Story Archives 2001

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/417/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Leroy Moore/p pElizabeth Grigsby, a Consumer Advocate of San Francisco Golden Gate Regional Center, put it straight when she said, "I'm not about to sugarcoat anything!" at the Senseless Crimes Open Forum on crimes and brutality against people with disabilities on July14th. This truth-telling turned the forum into a healing arena for the community and people with disabilities that was long overdue, and by the results of the evaluations of the forum, it needs to continue. /p pThe seed of this forum was planted in 1998 when Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization started writing for POOR Magazine on issues that face disabled people of color. After two years of writing and researching issues that touch disabled people ofbr / color we, at DAMO, noticed the issue of crimes and brutality against people with disabilities and people with mental illness, and especially against people of color who are poor, is an unspoken, deadly issue that is a reality. /p pDAMO had a vision to lift these words from its article entitled "Senseless Crimes" on Illin-N-Chillin, a column on Poor Magazine's on-line news service, and put them into action. The lead-up to this forum was a struggle for grassroots organizations with this vision, because of the lack of funding and other resources as well as the shame or "hush, hush" feelings that engulf the issue of crimes and brutality against people with disabilities. /p pHowever, July 14th came, and the Senseless Crimes Openbr / forum was a success. The Forum consisted of a diverse panel with specialists in the areas of crimes against people with disabilities and mental illness, as well as disabled advocates, parents, media organizations, advocacy organizations that represent people with disabilities and the SFPD ADA Coordinator. /p pIn the tradition of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization and Poor Magazine, the forum also used poetry to express and heal. One of the big concerns was how to connect the people with organizations and resource on this issue. With an outreach table of information, including the long-awaited Senseless Crime Booklet of articles, a list of organizations to contact and poetry taken from Illin-N-Chillin and Po' Poets column at a href="http://www.poormagazine.org" title="www.poormagazine.org"www.poormagazine.org/a, that bridge was connected./p pOne of the co-sponsors of this forum, Daniel Sorensen of Crime Victims with Disabilities Initiative of California and a parent of a young man with disabilities, opened up the forum with many shockingbr / but unfortunately true facts of crimes against people with disabilities. Ten years ago when he started this work, only two dozen individuals were working on the issue of crimes against whom he calls "The Invisible Victims!" People with disabilities, family organizations, law enforcement agencies and social service agencies were "asleep at the wheel." Today more than several hundred people across the country are working on this issue. /p pDanniel Sorensen laid out what CVDI is doing state wide through the new Crime Victims with Disabilities Specialist Grants. These grants will set up a specialist in six counties in California to do two main things:br /br / (1) to work with communities and social service agencies of people with disabilities to become aware of this issue and to increase the number of reported crimes against people with disabilities. br /br / (2)To work directly with the criminal justice system on a case by case basis to assist them to investigate, pro and try people with disabilities. /p pAll of this will take years and a massive on-going educational campaign to all avenues in California i.e. the media, the criminal justice system, law enforcement, social services, community organizations and schools. The Crime Victims with Disabilitiesbr / Initiative has the backing of Governor Gray Davis and CVDI is creating a speaker bureau on this issue to educate the public. /p pElizabeth Grigsby, consumer advocate for the Golden Gate Regional Center, brought up crimes of the unspoken abuse that goes on in some local nursing and group homes. Ms. Grigsby's strong activist voice made it clear that we as people in the community need to step up to the plate for those who are in these institutions without a voice and choice on how they live their own lives. She spoke passionately about the lack of funds for in-home support services to move people withbr / disabilities from institutions to the community. "We need more pro-active techniques like going to Sacramento and chaining ourselves to the Governor's office until he agrees to spend more money forbr / in-home-support-services.!" Elizabeth demanded. She ended with a call for people to get involved, and not to sit on the sidelines./p pWeeks before the forum Lisa and I knew that the main focus of the forum would turn into police shootings of people with mental illness and we were right because of the recent shooting of Idriss Stelley. Sergt. Michael Sullivan, the Americans with Disability Act Coordinator of San Francisco Police Department, reminded the audience that he has been working on the recent training of 20 or so police on how to approach and deal with people with mental illness. He is committed to push this training to all police officers. /p pAn audience member questioned why people know the number for the police 911 but don't know the number for a mental health crisis hotline. She recommended that police officers and mental health workers act as a team in responding to calls from a person in a mental health crisis. /p pLance Martin from the Coalition on Homeless asked "Are our values skewed when the SPCA of San Francisco built a multi-million dollar animal shelter with carpets and televisions, but people who are homeless and mentally ill are getting beaten up and shot on the street with very little outcry?" It's not only what happens on the streets, people with mental illness are also fighting sometimes their own advocacy parent organizations that are lobbying in the halls of our political arena. Martin brought this issue to the table when he talked about the pro-force treatment platform of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Sometimes people with disabilities are surrounded by advocates and organizations, and society forgets that the only people who know about their disabled sons and daughters may be their parents. /p pSonia Ricks of Family Resource Network and Harambee ofbr / Oakland claims she has earned a Masters Degree in being a mother and advocate of her African American son! She described how people view her tall, African American son with a developmental disabilities. Although her son is a good looking and talented young man many parents and teachers hold the view him as a threat. Although he, like any young man, likes to get to know girls, many parents are afraid that this tall black young man is a threat to their daughters. /p pMary Kate of Caduceus gave the open forum a new avenue on how to force the rights of people with mental illness when it comes to police shootings and mistreatment of people with mental illness. She isbr / looking at to get Department Of Justice in title two of the Americans with Disabilities. She researched the ADA and people with mental illness and noticed that people with mental illness had been left out in the coverage of the ADA. If Mary Kate is successful this will be one of the first case looking at people with mental illness and police shootings under the ADA./p pMesha Irizarry, mother of Idriss Stelley, spoke about her work on training police in addressing people with mental illness, work that reaches beyond the case of her son. She remembered a 13-year-old Samoan boy with Down syndrome who was shot by SFPD in 1988, because he had a toy gun. Mesha pledged that she is in this for the long run, and her beautiful words closed the forum. Po' Poets kept Idriss Stelley alive through their spoken word tribute. /p pIn all, the Senseless Crimes: Open Forum broke new ground and gave an arena for this drastically important issue. We at Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization and Poor Magazine are looking how to keep this forum going and how to create more action steps to solve this issue, but we need you. Please contact us with your ideas./p pb*********************************/b/p pbSenseless Crimes Open Forum: Crimes Against People with Disabilitiesbr / br /The report back/bbr / br /By Fiona Gow/p pLeroy, in the first of what will hopefully be many open forums to discuss and organize around the issue of crimes against the disabled, brought together a group of people rich in experience and insight to open up the discussion of how to end violence against the disabled. Panelists included Daniel Sorensen, chairmen of the California Victims of Crime Committee, the renowned mental health expert Mary Kate Connor of Caduceus Outreach Services, Mesha Irizarry-longtime mental health advocate and mother of Idriss Stelley, the young man who was recently shot by police, Michael Sullivan, ADA coordinator for the San Francisco Police Department, Sonia Ricks of Oakland's Family Resource Network, Elizabeth Grisgsby of Golden Gate Regional Center, Lisa Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine, Chance Martin frombr / the Coalition on Homelessness, and Diana Wolf of Critical Focus./p pA book of poems and essays about crimes against the disabled, many written in honor of Idriss Stelley, was created by the PO' Poets for this conference. The poem "Can't Rest", included in the book, gives some insight into why Leroy organized this panel and how strong his spirit is in this fight./p pICan't Restbr / I can't restbr / My disabled brothers and sistersbr / Are shot, dragged and beaten to death/i/p pSociety is scared of himbr / Big, black and mentally illbr / Take him away and give him more pills/p pI can't sleepbr / My disabled brothers and sisters are living on the streetsbr / The Americans with Disabilities Act has done nothing for me/p pListen to my life/p pGot raped in a shelterbr / Got robbed on the streetsbr / Three strikes and now I'm in prison for life/p pI can't restbr / Millions for Ed Roberts' Campusbr / Can't even get my SSI cause I have no address/p pDoes anybody carebr / Disabled youth abused in foster carebr / Segregated in school now I'm on welfare/p pMy disabled brothers and sisters are put to restbr / On the streets, in psychiatric wards and in prisonbr / But I feel their spirit and anger in my chest/p pI won't restbr / Our spirit and anger won't restbr / We won't let you rest/p pBecause the panel discussion came on the coat tails of great upsetbr / regarding the police murder of the young, mentally ill man, Idriss Stelley, I had assumed the conference would almost exclusively focus on police brutality and murder of disabled people. But the people on the panel made very clear that violence against the disabled doesn't start or stop with the police. Violence against the disabled occurs within Board and Care facilities, institutional settings, the justice system, the home, in the school system, by the medical world, etc...The natural focus lately has been on the police, because their acts of discrimination have been the most severe, the most irreparable- they have taken people's lives, but abuse is occurring everywhere. If an honest discussion is to be had about abuse ofbr / the disabled, the panel made clear that there are many people who will need to be held accountable./p pThe greatest fear people with disabilities have is of being victims of crime. Daniel Sorensen, the driving force behind the Crime Victims with Disabilities Initiative, provided some statistics on where this fear might stem from. With five million crimes a year being committed against disabled people, the disabled are 4 to 10 times more likely to be the victims of crime that is the rest of the population. Eighty-three percent of women with disabilities have been raped and 32 percent of men have. Almost 50 percent of women had been raped ten or more times. The disabled are also at an almost 13 percent greater risk for being robbed than are non-disabled people./p pNot all the abuse is violent, but its effect can be just as detrimental. Elizabeth Grigsby of the Golden Gate Regional Center spoke about how little money there is for recreational activities for the disabled. She recounted how some people are made to go to sleep at 7pm; many caretakers approach the disabled with the attitude that it's easier to turn them into a vegetable, to incapacitate them so that they won't be able to demand more of life than the right to breath. On the most basic level they are not being allowed a quality of life that is anywhere near what other people non-disabled people expect. Elizabeth said some daring has a bodacious spirit and was very forthright in stating that the community needs to express their outrage about this./p pWhy is there so much crime against the disabled? The fact that only 5 percent of crimes against the disabled are actually prosecuted is probably a big reason. As audience member and candidate for public defender Jeff Adachi stated, "Within the criminal justice system they are not second or even third class, but fourth class citizens." Because some disabled people may not be able to communicate what has happened to them they are often written off as unreliable in court. Victims may also not understand that they have been the victims of a crime and not report the crime to anyone./p pAnother point that Sorensen brought up regarding why disabled people are victimized is that many of the people who work with the disabled are totally inexperienced and unqualified to do so. Most frightening is that some people actually choose to work with the disabled because they are easy to victimize and crimes against them will probably go unreported. Care providers and family members commit fifty-two percent of sex-offences against the disabled./p pOn the other side of the issue is how unfairly the disabled are treated when they are seen as the perpetrators of crimes. The prosecution rate of disabled people is far higher and the sentencing much harsher than for other segment of the population. Even in much more innocent things, the disabled have to be on their guard. Sonya Ricks spoke about her son, a good-looking 15-year old boy with mental disabilities. She said that expectations of him are so different that she has to be on-guard at every turn. What is acceptable for other kids his age to do is not OK for him. If he kisses a girl, it could be construed as abuse, simply because he is disabled, whereas other children are allowed to flirt and play as they will./p pLisa Gray-Garcia gave an impassioned critique of mainstream media and the responsibility it bears by not reporting how disabilities play into crime. When disabled people are murdered by law enforcement, if the media does not report a person's disability, then often they are missing one of the main points of the crime. By neglecting to mention the disability, the media let the police of the hook and no investigation is forthcoming. She claimed that the only way to correct the present situation is for people who are living the news to take it back and rewrite the story for themselves, writing the truth./p pMary Kate Connor spoke about how once mentally disabled people are in the criminal justice system little or nothing is done for their mental health needs and their problems are exacerbated. It can take up to a month of being in jail before a person's level of mental health is evaluated, and within that time their medications may well have been taken from them./p pIn response to demands from service providers, advocates, and thebr / disabled, the SFPD finally implemented an optional 40-hour training program developed to build awareness in officers of how to work with mentally ill people. Unfortunately only 24 out of 2000 officers have actually taken the training. But, with the two very recent cases of mentally ill people getting shot to death, the trainings should not be optional. When service providers voiced their outrage regarding police misconduct Mike Sullivan handed out his business card and told people to call him if anything came up. This doesn't seem like a very proactive or sincere approach to confronting the