Co-editor's note: The Following series of poverty journalism or what we at PNN call Revolutionary Blogs are from the multi-lingual multi-racial, youth, adult and elder poverty skolar students in POOR Magazine's PeopleSkool Summer Revolutionary Youth Media Education (RYME) program, We are all speaking from our personal experiences with poverty, police brutality, racism, profiling and border fascism. We are speaking for ourselves as poor peoples, indigenous peoples, migrant peoples, and revolutionaries, because mainstream media lies about us and so we must tell our own stories in our own voices. This is our un-pimped, off-plantation form of what we call We-Search (Poor People-led Research) about the new Stop N Frisk proposal put forth by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, a racist piece of legislation that has made me, Tiny, re-name The City: (Stop N) Frisko- Please listen. Please spread the word - Stop N Frisk will only cause more po'lice stopping and killing!
This Legislation Does NOT help- It HURTs
by Travis, Youth Skolar/ RYME @ PNN
When I heard about the proposed legislation, stop in frisk (proposed in San Francisco by Mayor Ed Lee) it reminded me of a memory. I was coming home late from a party one night. On the way home a couple people gave me nervous looks or covered there purses as I walked by. However, they were not the last to judge me. As I made my way home minding my own business a police officer stopped me and asked what I was doing out so late. Questioned me for a while and attempted to intimidate me and then finally let me go. This legislation would not only allow, but encourage this kind of behavior.
This legislation does not help the community but instead hurts it. It would lead to people of color mistrusting both the police and the government. Instead of trying to make neighborhoods safer by racially profiling their residents, they should heal and attack crime at the source. Rather than harrassing young black and latino men they should give us jobs. They should give us an educational opportunity to escape our impoverished environments.
The Perfect Target for Stop N Frisk
Phillip Standing Bear/Indigenous Youth Skolar- RYME@ PNN
I am Phillip Standing Bear, descendant of a revolutionary generation from the days of Crazy Horse and Black Elk, who were the first to try to stop the colonization of other people’s lands. Everything about me (as I have been told), my demeanor, stance, look and walk all point towards a revolutionary individual, who would be the perfect target for San Francisco’s proposed “Stop-and-Frisk” legislation.
Being a young light- skinned native made me a target in my own homelands of Pine Ridge, SD. One day, coming back to the emergency shelter from Sioux Nation grocery store. I was stopped by the tribal po’lice for being young and “out-of-place” as he put it. Regarding the fact that he thought that I was one of the local ranch boys, he tried to harass me and say he was going to take me “where I belonged”. Without any knowledge of who I was or where I truly belonged, I backhanded him and ran as fast as I could back to the emergency shelter.
With any po’lice law having to do with arbitrary decisions, comes stereotyping of an individual. As Eddy Zheng, Project Manager at Motivating Youth to Succeed, said “Instead of Stop-and-Frisk, let’s Stop-and Educate.”
If instead that tribal officer had been educated on who I am or where I came from, he may not have had the motivation to try and harass me.
Soy Pobre/Soy Inmigrante/I am Poor- I am an immigrant
By Nana/Migrant and Poverty Skolar
Scroll down for English
Hola soy Nana, soy Latina, soy inmigrante, soy una mujer de 23 anos, soy lesbiana, soy
un ser humano, soy el ave en la jaula del zoologico, soy igual a todos los demas aunque
piensen que no. Soy aquella mujer que camina pensativa y angustiada ante la amenaza
de la posible aceptacion de la ley Stop And Frisk. Posibilidad que me afirma una vez
mas que no estamos haciendo historia, que los derechos no han avanzado, solo estamos
viendo como el gobierno nos pone en un circulo en el que el Americano de color siempre
sera esclavisado, visto como una “especie inferior”, haciendo de lado que somos todos
iguales.
Cuando pienso en este proyecto de ley inevitablemente siento que me afectaria al poner
en riesgo mi integridad fisica y personal; la mia y la de todos aquellos con quienes
comparto quien soy. Siento terror de pensar que un dia camino al trabajo algun policia
racista va a venir a solicitar mi ID, mi permiso para vivir aqui, cuando el haber nacido
deberia ser el unico requisito para caminar donde mis pies deseen. Que un dia corriendo,
alguien me senale de ser sospechosa solo por tener un “bronceado natural” y me haga
sentir menos, es ya un ataque a mi integridad, es ya una injusticia, es ya arbitrario.
No quiero ser tonta, pero tampoco eceptica de pensar que algun dia, ojala muy pronto
todas estas leyes, ideas de estupidos capitalistas dejen de atacarnos, y se vuelvan en
nuestro lado. Que ojala un dia se caigan las fronteras, las diferencias, los racismos, los
prejuicios. Que algun dia, ojala pronto me dejen salir de la jaula en la que me hallo, por
que asi la jaula sea de oro, no deja de ser haula, porque asi pueda entrar al mall no dejo de ser atacada, porque asi sea libre no me dejan correr. Quiero sonar que pronto seremos un 100% igualitario y no un 99% al que quieren terminar de hundir.
