Story Archives 2009

by John Smith and Phil Adams/PNN

When I first met John Smith he was at our old office at Market street. Another correspondent at POOR told me had a story to tell. John told me that his reason behind telling me his story was that he just wanted people to know that he is being targeted by the court system, and unfortunately he isn�t the only one. So we took a walk down Market street. It was around 8 om but the night was still warm. John was in his work clothes, paint still under his fingernails, but his head still head held high. The sincerity in his voice and the truth in his eyes was a contrast to the department stores, consumers and car headlights we passed. The truth has more in common with the guy pissing on the sidewalk because he can�t use the pay to piss public restroom than the Virgin Mobile store and on foot patrol officers that stare at us. This is John�s story.

John Smith is honest hard working elder of African descent who loves his granddaughter. He is also an example of how ineffective our legal structure can be. John however still believes in the system even though it is currently letting him down. He loves his granddaughter Teresa and just wants what�s best for her.

In the past John served time for a felony charge. In 1976 he go caught up on a drug charge served his time and was released. After he served his sentence he was given a year of probation. Right now, he works construction and lives in a house in San Francisco with his sons.

John�s granddaughter Teresa is nine years old. She lived with John between ages 1 though 6 and now she lives with her mother and step-father. In the past when he was able to see Teresa she would say she didn�t like to stay with her mother because her step father treated her worse than her half sister. So John had Teresa stay with him. He had her enrolled in school, playing in band and was an active participant at the community at the school. This all changed when Teresa�s mother, who was not known by the school at all picked her up from school one day.

At the same time John�s daughter (Teresa�s mother) filed a restraining order against him claiming that he kidnapped his own granddaughter. This restraining order put John on a roller coaster ride through the San Francisco legal system that he�s still going through today.

The restraining order went to court but was dropped because Teresa�s mother never appeared at any of the hearings. However, it still went to criminal court because for some reason it was seen as a violation of John�s probation. John was put on probation again recently because his ex-wife was caught with weapons and said they were his. John has been separated from his wife for over four years now and those charges were also dropped because John had never seen or handled those weapons before. What I don�t understand is how a restraining order is a violation of probation for a crime that he was never convicted of? Anyway, he spent the night in jail and was released the next day for no reason.

John�s status as being once incarcerated is the reason why the court system and the Police treat him this way. As far as the legal system is concerned John is guilty they just need proof. It�s been over 30 years since his drug offense but he still labeled as a criminal.

What John cares about the most is Teresa. John�s daughter was declared an unfit mother after her third child died as an infant from influenza. So he wants to get custody of Teresa before anything can happen and it�s already obvious she is suffering abuse from her step father. However with the way the courts treat John, it doesn�t seem likely.

by tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia/PNN

The pounding kept coming, the pounding of hundreds of thousands of feet, boots, heels, and bodies on the chest, heart, lungs and skull of 34 year old temporary Walmart worker Jdimytai Damour. The relentless pounding was coming from the feet of over 2000 humans in pursuit of an Xbox, a plasma screen TV, a $2.00 dvd. In pursuit of that deal they walked, ran, stomped, and charged over the body of Jdimytal until he was suffocated.

The notion of Black Friday began in the 1960�s and related to the fact that retailers were making a huge volume of pre-christmas sales and subsequently going from the red (deficit column) to the �black� (surplus column) in their accounting.

As a person who barely survived on underground economic strategies (vending t-shirts and art on the street without a license) I know first-hand the strange mindlessness of holiday sales. Me and my mama would pray every year to sell as many shirts as we possibly could. Depending on how close to the precipice of houselessness and hunger we were that year, would determine how desperate we were and how early I would set up our �stand� outside the giant department stores in downtown San Francisco.

As the mindless minions would line up for the so-called deals, we always dreaded the strangely named black Friday � because no matter how hard we display our art no-one would notice- they were only interested in �the cheapest � deals. People would buy things without even thinking about it � just to �get it done�. Even then I wondered how we as a society were all so collectively engaged in a frenzy to buy things. And how this frenzy became associated loosely with the birth of Christ who worked his whole life in service to poor people. How in christ�s name we were all engaged in a consumer-driven mania that kills. Which is why I recently re-named it Capitalismas.

Poor, isolated single parent families like me and my mixed race, orphan mama were always faced with different forms of sad options as not only did we never have any money to take part in the consumer �based consumption we also had no �family� to share the �family� holiday with. Every year I would dread the choice of rescue mission that we would have to choose to eat in or worse, just her and me alone in our tiny Single Room Occupancy Hotel room or back-seat of car.

There are so many terrifying things about the sorrow of empty, consumer-driven holidays and events birthed by corporate media in tandem with US capitalism, dangerous, hyper-levels substance use, depression, shame, loneliness and sorrow collectively felt by thousands of people struggling with the silenced experience of poverty , loneliness, and depression fueled and worsened by the media messages of BUY BUY BUY.

Jdimytai Damour�s was only a temporary worker, a day laborer from �labor ready� out on the front-line of the war of consumerism, who along with a pregnant mama and three other people were seriously injured by the truly mindless frenzy of Walmart inspired capitalism.

There is a particularily sad irony of the death of a Walmart worker by a corporation who metaphorially and actually kills its workers with horrible benefits and soul-killing working conditions, kills the towns and small businesses of the areas that it exists in and destroys poor folks across the globe with its mandate of unrealistically cheap prices.

His family has filed a wrongful death suit against Walmart and will hopefully win everything they are asking for. But I am left with the terror in my gut of Jdimytai, how long was he conscious, how long was he aware, in terror for his survival?