immensity of the problems. Sullivan would do better to have a taskforce out monitoring the actions and attitudes of the SFPD towards the disabled and there should be special investigations into the recent shootings of the twobr / mentally ill men./p pA lot of hope for lessening the threat of violence towards disabledbr / people lies in the Crime Victims with Disabilities Initiative. Gray Davis has already approved the initiative, which allocates $739,000 to specifically address crime against the disabled. The initiative would fund a crime victim specialist to assist people with disabilities, advocates and service providers in identifying and reporting crime. The specialist would also assist law enforcement by providing technical assistance in the investigation, prosecution and trial of such cases. Educating the disabled about personal safety is another part of the initiative; service providers would be required to include a personal safety component as part of each individual client plan. The last major piece of the initiative is a public information campaign. A statewide speaker's bureau would be created for experts on crimes against people with disabilities to speak at conferences./p pThere would also be an information campaign targeted at consumers, their families, service providers, the criminal justice system and the general public. The campaign's focus would be on preventing crimes against persons with disabilities, reducing the risk of such crimes, assisting crime victims in securing restitution and services and promoting the timely reporting, investigation and prosecution of these crimes./p p This panel was one huge step in getting information out about brutality against the disabled. Hopefully there will be more such panels and the community, service providers, disabled activists and advocates can organize forcefully around this issue and create the dramatic changes needed. As Leroy wrote in his poem about the untimely death of Idriss Stelley, a young, mentally ill man who was shot by police:/p pIThere is no ending to this bookbr / To be continuedbr / Cause nobody can kill an angelbr / But they tried but Shhhhh!!!!!!br / Can you hear him/ibr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongYouth in The Media Internships at POOR /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/413/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby PNN Staff/p p b pYouth in the Media/p/b Program; is an extension of POOR's b Youth Mentoring program/b and bThe Po' Poets Project/b. Each internship includes:br / extensive creative arts, and media training, media activism and advocacy focused on addressing and creating media on issues affecting low and no income youth such as police harassment, racial and economic profiling, gentrification, homelessness, the juvenile justice system, education, family restoration, and poverty. /p pWorking in print, radio, television and on-line media youth are able to voice issues that affect the communities from which they come. As writers, they would lead the discourse on issues of economic and racial justice, with a focus of using the media as an organizing tool to smash stereotypes and gain support and recognition for the expertise of the low income youth writers around issue of poverty and racism. /p pEach mentorship spans 10-16 weeks, and includes three components;.br / Section I; Basic writing, Newswriting, Investigative reporting, Community based Research, Media activism, and Advocacybr / Section II ; poetry /spoken word and live performancebr / Section III: Web based-publishing, print CD and radio productionbr / As well, each internship includes POOR #101 - a comprehensive investigation into the root causes of poverty and racism./p pTUITION; Agency scholarships provided for low income youthbr / Contact POOR for more information/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongA Low Income Woman Plays the Energy Game/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/416/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Carol Harvey/ PoorNewsNetwork/p pYesterday, I called PGE for the 11th time this year to arrange for a late payment. I talked to no fewer than three supervisors. All were abusive. All castigated me for having late payments, though I explained that I have to juggle my paltry income and outgo VERY carefully. No sympathy there!/p pbPGE SUPERVISOR:/b Do you realize that you have had ELEVEN late payments this year?/p pbME: /b Yes, I am a very good customer. I have a seven-year history of always paying my bill. I don't make very much money. I have to plan my payments around my pay dates, and sometimes the pay dates come after my payment due dates. This became especially true after PGE raised their rates 150%, and I got hit by a rental pass-through that hiked my rent up by $35.00 more a month./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b You told the other rep that you were going to mail the $51.02. She noted on your account, 'Per your original promise to pay,' you were supposed to pay on July 9th. You did not keep it. /p pbME: /b I didn't promise to pay it on the 9th. That was your pre-set PGE due date. I actually called on the 7th, two days in advance of the 9th, to ask for an extension because I knew that I would not get paid until the 11th. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b What the computer shows me is that basically, you made an arrangement on the 25th to pay $52.02, and $51.02 on July the 9th, for a Past Due total of $103.04. /p pbME: /b I acted in good faith to pay this bill by calling in advance of that due date. I knew that I couldn't make it, so I called for an extension. Your rep said that she would give me an extension and I should call back on Friday. I remember the date because we kidded that it was Friday the 13th (of July), my "lucky" day./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Looking at what the rep noted on the account: You had called way back in June. She said she gave an arrangement to pay $52.02 on the 25th, and ..../p pbME: /b We disagree about that happened. We are going around in circles. What I would like to do is get you your money... /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Okay, so.../p pbME: /b And the second thing I would like to do is to have some guarantee that my service will stay turned on./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b You will get a 48 hour notice on July 25. /p pbME: /b Both other supervisors neglected to give me this vital piece of data. It would have helped me a lot to know that I will get a notice in time to pay my bill before you shut me down.. /p p...Give me a minute to write this down. I am under severe duress because I'm not making enough money and I'm doing fancy footwork to adjust for that. I have a seven-year long record of conscientiously paying you. You always get your money from me./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b We get our money, but then, too, looking at your account, within one year you have received eleven notices. So, yes, you are paying your bill, but you're not paying your bill on time. /p pbME: /b So, sue me because I don't make a lot of money. This is insulting to me. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Well, then..../p pbME: /b PGE raised their rates way above what people can pay. That is what happened to me. I don't need to be abused for that. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Wait a minute. PGE raised our rates because we were still paying half of your bill here./p pbME: /b What?!/p pbSUPERVISOR: /b PGE raised their rates because... /p pbME: /b What are you talking about?!/p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Hold on. I'll tell you./p pbME: /b Are you saying that you're giving me charity? /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b No, I'm not giving you charity... /p pbME: /b What on earth are you trying to....? /p pbPGE SUPERVISOR: /b Well, PGE has been carrying you for years. That's why the rates went up./p pbME: /b You mean you've been giving me charity all this time?