Story Archives 2001

by Kaponda

Golden-clad rays from the fiery-rimmed, celestial globe ringed the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, as the moonlight had retired from another night of labor. The sunrise brought into full view the logo embroidered on the shirt of the man who culled me and one other man, Sam, from among the many men who were standing in the street waiting for work. It was the logo of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey circus.

By the time the train cannonballed into the depot at Detroit, Michigan, Sam and I had become the spectacle on that dreary night in 1979. A band of circus cads had converged upon us for baneful sport. While I watched a sledgehammer quickly move toward the head of Sam, I split a 2”x4” object, that had been guided towards my temple, with my forearm. After the clowns, lion tamers, strongmen and other circus performers had retreated to their sleeping compartments, Sam and I collected our pay for our six days of labor and walked off into the Detroit moon.

Most day laborers will never experience the kind of hire-wire act that Sam and I had encountered when we were hired by the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey as laborers, while standing and waiting for work on the street in Indianapolis, Indiana. Most employers who hire people off the streets understand that we seek a clean and honest living through expenditure of physical efforts. However, there are those callous employers who exploit the labor of benign people standing on the streets of America.

If the registry of day laborers who have perished or contracted job-related illnesses at some back of beyond work site were opened for inspection, then the magnitude of danger would probably astound members of regulatory agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Short of walking off the job, there is very little, if anything at all, a laborer can do to avoid exposure to hazardous chemicals or accidents caused by unsafe working conditions and code violations.

Jose Escheddarillo has seen many of the schemes engineered by oppressive employers to extract the maximum efforts from day laborers without providing compensation equivalent to the labor. According to Escheddarillo, who, as a retired day laborer, has earned the recognizition as a living monument to the day labor industry, “a lot of employers have committed flagrant civil and human rights violations of health and safety work codes.” One of the founders of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, located at Franklin Square Park on 17th and Hampshire streets, Escheddarillo arrived in America in 1989, and, like the many other immigrants who have come before him, he wanted an opportunity to improve his life.

“I immediately realized as workers on the streets waiting to be hired,” continued the relic and current advocate of fair wages and working conditions for day laborers, “we were experiencing abuse from employers and people who were getting work from us. Back during the formation of the Day Labor Program, there were a lot of problems.”

The San Francisco Day Labor Program was created in 1990 by a collaboration of day laborers, neighbors and community service organizations. The program has provided a place where workers can find temporary and permanent work in a safe and supportive environment, without having to chase cars on the street. The San Francisco Day Labor Program also has provided free medical clinics, referral assistance, English classes and legal services to many of its clients in the Mission District. The San Francisco Day Labor Program offers these services to its clients and has developed a mechanism that allows a match between laborers who need work with employers who need laborers. However, like the offices of a circus, the Day Labor Program also currently operates out of two portable trailers that sit on a lot at Franklin Square Park.

Because Franklin Square Park is located a good distance from the original stretch on Cesar Chavez Street, where day laborers have been at the mercy of prospective drive-by employers for over 30 years, the San Francisco Day Labor Program has neither been able to prevent the continued exploitation of cheap laborers, nor provide laborers the protection from arbitrary abuses. However, the building which formerly housed Sears & Roebuck Company and more recently, the Employment Development Department, located right at Cesar Chavez Street, has invited bids from any employment-related, nonprofit who has expressed interest in relocating its business to that site. So, when I interviewed the Executive Director of La Raza Centro Legal, Anamaria Loya, I was surprised to discover that the proposal of the San Francisco Day Labor Program had been rejected by the master tenant of the building, the Department of Human Services.

“They were very hesitant and are basically saying that even though we are an employment-related nonprofit, they would not let us move in because the day laborers would not fit in with the other tenants,” stated Loya. But I was under the impression that day laborers have been at the Cesar Chavez Street corridor for over 30 years doing just that -- loitering! So I asked Loya to clarify her answer for this article? “The reason for not considering the day laborers for the hiring hall on Cesar Chavez Street,” continued Loya with a gracious tone, “is that they were afraid that the laborers would loiter around the building and were worried that the day laborers would not fit in with the other nonprofits....Who is so afraid of loitering? Men already gather along the street of Cesar Chavez. If we had a program there, then we would at least be able to help meet their needs. Our belief is that it is not that they [DHS] have a genuine concern, rather, we think they [DHS] have a disrespect for poor people because day laborers tend to be poor and homeless immigrants. I think it is just fear and disrespect of poor people.”

While everyone has been educated concerning the San Francisco Day Labor Program, employers continue to shop at the meat market where fiddle-footed laborers offer bargain-basement rates for their labor.

According to a letter publsihed in August of 2001, by the Director of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, Renee Saucedo, the new site on Cesar Chavez Street could address the concerns of loitering. “A location away from Cesar Chavez would be ineffective....,” states the letter and continues with “The relocation of the Day Labor Program is supported by many neighbors and organizations, including the Precita Valley Neighbors Association, the Southwest Mission Neighbors Association, St. Anthony’s Church, the SF Archdiocese, the SF Labor Council, the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Congress and other organizations.”

