Story Archives 2006

by Jessica Blanchard/Seattle Times staff reporter

A study of some homeless deaths in King County showed most of those people died prematurely and suffered from numerous treatable health problems.

The average person died at age 47 and had three medical problems, according to the study released yesterday by Public Health — Seattle & King County, which reviewed 77 deaths from 2003.

Some homeless people had as many as eight health problems, the study says. Roughly two-thirds had a history of alcohol or substance abuse, more than half had a cardiovascular disease and a quarter had a mental-health problem, the study says.

The most common cause of death was acute intoxication, followed by cardiovascular disease and homicide. More than half of the deaths occurred outside, according to the study.

While those findings are not surprising, they are disturbing, said Janna Wilson, a lead author of the study and a program manager for Health Care for the Homeless, a community-based program associated with Public Health — Seattle & King County.

"This study really sheds light on the complexity of health issues that homeless people face," Wilson said.

She cautioned that the study was not a comprehensive review of all homeless deaths in King County because it included only deaths reviewed by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, meaning the person either died without being in the presence of a physician or died under suspicious circumstances. She said it's difficult to determine the total number of homeless people who died, in part because some received medical services at the time they died.

In a letter accompanying the study, a Health Care for the Homeless advocate recommended several ways to reduce the number of deaths, such as expanding outreach programs and continuing annual reviews of homeless deaths in the county.

The study drives home the importance of the county having a holistic approach to helping the homeless, because it's common for them to simultaneously suffer from medical problems, mental-health issues and substance abuse, Wilson said.

Homeless advocates have seen a rise in the kinds of health problems that require constant monitoring, such as diabetes, Wilson said. As diabetes diagnoses have increased dramatically in the general population in recent years, the rates have been even higher among homeless people, Wilson said.

But few homeless people have the means to treat such chronic illnesses, she said.

"And they often have other priorities," she said. "When you're homeless, securing a shelter bed for the night is going to be more important in many cases than getting to the doctor."

The King County findings mirror those of studies from other cities, which indicate that nationally, at least 47 percent of homeless people have at least one chronic condition, Wilson said.

Homelessness continues to rise, with an estimated 7,980 people homeless each night in King County, according to the Seattle-King County Coalition for the Homeless.

But ever-tightening county and city budgets and rising health-care costs mean the county isn't able to do much to expand programs that try to coordinate health-care services for the homeless, Wilson said.

"We absolutely struggle to maintain services," she said. "We know there's a lot more need out there, but we're doing everything we can to maintain what we have."

Health Care for the Homeless has had some success with getting federal grants to do "targeted expansions" of services. The program recently joined with the YWCA and Harborview Medical Center to get a federal grant to increase health services for the homeless in downtown Seattle. The result, the Opportunity Place Wellness Center, is set to open in January.

Also, the Committee to End Homelessness, a regional advisory group of representatives of government, United Way, churches and local businesses, has been studying ways to eradicate homelessness in King County within the next 10 years. It is expected to release its report later this month.

by Tiny/PNN

“Yerba Buena, Barbary Coast, Bagdhdad by the Bay. San Francisco. This unique Northern Californian city is a city of neighborhoods. From Chinatown to the Mission to Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco’s strength grows out of the diversity of its many neighborhoods. But the spector of change is looming over many of San Francisco’s neighborhoods”… an excerpt from There Goes the Neighborhood- A demographic survey of San Francisco’s Eastern neighborhoods

After I finished reading the 184 page wire bound book entitled; There Goes the Neighborhood meticulously researched, compiled and published by People Organized to

After I finished reading the 184 page wire bound book entitled; There Goes the Neighborhood meticulously researched, compiled and published by People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in collaboration with Urban Solutions, I looked out of POOR Magazine/PNN’s office window. Our office is located deep in the Heart of the Tenderloin (TL) district, one of the neighborhoods included in the book’s thorough demographic analysis of San Francisco’s Eastern neighborhoods which includes low-income communities of color such as The Mission, Bayview and Visitation Valley.

The funny ( not funny) thing is, our office window gazes upon the exact same image that is splashed across the book jacket; a gigantic mile long crane extending above the entire span of 7th street. In its jaws, in a permanent freeze frame of impending danger are 7 1 ton steel pallets poised precariously over the street itself (not the worksite) and the very low and no-income mostly houseless residents who hang out on the 7th street corridor. Ostensibly, these pallets are there for the building of one of the largest Federal building projects I have ever seen, complete with an Alamo-esque base that juts up from the earth later to be used for a 007 maneuver by Homeland Security troups. But, the joke between those of us in the hood are, those pallets are just a threat in case any of us Tenderloin citzenry get to uppity and don’t leave when we are power washed and po-liced away.

Bring on your Army of Bull-Dozers!

Bring on your Engineers.

You Travel from Here to There.

Creating Poverty Everywhere.

Enjoying your destruction.

Enjoying your reconstruction.

Not bothering about replacement.

Only working on displacement…..