And how far have we fallen into the deadly pit of consumption that we haven�t collectively mourned his death nationally and consequently stopped all of our mindless consumption if only for a moment to participate in a moment of silence for our fallen brother.

by Teresa Molina/PNN Voce de inmigrantes en resistencia

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Estos gobiernos siempre an tratado de decirnos como tenemos que vivir, que debemos hacer, y como lo tenemos gue hacer. Dividiendonos, por ejemplo, los latinos, los negros, y los pobres, todos tenemos el vescindario a donde se nos a dicho que debemos vivir; designandonos escuelas, designando clinicas, observando nuestras vidas, todo esto por que les da miedo de que nos salgamos de nuestro lugar. Leyes que los protegen a ellos, y nos criminalizan a nosotros, siempre van a estar en poder, todos sabemos eso. Sin embargo estas son las leyes a donde no le hace bien a nadie, y les quitan derechos a un grupo de personas innocentes…

Propocision 8- Es para negarles derechos a la comunidad LGBT. Parejas deven de tomar el poder de la decision de lo que deven hacer y como deven vivir y el derecho a ser libre; de casarse hombres con hombres y mujer con mujer si ellos quieren. Yo creo que la gente tiene derecho de casarse con quien sea feliz sin que le niegen sus derechos, a tener los mismos beneficios, como todo ser humano sin importar como aman.

La mayoria de la gente esta muy disgustada y con justa razon; ya estamos cansados de que nos traten como si fueramos ninos, yo pienso que todos tenemos uso de rason y podemos pensar por nosotros mismos. Siempre estan tratando de decirnos que es bueno para nosotros y que identidad debemos tener. Yo creo que todos devemos vivir como queramos y identificarnos como nosotros queramos, cada quien puede tomar sus propias decisiones y vivir como mejor le convenga. Si las parejas del mismo sexo son felices, pues, que vivan juntos y se casen y formen una familia. No nesesariamente tiene que ser hombre y mujer para ser feliz que tengan los mismos derechos como culguier pareja. Yo pienso que todos somos iguales y todos tenemos derechos naturales de compartir nuestras vidas con quien queramos sin importar que sexo eres y como te identificas. Las vidas privadas de las personas no se tiene que mesclar con la politica, son cosas muy diferentes. Se debe de respetar al ser humano, sea como sea. Yo puedo ver como la gente esta muy enojada, se puede ver sus caras tristes indignadas por tanto abuso y despresio contra ellos, como si fuera ese su negosio, de estar calificando las personas. Yo admiro mucho a estas personas porque hasta la fecha la lucha sigue, y no deven cansarse de luchar; hasta lograr su proposito y puedan sentirse vien como seres humanos y no como algo extrano. Son personas buenas con buenos sentimientos, nadamas que son discriminados por la sociedad y aveses por sus propias familias. Esa gente es omofovicas hacia las personas del mismo sexo, ya basta de tanta discriminacion y desprecio hacia los homoxexuales y lesvianas, tienen que ser reconocidos y aseptados por esta sociedad descriminadora.

Tuve la oportunidad de entrevistar a Jill Seynker, y le pregunte Que piensas de la propocicion 8? “Es pura basura. Yo creo que nada tiene que ver las propuestas con vidas privadas. No nos pueden negar derechos que nos coresponden.” Despues, le pregunte, Que cres que es la solucion y porque cres que lo hacen? Ella me contesto, “Es por discriminacion a personas lesbianas y gay. Yo pienso que tiene que ver con la homofobia que sienten asia nosotros y eso no es justo”

Justicia- Obrar en razón o tratar a alguien según su mérito, sin atender a otro motivo, especialmente cuando hay competencia y disputa. Cada dia uno trabaja y trata de sobrevivir en este mundo injusto. Sin embargo, estos problemas, como los mensiona el govierno y los fanaticos de meterse en la vida de nosotros, nos inclina a creer que una persona que ama el mismo sexo no es capas de governar, ser maestro o de simplemente tener su propia familia. Una mente que no puede haceptar cambio y las ideas que nos transforman en una sociedad sin fronteras, es una mente que nos quiere bajo sus piez y no quiere que nadie que no piense como ellos tenga derechos iguales a ellos. Yo creo que lo mejor es luchar y no uir, porque encuanto te dejes aguitar, pierde la gente que busca justicia y libertad.

Engles Sigue

This government always tries to tell us how we have to live, what we need to do, and who we need to make war with. For example, dividing Latinos, blacks and poor folks into our separate ghettos. We all have a section of the slums where we are told that we need to live; they designate schools for us, designate clinics, watching our entire lives, constantly surveilling us; all this because they are fearful that we get out of line. Laws protect them, and criminalize us, will always be in power, we all know that. But there are laws that don’t benefit anyone, and they take away rights to a group of innocent people...

Proposition 8 – Is to deny rights to the LGBT community. Any couple should have the right to make their own decisions that don’t affect anyone else but themselves; they should be free to marry men with men and women with women if they like. I think that people should have the right to wed with whom they are happy with. The state should not deny their rights to have the same benefits as all human beings regardless of the way they love.

Most people are very upset and rightfully so. We are tired of being treated as if we were kids. I think we all have logic and reason and we can think for ourselves. The state is always trying to tell us what is good for us and how we should identify. I believe we all should have the right to live as we like and identify ourselves as we want, everyone should make their own decisions and live as you see fit. If same-sex couples know that they would be happier because they could legally live together and marry and form a family, than why not grant them that. A man and woman don’t necessarily live happily ever after when they get married, why not give the LGBT community a chance? Is the state afraid that they’d do it better? I think that we are all equal and we all have natural rights to live our lives with whom we want no matter what sex you are and how you identify. The private lives of people do not have to blend with politics, things are very different. It should be to respect the human being, come what may. I can see why people are very angry, their faces saddened and outraged by the inequality against them. I greatly admire the LGBT community because so far the struggle continues. They are strong and they will not get tired of fighting to achieve their purpose until they can openly feel as equal human beings and not as something strange. They are good people with good feelings, who are discriminated against by society and sometimes, their own families. Discrimination against the LGBT community should be widely knowned and called what it really is, state-sponsored inequality based off of fear and hate.