Since all the above-referenced community- and faith-based organizations have recommended the building at Cesar Chavez as the ideal site for the San Francisco Day Labor Program, I asked Anamaria Loya who at DHS actually rejected their proposal?

“The original person who rejected our proposal to use a portion of the building as a hiring hall was the Assistant to the Director of DHS....There was kind of a second rejection as well in that after we were initially rejected, we asked the mayor if he would lobby on our behalf and discuss with DHS our concerns, since DHS is one of the city departments under his watch. The office of the Mayor told us that ‘they did not have authority over their city departments.’”

The San Francisco Day Labor Program, after the rejections by DHS and the mayor put on a show of their own. It was the kind of feat that the master showman himself, P.T. Barnum would have applauded. Under the behest of La Raza Centro Legal, men and women, accompanied by the San Francisco media, marched into City Hall and demanded to know why the mayor had not provided support for the San Francisco Labor Program to move into the building where all day laborers could finally be centalized under one roof? But the lobbying efforts by La Raza Centro Legal did not stop with one action. Members of the Board of Supervisors were also contacted and responded with overwhelming support for the mission of the San Francisco Labor Program.

According to Loya, “the Department of Human Services has agreed to meet with us on Monday, February 12, 2001, concerning the possibility of moving into that site. Visits from Supervisors Chris Daly, Matt Gonzales and Tom Ammiano as well as phone calls from the office of the Mayor were instrumental in the decision to meet.”

On Monday, February 12th at 4:00 p.m., the Interim Director of the Department of Human Services on behalf of his department, expressed support of the San Francisco Day Labor Program in moving into the building on Cesar Chavez Street. Anamaria Loya, Renee Saucedo, two members of DHS and the director, Trent Rohr, discussed the concerns of the current owner of the building and how the San Francisco Day Labor Program would address those concerns. After the La Raza Centro Legal presents its proposal to allay those concerns the approval process will start.

by Kaponda

The underbrush that had cluttered the highway to desegregation was cleared by the apostles of the Civil Rights Movement. They plowed through the heartland of Jim Crow in a Greyhound bus. Those Freedom Rides of 1961 were driven by a 1946 Supreme Court ruling that struck down segregation as a violation of the United States Constitution.

Violations of economic and human rights led to the fueling of the engine of another freedom bus in November of 2000. Throughout the country, and in the state of California, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument certified by the United Nations and signed by the United States, had been trampled upon and treated with contempt. Many people in America had been lulled into believing that poverty was their lot in life.

An organization with an 18-year history of fighting social injustices, the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) was prepared to chart the movement to eliminate poverty. The meat and potatoes of the movement was the Freedom Bus Tour. It was modeled after the same Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement. Many people were recruited in Oakland, California to travel as Freedom Riders to educate impoverished people through testimonials, teach-ins, presentations, speak-outs, panel discussions, videos, meetings, rallies, protests, marches and going door-to-door. The men, women and children who were recruited came from all walks of life but shared the philosophy that food, housing, health care, education and a living wage are basic economic rights for every person in the world, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Social Justice Coordinator and one of the brain trust of WEAP, Blanche Mackey, discussed the myths about organizing poor people. ”I felt that getting together a group of poor people to go around the state was an amazing experience, because there is the stigma that poor people cannot be organized. We learned that we can be organized, and we can follow instructions.”

The Freedom Bus Tour was essentially a school on wheels. The Freedom Riders, nearly 40 men, women and children, were educated about their own misconceptions of poverty through discussions and videos while traveling over 2,900 miles and 20 towns and cities m California. The jumping-off principle that was taught to everyone was that, “I do not deserve to live like this. I deserve a better life.” When that principle had begun to journey through the mind of each individual, they became much more effective during their interaction with people in other towns.

From the unprovoked attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama to the hundreds of thousands of tents set up by Freedom Riders on the Mall during their March on Washington, the Freedom Riders were united in their conviction to cast the spotlight on the glaring economic and human rights violations during their travels in the 1960’s.

Not unlike the Freedoms Riders of the 1960’s, the Freedom Riders of 2000 traveled extensively, also. Their tour took them from Northern California, to Central California onto Southern California in order to drive home their message of hope to the hundreds of thousands of people whose humanities have been continually systematically stripped away. Each day, according to some of the accounts of the experiences of the Freedom Riders, a little more of the quality of the life of a poor person had been forgotten because “Many people in this country believed that the poor do not deserve a better life.”

A story that was shared during the tour about a certain woman who saw a line full of people one day. The woman went to the end of the line because she thought that she was going to miss out on something. After waiting for a long time, she reached the front of the line only to realize that it was the line for men waiting to take a shower.

The Freedom Riders’ tour was a very carefully thought-out process. Every conceivable eventuality had been thought over and over again. Diana Polson, the California Coordinator of WEAP, stated to me during an interview after I had asked her about the scope of poverty that is experienced by poor people in California and which of the many images she had seen had clung to her heart during the Freedom Ride? She continued by stating that, “There are so many people in this country who are suffering in silence and struggling in poverty.”