Excerpt from Bring on your army of Bulldozers by A. Faye Hicks – from the Houzin Project – words, art and resources on Eviction, Displacement, Gentrification and Homelessness published by POOR Press

In the introduction to There Goes the Neighborhood POWER points out the very critical need for a demographic study of this scale which breaks down the impacted populations into tables and maps for each neighborhood investigation such as
African-American, Asian American, Latino, Female headed households, Residents below poverty level, linguisticly isolated, youth and seniors to name a few. "This study coupled with our anecdotal experiences of these neighborhoods, should give us a better idea of how to move foreword as we look to build vibrant community organizations fighting for economic, racial and gender justice in our communities and in all of san Francisco...They go on to outline the fact that there are several very large development projects planned for San Francisco in the upcoming years and studies like this one can be used to fight the big money developers like Lennar Corporation set to overwhelm, overbuild and overtake The Hunters Point Shipyard with huge, unsafe and unhealthy developments like this reporter wrote about in the November 29th issue of The SF Bayview and PNN

According to POWER, San Francisco has a history of displacing poor communities of color, a process POOR Magazine likened to a modern day Diaspora in the 2003 book; The Houzin Project. They also point out that San Francisco does not have a good track record for sustaining working class communities of color and that indeed due to this fact San Francisco has in fact become more white, more professional and more exclusive. Perhaps the reason our new Mayor is so solidly pro-demolition and anti-homeless using the New York model of homeless policy to lead to what POWER and other grassroots investigators call; The Manhattenization of San Francisco.

As POWER takes you through extensive studies of each neighborhood with colored maps and statistical examinations of the numbers of folks displaced and the people still holding on, I am reminded again of the federal building project set right in the middle of the so-called "Mid-Market district" which is on the development fast track hence the sudden rise in the police harassment of homeless folks in the TL. The thing about those kind of huge kolinazation projects, like the federal building, The shipyard and MUNI is, not only do they displace folks and make life more miserable for the existent communities, as well, unless you keep up a constant, time consuming resistance and vigilance, the Kolinizers don’t even make good on their false promises to bring "jobs" into the community. In the case of the federal building I know first-hand that there is no local workers on that site, in fact, it is a lot of Halliburton-like workers flown in for the multi-million dollar job, sounds like another kolinazation effort on the other side of the world….

Perhaps POWER chose their cover image cause they, too, are located right in Ground zero of the TL, on 7th street directly across from us, or perhaps, more likely to bring home the message that, unless we investigate, report and organize we, the working class folks, families of color, youth and elders who actually "live" in Frisco won’t be here for much longer.

To purchase a copy of There Goes the Neighborhood, contact POWER at (415) 864-8372

by A. Faye Hicks/Po Poet Laureate

What is this World coming too

I say what is this World "Coming" Too!

People protesting

Police politiking

Riots every day

Job cuts!

Clinics closed

While the "Heads" of this situation get Richer and Richer

Robbing the Poor to pay the Rich

A "Modern Day "Robin Hood" is Our Mayer

Job Cuts

Health Cost Rising, Clinics Closed

Nurses overworked, they can’t get arise

And they are closing our clinics

Medi-Cal funds deducted from our funds

More Rough Riders Hired, aka, Police Officers

I am tired, shoved aside

You can’t side here, you are taking up space

After mid-night when the cops slow down

Do they never sleep

Off duty they will pounce

I am a "Cop" I doo"s what I wants to do!

I wondered I can you sleep on cold hard cement

I found out

I just dropped where ever I was at

After mid-night when the cops slow down

I find a soft spot, on the cement walk

My Purse my Pillow

Believe me if you wiggle and squirm long enough

You will find a Soft Spot

After mid-night

The Tourist are a bed

The Night Clubs closed

The Rough-Riders stop roughing us up

Sleep in heavenly peace

No more sirens now just snores

But ready or not here they come

At the break of dawn

Engines start up, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

Paddy Wagons, police cars, Trucks, Vans

They will be riding "Limo’s Next

The Police swinging their Poverty Stick

It is no loner just a "Negro" Stick

Cars Zooming Up!

Ready or not here they come

Snatched up out my ‘cement Bed"

When the commuter come!

Trespassing on the sidewalk, when morning come

by Tiny

"(A) host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment," President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the nation in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933.

Although that statement was made more than 70 years ago by a rich white man steeped in extreme wealth and privilege, as far as Amerikkkan politicians go, he wasn’t too bad. FDR, the architect of welfare, social security, jobs programs and other measures known as the New Deal, enacted during the Great Depression, when millions of people became jobless, homeless and hungry, made it possible for poor people and workers to survive in the U.S.

The not so well known reason FDR was so radical in coming to the aid of poor folks was that at the time he was running for president in 1932, the hungry and jobless American citizenry were becoming increasingly radicalized; 60 percent of voters were registering as Communists.

"People think that Roosevelt is the reason that Social Security was started in this country – actually it was because of the mass mobilization of millions of workers in this country. In the ‘30s, there were national demonstrations led by working people all over the country," labor activist and working class scholar Steve Zeltzer told a crowd of over a hundred elders gathered at the temple of Amerikkkan wealth and capitalism, the Pacific Stock Exchange, in San Francisco’s Financial District last Tuesday to protest Bush’s dangerous plan to dismantle this nation’s Social Security system. The Gray Panthers, who organized the demonstration, chose this location because the intended beneficiaries of Bush’s plan would be stock brokers, venture capitalists and huge investment firms that do millions of dollars of business every day in this building.