I had the opportunity to interview Jill Shenker, and I asked her what she thought of Prop 8? "It's pure rubbish. I think the state should have nothing to do with the private lives of anybody. It is unfair to deny us equal rights." Then, I asked, What is the solution and why do you think that they are doing this ? She replied, "It is discrimination towards LGBT. I think that has to do with homophobia and the fear they feel from us and that is not fair "

Justice- To treat someone according to their merit, without regard to another matter, especially when there is competition and dispute. Every day we work and try to survive in this unfair world. However, these strategies, such as the government getting involved in our personal lives, are designed to influence the public to believe that a person can not love the same sex, or marry the same sex, or even be capable of governing their own lives. A mind that can not accept change and the ideas that transform us into a society without borders, is a mind that wants us to always remain under them and does not want anyone who doesn’t think like them to be equal to them. I think it is best to for us to fight and not conform because they can never silence our voice shouting for justice and freedom.

by Gloria Esteva/PNN Voces de inmigrantes en resistenica

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2 de noviembre festejemos LA MUERTE. Esto es lo que hace cada ano la comunidad de San Francisco desde hace 30 anos. La gente se reune en la calle 24 y Brayan para hacer una caminata que llega al parque Garfield hubicado en la calle brayan y 26st. Algunos de los participantes reciben la caminata con althares, musica.y videos. La celebracion del Dia de los Muertos en el Area de la Bahia, empezo con la ayuda de artistas como Rene Yanez. Yañez fue uno de los primeros artistas que introducio el concepto del Día de los Muertos como lo celebran en Mexico a los Estados Unidos en el Centro Yerba Buena para los Artes. Desde el comienzos en 1970, René Yañez ha sido instrumental en el establecimiento del Día de los Muertos como una celebración cultural importante. Es una oportunidad de Honrrar a nuestros muertos.

Cuando empezo la caminata los reflejos de las luces de las velas se proyectaban como estrellitas que relampagueaban proyectando su belleza con un marco de noche oscura . Los multiples atuendos y disfraces daban a esta procession un ambiente fantasmagorico acompanado de musica que inducia al movimiento lograndose que el conjunto de personas en ves de caminar avanzaran bailando al ritmo de zamba en partes y al son del la danza Azteca. Fue maravilloso contemplar tanta alegria y asi mismo ver que el contingente era compuesto por ninos, adultos, ancianos, y jovenes.

Fue una noche para recibir y dar. Algunos con la inspiracion de la hechura de los althares, otros con la musica y los mas atrevidos inspirados por el amor con sus inventos. Por ejemplo: un joven hizo caminar la figura de una mujer en forma de esqueleto, con alas de alambre cubiertas de maya blanca. Y lo mas importante es que la misma daba la impresion de estar subiendo al cielo, Esto fue en honor a las mujeres luchadoras que han sido acesinadas y violadas en nuestro mundo. Ya que estas mujeres mostraron su fuerza oponiendose a las injusticias que visualizaban a su alrededor, y sobre todo forjando la organizacion para romper los ataques a la humanidad y tambien a la naturaleza siendo ellas dignas de todo amor de el recuerdo por siempre, aun sabiendo a lo que se estaban exponiendo ofrecieron su vida. Por eso este 2 de Noviembre las recordamos fuertemente los que aun vivimos y yo se que las recordaran nuestras futuras generaciones. Cuantas mujeres mas se necesitan sacrificar para entender que unidos podemos derribar tanta injusticia. Vamos a esperar que acaben los ambisiosos conla naturaleza?

En este lugar tambien se podria ver un altar dedicado a todos los luchadores que fueron asesinados en Mexico y en los estados de Oaxaca, San Miguel Atenco y Chiapas. Que son tres movimientos fuertes que luchan por los derechos de la gente pobre para vivienda, tierras, educacion y reconocimiento de los pueblos indigenas en los cuales existe una pobresa extrema. Movimientos que han sido reprimidos por la policia y el ejercito, provocan muchas muertes tanto de habitantes de estos lugares como de periodistas. Como una periodista con Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia, creo que debemos honrar y recordar las vidas y la resistencia de estos luchadores contra la injusticia.

Engles Sigue

Nov. 2 We celebrate death. This is what the Latino community in the San Francisco community has done each year for over 30 years. People met on Bryant Street to march to Garfield park located on Bryant and 26th Street. Some of the participants were marching with althares, live music and videos. This tradition started thirty years ago with the contributions of art curators like Rene Yanez. Yañez was one of the first curators to introduce the concept of Mexico's Day of the Dead to the United States at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Since the early 1970s, René Yañez has been instrumental in establishing the Day of the Dead as an important cultural celebration. It is an opportunity to honor our dead.

When the march started, the glare of candlelight projected like little stars to lighten the dark night with its beauty. The different outfits and costumes gave this a ghostly procession accompanied by music that led to the movement by ensuring that all people that were walking were also dancing, moving to the rhythm of zamba and the hypnotic art of the Aztec dance. It was wonderful to contemplate so much joy and to see that the crowd was made up of adults, elders and youth.

It was a night to receive and give. With some inspiration from the shape of althares, others celebrated with the music inspired by love and the most daring rejoiced in the spirit of the night with their inventions. For example: a young man was walking a figure of a woman in the form of a skeleton, with wings of wire covered with white Maya. It gave the impression of going up to heaven, I believe this was in honor of women fighters who have been raped and killed in our world. Since these women showed their strength to oppose the injustices that go on around them, especially forging organizations to break the attacks on humanity. The nature of them being worthy of all love and recognition of the memories forever, even knowing that the work that they did put their life in danger. That's why this November 2 remember those who still live strong and I will remember that our future generations. How many more women need to be sacrificed to understand that united we can break down so much injustice. Are we going to wait for nature to wipe us out?