/p pbPGE SUPERVISOR: /b PGE has been undercharging people for years. /p pIf you listen, I will tell you exactly what I am trying to say."Basically, the reason why PGE raised its rates is because in the last five years, PGE's rates were frozen. We were charging customers 11 cents, and it was costing... /p pbME: /b NONSENSE! Your rates went up because of the alleged power crisis in California. I DO read the papers./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Well, then you are not reading the news correctly, because it's telling you that PGE's rates were frozen for the last five years. /p pbME: /b What!!? (Is she actually counseling me on how to read the news?!) /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b And it was costing PGE 17 cents per kilowatt-hour, and we were only charging you 11 cents. So, PGE was absorbing 6 cents per kilowatt-hour of your bill each month./p pbME: /b Are you talking about me personally? /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b No. I am talking about all PGE electric customers. (Painting all of YOU with the same ugly brush.)/p pbME: /b Okay. Look. I want to be able to pay you your money. I do not accept being verbally flagellated because I don't make a lot of money. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Now, now./p pbME: /b These silly verbal power plays are really turning ME off. Pun intended./p pAnd I hung up./p pSighing philosophically, I ruminated upon the fact that this sort of abusive conversation has been going on for centuries between THE POOR (like myself) and THE ENTITLED (management, supervisors, landlords, usurers and their ilk). In silent movies of the Depression, the landlord commands, "You must pay the rent!" The maiden cries, "I can't pay the rent!" Her suitor rides in saying, "I'll pay the rent!" She bats her helpless eyelashes and proclaims, "MY HERO!" /p pSince I am over 55, I think next time I will cry poverty, boo hoo pathetically, and play my "Elder Card."/p pNot satisfied by the verbal abuse of this PGE Red Queen, I called back a few days later and talked to another supervisor. By then I had cooled off, and decided to be more objective and circumspect in my approach. I realized that, despite her power posturing, the Supervisor had been trying to give me actual information. I decided to research what she had "shared." /p pSince Red Queen had informed me that "Five Years ago PGE froze the rates," I asked: "Who froze the rates and why?"/p pThis new guy, a mild mannered, buttoned-down bureaucratic type, I will call the "White Knight" in this game of power chess. White Knight explained that five years ago, when "we went into Deregulation," the California Public Utility Commission ordered PGE to freeze their rates. These rates were to be "unfrozen" in the year 2002. /p pApparently, the CPUC and Courts had determined that PGE was a Monopoly. PGE was forbidden to maintain any of its own power plants in California. To foster competition, they were forced to buy their power from other states. (As a result of this current debacle, they are now being allowed to build eight new power plants, two of which will be online soon.) /p pThe Red Queen had said that the rates were "unfrozen" this year. The White Knight, whose power style was to be as smooth and cooperative as possible, said that this was inaccurate. /p pHe said that competition was basically driving PGE out of business and putting them into bankruptcy because the CPUC had forbidden PGE to raise their rates. To ease that problem, a 1-cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge was put in place on January 1, 2001. (Apparently, this is not to be construed as being the same as "unfreezing rates".) /p pThe new surcharge still did not solve the problem, so on June 1, 2001 an additional surcharge was instituted. This new add-on surcharge was built on a 5-tier system based on geographical area, penalizing high users of energy in step-up fashion. It was to function as a disincentive to high-energy use. /p p"It has worked so well," said the White Knight, "and customers have been so careful about their energy usage that in July 2001, PGE actually has a surplus which they are selling to other states." /p pI asked this supervisor about the rumor I heard that there were meltdown conditions in the nuclear plant at San Onofre near San Clemente that triggered the energy shortage in California. He said he had not heard about that, and it was part of Southern California Edison's system, not PGE. /p pThe White Knight looked at his computer, and gently informed me that my rates had gone up because of my high usage of energy. I said my usage had not changed in seven years. It turns out what has ACTUALLY raised my rates is the new 5-tier step-up usage system instituted on June 1 which is based on where one lives./p pI live in pricey Pacific Heights, so according to their 5-tier grid system, my usage in July is suddenly considered high where before June 1, it was not. It may be that they know that people who live in Pacific Heights make, on the average, a lot more money than the rest of the world (The Getty Mansion and Melvin Bell's former estate are 3 blocks away, and Larry Ellison lives up here) and, for that reason, these residents can handle higher. I guess my brilliance in finding a low-rent studio apartment in a high-rent district, and living on a below-subsistence level income is a piece of fancy footwork that shall not go unpunished./p pThe big news in MY life is that I am paying $35 a month more for rent suddenly, and a helluva lot more for power./p pMy next research phone call to PGE will focus on why there is an energy shortage across the country at the very moment PGE is going into bankruptcy in California. Why these two conditions intersect just now triggers all my internal conspiracy theory alarms. In a city like San Francisco, where Willie Brown has said publicly that people who make under $50,000 shouldn't live here, sudden jumps in utility rates and rents seem to make the rich much richer while driving the poor deeper into debt and out of the city entirely.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/420/photo_3_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Albert Bliss/p pFour weeks ago I walked into San Jose’s “Labor Ready,” an employment agency that doled out day jobs. There was a cute chick behind the counter. I waited for her to finish talking with a new employee about his job application. Her shiny, brown stiff hair curled just above her shoulders. And when she smiled, I could see her clean white teeth. Four weeks ago I walked into Labor Ready and today was my last day in town, I hoped. /p p“Hi Marissa.” /p p “Hi Al. What up?” /p p “I’m heading east, Hon. I’m leaving San Jose late tonight, by thumb.” /p p “Well, good luck to you.” /p p “Can you hook me up with a job? I need the extra coin for the road trip.”/p p “Saturdays are slow but we are getting calls. All I can say is put your name on the list and wait.” /p pAfter signing the first-come/ first-served list I sat in a white plastic lawn chair and looked around the room. There were twelve guys waiting for a job, no gals. Some were watching the video (Gladiator) on the television, some were reading the sports page and some were snoozing. The phones were not ringing and that was a bad sign. I looked at each face to see if I knew any of them from Montgomery Street Inn, the homeless shelter where I was staying. I didn’t and so I took my notebook out of my backpack and wrote out my final impressions of the San Jose homeless scene. /p pThere were good points and bad points to every job agency, and Labor Ready was no different. “Work Today Get Paid Today” was their motto and it was true. I got cake jobs through this joint and I got backbreaking jobs. I did catering and construction work, mostly. Employers that I worked for paid Labor Ready and the agency paid me. The employers paid Labor Ready sixteen to eighteen bucks per hour but laborers like me only got half of that figure. In my opinion, laborers should have gotten the lion share of the hourly rate, but I kept my jaws shut because I needed money. Monday through Friday was busy; the phones were always ringing and I always went out on a job. On-the-wait for day jobs were Mexicans, Blacks, Whites and a bleached blond dude with a big silver hoop through his left lobe. There was a middle aged Asian