"In 1934, there was a general strike by workers in San Francisco and Minneapolis. People said, ‘Enough is enough; we’re not going to take it anymore!’ That’s what needs to happen now." For this statement, Steve got a rousing cheer from the crowd, as the elders were simultaneously being pushed off the steps by the guards of property and privilege and abusers of poor people of color, the San Francisco police, at the behest of some very bothered looking stock exchange men in expensive suits with tiny state-of-the-art cell phones peeping out of their ears.

"Almost 80 percent of Blacks 65 years or older depend on their monthly Social Security checks. Without those benefits, they would fall below the poverty level," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, a member of House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, told reporters during a Dec. 15 conference call.

"We want him (Bush) as well as all Americans to understand that his plan for privatizing Social Security would adversely affect the minority population of this country." In fact, she said, the Bush privatization plan would increase those numbers of Black seniors living in poverty from 23.9 percent to 58.2 percent.

So what is Social Security and why do we need it? First, if a worker becomes temporarily disabled – that includes pregnancy leave for women – they can draw on their disability insurance, which all workers pay into every month out of their payroll check, to help them survive. As well, if a family member dies, their Social Security benefits will go to their surviving family members.

Elders 65 and over are entitled to monthly retirement benefits. Many have little or no other income. Elders of color, despite having worked hard for years, typically remain low-income in this racist, classist society that makes the attainment of wealth and security almost impossible for the majority of lower and middle income families, notwithstanding the "work hard and you’ll achieve the Amerikkan dream" myth.

Privatizing Social Security retirement benefits is key to the Bush plan. This is what Bush-Cheney Inc. – read Halliburton, Bechtel, Merrill Lynch and their related posses – intend to make bank on by forcing elders to invest their Social Security in the stock market. The scheme looks ok on paper for middle class retirees, but a loss in stock value or a stock market crash could wipe out an elder’s investment, and there’d be no further benefits coming.

Contrary to the scare tactics being promoted in the corporate media by Karl Rove and his puppet, G.W. Bush, predicting the program’s imminent collapse, Social Security IS there for future generations. It has over a $1.5 trillion surplus that is growing. By conservative estimates, it can fund current benefit levels until at least 2042 and 73 percent of current benefit levels after 2042. And current benefit levels could be funded indefinitely by applying the existing payroll tax to incomes over $88,000. These projections actually underestimate Social Security’s strength because they assume that the nation’s gross domestic product will grown at roughly half its historical rate.

Finally, for low-income disabled folks like my very poor, mixed race (African-Puerto Rican) grandfather, who has suffered with disabilities all his life and exists solely on yet another form of Social Security known as SSI, the consequences of Bush’s proposed Social Security theft are dire. The claim by Bush that this program would remain untouched is another flagrant lie.

The ultra rich, poor people hatin’ Amerikkan power brokers who perpetrate all the real welfare fraud – corporate welfare, that is – have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the whole social security program since FDR instituted the New Deal. Then, after they rob the coffers of the retirement fund, they will conveniently run into "a budget deficit" and find a means to do away the "burden" of SSI, the lifeline for millions of poor Americans, including hundreds of thousands of disabled homeless people, leaving folks starving and hungry yet again.

And all you anarchist leaning readers, please don’t shake your head and say, well, that’s good ‘cause then people will be desperate enough to "do something." The state of being that desperate is terrifying for those of us who have actually been there, and it is only a privileged person who would say that letting folks become "that desperate" to cause action is ok.

"Kenneth Lay is a friend of Bush, and he stole all the pensions from the workers at Enron. That’s what Bush wants to do with all of our Social Security pensions," Steve Zeltzer continued. "We need to organize millions of workers in this country to stop the privatization of social security, to fight against this war in Iraq. And we need to stop the war on the working people.

"In California, Arnold wants to stop the guaranteed pensions of city, county and state employees, telling us that in place of pensions we need to put our money in the stock market," Steve concluded, adding, "On April 28, workers memorial day, thousands of disabled and injured workers will march on Sacramento for our right to benefits."

"If there is no crisis, this administration creates one so that they can instill fear in the American people," said Howard Wallace of Senior Action Network, one of the last speakers to address the crowd before they marched to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. "So it’s not only the New Deal they are trying to repeal – it is enlightenment itself."

As I stood next to these determined elders holding signs that said, "Don’t Enronize our Social Security system," I felt hopeful that maybe, as in the ‘30s, we could wage a war against the lies perpetrated by a few that affect so many. But all marginalized communities will need to come together, and unfortunately I saw only a small smattering of youth and people of color at this rally. So as you read this story, valiant PNN and Bay View change makers, make a commitment to get involved – or they will steal yet another one of our meager remaining rights from us again.