English follows
Hi I am Nana, I am Latina, I am a migrant, I am a 23 year old woman, I’m lesbian, I am a human being, I am a bird caged in a zoo, I am the same as everyone else even if you don’t think so. I am that woman walking thoughtfully and in frustration against the threat of accepting the law Stop and Frisk. The possibility of affirming once more that we are not making history, that our rights are not moving forward, we simply see that the government puts us back in the cycle where the American of color will always be enslaved, looked at as “inferior species,” putting aside the fact that we are all the same.
When I think of this law inevitably I feel that it would affect me and put my physical and personal integrity at risk; mine and all those with whom I share what I am. I feel terror to think that one day as I walk to work some racist cop will approach me and ask for my ID, my permission to live here, when I was born it should be the only requirement to walk where my feet say. That one day while running, someone will single me out as suspicious soley for being ”naturally brownish” and make me feel like I am less, this is an attack on my integrity, this is unjust, this is arbritrary.
I don’t want to be dumb, but I also do not want to be skeptical and think that one day, hopefully very soon all these laws, ideas of idiotic capitalists will stop attacking us, and come to our side. That one day the borders fall, the differences, the racism, the prejudgements. That one day, hopefully soon they let me free from my cage, even though it is made of gold, it remains a cage, because when I walk into the mall I am still attacked, because even being free they do not let me run. I want to dream that soon we will be 100% the same and not 99% that are being driven under.
I am more than any profile could hold
By Ayat/PNN Poverty skolar
I am who I will to be. I am far more than the information any profile could ever
hold. I am a father, poor scholar, revolutionary, a Black Seminole, and son of an every-
generation-before me freedom fighter. I have witnessed and held the voter card held by
my great-great grandmother, dated 1837, at a time when people of color didn’t vote and
simply being a person of color put you at risk for being detained and taken off the street
if you couldn’t prove you had an master/owner. The proposed stop frisk law would take
us all back to that time in history. Imagine taking a walk through your neighborhood
with your son/daughter, speaking about life, sharing thoughts and enjoying the day. Now
picture an officer stopping you because he feels a ”need to”, consider if you were asked
for I.D., both of you stopped and asked all the disrespectful questions. Not the “normal
questioning” but the dehumanizing ones saved for a time when the officer’s discretion
calls for it. The asshole’s procedure that asks. . . “is there a needle in your pocket”, “do
you have any drugs on your property”, then patted down and asked to wait while dispatch
run a check on your names for warrants, violations or unpaid tickets. Truth is that this
happens already. On a daily basses we the poor are put through this and worse “at the
discretion of the officer”. Now those who we elect for our benefit want this nightmare to
be a law or a proposed norm.
In today’s society, being a person of color can and has been a roadblock to making
it home to your family. I knew yesterday that I would risk my life for my children’s
future. I say today that it is very likely I will have to risk my life, and may loose it,
for the benefit of all our future: which is the very lives of our children live today.
All our children. All over the U.S. the people are crying from oppression and calling
for a change. This goes especially for the brutalities we suffer from those who are
here to protect us. And the answer we get is the legalization of the alienating, racist,
dehumanizing acts from the police. If you are still waiting for change instead of helping
to “BRING IT”, if you are in support of the “stop frisk proposal” you may as well wear
the badge that killed Kenneth Harding, Graham Marley or Oscar Grant.
I see alot of racism everyday in this country
By Ingrid DeLeon/Poverty and Migrant skolar de Voces de Inmigrantes en resistencia de
PNN
Scroll Down For English
Mi nombre es Ingrid de leon
Madre de 4 hijos y luchadora de la pobreza
Vivo en San Fransisco porque pienso que es un lugar santuario.
Pero me da miedo con la ley que quieren aplicar en esta Ciudad
Como la ley parar y esculcar, yo se que solo es una propuesta de ley
Pero como en los Angeles y en Nueva York asi empiezan.
Lo malo es que avemos muchas personas que venimos ullendo de nuestros paises
tenemos tanto miedo y solo aqui en San Fransisco
Nos sentimos seguros en este momento.
Pero si pasan esa ley , mi Corazon se aselera de miedo que si me ven mal bestida o por cualquier otra cosa me van a esculcar como si yo fuera una ladrona. Me da miedo no solo por mi sino por toda mi rasa Latina porque la mayoria no nos bestimos con ropa de marca o sea con traje de bestir nos bestimos umilde mente porque tenemos familias que mantener o por el trabajo que tenemos que hacer. Los trabajos que los latinos hacemos no lo hacen los gringos, yo lo se porque los latinos no nos rajamos por un trabajo pesado. Qreo que si esta ley pasara mucha gente se quedaria enserrada en su casa.
