as reported and witnessed by houseless RoofLESS radio reporters in Oakland, " This ban was being implemented before it was voted on, we have already been swept from most streets in Oakland " said Joh Rogers Jr, a houseless, long-time Oakland resident.

"The people voting on this evil law have never felt poverty, hunger, struggle, or they wouldnt be voting to approve this," said Aunti Frances Moore, co-founder of the Self-Help Hunger Program and Homefulness.

All of the houseless and formerly houseless, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled youth, families and elders that comprise the liberated villages of Homefulness, POOR Magazine and Deecolonize Academy  hereby demands the immediate release of hundreds of acres of hoarded and stolen land in the City of Oakland be granted to homeless Oakland residents, majority of whom are long-time Oakland residents who lost their homes through gentrification, poltrickster, colonial policies, eviction, speculation, police predation, harassment and ongoing attacks on poor Black, Brown, Disabled and Indigenous Oaklanders. We are demanding these immediate land grants so houseless peoples can build their own self-determined solutions to homelessness like Wood Street Collective, Homefulness and the Self-Help Hunger Program 

"Ban capitalism!!! How the fuck they think encampments started. My people lived in “encampments “ before colonization, they were called villages! Homelessness was not a concept in our territories 200 yrs ago and they call this progress?! If they’re going to outlaw them then house everyone!", said Corrina Gould, Lisjan/Ohlone land liberator, co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust and co-founder of Homefulness

"With Oaklands new Encampment Management Policy, we are going to see the same things happen as they have in the history of the Bay Area, continuing the forceful removal of people who have nowhere else to go and are just trying to survive..." said Tiburcio ,17 year old, formerly houseless youth resident of Homefulness and student at Deecolonize Academy

"These encampments weren't here before because people had their homes, but now we have all been gentrified and the city is trying to get rid off all homeless people, that not the solution they should get homeless people homes so folks can get some rest also for the children and elders shoudn;t be on the streets. " sais Amir Cornish, 17 year old formerly houseless student at Deecolonzie Academy.

This new policy is the redlining of homeless people and will put people in danger of more arrests and criminalization. These policies have always been around it’s just this time we have a name to call it and certainly nothing under the sun , said Kimo Umu, 17 year old formerly houseless student of Deecolonzie Academy

"This new policy is another attack to people already in struggle. Policies and Laws clearly aren't made to help they just solidify the power that the colonizers already have. One has to create their own solutions like we have manifested at Homefulness," said Akil Carrillo, 17, youth poverty skola at Deecolonize Academy

“We pay your salaries and you have your assault rifles ready to shoot us unarmed protesters!?!? Stop paying them, people!” A poverty skolar shouted from the crowd where about 100 people had gathered in front of the Tenderloin police station in SF to speak up against police terror, murder and blantant brutality that is swiftly plauging many states in the nation once again.

 Worldwide unrest opposing the murders of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Atatiana Jefferson

and Ahmaud Arbery will not “quiet down” anytime soon, nor should it, because as long as the

police perpetuate a form of domestic terrorism our voices shall be heard in unison demanding

justice for our murdered loved ones.

While president trump was at a rally in Arizona making up racist names to replace the name of

“co-vid” Rayshard Brooks was being laid to rest in a private celebration of life service in Atlanta

and people including young students took to the streets in Berkeley and San Francisco in

opposition of police terror.

Protesters that were at the Tenderloin police station had also called out the constant

criminalization of the homeless in the city by police and other officials citing that power washing

away poor people’s tents without having adequate resources available for those in need with

housing, mental health and substance abuse problems is not the solution to the houseless

epidemic but to support those in crisis during the covid pandemic and not leave people in the

streets basically to die.

The demand was to cease the abundance of funding to police departments and take some of

the financial resources and redirect them into more programs that would serve the communities’

needs such as education, healthcare, affordable housing, mental/drug treatment programs and

most of all - equal opportunity.

“Every time there is a crisis or a state of emergency due to a disaster, poor people’s lives are

always looked over and swept under the rug” said one protester. “Our lives do not matter not

only when it comes down to the police, but the system as a whole.”, Some folks argue that if the police departments were to be defunded, that the crime rate will hit the roof because there would be no police officers to serve and protect the citizens. Unfortunately not every cop on the job “protects and serves” unless they are protecting more affluent neighborhoods and serving impoverished folks with the butt of their billy clubs-or worse.