In this place I could also see an altar dedicated to all the fighters who were killed in Mexico and in the states of Oaxaca, San Miguel Atenco and Chiapas. Three movements of heavy fighting for the rights of poor people for housing, land, education and recognition of indigenous peoples in rural lands where there is extreme poverty. Movements that have been repressed by police and the army, causing many deaths

As a journalist with Voices of Immigrants in Resistencia, we must honor and remember the lives and resistance of these fighters against injustice.

by Patricia Morales/Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia

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Los periodicos, las noticias, y en general, todos los medios de comunicacion tratan de criminalizar a los adoloscentes Latinos indocumentados. Por ejemplo, los medios de comunicaciones nos hechan la culpa de la crisis economica que hay en los Estados Unidos, especialmente a los jovenes que estan en la carcel juvenil, que los periodicos se enfocan en los jovenes que salen de juvenil y siguen haciendo crimen para generalizar que todos nosotros somos asi. Esto es propaganda racista lo que los periodicos como es SF Chronicle estan diciendo. Al contrario, por cada adulto que este en la carcel, el estado hace dinero del trabajo de los presos y solo les paga 35 centavos a la hora, es una forma de esclavitud que la mayoria del publico no conoce.

Fue la noche, una noche muy oscura, una noche fria, fria como la primera lluvia del invierno; pero no estaba lloviendo esta noche, no mas una noche fria y nublada como siempre en Daly City. Yo caminaba con mis amigos difrutando nuestra adolescencia, y ni me di cuenta de que hora era. No andabamos haciendo dano a nadie, no mas platicando y diviertiendonos en el vescindario adonde vivimos. No sabia que es un crimen salir con tus amigos en la noche. Dos de la manana, y tratando de llegar a la casa, sin coche y sin ningun bus que pase a esa hora. Despidiendome de mis amigos estaba cuando me di cuenta de una patrulla que se nos asercaba. Aprendieron sus luces y la sirena y nos asustamos todos. Corrimos del temor. Ya sabiamos que solo eran dos policias y tres de nosotros. Al que tenga mala suerta que lo agaren. Fui yo. De repente se vinieron hacia mi y yo no supe que hacer y me agarraron y me preguntaron donde vivia y que andaba aciendo ahi a esas horas y yo no savia que contestar. Me senti como un pajarito que le cortaron sus alas y no pude volar, solo sentia miedo porque nunca me habian agarrado la policia. Se me vino a la mente mi mama, como se iba sentir cuando se enterara. Me llevaron a la estacion y le llamaron a mi mama. Los policias le hablaron con poco respeto. Mi mama no habla ingles, me pasaron el telefono y estaba llorando. Su voz llena de temor por que le habian dicho que me iban a pasar a el control de Inmigracion.

Esta es la historia de un adolesente que handa como cualquiera caminando en la calle. Casi lo deportaron por que era menor, estaba en la calle en la noche, y no tenia papeles. Por algo tan sencillo como estar afuera en la calle sin documentos migratorios y ser menor de edad la policia y las cortes sienten que es justo asustar a una familia con desplazamiento. Este es solo uno de los casos de abusos policiacos contra menores de edad Latinos que pasan todos los dias. Ahorra, si la policia y las cortes dicen que no son racistas, les pregunto si esto hubiera pasado si el menor de edad hubiera sido un guero de pelo rubio y ojos azules. Apuesto que si era un nino rico lo hubieran regresado a su casa sin problema.

Otro caso que me enoja mucho por que es obio la injusticia es el caso de los trabajadores de El Balazo. Esta gente fue arrestada solo por trabajar, y entonces fueron encarcelados y les pusieron grilletas en sus tobillos y la corte demandaron que ellos se reportaran al centro de inmigracion tres veces a la semana cuitandoles la oportunidad de trabajar para apoyar a sus familias. Estos trabajadores nunca le hicieron ninguna maldad a nadie y ahorra ellos estan voluntariamente regresando a sus paises y el la pinche migra ni les esta pagando el vuelo de regreso, ellos tienen que pagar con su propio dinero para ser separados de su familia. Que injusticia!

Asi que aqui esta el otra lado de el discurso sobre inmigrantes. Esta lado y estas historias nunca son representadas en los medios de comunicacion como el SF Chronicle. Por eso es importantisimo y verdaderamente revolucionario el trabajo que hace POOR Magazine. Si no fuera por POOR y organizaciones tratando de contar la verdad en los medios de comunicacion, como supiera la gente de que nos esta pasando a nuestra comunidad? Los ignorantes racistas de Norte America, que solo so un porcentaje pequeno pero controlan a los medios de comunicacion, solo ven que nosotros no tenemos documentos migratorios como ellos, pero nunca recuerdan que ellos mismos son inmigrantes tambien.

Engles Sigue

The newspapers, news, and in all the media general are trying to criminalize young undocumented Latinos. For example, the media blames us for the economic crisis that exists in the United States, especially the young people who are undocumented and are in juvenile jail, the newspaper focus on Latino teenagers that evade the law and try to generalize for an entire race. This is straight up racist propaganda that major media outlets like the SF Chronicle are perpetuating. On the contrary, for every adult who is in jail, the state makes money from the work of prisoners and the prisoners themselves only get paid 35 cents an hour, this a form of slavery that most of the public does not know about.