To get involved in the Gray Panthers’ fight against these cuts, call them at (415) 552-8800 or go on-line to http://graypantherssf.igc.org/index.html.

by Leroy Moore/An Illin n' Chilln' exclusive

Alberto R. Gonzales' War Against the Disabled
Ignored in the post-election clamor, November 13th and
14th marked the fourth annual Convention of Campaign
to End the Death Penalty, (CEDP) held in Chicago,
Illinois. Fitting choice, as Illinois is also same
state that held a Black mentally Disabled young man,
Anthony Porter, on Death Row for eighteen years before
DNA testing and years of advocating led to the
overturn of his wrongful incarceration. Also ironic is
that it came on the heels of George Bush's
announcement of Alberto Gonzales to succeed John
Ashcroft as Attorney General. While as legal counsel,
Gonzales demonstrated an appetite for executing the
disabled.

In Texas, Gonzales was responsible for who would get a
stay, clemency or death on Texas' Death Row. Now Mr.
Gonzales closet is wide open to the public and we get
to see the case of Terry Washington and other mentally
disabled death row inmates that were put to death with
his help. Many advocates and articles have stated
During Bush's six years as governor 152 people were
executed in Texas: a record unmatched by any other
governor in modern American history.

Mr. Gonzales' duties included preparing summaries of
death row cases for Bush but many did not mention the
inmates' mental disabilities. Gonzales went on to
become the Texas Secretary of State and a justice on
the Texas Supreme Court. He continued to guide
Governor Bush into executing Death Row inmates who
were mentally disabled, such as Terry Washington,
Brian Roberson and Oliver David Cruz although there
was a national campaign against execution of the
mentally disabled. Texas ignored the Supreme Court
decision on June 20, 2000 in the Artkin v Virginia.
The decisions ordered that executions of mentally
retarded criminals are "cruel and unusual punishment"
prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

In the Spring of 2000 with Mr. Gonzales at his side,
Bush voted against a bill that would ban executions of
the mentally disabled. Today, President Bush continues
his state violence against people with disabilities,
people of color and the poor by choosing Alberto R.
Gonzales as the new Attorney General. President Bush
has consistently appointed cabinet members who share
the same attitude against people with disabilities
throughout his first term.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was Governor of
Pennsylvania when another Black disabled man, Michael
Manning, spent years in prison on a clear case of
self-defense but received no assistance from the
ex-Governor at that time. Matter-of-fact Tom Ridge
helped the case against Manning. Just like Anthony
Porter and Earl Washington Jr., Michael Manning also
is a free man today because of the work of families,
advocates, progressive lawyers etc. Unfortunately
there are more wrongful deaths than exoneration of
disabled inmates like Jerome Bowden, Ricky Ray Rector
and Wanda Jean Allen to name a few. There are a few
coalitions, organizations and campaign advocating for
the elimination of the death penalty all together and
a specific campaign to ban execution of the "mentally
retarded." For example, National Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty, NCADP, has been the only fully
staffed national organization exclusively devoted to
abolishing capital punishment. NCADP provides
information, advocates for public policy, and
mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions
that share our unconditional rejection of capital
punishment.

The web site of Lost Souls Stop the Killing of the
Mentally Retarded and the Mentally Ill, it reads:
"in Resolution 1989/64, 24 May 1989, The United
Nations Economic and Social Council Recommends that
Member States take steps to implement the safeguards
and strengthen further the protection of the rights of
those facing the death penalty, where applicable, by:
eliminating the death penalty for persons suffering
from mental retardation or extremely limited mental
competence, whether at the stage of sentence or
execution."

This campaign recently got the Supreme Court to order
a ban against execution of the "mentally retarded" and
the mentally ill. And the Campaign to End the Death
Penalty is a national grassroots organization of
activists dedicated to stopping individual executions
and abolishing capital its national convention was
held in Chicago this year. These campaigns and
coalitions protect the rights, lives and voices of
persons on death row.

The Chicago's convention was set against a national
context that is clearly getting worse for anti-death
penalty advocates and people with disabilities.
Chicago was also the home May Molina Ortiz, a disabled
Puerto Rican, who was a co-founder of Families of the
Wrongfully Convicted and a founder of Comite Exigimos
Justicia (We Demand Justice Committee) died early this
year, 2004, in police custody. A local Bay Area
advocate and founder of Idriss Stelley Foundation,
Mesha Irizarry, attended the fourth annual conference
to speak about her son who had mental health
disabilities and was shot in 2002 by San Francisco
Police. The work of activists and organizations i.e.
Kiilu Nyasha, Yuri Kochiyama, Prison Focus, California
Coalition for Women Prisoners and Claude Marks etc is
our only protection against President Bush continuous
state violence againt people with disabilities.

By Leroy Franklin Moore Jr. President of "On the
Outskirts": Race & Disability Consulting

