Story Archives 2009

by Marlon Crump/PNN

Dear President Barack Obama,

I am writing this message to you and your administration in regards to a matter of National Security, where bizarre incidental events are occurring upon ordinary American Citizens.

These incidents involve unknown subjects who target their victims, by the following terroristic tactics in a perverse attempt towards unrelenting intimidation of implementing fear:

.covert harassment

.electronic harassment

.directed energy weapons (DEWs)

.organized stalking

Such acts have been executed by these perpetrators for quite sometime. These acts are though covert, they are not immune from exposure, for these cases are featured on numerous websites.

Through extensive research and testimonies from the victims, I've discovered very disturbing factors regarding this situation. This covert terror involves members of various organizations that practice hate, members who are possibly prone to insecurities of settling disputes, and even members of law enforcement agencies, nationwide.

To my knowledge, there is a class action suit pending to represent members of Freedom From Covert Harassment and Surveillance (FFCHS) an organization consisting of members who've been deeply impacted due to these acts.

In addition, there are support groups and counseling for victims who've been subsequently stalked and harassed.

I wrote an article online titled "Electronic Harassment" just two months ago. (www.poormagazine.org) I intend to write a follow up article regarding covert actions in the very near future.

My objective for this message, Mr. President, is to raise absolute awareness to you and your administration regarding these acts of terror that should be swiftly prohibited, from occurring and/or disrupting ordinary people's lives.

Notwithstanding, all the victims who are constantly covertly harassed and intimidated are urgently pleading for those who are responsible of such acts must be held accountable to the very extent of the law.

I thank you for your time, in your acknowledgment(s) of this letter, Mr. President.

Sincerely,

Marlon Crump

POOR Magazine/POOR News Network.

by Lisa Gray-Garcia aka tiny and Rhonda Patterson/PNN

"I was born here,". Mrs. Patterson didn't look up as she spoke. Her voice inaudible, lost in the cement, concrete, doorways, truck exhaust, honking horns, brick walls and glass storefronts of Downtown San Francisco. Her body, the color of earth and wind, land and nature, was camouflaged in long ago lost clothing, shredded blankets and plastic ware.

"Ms Patterson," I whispered to her as she crouched in a tiny closed liquor store doorway, "we are going to win this case, I promise," Rhonda Patterson, a landless African Descendent elder who has resided on the street at 605 Market street for over 20 years after being red-lined out of and evicted from her home in San Francisco, barely looked up.

It had been one week since Michael Hall, an attorney whose office was located on the 9th floor of an office building at 605 Market street had begun harassing Ms Patterson culminating in the filing of a stay away order against her. A stay away order that accused her of threatening him with violence.

For years Ms. Patterson had tucked her shopping cart tightly against the side of the building near the 2nd street wall of 605 Market street , until the Men's Wearhouse, the store that occupies the storefront there, with help from Mr. Hall, got an injunction against Ms Patterson, requiring her to move.

The morning she appeared in front of the 605 Market St building, sitting close to the curb, so as not to block the sidewalk, I witnessed Mr Hall yelling at Ms Patterson. "You need to move, you are blocking the sidewalk, you are a bum and just cause trash," First he took pictures, then he began shouting at her. Then he filed false charges. Pleading paper with lines on it. Lines and numbers and legal language erasing, eradicating, and butchering all humans in their path. .

"I'm not going to do anything about Ms. Paterson, I have known her for many years and she has never hurt anybody," Officer. Chiu, a San Francisco Police Officer told me while shaking his head after he was called out to arrest Ms Patterson based on requirements of the stay away order.

I first found out about the false claims filed by Mr. Hall, because I received a call from the hard-working maintenance staff at 605 Market St (who knew I was worried about Ms. Patterson's safety) They told me the police were called to take action on the stay away order. What then took place was perhaps even more jarring and confusing for me as a Prison Industrial Complex survivor and police terror victim. The first officer who was called out, Officer Chiu, refused to do anything and knew the charges were false based on his knowledge of Ms Patterson. He was followed by yet another SFPD officer who noted that the stay away order which demanded that Ms Hall stay 50 yards away was based on Mr. Hall's office which as the SFPD officer clarified, was on the 9th floor of the building and therefore Ms Patterson, was in fact, 50 yards away from Mr Hall.