“Entering into the Central Valley, the Freedom Riders met with union organizers, other Freedom fighters, migrant workers, members of the Green Party and churches. The many migrant workers we met with and talked to faced economic human rights abuses on a daily basis. Many companies flock to the Central Valley because they know there are a plethora of migrant workers who will work for little money. These migrant workers have their hands tied in numerous ways because they have so much fear of being reported to the authorities. They work for little money, in no-benefit jobs and in destitute circumstances, but cannot organize or demand anything better for fear of being deported. The owners of these companies and land have complete control over the lives of these workers, getting cheap labor and not having to live up to any standards. On many farms, owners will give workers little shacks to live in and charge them high prices for rent, so the migrant workers have no money left after a paycheck. Some people we talked to have been injured on the job, have contracted cancer due to working with pesticides in the fields and are left to suffer and die by these employers because they do not offer health insurance. The employers use migrant labor for their own benefit, with little thought about the well-being of the worker.”

“We need to stop managing poverty and work towards eliminating it,” continued Polson. “That will happen by joining forces amongst poor and working people of all walks of life. It will happen when they come together to add what they can to this movement and educate themselves about the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.”

Not only did WEAP educate communities and towns about the UN Declaration of Human Rights, but also about the new movement of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), created to address and shatter through education notions such as the poverty of people is directly proportionate to their failings. Also, the Just Health Care Campaign was the arm of the body that the Freedom Riders used to address the dire health care status in California. Fact sheets were handed out on the need to conduct Just Health Care training.

Mackey stated that she felt the tour was a wonderful enlightenment for all of the people who were present, the people who were touched and the communities that were contacted. Mackey further stated that, “It has always been said that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family, and we became a family on that bus.”

Their camaraderie grew as they sang many songs along the route. “We Who Believe in Freedom” was a song that had been especially enjoyable by many of the 20 women Freedom Riders and a “Rich Man’s House” was an equally liked song by the other 10 children and 10 men.

The Freedom Rider tour arrived in Los Angeles to an unprecedented 42,000 poor and homeless people who occupied the community known as Skid Row. That is the largest enclave of homeless people in America.

The entire Freedom Ride Bus Tour documented over 500 economic human rights abuses. Seventeen Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Committees were established throughout the tour, and according to WEAP, the Freedom Ride Bus Tour 2000 was overwhelmingly successful.

by Kaponda and Tom McKay

The Danzates moved about like visible spirits as their blessings
poured upon the four infants whom they shielded within the fringes of
their ceremonial dance. Dressed in motley costumes that symbolized the
vivacious culture of the Latino community, the Danzates exhibited an emotional
performance which forebode the dawning of a new vanguard in the Mission
District.

The focus of the movement is aimed at the prevention of rapid displacement
of artists, workers, residents and merchants in the Mission by unscrupulous
real estate developers. The Mission District is the latest staging area
for highly technical venture capitalists and fledgling business enterprises
whose start-ups neither guarantee a long-term marriage with the Mission,
nor bring the kind of stability necessary for their continued survival
in the Mission.

"If you look at the NASDAQ, they [high-tech industries] are not even
that economically viable anymore. So, are we going to lay waste neighborhoods
for dot.com space and in five years the neighborhoods will be empty and
rotten and the damage will have been done and very hard to reclaim?" asked
Board of Supervisor President Tom Ammiano during an interview with my
editor, Lisa Gray-Garcia and I, as we participated in what was dubbed,
"Caminata," on Saturday, August 12, 2000.

Mi Rancho Market represented the kind of economic viability that Supervisor
Ammiano talked about. Located on 20th and Shotwell streets for over 40
years, it embodied the spirit of the Mission. It was one of the sites
designated by the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition as an illustration
of the kinds of atrocities that are being perpetrated by developers in
the Mission. Ten condominiums will be constructed at the former site of
Mi Rancho Market to provide housing for the future employees of the brick
building on the corner -- the brick building which consists of fifty percent
of high-tech office space!

"I just want all of this to translate in November to a passage of Proposition
L, which will start to put the brakes on the displacement that has been
happening, particularly in the Mission District, Potreo Hill, South of
Market and Bayview. The Mayor did a really sneaky thing. Two minutes before
the deadline, he put something on the ballot that had a lot of loopholes
in it, particularly around live-work. He also tried a divide-and-conquer
strategy, and we are too smart for that. He left out a lot of neighborhoods
that we want to protect as well," Supervisor Ammiano continued to speak
as he walked under the warmth of the buttery sphere in the brilliance
of the sapphire upper atmosphere.

Proposition L is the instrument that all of the people who participated
in the Caminata on Saturday, and most of the residents and merchants of
the Mission District hope will be the slayer of the huge dot.com dragons
that are devouring huge chunks of real estate in their neighborhoods.
This preliminary law would, among other things, amend the Planning Code's
Priority Policies to link commercial development to transit capacity and
traffic improvements, and discourage displacement of community services
and arts activities. In addition, it would redefine "office space" to
include multimedia and computer-based services such as software development,
web design, and electronic commerce. The redefinition of "office space"
is an essential element of Proposition L, since most developers take advantage
of the code's current broad and ambiguous description to construct high-tech
industries in the Mission.