by Jack Tafari/Dignity Village

Time dem a rough

JAH know de time getting' hard

When Rasta doan get fe live

inna no tenement yard

No, not a tenement yard

an' not a government yard

but get live inna de street

out upon de boulevard

Ah'm a tellin' yuh right now it is a hell of a ting

when yuh poor an' yuh Rasta fe get some housing

But it doan just Rasta yuh mus' andastand

plenty people got a housin' prablem inna Portland

Now Ah bu'n up de sensi, Ah'm a confess

Ah love mi sensimilla, it a pure niceness

Ah wrap it inna Rizla, bu'n it in mi chalwah

den Ah lift up mi hand dem an' give praises to JAH

But seem seh bu'nin' de herbs an freedom of religion

A go mash up yuh chance fe dem 'commodation

Ah'm a tellin' yuh right now it is a hell of a ting

when yuh poor an' yuh Rasta fe get some housing

But it doan jus' Rasta yuh mus' andastand

plenty people got a housin' prablem inna Portland

Between dem waitin' list at Housin' Authority

an' a nex' concern name Central City

dem got nuff poor people runnin' to an' fram

dem waan sign yuh up fe dem homeless program

waan come inna yuh life an' invade yuh space

an' put a case manager deh pon yuh case

Ah'm a tellin' yuh right now it is a hell of a ting

when yuh poor 'bout yah fe get some housing

No, it doan jus' Rasta yuh mus' andastand

plenty people got a housin' prablem inna Portland

An' it doan jus' Portland yuh mus' andastand

poor people got a housin' prablem all over disya land

people got it inna Canada an' fram dehso to Japan

an' inna disya time it is a global candishan

by Lynda Carson/ reprinted from The Street Spirit

On December 10, 2004, tragedy struck downtown Oakland, when a 33-year-old woman who felt brutalized by Oakland's kangaroo courts plunged to her death from the Oakland Tribune Tower.

Mary Jesus, a longtime Oakland renter, had a message that she wanted to get out to the public at large, and she was willing to sacrifice her own life to do so.

On that fateful day, Mary Jesus stood high above the crowd down below, and gazed upon hundreds of people gathered on the sidewalks beneath the Tribune Tower as they shouted out to her not to do it. Local attorney Bob Salinas was one of those in the crowd that tried to save her as he frantically yelled to her not to jump.

A moment before she died in a crushing pool of blood on the sidewalk seven stories below, Mary Jesus responded to the crowd by tossing down hundreds of copies of the suicide note that she wanted everyone to read.

All too often in American society, many people feel they are being pushed over the edge by greedy profiteers and the corrupt legal system that caters to their needs. According to Oakland attorney Matthew Siegal, Mary Jesus was one of those people that had been chewed up and spit out by Oakland's brutal eviction system.

"Mary Jesus had evidence that the appeal process was all screwed up," said Siegal. "The judicial system is biased against tenants and it chewed her up and spit her out. This case was not about rent: it was all about pushing her over the edge."

About 50 people came to an Oakland memorial on January 10 for Mary Jesus. "There were many people there that witnessed the suicide and were looking for closure," Siegal said.

Marion Vale of San Francisco was with Mary Jesus during her last evening on earth. and she states that Mary Jesus had taken her own life to bring attention to those that had forced her over the edge.

The suicide note mentions four names that Mary Jesus wanted exposed. In the suicide note, Mary Jesus starts by writing: "Mark Roemer, James Lewis and Dean Miller. They are the catalyst!" Alameda County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Northridge was the only other name mentioned in the suicide note of Mary Jesus.

As it turned out, Mark F. Roemer and James L. Lewis were the landlords that owned the apartment building where Mary Jesus resided at 1515 Alice Street in Oakland. Dean .Miller was the attorney representing the landlords trying to evict her, and Judge Yolanda Northridge had ordered her eviction from the home she had loved for so many years.

In her last act on earth, Mary Jesus had pointed her finger at these four individuals, who in her mind had apparently held the keys of life or death to the world that she had loved and cherished.

On January 20. 2005, I reached Juanita Moore, the court clerk for Judge Yolanda Northridge, to ask how this tragedy could have come about. Both the clerk and the judge declined to comment on what had occurred in their courtroom and how it led to the death of Mary Jesus.

Also on January 20. 1 contacted Dean Miller at his residence in Piedmont and he confirmed that not only was he the attorney that went after Mary Jesus. but also that James Lewis and Mark Roemer are some longtime high school friends of his from Piedmont High. many years ago.

This trio of friends were the ones that Mary Jesus had named in her suicide note as the "catalyst" that led to her personal tragedy of eviction and suicide.

Mary Jesus had resided for 13 years at the beautiful Dunsmuir Apartments at 1515 Alice Street in downtown Oakland. The 29-unit apartment building, built in 1912, was loaded with beautifully crafted oak trim on the doors and the windows that added a look of elegance and old world charm to the spacious building.

The records show that the Dunsmuir Apartments were bought on January 16, 1998, for $1,320,000 by the landlords of Mary Jesus, listed as the Dunsmuir Apartments Limited Liability CX.

To get to the heart of the message that Mary Jesus had wanted so desperately to give to the public at large, one must first take a look at a press release that she sent out to media outlets on October 27, 2004, less than two months before her death.

Her press release reads as follows:

"This is a newsworthy story that the public would definitely be interested in. The Building I live in, in downtown Oakland, was purchased five years ago. I had already been living here for seven years. I was the manager for a brief period of three years, then fired without cause. They have harassed me consistently since. then. Even attempting to evict me in July of 2003, then again in September of 2004 I am very poor, so had to represent myself. It seemed to me that this particular judge (Yolanda Northridge) a Superior Court Judge in the limited jurisdiction, has a tendency to decide against Pro Per litigants. My case NEVER should have gone as far as it went, because the Oakland rental hoard had already stated that I did not owe the landlords any money. They sought to evict me anyway; the judge allowed their attorney to stifle my evidence. It was all totally illegal!"