fellow with a stainless steel clipper attached to his wrist and a younger White dude who wore a black patch, pirate style. /p pI mention the men I shaped-up with at Labor Ready because some homeless guys won’t travel America on the cheap. Why? Because they don’t know if they’ll be accepted for being aboriginal, gay, midget or disabled. Everybody had a fair chance to get the day jobs, dig? /p pSan Jose’s Labor Ready had a bathroom inside the shape-up hall, a wash up sink outside the can and a couple of soda and candy vending machines against the wall. They showed video films at Labor Ready, while you waited for your name to be called. The agency also offered free coffee. I have gotten jobs out of temporary employment agencies around America and none have offered video films as I waited for work and only a few joints provided free fresh coffee. /p pExcept for my first seven days in San Jose, Montgomery Street Inn, also known as InnVision, was my home. I slept in bed twenty-three, top bunk. The bed had clean sheets, blanket and pillow. My Bunkie, Don, a sixty-year old court appointed parolee, occupied the bottom bed. InnVision served three free meals per day, seven days per week, to residents and non-residents alike. Breakfast was five o’clock till seven; lunch was one o’clock till two; dinner was six o’clock till seven. Members of a church group did the cooking Thursday nights and the line to get a sit-down for that meal was one hundred plus long. Except for Thursday dinners, the food at InnVision was basic. /p pEveryone had to do a daily chore to keep his bed. My chore was to sweep and dry-mop the kitchen. It took me a half-hour to forty minutes to do my do. All the residents had to leave the shelter by eight o’clock in the morning and return to the shelter by seven thirty at night. The curfew was way too early for grown men to be holed-up for the night, and I voiced my opinion to InnVision Staff on a suggestion form. /p pThe first thirty days at Montgomery Street Inn were free; after that the cost was forty-five bucks per week. Many of the residents had full time jobs but most earned their rent money doing per diem work out of Labor Ready. It was my opinion that these working residents should be given brown bag lunches to save money and I put that opinion in the suggestion box, also. There were other shelters, CityTeam Ministries, Salvation Army and Little Orchard Shelter. Montgomery Street Inn was the best; it had the most to offer and that was why I stayed there. /p pCompared to other cities, San Jose did not have a sizable homeless population. Four hundred would be a liberal head count and any higher number would be false. Nobody panhandled for money there and few men did the tin can and plastic bottle gig. I have traveled all over America and have written about the stuff I observed. Every single city that I had visited had pigeon feeders, except San Jose. I have witnessed and participated in that homeless ritual, feeding the pigeons, for five whole years. It was strange not hearing homeless men asking soup kitchen volunteers for extra bread and cake. It was odd not seeing them breaking bread into morsels and feeding the winged creatures. I often wondered what had happened? /p pSan Jose cops were everywhere! I did not hear any first hand accounts of police brutality perpetrated against homeless people, but I did see a huge police presence. Black and white squad cars circled downtown streets all the time; ditto for police vans and shiny black motorcycles and blue uniforms on foot patrol. /p pDespite what city slackers said, “You’ll never go hungry in San Jose,” in my view there were not enough free restaurants to feed the hungry. It was difficult to get hygiene supplies but easy to get spare threads. I stood in line at a social service window every three days or so. (In case you decide to do the San Jose homeless scene, the address of the social service window is 80 South Market Street). The window was womaned by Cathy, a short brunette with tweezed eyebrows and upturned nostrils. I got bus and train passes from Cathy, soft drinks and snacks, toilet tokens and clothing vouchers. /p pOne of my favorite haunts was lounging inside transportation terminals. I saw no grifters working the San Jose bus depots and there were no con artists scamming tourists as they exited Amtrak train terminal. There were no homeless baggage handlers in either depot, earning tips in exchange for handling luggage. Upon arrival, I camped-out on the banks of the Guadalupe River. During that first week I saw few of San Jose’s homeless, hardly any slept outside and that surprised me. When I loitered in San Diego and in Los Angeles hundreds of men and women slept on sidewalks, on loading docks and on abandoned lots. /p pThe distinguishing personality traits of San Jose’s homeless men were timid and submissive. I was not at all impressed with what I saw and heard. Most were friendly dudes and followed InnVision staff rules but none behaved as arrogant outsiders. Not one man regarded himself as an American rebel. I hope my read on them was wrong but I believe that San Jose’s street men do not have the guts to become homeless nonconformists. What a loss for the city of San Jose! What a terrible loss to the street nobility that I picture and predict! A few InnVision residents played the “I got over on the system” game, but I was not bamboozled. A few men had prescriptions for painkillers, Vacadin, Zannex, Codein3 and Morphine. By means of the “meds,” they cloaked their dope addiction and kept their beds at InnVision. Big deal! A few dudes got drunk early in the morning, others skin-popped before they left the shelter, so that they’d be sober by curfew time. Big fucking deal! Some dudes made shelter headlines when they got “bottled” (made to take a urine test) or breathalized. Others thought themselves clever because they managed to smuggle a vial of cocaine into a federal courthouse without being nabbed. /p pI humored the motherfuckers, but between you and me, homeless sir, what difference did their pranks make? Even if they did get thrown in the slammer, their antics were not deliberate deeds of civil disobedience designed to create social chaos. Their acts did not draw attention to the plight of San Jose’s homeless, and so what good were they? Rather than destroying their bodies with hard booze and excessive sleep, I wished that they used their energy to think-up and execute strategies to dismantle the San Jose police state. Rather than mainlining H. and popping pills, I wished that they used their time to become first rank anarchists and top shelf artists. /p pI was ashamed of these men and it pained me deeply when I wrote the following: San Jose’s homeless men had no higher purpose other than to get numbed-out; they had no personal destiny to fulfill other than to make rent and tobacco money. This, my last day in San Jose, was filled with distress and despair. I was distressed because I came to San Jose to meet the blessed lambs of the new age of homelessness and found only cowardly chickens. As I had hitchhiked from Vancouver, Canada to San Jose,California, I remember I had such wonderful daydreams. My mind pictured mastermind bums that had evil plans to lead a street revolution. As I held my thumb out for a car ride along Interstate Highway Five, I envisioned skilled musicians who would write battle songs to be sung by vagrant warriors hell-bent on establishing a brave new Homeless Republic. As my skin burned under a scorching sun, waiting for a ride, I saw myself sitting cross-legged around a campfire, rapping with San Jose’s street poets, men who wanted to create romantic rhymes for the ages, to be recited before lovers do the do. I imagined myself competing with down and out writers for the highest prize, homeless immortality. I saw myself penning everlasting street prose for lonely, hungry and courageous road masters. I had such high hopes when I got here, four weeks ago. I sought homeless pariahs who were ready to give themselves a sublime direction and equally ready to sacrifice their lives for the new order. I hunted the transportation depots for cunning criminals who could persuade the cream of street life to join an elite class of fearless lords. I searched the parks and scoured the banks of the Guadalupe River for powerful vagrants who could change the course of homeless history. When I first got here I walked the pavements for days, feet aching, searching for San Jose’s best bums. Now, hours before I hit the road, I felt only despair and failure. That is why I must leave San Jose promptly and waste no more of my precious time.