The event was organized by members of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
(MAC), the political, economic and social watchdog formed to curb the
flight from the Mission and the Hispanic diaspora throughout the Bay Area.
The rate of occurrence of gentrification in the Mission is astounding.
Within the past three years, there have been over 1,000 evictions. The
severity of this rate of eviction was summarized by Bill Sorro of Mission
SRO Collaborative, a component of MAC. According to Bill, "The people
who have been here for a long time are tired of being pushed out. Not
one Latino person has even come down the steps on which I am currently
sitting while you interview me. The only people who have come out of this
building, down these steps, have been young, white, hip people. I'll bet
you a dollar to a doughnut that these people have displaced our Latino
people."

His mustache sprinkled with gray, the middle-aged activist sat on the
stairs of an adjoining apartment complex with one eye on the rhythmic
performance of the Danzates as he resumed his expressions of fervor. This
event today is a culmination of years of frustration in this community.
This is the barrio. This is the barrio of the Mission District.
It has a soul that is unlike any other part of the city that is still
in tact....The barrio here is a very special working-class neighborhood."

A Mission resident of six years, a troublemaker and former member of
the Coalition on Homelessness, Stefan Goldstone became hot under the collar
as he expounded his first-person account of the consequences that the
greed of developers have had on his place of birth. According to Stefan,
"The interests of the people are not being served by the policies of the
city. The culture of the neighborhood and ability for low-income people
to stay here are being erased by the invasion of yuppies....I know a few
people who have directly been evicted from their houses as a result of
the dot.com invasion. There is also an indirect affect of this phenomenon.
My parents and best friend do not live here anymore. They were not necessarily
evicted directly, but the influx of the dot.coms and business interests
over the interests of people [like them] have made it so that their rents
had become so high and the quality of life so low that they were forced
to move to Oakland, Antioch and Pacifica -- all over the Bay Area. This
is neither fair nor right. People should have a right to live in
their communities with their friends where they were born...."

As the walk to defend the right to live in the Mission and to prevent
greed-driven speculators from shattering neighborhoods was about to began,
I asked Christian Parenti, also a resident of the Mission District, to
give tell me what he thinks of the Caminita. "This is a much needed public
protest against the evisceration of our home -- the Mission. It will send
a message to the Planning Department and the City that they can no longer
discard the law by working hand-in-glove with what is really totally illegal
development. Calling the development R&D to circumvent restriction
on office space, and the use of eviction of all the nonprofit tenants
out of the Bayview Bank, are examples of illegal development that the
City is facilitating. The City is not passively standing, but is working
hand-in-glove with dot.com industries and developers. It feels like a
sought of slow, subtle rape of a community."

by Ken Moshesh

“YOU PEOPLE SHOULD SLEEP OVER AT THE CHURCH.” THIS WAS ONE OF THE UNSOLICITED COMMENTS MADE BY THE ARRESTING UC BERKELEY OFFICER DURING THE CONTESTED OCTOBER 27 LODGING WARRANT INCIDENT COVERED IN “ARRESTED ARTISTRY”.

by KACEE

You shoved poverty down my throat, like she did

when I was six.

sitting at the breakfast table, I said no !

She slapped me in the face, hit me up side my head!

and forced oatmeal down my throat.

It’s good for you! eat it,you little ungrateul BITCH!

I saw her bodybeing lowered into the ground,

dead and rotting,

flesh dropping,

I knew they would come..........and...eat her up.

the maggots, they were there to get full,

and then they grow up and fly away.

He stuck his stick into ny black hole,

and...he did his dirty task......

He said it was making love...

it was rape.

by Gio Willis-Barela

I'm an average person just like you. I have four wheels that's very
important to me too.

Yeah, I have a job that I have to work at to survive, but I have to go from
place to place in order to get by. My pay? Well, let's just say it's lower
than minimum wage.

My family and I we're uncomfortable at this stage. I'll take anything though
in order to feed my child. Some days we go without eating, period, I won't be
in denial.

We use our wheels to carry our cans and our bottles because "recycling is the key"that's our motto.

"Your house, Your clothes, how do you wash up? Where do you sleep?"

"Our bodies and our clothes are all washed in the same filthy, dirty
sink.

Nights that we can't get warm resting grounds, the concrete is where we sleep.

By now you probably figured out that our family are one in many who are
homeless, yes, homeless. Holding a sign ummm, people don't care.

One out of 10 cars may give me their change, the other 9 may or may not look at me, but, definitely will never share. Yes, we're homeless, there's no doubt, but all we depend on in this world is Jesus to help us out.

by Tiny

I'm not sure

when I stopped..

grievin'

or see-ing

or believ-ing

that the pain of poverty would not

STOP..

un-til

I could

Start

talkin'

and fightin'

and rightin'

what's

NOT..

by Kaponda

While the oath of office was being administered to the statesman during his inaugural ceremony at Yerba Buena Gardens, I was initiated into a notorious institution by his secret drug force agents. They continued to mangle each of my arms until I buckled over like still water contorted by a vicious current. As the president of the United States had ended his long-distance congratulatory speech to the first-ever African-American Mayor of the City and County San Francisco, I was being hoisted from the ground by Sergeant Miller and hustled to the Hall of Justice by Sergeant Lofton to a cell in which I had been selected to spend the next year of my life.