In the end Mr. Hall, who owned the access to paper, land, phone-lines, Amerikkka Just-US, rental leases, time, organization, linguistic domination skills, etc, won. The 3rd and final police call generated four officers in addition to the original ones and Ms. Patterson was removed from her constitutionally protected location based on completely false charges that she threatened Mr. Hall with a weapon on the day he took pictures of her.

As soon as I heard about the false charges on the stay-away order I called several people in the community who work to ensure that unprotected peoples are taken care of, unheard heroes of the revolution who realize that we must work interdependently at all times to keep our injured brothers and sisters safe. One of these unsung heroes is Bob Offer-Westort who works tirelessly in support of criminalized, landless peoples at the The Coalition on Homelessness.

After my plea to the community that Ms Patterson needed a lawyer by any means necessary, Bob made several calls and secured the help of Sarah Barnes with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

One week later Sarah and I found Ms Patterson in the darkened doorway of the liquor store several blocks away from 2nd and Market. I had told Sarah that we would have to meet Ms. Patterson outside as she was living with Poverty Trauma Stress Syndrome (my version of the Western Euro-centric Psychiatric Diagnosis of PTSD) and she would not be able to go anywhere, much-less a lawyers office. Sarah understood. She's got skills like that.

On July 1, Sarah Barnes, myself, co-editor of POOR Magazine and fellow revolutionary for the people, Tony Robles, and POOR Magazine staff writer and poverty scholar Ruyata Akio McGlothlin went to court to re-port and sup-port on the fake stay away order.

The court room was packed. Every seat filled. Every human silenced by the implied power of that space. The laws of Amerikkka Just-US built , promoted and adjudicated. While the fake solemnity of the courtroom purred along, there was an odd metaphor taking place outside the one plate glass window to the left of the judges bench. A large concrete crane moved dirt and steel and the remnants of a vacant building into a pile of rubble.

"She has been there with a large shopping cart for many years". Mr. Hall spoke first, presenting a series of photographs of Ms Patterson as she sat quietly on 2nd Street, of course Mr. hall never asked Ms Patterson if he could take her picture. Fleshing out the racist fetishized stereotype of the large and dangerous homeless Black woman. Mr. Hall painted a picture of a woman standing over 5 foot 8 inches tall weighing over 260 pounds with a loud, booming voice He proceeded with a laundry list of Ms. Patterson's crimes of poverty.

"She has a tendency to take recyclables and use them as sleeping material and leave them after she uses them"

"This graffiti appeared after she stood there. I'm not saying she caused the graffiti, but she has a tendency to attract this kind of behavior".

The crane moved up and down outside the window as he spoke. Biting the edges of the earth with every lunge. The earth, tired, quiet, forlorn, had nothing to say. No energy left to fight. Its strength long ago crushed

And then he concluded, with the saddest statement of all which he attributed to Ms Patterson, "She said there was no place for her to go and if she went she would take me with her".

It was at this point that the judge exclaimed with a certain amount of frustration, "Can we hear from Ms Patterson's attorney".

Sarah began by asking me as witness to the "incident"to describe Ms Patterson. I told the court how she was actually shorter than me, barely audible at any given time, had never hurt anyone, and like most people who are landless/houseless appeared large because she was covered in many layers of clothing, She then asked me to recount my recollection of the day of the alleged "threat". I described how Ms Patterson had never uttered any threats to anyone, much-less brandishing weapons at folks and the only "crime" she could be accused of is the crime of living without a home in San Francisco, that Mr. Hall had actually taken pictures of Ms. Patterson and harassed her without reason and that Mr. Hall had a history of doing that since he launched his law office there.