…It was night, a very dark night, a cold night, as cold as the first rains of winter, but it was not raining that night, just another cold and cloudy night as always in Daly City. I walked with my friends, enjoying our adolescence, and I hadn’t realized what time it was. We were doing no harm to anyone, just talking and having fun in the neighborhood where we live. I did not know that it is a crime to go out with friends at night. Two in the morning and trying to get to home, no car and no bus passing at that time. Saying farewell to my friends I was when I realized that a squad car approached. They turned their lights and siren on…we are all afraid. We ran out of fear. Already we knew that there were only two policemen and three of us. The one of us with bad luck would get caught… It was me. Suddenly they cornered me in and I could not figure out what to do. They grabbed me and asked me where I lived and what was I doing out at those hours, that I must be up to no good. I felt like bird who got his wings cut off and could not fly. I just never had felt this scared because I had never been arrested. My mom came into my mind, how she would feel when she found out. I was taken to the station and they called her. The police spoke to her with very little respect. My mom does not speak English. They passed the phone to me and she was crying. Her voice full of fear because she had been told that I would be handed over to the control of immigration to await my deportation…

This is the story of a young Latino arrested for a curfew ticket and threatened to be deported because of a misdemeanor that should only be punished with a ticket. This young man was almost deported because he was a minor, he was on the streets at night, and he had no documentation. For something as simple as being in the street after curfew without immigration documents and the police and the courts felt it was fair to scare a family with displacement. This is just one of the cases of police abuse against young Latinos that happens every day. If the police and courts say they are not racist, I wonder if this would have happened if the minor had been a Guero, blond hair and blue eyes, and from the right side of the tracks. I bet that if it was a rich boy the police would’ve gladly returned him to his home without problem.

Another case that upsets me very much because it is obvious injustice is the case of employees of the El Balazo Taquerias. These innocent people were arrested just for working, and then they were imprisoned and branded with tracking devices on their ankles and the court demanded that they report to the immigration center three times a week, thus denying them the opportunity to work to support their families. These workers never did anyone any harm and some of them are voluntarily returning to their countries. Since this is a deportation you would think that the state would pay to have them deported, guess again, the voluntary deportees will have to fund their own deportation, yes you read it right, they have to pay with their own money to be displaced from their families. What injustice!

So here's the other side of the argument on immigrants. This side and these stories are never represented in the media. This is why the work that POOR Magazine does is so important and truly revolutionary. Without POOR Magazine and organizations like POOR trying to spread truth through media, how would the public find out about what is happening to our community? The ignorant, racist “Born Americans’, who are a very small percentage of the population but control big corporate media, look at us migrant workers and can only see that we do not have immigration documents, like they do, but they never remember that they themselves are immigrants too.

by Mari Villaluna/Indigenous Peoples Media Project

I spent five months of my life walking and praying for Mother Earth. Praying that people around the earth will start to take care of our home in a way that our ancestors knew. Praying that my descendants will be able to see Jean Charles Island in southeastern Louisiana, which is threatened by land loss and climate change.

When the Longest Walk 2 walked through the United Houma Nation Terrorrity in southeastern Louisiana, we walked through Jean Charles Island. We were told that in one generation this island that the Houmas live upon will not be here anymore due to climate change, and land loss. While being eaten up by insects, I looked over at my praying partner and said, “Imagine one day, our descendants won’t see this land where we are walking on. That’s why we are walking to save the lands we have left.”

This memory echoed in my mind when PNN assigned me to a story on the UN Conference on Climate Change that is being held in Pozan, Poland. I remembered the Houmas and thier struggle to physically keep their land. I remembered how Hurricane Katrina was at a category 3 and then due to climate change it rose. I remember living in the east coast and how sometimes there would be very warm winter days. Everyone would say how beautiful day was, but all I could think about how climate change played a role in the abnormality of a east coast winter.

I contacted a fellow longest walker named Marek Nowocien, who is Polish and attending the conference and doing media around it. He mentioned how there was over 10,000 people there, which includes governmental, NGO (non-profit), and Indigenous peoples from all over the world in attendance. Many organizations are present to speak about the human rights of Indigenous peoples to the land as it ties into the destruction of Mother Earth. Many times when the environment is talked about, Indigenous peoples are systemically left out of the process. This conference was no different, in that Indigenous peoples once again challenged values of the environmental community (I couldn’t think of a better word).

Global Forest Coalition, The Wilderness Society, World Rainforest Movement, Global Justice Ecology Project, Via Campesina, the International Youth Delegation and the STOP GE Trees Campaign united as Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples to redefine what the United Nations/Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) considers a forest. As of right now, the UN views corporate industrial tree plantations as forests. In a press release by the above groups, they stated “Plantations are not forests. Forests are diverse ecosystems and plantations are void of biodiversity. The UN definition endangers Indigenous Peoples, forest dependent people, peasants, small farmers, biodiversity and exacerbates climate change.” The UN that is talking about climate change is also the same one helping to promote it by leaving this definition the way it is.

These groups are challenging the UN to change the definition of forests so it recognizes the difference between native forests versus plantations. Ana Filippini from World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay) stated, “The conversion of native forests to plantations is bad for biodiversity, people and the climate. Human rights, especially women's rights, are being violated where there are plantations, and they should not be defined as forests.” These are the changes to the definition that the groups are proposing:

Forests are defined as 'a terrestrial ecosystem generated and maintained primarily through natural and ecological and evolutionary processes that are home to most of the world's biodiversity'.

Plantations are defined as a crop of trees planted and regularly harvested by humans that do not provide habitat for biodiversity.

"The definition of forests under REDD is utterly ridiculous", stated Sandy Gauntlett, a Maori indigenous rights activist from New Zealand, and representative of Global Forest Coalition. "It leaves wide open the ability of countries to destroy their natural forests and replace them with industrial tree plantations-which destroys wildlife habitat and displaces indigenous and forest dependent communities. New Zealand is an example of the disaster of tree plantations-and now we are in the process of developing genetically engineered trees for plantations", he continued.