"You are gone forever!" stated an irascible Sergeant Lofton, watching blood trickle from one of his two arms used in his heavy-handed assault on me as I walked down Sixth Street on that January 8, 1996 I could sense his consolation from having bent my left thumb until it almost touched my elbow, as I wore handcuffs. The civil rights of many people were trampled upon by the Willie Brown Sweep, as it was later dubbed, since it appeared to have been coordinated to occur durin his inaugural ceremony.

Aware of the Three Strikes initiative approved in 1994 to create fixed determinate prison sentences for people who re-offend, Sergeant Lofton knew that his threat to cast me into perpetual oblivion was supported by a mandate by voters of California and upheld as constitutional by the courts of California. The authority to make sentencing decisions have devolved from the courts and juries to cops and district attorneys as a result.

Now the District Attorney of San Francisco has decided to preclude a man who was recently convicted of receiving stolen goods from ever seeing the light of day by exercising the power vested in him to invoke "Three strikes and you’re out." This decision by Terence Hallinan confounded many people because he has expressed strong opposition to imposing three strikes to nonviolent offenses. In one of the first cases presented to Hallinan involving Freddie Lee Williams, Hallinan is quoted in an article by Reynolds Holding of the San Francisco Chronicle, dated Sunday, November 3, 1996. In this article, Hallinan expresses his attitude concerning three strikes by stating that, "If we did the three strikes, that would be the same as a sentence for murder. But the jury had just made a decision that it (Williams’ crime) was manslaughter."

But in the case decided Friday, Troy Hayles, who had earlier been acquitted of murder, was convicted only of receiving stolen property. Those goods had belonged to 70-year-old Joyce Ruger, who was murdered more than two and one half-years ago at 719 Webster Street in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, a murder that has remained indelibly fastened in the memories of many Fillmore residents.

"I didn't know the late Joyce Ruger personally," stated Bishop Valentine of the New Christian Fellowship Church, located two doors from the fourplex Ruger owned and lived in. "As I understood it, she was like a neighborhood watch person trying to take care of her community. But the stuff that is going on in the neighborhood is so rough and tough that it takes more than just one person to fight this thing."

In my case, Sgt. Lofton had been aware that I had no violent cases on my record when he taunted and interrogated me in an effort to get me to cooperate with him. He wanted me to inform him how the transaction of a $10 rock of cocaine happened between me and the person from whom he claimed I had purchased it.

I asked Bishop Valentine what he thought about the District Attorney's decision to invoke the Three-Strike statute in the case of Troy Hayle, and did he think that the decision was imposed, in part, because of Hayles refusal to cooperate with the police?

"If the District Attorney said that he would only invoke the Three-Strikes sentence for violent offenders, and this individual had nothing to do with it, then there should be an alternative other than the third strike. But if there is more to the case that they are concealing, then light needs to be cast on the the facts. The District Attorney has to justify the harsh sentence that is being imposed upon this man."

"Three Strikes should not be imposed because of the decision of a person not to cooperate, because we are protected by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. If that is the case, and Hallinan's decision was based on Hayles' refusal to cooperate, then that is like retaliation because he will not speak to what is going on," concluded Bishop Valentine.

Opponents of charging a nonviolent offense as a third strike cannot understand why the District Attorney had elected to use Three Strikes against Troy Hayles.

"They were unable to get language that would make it a third strike only if it was a violent felony," stated Stephen Bingham of the National Lawyers' Guild.

Having vowed publicly and throughout his campaign never to use the Three Strikes statute in cases that involved nonviolent offenses and acknowledging the draconian language, and that it could not be applied fairly, why did Terence Hallinan backdown on his promises to the people of San Francisco by imposing the three-strikes statue in the case of Troy Hayle, the man who was charged with receiving stolen goods? During the weekly Community Newsroom at POOR Magazine, the Director of Families with a Future, Ida McCray, talked about her reasons why she thought the District Attorney elected to relegate Hayle to the house of jackals.

"This case is politically charged because Joyce Ruger was a wealthy woman who had several houses one of which was on Webster Street! This is very reminiscence of the antebellum laws in the South where some black man had to hang from some tree because some white person got killed. The jury found that there was no evidence that linked Troy Hayle to the murder of Joyce Ruger...," stated McCray.

Sergeant Lofton knew that I would take the high ground and preserve the one quality that I had never in life compromised -- my honor. Conversely, I knew that Sergeant Lofton would also manufacture a statement that would satisfy the "three strikes and you’re out" sentencing guidelines. He did not disappoint me, as he charged me with assault on two police officers because of the injury to his partners that resulted after they had barreled into and mauled me.

According to McCray, Hallinan had attempted to jostle Hayle into renouncing his principles by giving him a "testify or else" ultimatum which was probably the reason Hallinan was compelled to apply three strikes in the case of Hayle.

"He [Terence Halliinan] decided to use his ‘discretion’ in this case. And using his discretion is to convict Troy Hayles, who did not cooperate with police and was unable to testify, and who was unable to be uaed. He was not the murderer, and the office of the District Attorney knows that he was not the murderer. But he is being used as a scapegoat by that office. ‘We are going to hang some,’" stated Ida McCray.