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/421/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Samuel Irving/p pbr /I pledge allegiance to a nation,br / br /Where I am notbr / br /Included in webr / br /And the surface of changebr / br /Is not covered in the republicbr / br /Clothes of a flag/p pbr /Misrepresenting the onenessbr / br /Of a dream, in radiant liesbr / br /Followed by slick tongues,br / br /But I am under IGod/i/p pbr /While mental freedom is invisiblebr / br /And there is justice for some,br / br /The chains remain, in eyesbr / br /Of government plots, with no libertybr / br /In a pursuit of racial profiles/p pbr /And America, Americabr / br /IGodIshed his grave on us,br / br /For we are none butbr / br /Strong in numbersbr / br /During waves ofbr / br /President caused genocide/i/i/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/421/photo_2_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Samuel Irving/p pbr /Daughter drained by liquored fearbr / br /Daddy sets aflame momma’s cerebralbr / br /With past falsehoods and nickel worsted promisesbr / br /Splitting ties amongst paralyzed snuffles/p pbr /Blue boys greet doors with handshakesbr / br /IMy innocence is gone!/i/p pbr /Daddy responds with warm cursesbr / br /Scotched up by a twistbr / br /Of his self reality and poolsbr / br /Of iniquity’s pleasures /p pbr /Problematic name questbr / br /Come across drunk nothings in responsebr / br /But Daddy’s getting a new suit todaybr / br /As Momma awaits trials of doubt/p pbr /Daddy hangs onto the worldbr / br /As it spins around muffled soundsbr / br /Of fist on fleshbr / br /With no warm welcomebr / br /To Momma’s bruised cranium /p pbr /Announcing her engagementbr / br /To months of 9 upon vacationsbr / br /Non-existent, the cycle speeds upbr / br /I8,7,6,5/ibr / br /But it is halted at 4 /p pbr /Daughter sheds silent tearsbr / br /As the afterbirth names himselfbr / br /In face reflections,br / br /Forced by kicks in womb’s doors/p pbr /Daddy’s decadent lifestylebr / br /Catches 22 ounces of shallow downsidesbr / br /Mamma’s tired of slave beatingsbr / br /She’s breaking away for 40 days/p pbr /On behalf of the unbornbr / br /Before marital deliverance can come/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongThe Insiders' Instruction Manual/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/426/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Donna Anderson/PNN Texas Correspondent/p pThe fourth in a series of satirical policy explanations for government and private social service providers. The prevalence of hypocritical practices in social services leads PNN Texas correspondent Donna Anderson to conclude that there must be an interagency conspiracy to keep the poor poor. The scenarios and statements presented here are based on her actual experiences during 12 years in social services./p p Maintaining the illusion of some actual intervention in the problem of poverty is important for both people experiencing poverty and the middle and upper classes. Intervention in the form of classes on subjects such as budgeting, parenting, job searching, job retention skills, nutrition and even literacy and GED classes, build the expectation that if one acquires certain skills and knowledge, it is possible to get out of poverty. We call these "life skills classes."/p p The name is crucial. "Life skills" subtly implies that the poor have somehow arrived at adulthood without the skills to live, when in fact we know that they do have skills. After all, it takes something to survive a winter on the streets in New York City. But if we put them in the mind that they have not learned the skills necessary for life, they are more likely to behave in a subordinate manner while in class./p p Acquiring skills and education as a way out of poverty is an important concept for the poor. By attending and completing classes, the poor get a feeling of accomplishment and of bettering themselves. It keeps them from focusing on the larger issue of social stratification in a capitalist society that actually requires that a lower class exist if an upper class is to exist. /p pPerhaps they better themselves by learning to read, obtaining their GED or improving their parenting skills. These minor milestones can divert their attention from their overall unchanging economic status./p p However, if they are unable to complete the classes, or the material is presented in such a way that they cannot benefit from the classes, the poor will be left with a feeling of self-blame. They may turn the rage they feel for their unchanged economic situation inward, blaming themselves for never finishing that job search class or never following through on what they learned in budgeting class. The poor person owns the failure, assisting our overall effort to keep them poor./p pAmong the middle and upper classes, life skills classes create a perception that personal initiative is the key to overcoming poverty, rebuffing the systemic obstacles that will be there waiting for life skills graduates. /p pSo in this regard, it is to our advantage that a few like Clarence Thomas who were born into poverty, have overcome the systemic obstacles and made education work for them. We can hold them up as beacons to the huddles masses, admonishing them that, "If he can do it, anyone can." /p pHere are some considerations for implementing a program of life skills classes. /p p1.. Tie continued benefits to life skills class participation. When a person comes to your agency for assistance, let her know that she must attend a schedule of classes. Even if she has already completed these classes before in another state, another agency or at the same agency, she must attend them again. This will create a hostility in her that will shut her mind down to learning. She will sit in the classes sieving about the loss of wages or expense of day care or other inconvenience the classes are costing her./p p2.. Teach over their heads. Even the most basic skills can be taught in industry terms that an average person cannot understand. Go back to those college textbooks and extract technical terms to replace for common sense terms. Here are a few examples from a class on feeding infants that is conducted at the Women, Infants and Children (WIC, a national nutrition initiative) office in South Texas. They use "progression of textures" to mean "adding solid foods"; "GI concerns" to mean "problems with digestion"; and "feeding relationship" to mean "making eating fun." "Shop talk" can confound class participants and discourage them from asking too many questions that might flush out truly useful information./p p 3.. Keep expectations high. Have you ever overspent on your budget? Have you ever shouted at your kid when you could have used redirection? Do you have more credit card debt than you can repay in your lifetime? Have you ever called in sick when you really just wanted to stay home? Can you act like you've never done any of the above? Good, then you too can be a life skills instructor. We must set the bar high for the poor. A convincing teacher can make her students think that the middle and upper classes actually do the things she is teaching. When a teacher has this kind of credibility, the poor students will feel defeated before they've even begun to try to apply their newly learned life skills. They will never measure up. And for those who try, inevitably falling short will take the wind right out of their sails. It's back to class, because they're required, but this time with a humble and defeated attitude. /p p4.. Condescend, Condescend, Condescend. Instructors should learn at least one good phrase like this one: "It's that kind of thinking that got you where you are today."br / Another advantage of the widely popular life skills strategy, is that it produces those tidy little units called "outcomes" that government and charitable funding sources have begun to require of late. Though the days of no accountability are over and we do mourn them, we must keep up with the times as well and find ways to produce outcomes without really impacting the problem at hand. /p pLife skills do just that. They instill hope. They produce outcomes. They provide useless and irrelevant information. They keep our society looking to personal initiative to solve the problem of poverty, believing that it can be remedied with a good solid upward yank on the bootstraps. If the public were to fully comprehend the problem, it might result in widespread feelings of compassion and charity and could spawn socialist legislative initiatives such as creating a guaranteed standard of living for all. This would either mean increased taxes or more drastic measures, such as diverting spending from national defense. /p pLet's keep America secure. Remember, "Poverty can be unlearned and life skills can teach you how."