All these groups agree that, “"If it is not resolved, and REDD applies this definition of forests, the global community could miss the chance of avoiding dangerous climate change and the 1.6 billion people who depend on forests for there survival will continue to be negatively affected." Dangerous climate change can be avoided by the simply changing of a definition of a forest. I started to think about the United Houma Nation and how hurricane after hurricane their land is being lost. I remember how every member of that nation used the words climate change and land loss over and over again. I remember the sad look upon their faces as they talked about losing their land and how climate change is at fault for that. I thought about all the corporations, governments, and international organizations are at fault for climate change. With just one simple definition of a forest, many global indigenous peoples could still keep their Nations alive with their traditions and way of life.

To get involved, please contact:

Orin Langelle, Global Forest Coalition media coordinator +48 696 723 046

Gemma Tillack, The Wilderness Society +61 427 057 643

Ana Filippini, World Rainforest Movement +48 785 260 455

by Thornton Kimes/PNN

PART I: RACE AND…

Avoiding Gay Pride events is easy. I hate excessive commercialization and cooptation of any movement that is an engine driving real social justice change. Also, sexual minorities are non-white and poor too, though you wouldn’t know it the way the gay rights struggle is shaped and fought. However, looking in the mirror would be damned difficult if I didn’t go to San Francisco’s Dolores Park November 7th, 2008.

November 4th a majority of Californians voted against Gay Marriage. Both sides thought they could win, the vote was said to be close. The result wasn’t a surprise if you paid attention to the campaigns for and against, though the post-vote analysis was interesting.

Class, economics, and race—the three-legged elephant race to the voting booths. Voters younger than 40 are less troubled by gay civil rights than voters older than 50, who appear to be stuck in “the good old days”. Voters in their 40’s are hanging by their fingernails to financial stability and don’t want the boat rocked at all. Numbers don’t lie, mostly, but people can dance the Tango with them, so exit poll stats are being challenged.

Movements get results both from a tight focus on getting their problems solved and by making alliances with other injustice-plagued groups. Today, organizers hoping to defeat the anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 8 virtually ignored Black and Hispanic voters, expecting them to “get it” automatically and vote accordingly. It didn’t help that so much energy went into voter registration and vote-for-Obama efforts there wasn’t much left over. Five years ago non-white gay non-profit/activist organizations got 3.1% of the money given out to such groups in general by gay foundations.

In 2004, gay marriage and racism had their way with San Franciscans’ psyches, like the poltergeists in the movie, they’re baaaaaack. Les Natali, owner of the Badlands gay dance club/bar in the Castro neighborhood, found himself eyeballs-deep in controversy because black customers were getting the “we don’t want you here” vibe, something Black America has been all too familiar with from White America. Black gays, like comic Rodney Dangerfield, get their no respect everywhere.

Black Americans get pulled over for “Driving While Black”, are the largest ethnic group in the 2-million-strong population in our prisons—the whole dirty laundry hamper of stuff we know so well and do our best to ignore until the blowback explodes in our faces.

San Francisco is not friendly to or affordable for its Black population, which has been jumping ship for East Bay communities like Vallejo for years. Mayors, Gavin Newsome included, make appropriate faces and comments and do nothing meaningful to change the situation.

A San Francisco Gay Guardian editorial said there were plenty of progressive Black citizens on the right side of the Gay Marriage issue today. Amos Brown, senior Pastor of Third Baptist Church, the biggest Black church in the city, was the only face I recognized on a television news report, the gay press reported that Brown almost had the microphone torn from his hand during a passionate pre-November 4th pro-Gay Marriage sermon; the associate pastor responsible later apologized for his tactics, but not for being equally passionate and on the other side.

It was clear the Third Baptist congregation isn’t united on Gay Marriage. Traditional conservative Christian values and views are only part of the explanation for that. Black Americans are very practical, pragmatic, “show me the proof” and “what have you done for me lately” in their approach to life and activism. White Americans would be too if we were the ones only 40 years removed from getting the right to vote, live anywhere we want to, etc.

In the 1980’s I flirted with modern pagan religion. One of the major rules of thumb of, shall we say, very decentralized Wicca, is that whatever you do, for good or evil, comes back to you turbo-charged three times over. If Gay San Francisco was the best friend and ally Black San Francisco had, right now, fighting for their causes, “I scratch your back, will you scratch mine?” would get very real results.

In-your-face activism has its place, but geeeez, leave the straight Christians alone unless you plan a bottom-to-top campaign of coffee drinking, meal eating, door knocking, whatever gets you face-to-face. Recent gay newspaper letters to the editor express just that patient nose-to-the-grindstone focus.

Part II

ECONOMICS AND…

Po’ folks, straight and otherwise, get jiggy with it whether or not their wallets are anorexic or fat. I do the math every day and it always comes out looking yucky. That old saying “No money, no honey” lurks in the back-brain shadows, making it tough to wrap my head around those cold equations.

Get married? It’s hard work enough just me taking care of me, much less having a wife or “domestic partner” along for the bumpy ride. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome rather suddenly, to me, started this round of the Gay Marriage Circus in 2004. I see at least a partial smokescreen to cover his moves to do more and more damage to poor and homeless citizens.

News stories then focused on how many more tourists would come to spend their money in tourist trappy San Francisco when Gay Marriage stuck to the wall. Get married? What about some of my neighbors, hanging by their painted fingernails to Polk Street, what used to be a very visible gay presence in the ‘hood, the place once called “Polk Gulch”, now known by the much more mundane monicker “Polk Village”.

Can low-income transsexuals, drag queens, et al, pay their ever-increasing rent, eat, and do whatever else is a necessity while the Tenderloin District is gentrified from both ends, creating a really truly hard place for the rock to squeeze?