The above press release referred to an Oakland rental arbitration board case that Mary Jesus filed against the two owners of the Dunsmuir Apartments, where she was fighting an illegal rent increase. Even though the Oakland rental arbitration board had ruled in her favor as of September 1, 2004, because of an improper notification by the landlord, four weeks later Judge Yolanda Northridge of the Alameda County Superior Court over-ruled the rent board's decision, and ordered Mary Jesus to pay the landlords $1,018.77 in back rent and to vacate her long-term residence of the past 13 years.

Mary Jesus felt crushed by this cruel, corrupt, heartless system in Oakland, after having done everything possible to defend herself from the rent increase imposed upon her by the greedy landlords.

Any way that one looks at this tragedy, Mary Jesus was overwhelmed by a four-some of professionals wielding great power over her. The four of them were unrelenting in their efforts to run her out of the home she had lived in for 13 years, and the eviction resulted in the violence of her death by pushing her over the edge.

It is no secret that Oakland renters have been up against a brutal eviction-for-profit system for many years. Nor is it a secret that Oakland renters have held several protests these past few years against landlords and judges that act together to evict renters. Indeed, Superior Court Judge Yolanda Northridge is not the only judge in Oakland that has come under the scrutiny of the public during these past few years, nor shall she be the last.

The tragic message of Mary Jesus is a testimony written in blood and death. It cannot escape our attention, not should it ever be ignored. She sacrificed herself to deliver her last message. The suicide note is her last testimony about a corrupt and brutal system in Oakland controlled by the rich and the powerful. Her suicide note stated:

"Mark Roemer, James Lewis and Dean Miller. They are the catalyst.

"Goodbye cruel world, and all that. Just look up the case, and you'll see why. Just listen to the August 31st 2004 Authenticated recording from rent adjustment. And everyone will say what they always say when something totally preventable wasn't prevented. `Why didn't anybody do anything.' A couple of people did, but they had no power, and those that did have power were more concerned with technicalities, than justice. Except for Yolanda Northridge, she just does this to people too poor to afford an attorney, and attorneys only take your case if you have money. It's all about money! The love of money is the root of all evil!

Mary Jesus

P.S. Just cremate me and I have no family.

PROFOUND IMPACT OF HER DEATH

The death of Mary Jesus had a pro-found impact on the deepest levels of my consciousness.

On December 20, 2004, 1 received a call from a dear friend, Sue Doyle. Sue works for a number of pro-tenant attorneys in Oakland that I happen to know. Sue told me the unfortunate news about the death of Mary Jesus. I felt stunned.

I had not seen Mary Jesus since the day I was wandering up and down Alice Street in Oakland on a warm Saturday afternoon, using a bullhorn to call tenants out of their sleepy apartments to sign a Just Cause (anti-eviction) petition. I was with Sue Doyle and John Reimann at that moment, and we were part of a group known as the Campaign for Renters Rights.

People streamed out of their apartments that day to join us and sign the petitions we had brought with us. Some of the landlords were screaming at us from their buildings and threatening to call the cops if we did not start moving along.

Sue Doyle had briefly met Mary Jesus that sunny afternoon as we were out collecting signatures for an initiative that rewrote Oakland's rent laws, and gave the renters some protections from unfair evictions and the eviction-for-profit system.

Once upon a time, I had resided on Alice Street in a lovely building for about eight years; and I lived directly across the street from Mary Jesus for much of that period. Of course, that was until some greedy landlord bought the property I resided in and immediately evicted me because I had the cheapest rents in the building. My anger at that bastard knew no bounds. To this day, I still miss the garden that I nourished for so many years in the backyard of the property.

Mary Jesus was a splendid character and was unmistakable in the neighborhood. She generally dressed all in black, with dark shades and long, flowing, dark hair. She seemed rather fierce in her own way. Not the type of person that I would want to get into a feud with.

We got to know one another a bit, and at times we went out for a bite to eat and a chat. At one point, I helped her to plant some new flowers and other plants in front of the building where she resided. She was the resident manager at that time.

In a crazy world that's gone totally mad, Mary Jesus was no crazier than any-one else; and it's a shame that the media pundits insinuated that she was a lunatic who lacked therapy, when they wrote the stories about what had occurred on December 10 at the Tribune Tower.

Neither therapy, nor the leather restraints and Thorazine at John George Psychiatric Pavilion, would have done a thing to keep the profiteers from evicting her from the home she loved, even though she had lived there long enough to be a part owner of the building by now.

Mary Jesus was targeted and the whole weight of the legal system was set in motion to push her over the edge.

Many landlords in Oakland have been cruel enough in their pursuit of profits to make many a soul in Oakland consider suicide as an escape from their greedy grasp. Believe it. I get calls and e-mails from desperate tenants all the time, and at times suicide seems like an option in a world where the rents are so high that people become convinced that they will never come up with the cash needed to move into some other slumlord's rat-infested hellhole.

