Story Archives 2002

by Ida Patrice McCray

Last year our party was in San Pablo. This year we decided to expose our children to an environment few visit, one that is
different from the norm; a ship, a fantastically huge and glorious ship located at Pier 9 in Oakland. Thanks to the owner, Slobodan, who hosted this most wonderful event, the children got to see a pelican, and to be aboard a ship once used for voyages across the ocean.

The activities included Notty Dread, the clown soon to be a Ringling Brothers participant, Tinkers Workshop, and the Intertribal Friendship House Jack and Bonita. Safety was provided by volunteers from Montclair Presbyterian Church.

The party lasted for about 4 hours and there was never a dull moment. The children went from one activity to the next, commencing with the ceremonial circle of children who have loved ones locked away. These children are honored this day.

Too often in our day to day dealings, children are not honored for what they must endure. That is why Families With a Future, who transports children to see their incarcerated mothers, decided to begin a public and open forum once during the year.
One of the things that Families with a Future believes in strongly is that it is very important to keep the anonymity of our clients, their lives and information. Too often journalists want to ‘expose their lives’ and frankly they have had enough exposure from social service organizations, criminal injustice investigators and the like. This day is for them to be revered."

Those who are interested in becoming a volunteer or donating their services should read below to become a part of a grass roots service organization. Long Live the Poor and the Imprisoned. Maybe one day we can work for the preservation of families and pay them for it, instead of causing separation through lack of money and fast track adoption.

To all friends and supporters of the incarcerated.

GREAT NEWS! The National Institute of Corrections has awarded a grant to us to create a national model for services for children of prisoners. We are a collaborative of agencies: Community Works, Families with a Future (a project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children) and the San Francisco Sheriff's Dept. Family Services Program. I've named the program SEEDS OF LIGHT and it is the vision I have long held for the children of prisoners. The primary interventions that will be implemented through this program are:
increased visitation for children; training of deputized/civilian staff;

*a referral system and/or therapist for immediate crisis intervention; cultural and recreational programs for a core group of children.

*A dedicated case manager will implement services for children of prisoners both in-custody and in the community.

It is imperative that we get feedback and support from all of you in the community that work with this population. We are asking for your help and advice in shaping this project. It is an opportunity to develop policy and programs for this radically underserved population that can benefit the work that all our organizations are trying to do. Part of the NIC initiative is a Resource Collaborative that will work on gathering statistics and changing policy. We can have all the programs in the world, but until we work on
changing the policies that are creating this overabundance of separated families, we're only putting a bandage on a giant wound. This is the first time that the National Institute of Corrections has focused on the children of the over 2 million citizens currently in jail or in prison. We know that these children are six times more likely than other children to wind up incarcerated themselves. The cycle must be stopped!

The problems are huge and this grant can only begin to address some of the issues that need our attention. We hope however that by collaborating, we can write more proposals, come up with more solutions, and build on this opportunity to help these seeds of light grow. Any ideas or suggestions on how we can build on this opportunity and any resources available that we can use for the children of prisoners would be most welcome.

If you're interested in staying in touch with us as we work through this program and build on it. Please contact us at idais@best.com. Thanks to all of you who have worked throughout the years to bring this issue into the light.

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A federal judge threw out Mumia Abu-Jamal's death
sentence on Tuesday, ruling that the former journalist and Black
Panther is entitled to a new sentencing hearing for killing a Philadelphia police
officer in 1981.

U.S. District Judge William Yohn ordered the state to conduct the
hearing within 180 days.

``Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new
sentencing hearing ... the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to
life imprisonment,'' the judge said in his 272-page ruling.

Abu-Jamal is America's most famous death-row inmate -- revered by a
worldwide ``Free Mumia'' movement as a crusader against racial
injustice, and reviled by the officers's supporters as an unrepentant cop-killer
who deserves to die.

The judge refused Abu-Jamal's request for a new trial, upholding his
1982 conviction on first-degree murder charges.

The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Abu-Jamal was convicted of shooting officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, during
the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, after the officer pulled over
Abu-Jamal's brother in a downtown traffic stop.

Celebrities, death-penalty opponents and foreign politicians have since
rallied to Abu-Jamal's cause, calling him a political prisoner and
saying
he was railroaded by a racist justice system.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe ruled Nov. 21 that she did
not have jurisdiction over Abu-Jamal's petition for a new trial, scuttling
his hopes for another round of state-court appeals.

Abu-Jamal exhausted the state appeals process two years ago, but a
petition filed in September argued that the defense had new evidence to clear
him, including a confession by a man named Arnold Beverly.

In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill
Faulkner because the officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.

Abu-Jamal's former lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel R. Williams,
said they thought the confession was not credible and Yohn refused to order
Beverly to testify on Abu-Jamal's behalf.