The excuse of police brutality victims engaging in alleged criminal activities is played out and

does not give authorities the right to hand out death sentences, with that said the criminal

activity amongst police departments must be called out indefinitely because criminals in uniform do not deserve one red cent from the very people that they (police) oppress and kill on a daily

basis.

The severe discord between the police and the black community has its history of not only

brutality, but fear itself because who in the community would dare call a cop when the chief

himself was the grand dragon of the KKK? The deep-seeded racism that “kept colored folk in

their places” is also a tactic that conditioned black communities and other communities of color

to become complacent with being victimized and refusing to report crimes out of fear of being

killed and nowadays, deported and with that layer added we have a long way to go.

On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin had just purchased a pack of skittles in his hometown of Sanford Florida. This normal act of buying a snack at the convenience store was the last luxury of his life. As Trayvon was walking through the gated community of Twin Lakes, he was spotted by George Zimmermen, which resulted in a physical and fatal confrontation. This event very deeply affected me as a younger child in the 5th grade and still does till this day.

When Trayvon passed on the night of his murrder, he was only 17 years old. Earlier that night he was strolling through the neighborhood of Twin Lakes. He had just finished leaving the local 7-11 not too far from his father’s fiance's house. Trayvon had just bought a bag of skittles which he was holding in his hoodie while walking back to his home.

The majority of news outlets and case reports say that at 7:09 George Zimmmermen was running some errands and decided to drive through the Twin Lake neighborhood. According to his testimony George Zimmermen saw a dark silhouette he did not recognize in the neighborhood. Frightened, George decided to rely on his neighborhood watch training and called the police.

When he called he gave the description of a black male with a grey hoodie on. George, while on the phone call, says ‘’these a$$holes are always getting away.’’ At this moment George lost sight of Trayvon. George, still being on the call, tries to pursue the last location of Trayvon, which was in between the buildings of Twin Lake.

George Zimmermen, still on the phone, was told by police to wait at some mail boxes nearby. Instead of complying with the Police Department, he then proceeded to go towards Trayvon Martin. This is when Trayvon was shot once by George Zimmerman by the concealed weapon he carried.

When reading the story of Trayvon Martin, I think about the fact that i am 17 years old. I’m a part of a majority that is affected by this. How police department’s usually target youth around this age and even younger, with cases like Tamir Rice, where 2 years later he would be shot and killed in Cleveland, Ohio for carrying a toy gun.

These systems of jail are set up from the beginning. Our schools are known to have a system targeting troubled youth. The amount of money for just 1 inmate even for a juvenile is 50,000$. I know this from past experience being that I was once a troubled youth as well, but fortunately I had the grace of coming home with intentions of becoming better from the experience.

Image: Eric Garner

On July 17th, 2014 Eric Garner died in New York City. He was selling single cigarettes from packs. Suddenly a NYPD officer put him in a chokehold while he was being arrested.

He said "I can't breathe" relating to George Floyd which relates to me because I have asthma and sometimes I can’t even get a breath, I know how it feels.

It was made illegal in New York for police to do a chokehold in 1993.

This story takes me to when my mom was picking me and my brother up from school and  she was harassed by the police. This has happened before, she was assaulted by the police. Every time my innocent mom sees the cops she has anxiety. When cops are outside my mom couldn’t even walk out or my mom would have flashbacks. 

As a black child I was scared because “they don't see you as a child they see you as a man” said by moma Tiny. Corrupt cops are really an issue. Last week a guy from my neighborhood almost died, but thankfully the whole community was there and were screaming “don't shoot’. He had his hands up and was doing everything they were telling him to. But then again the cops just wanted to shoot for fun and this isn't nothing new for the cops, this is a routine.

Eric was a peaceful man with a different hustle and way of “gettin it.” He was married and his friends would call him the neighborhood peace maker. He was the father of six children, had three grandchildren, and at the time of his death had a 3-month-old child. 

In conclusion the only way a black man will not get killed is by fitting in and being a gentrifier and we still get killed to this day. Peace and love to Garner's family. If you were raised in the hood and black you would feel this pain. Good bye.