Have the political winds in San Francisco shifted so drastically that the ethics of extrajudcial decisions are the issues around which interest revolves. I asked Matt Gonzales of he San Francisco Board of Supervisor about the Troy Hayle matter and whether there has been a major shift of attitudes around three strikes?

"I am opposed to the use of three strikes in any nonviolent case," Gonzales stated with absolute resolve.

DeShawn (DeFresh) Blake, a rapper, and resident of the Fillmore district in 1998 and was just released from San Quentin Penitentiary, provided a personal perspective to arbitrary sentencing.

"I feel that if he did not go out and commit a violent felony, then he should not be given that much time. That is a long time to be away from your family and the people who care about you." The mother of Troy Hayle had passed away during his time awaiting trial, and his wife and sister attended his trial.

Had I known the magnitude of authority at the disposal of undercover cops like Miller and Lofton and the push to fill the growing prison industrial complex with my body and your money, I would have struggled even harder to avoid the one year of jail time to which I was sentenced.

According to the latest statistics released by Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, "the California Department of Corrections projects that the second- and third-strike prison population will exceed 55,000 by 2002; nearly 75 percent of second and third strikes are for nonviolent and non-serious offenses; the most common "strike" charges are drugs, theft and burglary."

According to Ida McCray, "To convict someone who is nonviolent sends the wrong message. I think what has happened to San Franciscans is that they have been placed in jeopardy because as soon as that news hits the community, for those who are criminal minded -- we are dealing with the heart when we see someone one-on-one. When these men who receive their third strike go to prison -- and this is what a lot of people don't want to know -- they will have to learn to kill. They will have to learn to kill because Troy Hayle will go to a Level-4 institution. People with that amount of time go to a Level-4 institution. So we are going to send people who are nonviolent in the first place to institutions where they are going to have to either kill for their life or become subject to something else."

by Jordan Fletcher, PNN intern

What words can adequately convey a cry for help? Which episodes, what details do you choose to describe your ongoing struggle for justice when every event of every day is a shivering reminder that the odds, paperwork and government bureaucrats are lined up against you?

Debbie Gilman wrings her hands together over and over and shifts uncomfortably in her seat. Her chest is forced out, her shoulders back and her head are held straight as she tries to piece together the details of her situation. For the past four years, she has been the victim of systematic discrimination and abuse by housing and social service authorities in two counties. For four years she has struggled fruitlessly to obtain social services and housing accommodations for herself and her son. Just listening, I feel overwhelmed.

Ms. Gillman’s presence at the office of POOR Magazine is her latest effort in an ongoing struggle to obtain the proper care for her son, William Jackson. In 1997, William, who is schizophrenic, was released from a care facility in Berkeley after one month despite the recognition by his doctors that he was not fit to be at home; there just wasn’t space for him anymore.

With her son out of the hospital, Debbie was forced to provide the constant care and supervision he required. However, some days the task of caring for herself, much-less her son, was too much for her. She sought a full time in-home care provider for William. She sought a housing upgrade from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom in order to accommodate the care provider. Both requests were denied. Debbie and William were barely surviving on Debbie’s own general assistance--just $200 a month. With the mounting pressures and responsibilities Debbie became unable to work herself. She was forced out of her home San Leandro by her landlord and moved up to Fairfield. There she continued to apply for care providers and a housing upgrade. Solano county has cut its funding for public legal defense, however, and Debbie was forced to pursue her mental disability and housing discrimination suit unaided.

Ultimately, Fairfield approved William for 195 hours of care per month and gave 64 to Debbie. The County tried to appeal Debbie’s allotment, however, arguing that her panic attacks were caused by asthma, not psychological problems. "We should both be getting the maximum allowance of 283 care hours per month," Debbie said. Indeed, in the past two years she has been involved in 2 car accidents, one of which left her in a body cast. Her list of ailments includes back problems, asthma, stress, panic attacks and major depression. Social service regulation say that an applicant must have psychological disabilities in order to be eligible for the full home care allotment.

Despite receiving some money for home care, Debbie has made little progress in her housing application. "I think HUD messed up and now they’re trying to cover themselves," she said.The Department of Housing and Urban Development in San Francisco said her case was closed in September after it found no evidence of discrimination. But Debbie says she provided them with ample proof to obtain Reasonable Accommodation. HUD argued that unless she had documents proving that she needed 24 hour care she was ineligible for a housing upgrade. Debbie responded by providing several boxes full of evidence. The HUD investigator said he’d look into it when he got the chance. He said he would get back to her.He still has not

Often, Debbie went to argue her case unassisted. But her disorganized thinking and tendency towards panic attacks proved a great impediment.An administrative law Judge once asked her directly, "Do you understand how insane you are?" She clearly needed help advocating for herself, but Solano County recently cut all funding for public legal aid. Ultimately, Debbie’s persistence in pursuing her case had frustrated county bureaucrats. They didn’t want to talk to her any more, and they tried to push the matter aside.

Another failure in social service provision in Solano county is that patients must find their own care providers. Having been robbed by the last four providers she’d found for herself and her son, Debbie is understandably wary at the prospect of a new stranger entering her life. Luckily she has Russ.