On behalf of the

National Office of Refuse & Resist!

305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166

NY, NY 10165

http://www.refuseandresist.org

info@refuseandresist.org

Tel: 212.713.5657

by TJ Johnston

For all the brouhaha over racial and ethnic profiling since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an unlikely coalition resolved against such draconian measures emerged: city cops in Oregon. When federal law enforcement agents question Middle Easterners about what they might (or might not) know, the local men in blue won’t be in the interrogation room with them.

Last month, police chiefs in such communities as Corvallis, Portland, and Eugene were asked by the US Attorney’s office to assist their federal counterparts in assisting some 200 Middle Easterners—specifically those on "nonimmigrant status visas". These potential interviewees weren’t known to be criminal suspects or linked to terrorists. The townie cops were provided a list of the not-yet-suspects and a pre-written questionnaire.

But before the feds could grill the immigrants like falafel, the local bosses let out a collective, "Hold on, partner!"

Corvallis Chief Pam Roskowski consulted with the city attorney on how far they could actually go in pursuing leads. She concluded that while it’s possible to interview them within the scope of state law, "the questions were so borderline…it’s easy for investigators to cross that line. It amounts to political and religious intelligence gathering."

Roskowski’s assessment is backed up by Oregon’s anti-McCarthyism and immigrants’ rights laws. Apparently, local constabulary in other towns decided against contravening these laws. Do their mindfulness of the people’s rights and liberties make the local PD’s any less patriotic?

"We’re unwavering in our resolve to bring to justice the people responsible for the attacks," maintains Roskowski, As the FBI establishes a regional joint terrorism task force, she has pledged to help the G-men in "pursuing identified criminal leads" (as opposed, I guess, to DWA road stops). This is where she feels local manpower could be best served.

Would other cities follow the lead of these townships? Though some local police departments are exercising some restraint, the feds (assisted by Oregon’s attorney general) continue to play "bad cop".

I’m trying to see how this would play on NYPD Blue. Detective Sipowitz castigates an FBI agent on procedure: "If you bust this guy’s balls without just cause, I’m baring my ass again! Don’t think I haven’t done this before. Why do you think our cast has so much turnover?"

Not a pretty sight. The all-too-real picture for 10,000 Arab, Arab American, or Arabic-looking detainees nationwide is less pretty. Without the consideration Roskowski and other chiefs demonstrated, the picture for future "guests" could be downright ugly.

by Michael Vizcarra/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

Oakland, one of the most ethnically and economically diverse city in the
nation, doesn't care about its tenants. Even with the rising costs of
housing, landlords have the ability to use no-cause evictions to get higher
rent and push out long time residents of color, families with children, and
seniors to make more of a profit. Evictions and rising housing costs have
already pushed thousands of residents, especially African Americans, out of
Oakland. In other words, landlords do not have to give tenants any reason
to evict them. They just can. Measure EE, proposed by Just Cause Oakland,
requires landlords to have a valid reason if they want to force a tenant to
leave their home.

On Thursday night, October 17, 2000 Just Cause staged one of their
best protest and rally to date, to Re-port and Sup-port for
PoorNewsNetwork(PNN), I was a part of it. Over 70 of us took a rented bus
from the Just Cause headquarters on 16th and Telegraph to 4700 Lincoln
Avenue where Measure EE's strongest opponents, The Rental Housing
Association of Northern Alameda County (RHANAC), were having their monthly
meeting. Once we arrived chants of, "Get up, get down, there's a housing
crisis in this town," came from the enthusiastic crowd and echoed through
the still night air. The landlords were not expecting this.

"Since 1998, the eviction rate [in Oakland] has gone up 300%," says
Margaret Solle, a volunteer on the media committee for Just Cause Oakland.
"75% are people of color, 50% are African-American, and about 20 to 25% are
seniors with disabilities," she added. "We need to get the message out
there."

The landlords didn't want to hear any of it. As soon as they heard
the chants and saw us outside their meeting place they quickly closed the
blinds of their windows; once again turning a blind eye from the people
they house. We couldn't enter the meeting, but a few Just Cause organizers
had secretly "infiltrated" the meeting before we arrived. Adam Gold was
one of them.

"They talked about different Measures," he says, "but the emphasis
was on Measure EE.

"It's great because right when they were talking about EE, Just
Cause came and started the protest. It was perfect timing," says Gold.

It was amazing to see such a diverse group at a protest. We
consisted of activists, tenants, homeowners, and even landlords. The ages
ranged from the very young to seniors. There were also many different
ethnicities that made up the protestors. And there were several who spoke
about their experiences of being a victim to no-cause eviction.