Yo beo mucho rasismo cada dia en este pais
Y no megusta nada la idea de esta ley porque la gente ba vibir como ratones escondiendose del gato en esta bella Siudad
Espero que no se aga realidad la ley parar y esculcar porque si pasa esta ley el rasismo asia la gentee de color seria peor
English Follows
My name is Ingrid Deleon
Mother of four children
Fighter against poverty
I live in San Francsico, because I thought this was a sanctuary city.
But I am filled with fear about the law that they are trying to pass in this city/.
Like the law Stop and Frisk, I know it is only a law proposition. But like in Los Angeles and new york this is how it starts, and the bad thing is that there are a lot of people that come here seeking refuge from our countries and we are very scared and here in San Francisco we feel safe … until now.
If this law passes , my heart speeds up from the fear that if they see me not well dressed or for whatever reason they decide, the police will want to frisk me as if I was a thief, I am scared not just for myself but for all my people of color, because the majority of us do not dress with designer clothes or have fancy suits, we dress humbly because we have family members to care for or for the jobs we have to do. The jobs that us Latino people take the many white people will never do, I know this because we never give up regardless of the difficulty of a job. I think that if this law passes, a lot of people will keep themselves looked up inside their own home. I see a lot of racism every day in this country and I do not like the Idea of this law, because people will end up living like mice hiding from the big cat in this lovely city. I wait and hope that this “Stop and frisk” law does not become a reality, because if it does the racism toward the people of color is going to get worst.
A Target
By Maria Machetes/Poverty y migrant skolar de PNN
Scroll down for English
Como afectaria mi vida si la ley de “Te Paro y Te Esculco” llegara a ser promulgada
como una ley…
Como mujer de color Latina indigena inmigrante del barrio de la Mission en San Franciso
tengo el derecho de longebidad como para poder decir y senalar que la policia es un
elemento del gobierno que nuestros ninios pequenios ya temen, las mamas cuando los
miran serca se sienten nerviosas y nuestros jornaleros actuan ansiosos sin saber que o
cual sera la reaccion del policia al rededor de nosotros. Cada vez que una patruya pasa
o un policia aparese se vuelve obvio que la opresion es injusta porque ellos se quieren
sentir heroes pero la realidad es que los vemos y sentimos como antagonistas de nuestra
comunidad y no como aliados, porque entre el gobiernos mas nos emprobrece mas los
convence de que nuestra pobreza es delincuencia y no consecuencia de la oprtesion
ejercida por cientos y cientos de Colonizacion.
El nerviosismo cuando un azul aparese es inegable. Todo lo que nos representa como
cultura paresisera ser parte de la lista de “discrecion”, han venido practicando esta
ley desde antes. Recuerdas en el 2008 aqui en la Mission, nuestros ninios marchando
pidiendo a la policia que ya no Marginen y senalen a sus papas como criminales, nuestros
ninios pintaron en Dibujos imagines que representaban a los policies locales golpeando y
detenedno y disparando a sus papas y mamas, marchamos de la plaza 16 a la estacion de
Policia , Yo y muchas familias nos vimos afectados para siempre por los experimentos de
practica activa , usaron nuestro barrio para “Practicar una possible ley” nos maltratan y
abusan mientras practican para que nuestra reaccion de enojo haga parescer a los demas
que la le yes necesaria porque paresiera que ser pobre biene con el sinonimo de enojado!,
practican con nuestros padres y hermanas como si fueramos animals, despues de practicar
les dap or aplicar la ley! Aplicar , Practicar y Editar , mientras la policia aplica y practica
esta possible ley nootros la vivimos con la piel y todas las caracteristicas a discrecion
que por mas discretas que las quieran plantear siguen siendo las mismas por las que nos
dividen y nos hacen sentry mal, existir , ser pobre, no ser limpiamente blanco obvimente
academico, siendo yo la mujer Latina inmmigrante lesbiana despapelora y actista que
soy estoy en la lista discreta de sus perfiles discretos , esta ley no me afecta me margina,
me exclaviza , me hace la presa del cazador, la calle es el bosque , yo soy la caperucita
y ellos son el lobo disfrazado de abuelita!, me afecta a salir a la calle pues paresiera que
estan esperando a que salga para meterme a la carcel, bajo discrecion de su miedo a que
yo posiblemente sea delincuente, discretamente se calla que la lista para ser un possible
delincuente es muy paresida discretamente a la lista de ser inmigrante, human of color,
radical tinker o solo alguien diferente a la supremasia Facista que nos rige discretamente”
Es pore so que esta ley por mas que ha sido Practicada y Aplicada ya en la Mission y
en otros barrios de San Francisco tendra que ser editada por NOSOTROS y no por uds
que discretamente no son parte del Perfil , so no patare hasta dejar claro que aquel que
no esta con nostros esta en contra de nosotros, si yo soy un delicuente por discrecion
aquellos que no ayuden seran asesinos conocidos y nosotros delicuentes discretamente
encarcelados. Por el bien a discrecion del Pueblo! Esta ley no pasara a pesar de que
practiquen con sus nuevos Poli skoolas en nuestros barrios! Tu conmigo sino entedere
que estas con el asesino.