Newsom is a businessman turned politician who defends the interests of wealthy San Franciscans (gay and straight) and nobody else. The fact that some poor and homeless citizens are gay won’t stop him from continuing to find ways to do damage, and the economic crisis freaking out the upper classes simply makes it easier.

Too bad the local gay movement doesn’t seem to care. Gay San Francisco can be an effective political weapon to use on some targets, but how can anyone trust someone who supports one oppressed group while throwing another under a bus?

It takes a village to raise a kid, a generation to forget where you came from. The “gay agenda”, driven from the East and West Coasts, has a population kept constant by folks from the heartland and less friendly parts of the coasts. Has becoming “Generation Big Disposable Income” been a good thing?

If it is true that the 3rd generations of immigrant populations, firmly embedded in American culture, stop speaking their mother tongue, it seems very true that native social immigrants lose their groove. Are we that easy?

What happens when you get relatively fat and happy? A little history lesson may be in order. Start with the 1970’s. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are dead, some civil rights victories happened while Chapter One of the assault on Great Society welfare policies is being written. Gay rights is burning the fuse too short to put out, especially after Harvey Milk’s life and amazing political career end in assassination in San Francisco City Hall.

Later, Black America got drugs, black-on-black crime, teen pregnancy and other interesting things in under the Christmas tree; Gay America got AIDS, ACT UP (AIDS COALITION TO UNLEASH POWER), Queer Nation, et al. Gay activism got louder, more in-your-face. Black and Gay culture lurched in parallel into everyone’s televisions, i-Pods, etc, whether Tipper Gore or other folks liked it or not.

Gay America started out outlaw, edgy, alive and on the sharp end of the stick when it came to deep-pocketed corporations like Coors. Now Gay Pride and other things gets corporate mega-bucks sponsorships, etc.

Gay Pride parades may frighten the horses back home in Iowa, but it looks like an ever-escalating “cutting edge” merry-go-round to me (“Look Ma, no hands!”). I’ll watch (or walk in) the parades when the floats are gone and the same energy that burst back into the streets after November 4th after being gone way too long is the vibe all the time.

PART III

LOOKING OUT, LOOKING IN

For the fourth time in 19 years I’m enrolled in San Francisco’s Welfare program, called General Assistance (the “better” version, that is, a little more money trickles down, is called PAES—Personal Assisted Employment Service). In 2003, the third bite of the tiny GA apple, I went to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation to see if I could do my Workfare assignment there instead of sweeping streets or cleaning public transit buses.

The AIDS Foundation (which is still on the alternative Workfare list…) interviewer turned me down without explanation. Being concerned that your Workfare “volunteer” is willing, able, and isn’t using some mind-expanding substance on premises is only intelligent and necessary (a concern recently discusses at my current assignment site…).

Speculation is one of the oldest mind games and one of my guesses involved the man’s gaydar being turned off that day, but being relatively fat and happy can kill empathy for other folks under the thumb of our society. Was that it? I’m also not even close to being the second coming of Joe Montana, built more along the lines of Babe Ruth, though I can’t hit, pitch, or drink like him.

I moved on. The California gay movement needs to move on to what is really important, fix what’s broken, and maybe even take those icky dollar sign-shaped glasses off. It never pays to jump into the deep end without looking and thinking first.

Is Gay Marriage vitally important, or the fact that the President of Iran doesn’t even believe homosexuals exist there, where they are stoned to death if exposed? The police in Thailand parade transsexuals and others from go-go bars and other tourist establishments in front of television cameras to reveal them as “frauds”. Other parts of the world are just as bad, or worse. America is a teddy bear compared to that.

The gay movement and some of its allies (the San Francisco Bay Guardian…) treat Gay Marriage as an inevitable progression from where we were 30 years ago to today, despite the fact that “Gay Marriage” could replace “Democracy” in George W. Bush’s mouth and mostly the same attitude towards changing the world would be working for what many of us want with the worst strategy.

I’m on both sides of the fence. I get Gay Marriage, I essentially agree—Marriage is one of those Big Deals almost everyone thinks about and wants to do. Be careful what you ask for, you may get it.

Half of straight marriages fail, the other half don’t. I’m a child of divorce, my sister married three times, my father remarried once, my mother never remarried and I haven’t hitched-up yet. I almost got a Black step-father (and step-brother) in the 1970’s, but rural Texas wouldn’t have liked that very much. My sister is hangin’ tough with her third marriage, mostly, I think, because she doesn’t want to do damage to the dreams of her two teen sons and much younger daughter.

Our parents divorced before I hit high school. Sticking with jobs longer than 5 years is a challenge for me. Marriage?

I think if the fundamentals under and around Gay Marriage aren’t there—strong basic equal protections from sea to polluted fish-depleted sea, not just California—Gay Marriage will become just another check on the list for folks who can pay for it.

Consensus isn’t easy, and the bigger the group looking for it the more time it takes to get it. Right now that is California, with everyone still playing by the “all the cool stuff comes from Cali” playbook—in this age of YouTube, 24/7 news, blogging, etc—a court will have the last word for a while in a few months.

Is this the best we can do? Winner take all campaigns and elections lead to attitudes I’ve had in-my-face (and read about): “You lost, get over it!”

Feh! We use courts to administer woefully bad justice and protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority mostly because too many of us, including me, are too busy surviving—and too fundamentally lazy (in some cases scared—that could also be me…) to BE the kind of society we want so badly.

Consensus? Whose consensus, and what kind of consensus-building? Lefty political folks and those on the center and right mean different things when “Consensus” and “Consensus Builder” get buzzworded about. I’m sick of “you lost, get over it!” even when it benefits me. How about you?

Back to Dolores Park. I loved it. It was no frills, it was no corporate excess (it was apparently text-message-and-e-mail organized by two teenagers and I still don’t know who they are…), it was hard to get to because thousands of people were in the street getting to the park. There was chanting, dance music, lots of people dancing.