There was Doris, an elderly African-American woman, who was evicted
for no reason after 36 years of living at the same location. There was a
young woman, pregnant of 7 months, African-American, who was also evicted
for no reason. There was Kevin and there was Sue. And the list goes on.
To the landlords, these people are like the names on this page: faceless
and part of a statistic.

"They say we're acting like children out here and the adults are in
there," yells Doris, who was at the meeting a few moments before.

"These swines in here care nothing except for money," says Ron,
from Campaign for Renters' Rights. "Many people are homeless because of
landlords."

One example of that is of Meika Johnson. Meika was evicted twice
because of no-cause eviction practice. The first time was in 1999. Meika
and her husband and son were renting a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland for
$660/month. One night they arrived home to find an eviction notice. They
had 30 days to move out. They tried to fight the eviction or at least get
more time to move, but the landlord would not have it. She knew the
landlord just wanted to rent to someone else for higher rent but she could
not prove it. Therein lies the problem with the current laws in Oakland:
without having to give a cause, the burden of proof is on the tenant that
the eviction occurred to raise the rent or in retaliation. The vast
majority of tenants do not fight a no-cause eviction primarily because it
is too overwhelming - knowing that in 30 days they will be homeless - and
the legal costs.

Meika had to spend 6 months with relatives until she finally found
a home in Newark in 2000. She was pushed out of Oakland because of the
rising cost of housing. But just when she thought she finally could get
back on track, once again she was served with eviction papers 18 months
later. And once again she had 30 days to move out. No reason, no-cause.
She asked the landlord why she was being evicted but he explained, "By law
I'm not obligated to give a reason." Meika had to move in with relatives
again until she could find another place to live.

By December 2001, Meika found a home in Hayward. She now pays
$1200/month for her apartment but also has another son to take care of.
Her husband has been recently laid-off from his job and she fears that soon
they will have to move again to find cheaper housing. Her bills have been
piling up and she is, for the first time, late on her rent.

"You can't even begin to catch up [on bills]," she says. "You have
to start from scratch each time you move. There's the first month's rent
and a deposit. I'm afraid I won't be able to find another place because of
my eviction record. The eviction record doesn't show why you're evicted."

This is an endless cycle, one that can lead to homelessness. Who
knows what would have happened to them, if Meika and her family were not
able to move in with relatives? They have already been displaced from
Oakland, having to move further away to find housing they could afford.
This is typical of what's happening to thousands of people in Oakland.

I also spoke with an African-American landlord, who wished to
remain anonymous, who attended the RHANAC meeting. Asked his reaction to
the protest, he replied, "We hardly even noticed. It didn't bother us."

I inquired why he was against Measure EE. He stated that the
Measure lets a tenant sublet his apartment without letting the landlord
screen the new applicant, e.g., through an interview or a credit check.
Therefore, he says, the quality of life goes down if the new tenant is not
screened properly and starts creating problems. He also said that there is
already a current law does the same thing Measure EE calls for.

Andrea Cousins, Media Coordinator for Just Cause Oakland, says
that's not true. "The existing laws are poorly constructed. They have
nothing to do with eviction protection," she says.

"Measure EE does not take away landlords' rights to screen
applicants. The clause in the Measure is for replacing a roommate, not for
subletting an apartment," says Andrea. "It closes the loopholes in
existing housing laws. It keeps tenants in their apartments."

The protest ended as the meeting came to a close. "Boo's" and
"hisses" came from the protestors as the landlords hurriedly made their way
out of the building. Police officers were on guard in case something
happened. One woman asked a police officer to take the protesters away.
The officer replied, "These people are really passionate about what they're
saying and doing."

As I rode the bus back to Just Cause headquarters, I couldn't help
but think how much of an impact we were making. Back in June, Just Cause
needed 19,200 signatures to qualify the initiative; they got 36,000
signatures. Recent polls show that 66% of voters would vote "yes" for
Measure EE. Some estimates show that up to 70% would vote "yes." The
people want Measure EE to pass. The people need Measure EE to pass. I can
still hear the chants on the way home. "Aqui estamos. Y no nos vamos!"
I'm glad I was a part of it.

by Dan Luzader

The Lowry Redevelopment Authority settled a lawsuit Tuesday with Catholic Charities and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless over housing for homeless families.

The agreement will guarantee housing for 70 formerly homeless families at two apartment complexes, while preserving efforts by developers to make existing housing compatible with new construction.

Monty Force, deputy director of the Redevelopment Authority, said the agreement also clears the way for housing construction projects held up by the lawsuit since last October to move forward.

"We're very pleased with the outcome," Force said. "We've been negotiating this for three years."

Catholic Charities and the homeless coalition sued in Denver District Court last year, alleging that the Redevelopment Authority was refusing to comply with requirements for housing for the homeless at the former military base.