Russ accompanied Debbie to the POOR offices. He had been Debbie’s care provider at one point, but now he appears mostly as a friend. A calm man, he has a decidedly stabilizing effect on her, and knows the details of her discrimination suits against the Hayward and Fairfield housing authorities. "we found out that they [Alameda County] discriminated against her too. They hid old documents...we had all the originals, and the investigator would look in their files and then look at ours--we had three times as much documentation as them."

Yet the availablity of a close ally such as Russ exposes Debbie to the catch-22 of home care support, because support agencies refuse to pay for care providers who are "friends." Such regulations serve only to undermine the most stabilizing relationship in Debbie's life.

Over the past four years, others have tried to help Debbie. ECHO Housing in Hayward helped her file the lawsuit. The Center for Independent Living tried to help as well, but as she stated, "they dropped the ball." She has had several sympathetic doctors who understand her situation and have written letters on her behalf. She has been granted a care provider for a limited duration, but must to reapply for that allotment whenever given notice. Mostly, Debbie is alone in her day-to-day struggle for adequate housing and care for herself and her son. Just relating this story to us has gotten her worked up into a anxious state. "I’m in the middle of all these different emergencies, and its just me. And they want me to get everything together...you can’t come take on my life because you don’t realize, you don’t live it."

Home care aside, to this day William still receives few social services. Social Service officials have been to the house for repeated psychological assessments, and Debbie fears they want to discontinue what little support he does receive. She suffers with a mother’s knowledge that her son lives with severe depression. "He’s schizophrenic now. I think my son could be so much more, if only he were getting services.

Postscript; As of March 5, 2001, Debbie’s son has lost all of his care provider hours due to the fact that Debbie has still recieved no legal representation from the county and has to represent herself in court.

by Tiny and Ronnie Stevens

He was standing there, his swollen fingers holding onto the wrought iron grate in front of the building. As he opened his chapped lips into smile - one proud tooth glistened out of a dark mouth

"Join us" I yelled into him while clutching my banner.

"Stop the Unfair Evictions" The group of several hundred marchers yelled in unison behind me.

I was part of a march against evictions organized by Just Cause Oakland. We had stopped in front of 1918 San Pablo, The Westener Hotel - one of several locations slated for "renovation" (read gentrification) i.e., the destruction of a community in the name of improvement.

The building was the color of soiled egg cream with dark brown trim. The Westerner - Daily..Weekly..Monthly was hastily painted in chocolate letters on the side...

"What’s your name?," I called in to the man at the gate.

"Ronnie" He answered slowly

"You know, the city is planning to tear this building down" I whispered to him.

He shook his head slowly from side to side- "I know", he mouthed the words silently.." I know..."

"Come in to POOR Magazine- tell your own story - fight back...you are not powerless in all of this..."

As the march continued on and I waved goodbye to Ronnie, I remembered Boona Cheena's (from B.O.S.S.) words to me at the rally that proceeded the march, " We have to organize immediately to prevent this (The Westener) eviction - rally's are great but that's not enough, we can't let these kinds of evictions happen at all- we can't let more poor folks be swept out of Oakland."

Ronnie

I don't have many friends, in fact, I don’t have any.. excepting John. He doesn't say much and he moves very slowly, I think he is getting older and each day it shows more and more- even his antennas move slower than usual. John is a cockroach, and my roommate at the Westerner Hotel - the same hotel that the city of Oakland plans to demolish which will make the quality of my already meager life even worse.

Since I lost my job several years ago due to a disability, I have been addicted to heroin on and off for the last ten years. Somewhere in all of this I lost my nerve to keep trying.

And yet, I wake up every day and buy food, cigarettes, paper towels and toilet tissue, and with a rigid regularity, pay my rent. In other words, in some way, I contribute to society.

This place (The Westener) isn’t much to look at but it’s mine- a roof- that I can afford. A bed that is inside and a toilet, that I am allowed to use. I have been homeless, and I don’t want to be homeless again. If I am evicted, I really have nowhere else to go.

Mayor Jerry Brown wants to revitalize Oakland’s downtown by building housing for 10,000 new residents. This "10k plan is designed to attract new retail and entertainment to create a bustling urban atmosphere. But who will be bustling? While the new housing is targeted to households with incomes of $75,000 to $100,000 and more, low income people are being evicted and displaced from their long-time homes. Nonprofit organizations and social service agencies serving the homeless and very low income are being told they are no longer welcome downtown. And the city refuses to enact a Just Cause Eviction ordinance that would protect tenants citywide from unfair evictions.

The centerpiece of the 10k effort is a proposal from Forest City Enterprises, a major national developer from Cleveland, to build 2,000 new housing units in an area the city has termed "Uptown," the triangle between Telegraph and San Pablo Avenues, 17th and 20th Streets. Yes, there are vacant and underutilized parcels of land in this area, but there is also a
community of residents and the businesses and agencies that serve them. The Downtown Foodmart at 20th and Telegraph housing pizza, Mexican food, and donut shops, was closed several months ago. Tenants of the 34 residentential hotel rooms at the Westerner Hotel on San Pablo Avenue recently got notice that their evictions are coming soon.