Outside the window the crane stopped pumping in and out of the earth. It seemed to be taking a break from its tireless destruction. And then the judge spoke, "I understand how this situation can be frustrating for you Mr. Hall, but I am going to decline this stay away order as I find there is no credible threat of violence".

There is no credible threat of violence. In those simple words, the fabric of Amerikkka Just-US, weighted by how much money you have, how white your skin is, how much credit you have access to, and degrees you hold from formal institutions of learning,, tore ever so slightly, and Ms Patterson, me, Tony, Ruyata and Sarah jumped through. We won. Ms Patterson didn't win land, reparations, a roof, proper care, love or respect. She just won the truth. The truth that she was a landless African Descendent elder who had the right, albeit not much of a right, but a right nonetheless, to reside houselessly on public land in one of the richest cities in the world

Postscript.. When I told Ms. Patterson about what happened in court she smiled, one of the only times I have ever seen her smile. And then very quietly she added, "thank-you". I asked if she would be willing to have me write her story and take a picture of her. And she said, "Yes," granting me one more smile. I felt truly blessed.

by Staff Writer

Scroll down for English

Como olvidar tu sonrisa,

Tu energia ,

Tu buen humor

Que dia a dia nos trasmitias

Yo siento que tu no estas muerto,

Simplemente, te nos adelantastes

En el camino, que todos vamos,

Que es duro pero es la realidad

No te digo adios sino hasta pronto

Y recuerda siempre,

Siempre viviras en nuestros corazones

Y siempre recordaremos tu fuerza

Diciendo, “Si se Puede”

Hsta la vista Larry

Nos dejas el corazon destrosado

POWER se siente triste y vacio

Sin ti,

Te extrañamos Larry

Engles Sigue

How to forget your smile,

Your energy,

Your sense of humor, you transmitted

Every day

I feel that you are not dead

Simply, you left before us,

On this journey we are all in,

Which is hard, but

A reality

I am not saying goodbye to you,

But, see you later

Remember always

That you will always

Live in our hearts

We will always remember your strength

Saying, “Si se Puede”

Si you later Larry,

You leave our hearts broken

POWER feels sad and empty

Without you

We will miss you Larry

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN poverty and disability scholar

In the end of June I had the pleasure of attending the four day, June 24-27, 2009 National Health Care for the Homeless in Washington D.C. It was sponsored by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council and jointly sponsored by the Vanderbilt School of Medicine. As I registered I was amazed by how many people where there. There were physicians, nurses, care providers of many types, psychiatric care providers, consumer advisory panel members, and many advocates for Healthcare for the Homeless.

“ The National Health Care for the Homeless Council has 104 Organizational members and over 2100 individual members, organized as the HCH Clinician’s Network, the National Consumer Advisory Board, and the Respite Care Providers Network” NHCHC’s home page
“We recognize and believe that: Homelessness is unacceptable. Every person has the right to adequate food, housing, clothing and healthcare. All people have the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives.” Excerpts from the NHCHC’

I attended many workshops and learned more than I thought I would. Some of them were for doctors, clinicians, etc. but not exclusive anyone could attend. There were so many workshops that I wasn’t even trying to figure out how to spend my time, nor did I have a hard time understanding the information being given. Sometimes I knew there wasn’t enough time because I wanted to attend two different workshops that were at the same time.

A focal point of the conference was a workshop on “Single Payer Healthcare System”, it was titled “The Right To Human Health Care: A Singular Solution”. The NHCHC says it is their “number one policy priority”. H.R. (House Resolution) 676 which is known as “The United States National Health Insurance Act (Expanded & Improved Medicare for ALL”) which has been sponsored by Rep. John Conyers is single payer. For those of you who don’t know what a single payer system is, it will be a financial system that only has one entity acting as the “payer” so with healthcare it would all be run by the government. This means that all doctors, healthcare providers and hospitals would bill the government for all of their services thus eliminating private insurance companies. A portion of the funding for H.R. 1200 will be to retrain displaced workers from the insurance field during the first few years of its implementation. As of April 27, 09 there are currently 75 Representatives of Congress co-sponsoring H.R. 676. Rep Barney Frank spoke to us in support of single payer; he being witty put it simply talking about government employees “They have it… why not the rest of the people”.