A federal law requires that a portion of existing military housing at bases being closed around the country be used to house the homeless.

Force said disagreements arose over preserving low-cost housing at the base during the development of higher priced housing.

The agreement will allow the Coalition and Catholic Charities to place 30 transitional families in an existing housing unit on the former base, where 92 apartment units are now.

The other units at the Blue Spruce complex will be used for affordable housing, and for market rate housing, Force said.

A second facility, yet to be built, will provide 120 apartments, of which 40 units will be reserved, for transitional or formerly homeless families. The Colorado Homeless will hold title to both facilities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Catholic Charities and the homeless coalition can sell their interests in two other existing housing facilities to Lowry for $3.7 million. The two organizations will split that money, Charities officials said.

James Mauck, president of Catholic Charities, said they also were satisfied with the agreement.

"It was important to Catholic Charities to support and advocate for homeless families to have decent and safe housing," Mauck said. "A dispute over rights is always difficult."

by Joe B.

I am suppose to be 'chillin with family and friends.
In Las Vegas as an investor with Lady Luck whispering in my ears.

Maybe watching sports, a strip club, or in the company of that special woman or women in a star-studded gathering waiting to ring in 2002.

Once in a while I leave "The City" on special occasions such as these.

I'm in POOR Magazine's office Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2001, only because I need to because coming back on the 27th the day of taping POOR's Radio show anything can happen and I need the extra day to read, feel, and hear the script and see where changes were made, cuts because of time, sudden last second add-ins all are important as bumper music.
[Intro.-Exit instrumental background music] that weaves in seamless segments of taped and live portions of the show.

Between, Dee, Tiny, guests, and sometimes myself speaking our lines there are lots of frustrations, minor irritations, last minute fumbling, or cancellations... its a wonder to me how most people do this weekly and not just monthly as we do - I respect those unseen though familiar voices floating about and listened to by us their fickle public.

OK, after this warm-up I do have questions to ask.

This has been a frightening, exciting, dangerous, deadly, and yet joyous time.

BetweenINDECISION 2000, aptly titled by "The Daily Show" Floridian sideshow with hanging, floating, wet, wrongly punched, dented-perforated though still intact Chad's.
[small cardboard squares with dots, when perforated by a plastic, needle tipped looking pen, leaves square holes] A "Selected" President by 9 black robed Men, [The US Supreme Court] a Vice 'Pres. with a tenuous if not ragged grip on life, Dot-Com bubble economy gone splat 'n flat.

The real economy spun rapidly from recession to depression then at a little after 6 am. on New York's the September 11, 2001 World Twin Tower Suicide Tragedy when everything changed.

Imagine China saying "Never wake a sleeping giant.

"I always though China was the giant.

Japan seemed to collectively say
"Aw, Shit, whoever the country or countries are, are in for a world of hurt."

And it was our own planes highjacked with innocents aboard, becoming a flying bomb! All of a sudden all American's are in shock but a few millions who have warned of such things happening were justified but also now suspects.

I almost missed the whole thing doing my regular work but when it hit me I wrote my "What The Fuck Were They Thinking?"
column because at the time it my way of expressing shock.
Att. Gen. John Ashcroft and the "Patriot Bill or increased Wire Tapping Bill, Tom Ridge [Home Defense] I don't know the rest.

Cloned cows, Stem Cells, Dark Matter, Physicists concur? Time Travel a plausible and not as impossible as one believed, a multi millionaire with Russian not American help takes a 20 million dollar tourist's guide to the International Space Station and returns safely home, more embryo's created but stopped before they become embryo's, Child, Keone Penn is 15, but looks younger suffers from sickle cell anemia is given a donated an infants umbilical cord blood.

Sickle cell stunted his growth - he’s just 4 feet, 9 inches, tall and restricted what he could do.

After a few weeks, something extraordinary happened-the stem cells changed his entire blood system from type O to type B.
[I could be in error]

The umbilical cord cell’s donor, he took on their blood type.

The young teen is Type O the cord blood Type B. The teen's blood is now Type B and he no longer has sickle the cell disease.

A year later, doctors declared that the sickle Keone’s body had disappeared. Today, he is considered cured.

A two wheeled called "It", faster chips, and many more astounding things than what I've mentioned.

These old/new and other miracles of science and technology ignored or are less known because of Sept. 11th and events following it.

I only gleaned a few items as examples of continued accelerate change this world and we are going through.

Well, I hope this war ends and America is better for its suffering in 2002.

I've said enough, more eloquent pendants will weigh in and review this incredible year that was.

Happy New Year To All, May next year be better. Bye...

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Poor Magazine or

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Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

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CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org

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P.S.

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