I dream of the days where I will be writing about all the good news that is yet to come. When the headlines are “Poverty has ended!” “Racism is no More!” But here I am writing about another policy passed to oppress the poor even more. This new policy is called “Encampment Management Policy.” The policy bans tents from being within 150 feet of schools and 50 feet from homes, businesses, playgrounds, parks and other recreation areas. 

City Councilman Noel Gallo said that he is frustrated by the camps, tents and trash. His solution to it is to move it all out of sight. This doesn't really solve anything; it just allows more sweeps and restrictions to homelessness  Dale from the United Front Against Displacement said this about the new policy “It doesn't actually do anything to address the needs people have Because that's not what it's intended to do.”

Deecolonize Academy went to visit an encampment at Wood Street in Oakland. This lot has been receiving lots of harassment, officially and unofficially. They've gotten eviction notices and also secret police raids. The lot is owned by wealth hoarder Fred B. Craves who got lotsa of his money by finding new ways to produce fish oil. He had said that he wants to turn the lot into a safe rv lot but after watching the construction workers mark the floor and some research, it turns out he wants to turn it into a research facility. The marks the construction workers had done were marks that implied a whole building was gonna be built instead of just providing resources for a rv lot.

RV lots aren't a solution anyway, there is a RV lot close to this encampment at 34th and wood st and it's not any better. People there get served spoiled food, porta potties are not maintained, they have restrictions in what they can bring and they have a curfew. The gate is locked between 4pm-10am making the rv lot a cage.

This new policy is another attack on people in struggle. Laws won't be on our side as long as colonizers, wealth hoarders, politricksters and Klan members rule this system. We aren't represented in this system and it's something that has to change. Policies and Laws clearly aren't made to help they just solidify the power that the colonizers already have. One has to create their own solutions, not wait for others to give them to you.

I am Tiburcio Garcia, a formerly homeless youth who goes to school at Deecolonize Academy. I am someone who is able to gaze along the spectrum of class, walking a fine line between privilege and poverty. I have privilege in so many ways, a loving, kind, mother who constantly supports and educates me, a community to lift me up immediately when I fall, friends who have my back, and a healthy relationship which on my part is due to the mannerly way I was raised. However, in the eyes of this government and many others, I am seen as someone with hardly anything, struggling to survive. That’s why the project that was started by my mother, grandmother and everyone else at POOR Magazine is so important to me. That project is called Homefulness, and it's what's making sure me and my mother aren't homeless to this day.

Homefulness is a poor peoples solution to homelessness, and we are starting another one. July 21, a day that is divisible by 3, was the day that we decided to start on the second version based off of the template of the original Homefulness, only two blocks down. I can still feel the grass snaking around my ankle and the weeds and vines getting stuck to my gloves. The air was saturated with pollen, and the sounds of weed whackers in the background were blending with the noise of cars passing by and multiple conversations. After a couple of minutes of hard work, pulling up grass and snipping particularly vicious fennel, I started to feel the sweat from my hair run down my back, and the hairs on my arm crisping. It was a “I need water right now even though I had a cup 5 minutes ago” day, and all of the students of the summer camp we were attending were working hard next to other residents of homefulness and members of POOR Magazine.

This land that Homefulness resides on isn't an ordinary plot, and those weeds that we were cutting were going to disappear eventually because without our intervention that innocent half-pavement, half overgrown lot would have spelled doom for our community. We originally found out about this land while doing our Hoarded Mama Earth and Community Reparations research, and we later found out that land would have become 20 luxury condominiums, bringing in a hoard of gentrifiers that would have completely changed the ecosystem of this environment, just like it did in the city I was born and raised in, San Francisco, and eventually had to move out of due to eviction caused by that gentrification. 

I am formerly houseless, and in the eyes of the system, I am not privileged in the slightest. I don't see that. I know I am one of the most privileged people on this -planet, because I actually get to shape history as it progresses. I am young, but I get to be a part of a project that will house thousands of families just like mine all over the world one day. On that day July 21, I got to lay the groundwork for Homefulness 2, the second homeless peoples solution to homelessness that will very well house and give privilege to kids just like it did for me.