Her landlords are lucky that Mary Jesus did not do to them what she had done to herself. That would have given the Tribune and the Chronicle something to write about; but that was not what her message was all about. Instead, Mary Jesus took her own life to expose the legal system that exists here in Oakland, and the greedy landlords that use the system to push their renters over the edge.
Eviction Defense Center, A Non-Profit Law Corporation
1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 726 (near 16th Street)
Oakland, CA 94612
Voice (510) 452-4541
Fax (510) 452-4875

Provides legal services to prevent evictions.

On October 18, 2004, I received an e-mail from V. Vale of Re/Search Publications, asking for help to stop Mary Jesus' eviction. I immediately responded, and sent off a good-sized list of attorneys' names and phone numbers, including the Eviction Defense Center. I gave instructions for Mary Jesus to take action as soon as possible to stop the eviction and to con-tact an attorney immediately for assistance.

I was happy to do what little I could to stop the profiteers from dumping her out onto the cold-hearted streets of Oakland. I live for moments like this.

Indeed, when V. Vale contacted me, he had no idea that I actually knew Mary Jesus, and was totally surprised that I knew a few things about her. I sent him a list of attorneys and instructions which he handed over to Mary Jesus. Vale also called some of the attorneys to see if he could line one of them up to help Mary Jesus in her time of need.

It felt good to hear back from Vale, and to receive a thank you for being there to help. I thought that I had done my part to help, and set my mind to other tasks. I did not see, I could not see, the dark future that was looming just ahead.

I cannot get the picture out of my head of Mary Jesus standing there high above the street, just before she plunged to her death. I keep thinking of what she may have been feeling those last few moments and days of her life. I keep wondering how her short life of 33 years finally ended so tragically atop the Tribune Tower.

I wish I could have done more to help keep a roof over her head and preserve her right to remain in her much-loved home.

It was somewhat of a comfort to learn that Mary Jesus spent the last evening of her life with Vale and his wife Marion in San Francisco. These two had tried their best to help her fight the eviction proceedings that ended up pushing her over the edge. They had offered her shelter from the storm when she needed it the most.

I can't help but cry when I think of the last few moments of Mary Jesus, and what she must have been going through as she gazed upon the crowd of 200 onlookers that witnessed her death. I can't help but think about her final hours as she made copies of her suicide note and the message she wanted the people to read.

The message of Mary Jesus is splattered with the blood of her ultimate sacrifice — a sacrifice that ensured her voice would be heard loud and clear.

She is pointing her finger at the land-lords, the judges and the legal system that pushed her over the edge. I call for an immediate and thorough investigation into the cases that Mary Jesus refers to in her message to the people.

It will be up to each and every one of us to take the message of Mary Jesus to heart, and to do whatever is necessary to make certain that the injustices that pushed her over the edge will be exposed and held accountable.

May Mary Jesus rest in peace, and may her troubled soul find some happiness in the next dimension of reality, far removed from the greedy landlords and war criminals that have wreaked havoc on the American people and the world at large.

Lynda Carson may he reached at (510) 763-1085 or tenantsrule@yahoo.com

by tiny

"We have kids to support, we have bills to pay" The brown eyes of Larry Montoya glistened in the morning glare. He spoke to me over the sounds of horns honking in solidarity with the over 40 street cleaners who were protesting their illegal and wrongful termination from The Department of Public Works. He concluded, "We are protesting to get our jobs back, they fired us cause of nepotism"

Mr Montoya was referring to the reasons why the protest had been called by the workers and their advocates, La Raza Centro Legal, who began assisting the general laborers after they were unfairly, and illegally, terminated from their jobs due to corruption and nepotism in the Department of Public Works.

"I was an Environmental Control Officer there before Deputy Director Mohammad Nuru and Edwin Lee began retaliating against an entire unit in DPW ( by firing us) because he didn’t like that our unit was making complaints against him publicly, " I spoke next to the very powerful looking Derek Maderis, one of the protesting DPW workers, an African Descendent general laborer with seniority who was wrongfully terminated. He concluded, " He tried to call this a service cut and its not."

"40-80 DPW workers in San Francisco were fired from their jobs and replaced by people further down on the DPW seniority list, as well as by people who were friends and relatives of Management, " to get the details on the claims of nepotism I sought out the fierce civil and human rights advocate and executive director of La Raza Centro Legal, Renee Saucedo who was protesting alongside the workers outside of the DPW offices on Cesar Chavez Blvd on Tuesday morning " The workers, the majority of whom are African American, Latino and Asian came to La Raza Centro Legal for help"

She continued, "We are fighting to get the hiring system investigated and to make sure the practices of the DPW, particularily by Mohammad Nuru are above the table and to make sure these folks get reinstated with full seniority" Renee concluded with her usual real talk," these are general laborers that work their asses off to keep this city clean, they do the hard jobs and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity "

It was interesting to this reporter to note that the small but loud huddle of workers were overrun with an awkward looking array ( or perhaps: display) of cops, called out for what reason, I can't imagine as these peacefully powerful DPW employees were only exercising their constituional rights to free assembly and free speech. Its also important to note in the workers charge of nepotism and favoritism that Nuru was originally hired for another position under Willie Brown's Administration, well-known for its rampant nepotism and favoritism, including the hiring of the man who is now our Mayor.