/p pStay tuned for the next strategy in the domestic policy to keep the poor poor, "Day Labor: Your career, one day at a time."br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongSeveral hundred very low and no income journalists, editors and economicbr / justice advocates convene in San Franciscobr / /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/427/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Lisa Gray-Garcia/POOR Magazine(PNN) /p p"I'm Marsha Rizzo-Swanson from The Homeless Grapevine", an older woman ofbr / Native American descent dressed in her Goodwill finest belted out herbr / presence to the crowd at the Friday morning introduction session of The North American Street Newspaper (NASNA) conference that convened this weekend in San Francisco. In one hand was her homeless newspaper, or "street Newspaper", The Homeless Grapevine from cleveland, Ohio, and a video camera in the other. The beautiful paradox of poverty and media resistance was a constant throughout the NASNA conference that I had the privelege to attend..just think.. Over 200 other people like myself, coming out of poverty and homelessness still caught in the so-called cycle of poverty, resisting that oppressed position everyday with their "voice", through their own form of grassroots media- publishing daily, weekly, monthly or bi-yearly..By Any Means necessary.No, we weren't the mainstream media - we were better, we were the People's Media. And I Was home./p pThe NASNA conference, co-sponsored by The STREET SHEET, POOR Magazine andbr / Media Alliance ran from Friday through Sunday (jul 27-29) and included workshops on everything from poetry to civil rights, but most importantly it included the sharing and networking between poor folks who are normally viewed as just trying to stay alive - which of course we are - but we are also creating hard-hitting journalism, photo-journalism, poetry and solutions./p p"So what do we do with those images of people sleeping on the sidewalk?"br / Anthony Williams, photo-journalist from Picture the homeless and Street Newsbr / in New York asked me after my lecture on the power of "the photographicbr / gaze" in a photo-journalism class POOR Magazine offered at the conference./p p"Its very simple", I replied, ask yourself if when you were therebr / (referring to our mutual experience of being one of those people on thebr / sidewalk) would you want someone to take your picture and publish it - "No"br / he replied "no I wouldn't ..his answer was echoed by two other formerlybr / homeless photo-journalists in the class. Our interchange was what was sobr / unique about the conference. I was privleged to be in a room with otherbr / people who really understood that question , who understood the differencebr / in being reported on rather than reporting, being talked with.. rather thanbr / talked about, given justice rather judged. This reminded me of anbr / incident three weeks ago where myself and fellow PNN journalist Kapondabr / encountered a photographer from The Miami Herald taking a picture of a manbr / sleeping out at City Hall. We asked him why he was taking that "shot" andbr / he replied, " Because I am trying to show the dichotomy between thebr / beautiful City Hall of San Francisco versus the situation of homelessbr / people in San Francisco. Both Kaponda and I thought that was a noble andbr / interesting story idea, but that it was not necessary to objectify the manbr / who was sleeping to prove his point, that in fact that "image", of an anonymous man sleeping on the sidewalk had been "seen" a million times and that if Mayor Brown found out that the Miami Herald was "seeing" that homeless man on the City Hall lawn- he would step up the police patrols so to be sure that not only were the benches removed from City Hall/Un Plaza but the grass as well. But most importantly, that "homeless" man had not given his permission to have his picture taken. He had not even been asked./p p"I am an armchair Revolutionary" Gordon Hilgers from Endless Choices inbr / Dallas, Texas recited his stream of conscousness style of spoken word atbr / Displacement, a performance at the Women's Building on Friday night in honorbr / of NASNA which featured The Bay Area's own Po Poets Project , Raising Ourbr / Voices, Peter Plate, Tanyica Simmons and George Tirado . The artistsbr / performed poetry/spoken word and prose on issues of racism, gentrificationbr / poverty, and homelessness. The conference also included talks by authors and scholars, Ben Bagdikian and Bruce Jackson/p pOn saturday night (july 28th) it was time to take our truth to the streets, or more aptly to take the streets to the mainstream media. First there was a "vend-off at POWELL and Market featuring - all the street newspaper vendors who wanted to participate including Ms.Rizzo-Swanson who won by a landslide with the sale of 63 papers. Then a group of at least 100 media activists began a rally and march to the San Francisco Chronicle building at 5th and Mission to address the lack of truthful coverage of poverty and homelessness by the mainstream media. We began our march with "Hey.. Hey.. We won't rest - til the Chronicle covers our protest" When we arrived at the Chronicle front door, Terry Mesmen from The Street Spirit Newspaper in Berkeley, in collaboration with several folks from the Independent Media Center and The Coalition on homelessness led the act of civil disobedience when they began wheat pasting artistic renderings of mainstream media stereotypes on the Chronicle building, created by the Bay Area Print Collective for NASNA. /p pThe police showed up after about ten minutes and threatened to arrest us so we retreated- sort of… but not really… and eventually we went around to the other side of the building.Several writers from PoorNewsNetwork(PNN) were present including PNN staff writer, Ken Moshesh who had won a victory in the courts just last week over the lodging (homeless) laws but was dismayed to find a small paragraph in the Chronicle placed next to a picture of a homeless sweep in the tenderloin, that barely even recognized the significance of that court decision as well as the fact that he was a writer/artist and former UC berkeley professor. /p pAfter much joustling and the eventual ejecting of Robert Norse from Santa Cruz and Terry Mesmen at the front door by Chronicle security guards when we attempted to enter the building, we got a commitment from the Chronicle to meet with some of us to address the flagrant lack of coverage of poverty and homelessness as well as the promotion of stereotypes about poor folks in the mainstream media and more specifically, in the "one hearst town" of San Francisco./p pIn the end, the people, the people's media.. were heard.. not only by the mainstream press.. but by each other.. because we were armed..with Pens!!br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongEviction for Profit System Exposed/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/428/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Lynda Carson/p pbOakland,Ca/b Late last week, details started to emerge regarding a law suit that involved a number of African American