English Follows
How the “Stop & Frisk” possible law will impact my daily Routine my regular life?
Like a Women of color, Latina decendent, indigena light skin from the mission in San
Francisco , I have the right of longevity, to have the power to speak
about the [ractice of the police in our barrio. The Police is an element of the government
that I not trust or feal secure , because I see with the years the damage that they seed in
are barrio, kids live in fear of them all the time.
Women feal nervous around them to, the day labor man in the corner is always afraid and nervous about the police presence, if
the police appear, the energy gets low & every one get nervous , even when your not part
of their supposed target, we get nervous about them. You can notice that response when
your driving your car in peace & suddenly you are close to a Polica Patrol , your body launguage
changes and we start driving with anxiety & fear of possibly breaking the law!.
It is realy sad to see the gap between the true feallings & the reality, Police’ man or women
they want to feal like heroes, but they are not , their pimps fake the truth for them, they only
have the suit to think that they are heroes but their definition of justice only serves a few.
Apparently the police decisions and stereotypes about migrant peoples is part of their list of “Discretionary law"
this p[articular “Discretionary Will” is practiced in our communities withoat telling us that they are
practicing and it is a part of "Law enforcesment. Did you remember in 2008 when we march from
the 16 street Plaza to the Mission Police Station? Did you remember our youth from the barrio speakin for
us, representing us during that peace walk? The young people draw images of the Police violating
the rights of their fathers and mothers freedom to walk withoat harassment just because
the Police needs to have a possible motive. We are not your motive, justice should be your motive.
Me and a lot of other families in the Mission will be seriously affected forever by
experimental practice of this proposed law. Now they already mistreat us , violate our basic rights , they probe us in our communities, they use our barrio like
laboratory to practice unfair laws. Then when we finally react to their
violenr and discriminatatory practice they use our anger to supposedly prove that being poor is
a synonymous with violence and bad behavior.
They practice their unfair police tactics in a real scenario like the mission, they use
me and my kids and my parents to practice their new discretionary targeting plan , so after they
use us like animals, they pretend to make us part of the solution , using other words to cause
the segregation of societies like “Stop & frisk” pretending that the police has the power
of psychic and telepathic power to determine who is a good law enforcer & who is a law
breaker.
Practicing, apply and editing, by the police applying the practice of their possible law!
We like Poor People pay the bill. They edit their law to make it seem better after they
mistreat us. Target us , Me as a lesbian or like a women of color, of like indigena who practice medicine, or like Latina activist
who don’t bealiave in criminalicing poverty, if this practice of harrasment come to be a
law I will be so afraid just to go to the streets , beacuase all that who I am is part of the list of possible targetsI will feal like caperucita Roja in the Forest! & the
Police is going to be like the wolf dressing like grant ma! .
This Possible law is already being practiced by the Police in the barrio. It is already applyied
in the pass years, so because im poor women color, a lesbian , inmigrant I have the possibility of 5 times being arrested just for my existence in
this area.
that is why i say who is not with us is against us & is literally killing us jus because we are the ones
who are poor.
Profiled for being Poor
By Bad News Bruce /Elder and Poverty Skolar
I am BRUCE ALLISON 6th generation native of `San `Francisco ,12th year experience with houselesness, force veteran, and survivor of the `Vietnam war.
The stop and frisk proposed legislation will be used to profile houseless folks for the act of being poor, in areas where they would say you don’t belong.
When I was houseless I was in the Marina,San Francisco sleeping in a park, a cop wakes me up, and says” What are you doing in this neighborhood, give your ID, grandpa….I was not doing nothing bad…I was getting some rest…the cop replied “why are you not in a shelter or a old folks homes, you have no business in this neighborhood.
I got out my phone, and call Newsom phone. If did not had call him, I would be arrested…as 90 percent of my comrades are…and are put in seniors home better know as `san Francisco jail #2…
If they pass this law other veterans, can be shot by the police by not having the proper training to deal with veterans with PTSD or battle fatigue..