“Distinctly different from socialized medicine, whereby the government owns and operates healthcare facilities, a “single payer system” is simply a financing mechanism. Care is provided privately at hospitals and clinics but paid for publicly.” David Himmelstein M.D. co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Plan

At this time in history there are thousands upon thousands of healthcare organizations, HMOs, etc. With all these different agencies, insurance agencies and billing agencies what happens is a huge amount of administrative waste. All of these systems/agencies having different billing codes etc. make for a chaotic way of paying all of them. With a single payer healthcare system ALL Americans would receive comprehensive medical benefits. This would include all medically necessary services, homecare, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services, med supplies, preventive and public measures and mental healthcare. People will be allowed to choose where they get their care. All care will be based on a person’s needs ….not if they can pay. Hospitals will only bill the government; they would receive an annual payment from the government to cover all operating costs. Doctors would have 3 choices for payment salaried positions in hospitals, fee for service, and salaried positions within clinics: with these group practices fees would be negotiated by a representative of the fee for service practitioners.

A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund findings are: “75 million adults (42% under age 65 had either no insurance or inadequate insurance”.

Another equally impressive workshop was “Using Mortality Risk to Inform Outreach, Housing Placement and Advocacy” This workshop primarily focused on the chronically homeless and was led by Dr. James O’Connell President of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless and Becky Kanis of the Common Ground Institute New York City. Leading a research team in Boston using “The Vulnerability Index” (a tool to “identify and prioritize” the population of the street homeless for housing according to the “fragility of their health” Dr. Jim O’Connell Boston team “identified the specific health conditions that cause homeless persons to be at risk of dying on the street. The index is a survey that rates a person’s risk factors, the amount of time homeless, and health status. This “Index” has now been used in other major cities L.A., D.C., New Orleans, Portland Or., (to name a few )all redefining their homeless policies and getting those who are most vulnerable housed….

Common Ground Institute has three parts of their goal to end homelessness. They are 1. Affordable housing, 2. Outreach and 3. Prevention. Becky Kanis’ “Street to Home” program according to the statistics, have reduced the number of homeless in the 20 block area of Times Square by a whopping 87 % and also 43% in the 230 block area of West Midtown adjacent/surrounding Times Square. Through a grant from Common Ground Becky and her co-workers have filled 3,000 housing units in Times Square area alone. One of their many endeavors has included the renovation of a large hotel thus enabling them to house folks who had been on the streets for years. Most of the tenants are still housed and have been able to stabilize their health, mental health, addiction issues while trying to attain a sense of normalcy. Becky’s a definite New Yorker with sardonic wit intact. She clearly has a passion for the work she does and I’m sure that with all the obstacles she‘s ascended getting folks housed, still wears her heart on her sleeve.

On June 26, 09 it was hazy, hot, and muggy. I was making a silent prayer to the rain god to let us have a short lived thunder storm. Most everyone had finished their workshops for the day but there was still one thing to do… yep we had a rally at Union Station for Single Payer. So we ran to grab a bite to eat and walked to the rally, and some of us rolled in our wheelchairs. It was a good rally but unfortunately small. I know that some people had to get back home and others were just a bit overwhelmed after a full eight hour day in the workshops. We still were there representing not only what we feel needs to be implemented into our nation’s health policy but that it is also a pure and simple human right… healthcare for all. As night fell I ventured back outside to join the fellow smokers outside (I know it’s bad) I finished my cigarette rolled up the street in my wheelchair and looked at the Capitol, and smiled knowing that there are still patriots in this country of ours and patriots of healthcare like the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, Common Ground Institute, advocates of healthcare and Single-Payer.

If you are interested in contacting:

National Health Care for the Homeless Council www.nhchc.org

Common Ground Institute www.commonground.org