renters of Oakland being evicted, only to be quickly replaced by Spanish speaking immigrants being charged double the rents. A jury trial decided in favor of the African Americans who fought the evictions, and that it was the opinion of the jury that the evictions were discriminatory and unlawful. /p pDuring the past year a landlord by name of Paul Maguire bought up a number of properties in Oakland totaling around 155-180 rental units, many of which fall under local rent laws. Oakland has a Rent Arbitration Program meant to provide a system that decides whether or not landlords are allowed to raise the rents above the 3% annual cap on rent increases. Allegedly to avoid Oakland’s rent control laws, Mr. Maguire chose to evict the renters rather than to allow them to fight the desired rent increases through a hearing process of the Rent Board. Apparently it was African Americans who were the victims of Mr. Maguire’s criminal activities. At least 24 units were involved in the suit. Oakland does not have a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance in place, which means that landlords may evict for almost any or no reason at all. However, evictions that are retaliatory in nature or based upon discrimination are unlawful. /p pKen Greenstein, a local tenant activist attorney with an office in San Francisco, is very excited about the jury decision protecting the renters’ rights. Calls to Phil Rapier and Bob Salinas, who represented the victims, confirmed the jury decision. A press release may soon be forthcoming with more details. /p pWhen I asked Phil Rapier why landlords of Oakland believe that they can get away with evicting for profit in Oakland, Rapier replied that it is because THEY CAN! The jury’s decision that this was a case of discrimination certainly puts a different light on the situation in Oakland. Still, as known by tenant activists involved in Oakland’s rental battles, this is something that has going on a long time. Landlord tenant disputes continue to erupt throughout the city as the landlords try to raise the rents to heights unknown in Oakland’s history./p pOakland’s rental battles are heating up to extremes lately, with landlord and tenant forces boiling over in the Rent Program last Thursday in City Hall. Mayor Jerry Brown had his henchmen unlawfully shut down the Rent Program in an alleged effort to remove Rent Board Member Andrew Wolff before his term expires in October 2001. Wolff, appointed by Elihu M. Harris back in 1998, is a pro-tenant Board Member under attack by the Mayor and landlords who want him out. He refused to comply with a July 24 fax notice from Mayor Jerry Brown dismissing him from the rent board, resulting in the lock-out on July 26. Oakland’s City Charter states that it takes a hearing and a vote of at least 6 Council Members to remove appointed Commissioners and Board Members before their term's expire. /p pWhen Mr. Wolff showed up at last Thursday’s Rent Board Hearing at City Hall to take his place among the other board members, the hearings were shut down after roll call. For now until further notice, renters and landlords are locked out of the process, thanks to the politics of Mayor Jerry Brown interferring with due process of law./p pFor more on that event, click onto the SF/IMC story "IPolitics Shut Down Oakland’s Rent Arbitration Program/i" by Lynda Carson: /p pa href="http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452" title="http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452"http://www.sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102452/a /p pTo contact the attorneys:/p pPhil Rapier 510/ 444-6262br /br / Bob Salinas 510/ 663-9240br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongMumia Abu-Jamal comments on the shooting of the Italian protestor/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/429/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Mumia Abu-Jamal /p pThe recent police shooting of 23-year-old Carlo Giulianibr / in the riotous streets of Genoa has sent shock waves aroundbr / the globe./p pGiuliani, son of a Rome labor leader, was one of tens ofbr / thousands of anti-globalist demonstrators who fell on thebr / latest place where politicians and corporate representativesbr / gathered to insure their continued dominance of the world'sbr / economy. Carlo was part of a growing movement, unitingbr / the youth of many so-called first world countries with thebr / aspirations of many in the so-called third world. It was thisbr / movement that shook Seattle, and made the anagram, WTO,br / known throughout the earth./p pFor opposing the rule of capital, for opposing the Empirebr / of Wealth, Carlo Giuliani was shot by the hit-men of capital,br / and, as if this were not enough, a police vehicle rolled overbr / his prone, wounded body./p pWith the brutal state slaughter of Carlo Giuliani, thebr / message goes forth that anti-globalism is a capital crime.br / This is but the latest escalation by the armed forces ofbr / capital, which has utilized increasing levels of state violencebr / to intimidate the swelling hordes of anti-globalists./p pThe blood on the asphalt of Genoa did not begin whenbr / a cop pointed his semi-automatic into the face of a maskedbr / Roman anarchist. The blood of Genoa flows from thebr / streets of Goteborg, in Sweden, when the European Unionbr / was holding its summit meeting. There, police fired livebr / rounds at protestors, wounding three, one seriously./p pNow, an anarchist, anti-globalist lies dead./p pAs soon as the news hit the wire, came the wordsbr / of the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who oncebr / quipped, "Anarchism is a game at which the police canbr / beat you." Shaw, an ardent socialist, would perhapsbr / amend his comments in light of recent events (if hebr / could)./p pWhat is most telling is how the representatives ofbr / the state and their propaganda arm, the media, hasbr / reacted to this vicious tragedy./p pWhile politicians uniformly spoke with forked tonguesbr / about the "tragedy," not a single syllable was utteredbr / in criticism of the police, was it?/p pFor the media, however, a different game wasbr / played. In virtually every report, the coverage told ofbr / violent protestors -- and suggested that they werebr / uninformed, or simply stupid for daring to care aboutbr / the poor in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Examinebr / their biased, corporate-centered coverage, andbr / ask yourself one, simple question:/p pWhat would they have written if a Genoan copbr / had been shot, and run over with a Land Roverbr / driven by anarchists? Every corporate outletbr / would've blared about how "vicious" and "violent"br / the anti-globalist "terrorists" were. Of this therebr / is no question!/p pInstead, a muted silence./p pSilence, when the terrorists are the cops./p pSilence, when the killers are the cops./p pSilence, when the hitmen for the corporationsbr / act out./p pYou hear the fractured lectures of politiciansbr / talking about "assaults on the democraticbr / process," and the like./p pYet, how democratic is the G-8 (Group of 8)?/p pThis group, which is self-selected, is sevenbr / of the wealthiest nations on earth (plus Russia)./p pIf there are about 193 nations in the world,br / what's "democratic" about 4% of that numberbr / making all of the rules governing the rest ofbr / the world's economy?/p pLook at it another way: The G-8 consists ofbr / representatives for Canada, Japan, Germany,br / France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Unitedbr / States -- and Russia. If you were to count allbr / of the people in each nation, and add them up,br / you'd come up with around 824 million people.br / That's a lot of folks./p p But there are 6,000,000,000+ people onbr / earth! /p pHow can 14% of the world's population setbr / down the rules for 86% of the rest of the peoplebr / of the world?/p pCarlo Giuliani wasn't "assaulting thebr / democratic process." He was protesting abr / profoundly anti-democratic process. /p pHe was fighting on behalf of most of thebr / people in the world./p pCopyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamalbr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p