To my queri of what the next move for these workers would be Renee said, " Well ultimately, Newsom is responsible for all of this and because Nuru didn’t have the courage to meet with them (the workers) today they are gonna go straight to the mayors office – probably within the next two weeks ."

by Riva Enteen/reprinted from www.struggle-and-win.net

The day after the outrageous conviction of attorney Lynne Stewart,
the New York Times, doing its daily duty as the mouthpiece of the
corporate state, led off its front page article on the case with
the declaration that Lynne had been "convicted... of aiding Islamic
terrorism by smuggling messages out of jail from a terrorist client."
But the Times article itself eventually gave the lie to this bold
assertion of terrorist conspiracies. Here is the last paragraph of
the article, way back on page 21: "The government never showed that
any violence resulted from the defendants' actions... The defendants
were not accused of aiding terrorism in the United States." Very nice
of them to work these inconvenient facts into the article.
The main accusation against Lynne is that she issued a press release
on behalf of her client. Since when is publicly issuing a press release
"smuggling messages?" The Times article also opined that "Ms. Stewart
sometimes appeared deaf to the vicious anti-American preachings of her
client..." Now, there's a crime worth 40 years in prison. I suspect that
a goodly percentage of you reading this missive might also "appear deaf"
to "anti-American preachings."

In an op-ed in the Times, on the very same day, titled "Torture,
American Style," Bob Herbert asserts that "Any government that commits,
condones, promotes or fosters torture is a malignant force in the world.
And those who refuse to raise their voices against something as clearly
evil as torture are enablers, if not collaborators." Here the Times is
not only "deaf" to "anti-American preachings," but actually prints them.
Herbert cites an account of the "Special Removal Unit" that is part of
the US program of "extraordinary rendition," whereby the US kidnaps
alleged "terrorists" and whisks them off to torture chambers, in places
like Syria and Egypt. Lest we forget, Stewart was representing a man
who was aiding the resistance to the brutal regime of Egyptian murderer
and torturer Hosni Mubarak. Egypt is the second largest benefactor of
US foreign aid, right after Israel. So is it Lynne who is guilty of
aiding terrorism, or Bush and his cronies?
The struggle continues. Lynne is free on bail, and will be sentenced on
July 15. The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee has initiated a letter
writing campaign urging the judge to sentence her to probation. Click
on www.lynnestewart.org/lettersjudge.html to send a letter. Lynne is
scheduled to speak in San Francisco at a Free Mumia demonstration
in April, although at this point she is not allowed to travel outside
of New York.

2. US military vs. dead journalists.

Not only are the neo-fascists in Washington going after the lawyers,
there is new evidence that they are going after the not-so-embedded
media as well. According to Rep. Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts),
the head of CNN's news division, Eason Jordan, told a panel at the
recent World Economic Forum that -- this is the New York Sun quoting
Frank -- "he knew of about 12 journalists who had not only been killed
by American troops, but had been targeted as a matter of policy."
After Jordan made his comments at the World Economic Forum panel,
he was surrounded by numerous European and Middle Eastern attendees
at the panel, and congratulated for his "bravery and candor." Jordan
also reportedly detailed the story of an Al-Jazeera reporter who had
been imprisoned in Abu Ghraib, and forced to eat his shoes. Officially,
63 journalists have been killed covering the war in Iraq. More journalists
have already been killed in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam war.
In 2002, Jordan publicly accused the Israeli military of deliberately
targeting CNN personnel "on numerous occasions."

At first, CNN would not return phone calls or emails seeking comment
about Jordan's remarks. Subsequently, CNN put out a statement which
asserted that Jordan was only answering a question by Rep. Frank
about dead journalists and "collateral damage." Frank denies that
either he or Jordan used that phrase. Then, last Friday, Jordan was
forced to quit CNN, and issued a statement claiming that "my comments
on this subject in a World Economic Forum panel discussion were not
as clear as they should have been. I never meant to imply U.S. forces
acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists..."
Such is often the fate of those who tell the truth to power.
(See www.nysun.com/article/8866 for more info.)

3. SF Bay Area Muslim activist Samina Faheem Sundas threatened.

Samina Faheem Sundas is a courageous voice from the
Muslim/South Asian community. Since 9/11, she has struggled
tirelessly and righteously to denounce the round-ups, detentions,
forced registrations, deportations, hate crimes and endless lies
directed at the Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities.
Recently, one individual posted several e-mails on the listserve
of United for Peace & Justice -- rabid, hateful diatribes against
Muslims and Arabs. After Samina posted a response to these diatribes,she received several very personal threats from the racist. The most
chilling threat indicated that he knows where she lives. Samina runs
a small family child care center out of her home.

The local authorities have been notified about this racist threat.
Just as Samina has clearly expressed her determination to continue
to speak out, her friends and supporters are resolved to use this
attack to intensify our own efforts to speak out for her and with her.
To find out about her organization, American Muslim Voice, go to
www.amuslimvoice.org. There will soon be a letter posted to the
website which supporters can sign.

Coincidentally, before this incident, Samina called for a Day of
Solidarity Open House at her home in Palo Alto. Please join her
and express your solidarity on Saturday, February 26, 2005,
from Noon to 3:00 pm. RSVP to samina