The Just Cause Oakland coalition supports bringing new residents, new businesses and entertainment venues to downtown Oakland. But that process can and must be done in a way that maintains opportunities for low income residents, downtown workers, artists, nonprofit organizations, social service agencies, and neighborhood-serving businesses to preserve Oakland’s unique cultural and economic diversity.

The following are a list of the stops on the eviction tour.

The Just Cause Eviction Tour;

First Step

First Step provided shelter, meals, employment assistance, housing assistance, and substance abuse treatment to approximately 234 Oakland residents per year. Licensed by the State Department of Alcohol and Drug
Programs, First received referrals from hospitals, social service agencies, the police department and others. On September 25, 2000, this facility was forced to close when the new owners increased monthly rent by $1,000. To date, the gap created by the loss of First Step’s to the substance abusing homeless population, and the community has not been filled.

Oakland Homeless Project

Oakland Homeless Project provides emergency housing for severely and persistently mentally disabled clients. It can accommodate up to 25 people for an average of 60 days. Operated by Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS), the program’s services include safe, clean short-term housing, meals, access to showers and laundry facilities, crisis counseling and interventions, case management and mental health services.

More Public Radio

More Public Radio is a nonprofit broadcast organization that provides alternative programming and access to broadcast media. As a community-based station focused on the needs and growth of its listeners, More Public Radio provides exposure to portions of community who normally have no outlet on the airwaves. More Public Radio airs Jazzbeat Music (a combin- nation of modern and traditional jazz), as well as elements of R&B, soul, new jack swing, world rhythm, blues and gospel.

Westerner Hotel

The City of Oakland purchased the Westerner Hotel last summer as part of a group of parcels they are assembling for Forest City Enterprises’ "Uptown" development. City Council authorized the purchase and relocation of existing tenants, using Oakland Redevelopment Agency funds, with the caveat that replacement units would have to be provided. Thus far, no new residential hotel units, have been provided, yet tenants have been notified that they are about to be evicted. The City has promised some relocation benefits, but tenants are concerned that the funds will not be enough to afford even other substandard hotel rooms. Tenants are searching through the City’s list of recommended residential hotels, but so far there are no vacancies to be found.

St. Mary’s Center

The St. Mary’s Center provides an incredible array of social services for downtown Oakland’s older homeless residents. Their daily senior drop-in center serves more than 100 people a day with varied programs; assistance with money management and dealing with government red-tape; and general case management. St. Mary’s operates a pre-school with an enroll- ment of 18-20 students. During the winter, St. Mary’s operates an emergency shelter for approximately 25 people over 55 years old. In the past few months, as local rents have skyrocketed, St. Mary’s reports seeing dramatic increases in the number of people using its services, particularly elderly homeless women. The Center is threatened, as their site is being considered as the location for a new Cathedral.

SAN PABLO HOTEL

With 144 studio apartments and a service, the San Pablo is one of a handful of programs nationally the provide both housing and medical/social services is one location for seniors with incomes under $25,000. East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) and Eden Housing, two nonprofit housing developers, rehabilitated the earthquake-damaged hotel and open the San Pablo in 1994. A third nonprofit - Center for Elders Independence-leases ground floor space for us its program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, providing medical care, home care, social services, rehabili
-tation, transportation, recreational therapy, and case management on-site.

GREYHOUND STATION

Originally called "The Union Stage Depot," the building has served as Oakland’s main bus station since 1926. California Transit was headed by Westly Elgin Trivis, described as "one of the major figures in the develop- ment of stage and bus transportation in the west." Originally a beaux Arts design with an octagonal dome painted with stars, the dome is now concealed by a drop ceiling. The building was remodeled in 1946 and again in 1951, closing off seven storefronts, adding signs and a speed-line canopy. Some of the original dome is visible through a few gaps in the dropped ceiling. The Greyhound station is included in the City’s "Uptown" area and may be part of the Forest City development.

The Samaritan Neighborhood Center

Located in the education building of the Oakland First Baptist Church, this after-school program benefits about 100 children from the area. These youth benefit from tutorial classes, gender-and age-specific peer groups, recreational programs, computer clubs, summer camps, choir, and a teen leadership program. Although the Center itself is not threatened by the proposed new development, many of the families served by its programs are at risk of being displaced. We see again how the children of the poor remain un-represented by those in the seats of power.

Hamilton Apartments

The former YMCA building was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earth- quake, and rehabilitated by Mercy Charities Housing California as 92 units of service-enriched housing for formerly homeless individuals. All units are subsidized through a project-based Section 8 program, which enables residents to pay 30 percent of their incomes for housing. Support services, coordinated by Mercy and by Corporation for Supportive Housing, include free health care, case management, peer counseling and employment training. Some residents have been hired as desk clerks at the Hamilton, providing them with job training and building their employment history.

Local 2850 and SEIU Local 250

The East Bay is part of a region that ranks as the wealthiest consumer market in the world. What kind of jobs would new downtown retail and entertainment development create for Oakland? How many hours would those employees have to work to afford a one-bedroom apartment?

To contact Just Cause Oakland or B.O.S.S. check the POOR's on-line Resource Page