I later read that the drag queen who spoke to the crowd soon after I arrived realized that if he didn’t do something nobody would. After inspiring most of the crowd to return to the streets and the Castro neighborhood, he participated in an all-night sit-in at 18th Street and Castro and called his father to talk about being gay for the first time. His father was okay with it. November 7th was a lot more interesting than I originally thought.

Years after her death, anarchist Emma Goldman was drafted into saying, “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution” (in her autobiography she talks about apparently scandalizing a sense-of-humor-challenged young man who tried to confront her about being a good and energetic dancer…). Protests usually aren’t much fun, especially if the police don’t like you, but dancing for social justice change is my kinda revolutionizing—even if I do suck as a dancer.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

I awake everyday, even up here, to watch, listen, and secure you. I don't care what day you are due up here with me, mom, for I've always heard you cry, before and after they took me. I'm never leaving you, as we are bonded for eternity.

Before I decided to chronicle the "Idriss Stelley Foundation" series, last year, Idriss' spirit channeled through my soul and communicated with me to his mom, mesha Monge-Irizarry through this poem. (This poem continues throughout this story.) I called it: IDRISS'S ADDRESS. For everyone that reads this series conclusion chronicled by POOR, you all will see why.

On the morning of June 13th, 2001 at 7:45 a.m, mesha worked literally 25 hours due to the shortage of staff. An hour later, she received a phone call that will forever haunt her:

"Mom, I need $2,000 or I am a dead man tonight!"
This would also be the last time she would ever hear her son's voice again. Mesha was stunned by these terrifying words, and very afraid. Her son seldom asked her for any money, given the fact that he was a marble union worker. Idriss wouldn't go into further details over the phone, and promised her that he would explain everything when she got home from work.

"Me and Mama Dee left out of this theater (Sony Metreon Theater) about a half hour before Idriss was killed." POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, Co-founder "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia would later tell me.

Ma, I heard and saw you cry internally, even today, I can see your very tears plague your heart. God called me home seven years ago, and I've hovered over you since:

I'm sure that his girlfriend, Summer Galbreath, will never forget those awful words by Idriss Stelley:

"Summer, you know that I am going to die tonight!"

With that, Idriss was in a somber mood for the rest of the day. While inside one of the movie theaters at the Sony Metreon Theater located at 4th/Mission St. He and Summer went to watch a movie, called "Swordfish" starring John Travolta. In the movie, there is a scene where Travolta lights up a cigarette, seconds later, Idriss does exactly the same. A security guard approached Idriss and instructed him to put out his cigarette.

In the "Darkened Theater" (Which was titled by the San Francisco Chronicle during its "Use of Force" series last year that published its own "version" of Idriss's death.) Idriss Stelley stood up and faced the audience. "If you have families or loved ones, leave now. Something bad could happen!" Idriss exclaimed.

Almost immediately, the movie patrons stampeded out of the theater like a wild herd in heeding his words. All but one, an African-Descent man, who was asleep in the theater, unaware of the commotion. Summer had went to use the restroom and was also unaware of what was going on, which is what she asked Idriss seeing everyone had cleared out.

"Baby, go home, I don't want you to get hurt." Idriss said "Go home to your family." Summer left, but did not go home and was outside with everyone that left the theater. At this point, Idriss is all alone in the theater, shy of the gentleman who was still asleep. He then dialed 9-1-1 on his cell phone.

"mesha, there are cops everywhere!" Summer said frantically over the phone to let mesha know what was taking place. "They say that he has a gun, but he ain't got no gun! I told them not to hurt him!" The call then drops. Immediately, mesha calls Summer back.

It is exactly 11:09 p.m.

I got called from heaven on that deep dark day, 7 years, 5 and a half month today. Though my life was abruptly cut short, ma, I heard you cry:

Before and after the hail of gunfire tore my body, I heard you on the phone to attempt to save me, but didn't even get to see me, as you heard me die:

The moment that mesha Monge-Irizarry called Summer back, she heard the shots rang out in the background that killed her only child Idriss Scott Stelley. A barrage total of 48 shots is what it took for numerous officers of three San Francisco Police Department precinct stations to calm down a young man who was clearly suffering from a total mental breakdown.

Use of Deadly Force

Those very shots from June 13th, 2001 at 11:09 p.m. still rang out to this very day in mesha's mind, which caused her to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (PTSD) "Why wasn't I there to shield his body with mine?" she often asks herself.

The three S.F.P.D precincts that "responded" to the 9-1-1 call by Idriss and Summer harshly evacuated everyone from the Sony Metreon Theater, "with shotguns" according to witnesses, employees, movie patrons, and spectators to the chaotic scene. The precincts that responded were the Tenderloin Task Force, the Bayview and the Mission District Station.

During the evacuation, the Black gentleman who was asleep in the theater was seen by a witness led out in handcuffs through a back entrance.

"What the f!@#$ is wrong with y'all!" the man was heard yelling to the cops as he was being taken away. "He didn't have a gun, but you all had weapons!"
In fact, the only "weapon" that was discovered on Idriss was a Thumbelina-sized carving tool (hooked to a thin pager chain) that the officers would later claim he tried to cut one of them with.

Summer saw the man in the theatre an hour later as he awaited interrogation by one of the Homicide investigators at the S.F Hall of Justice. The man later "mysteriously disappeared." The unidentified man was later regarded as an "unreliable source" due to alleged intoxication.

mesha was hastily driven to San Francisco General Hospital by a friend, grasping onto an ounce of hope that Idriss was still alive. Upon her arrival, she saw two officers at the Emergency Room entrance.

mesha approached a triage nurse to find out if Idriss had been admitted. Like so many mothers, she received the words that no mother ever wants to hear.

"Your son died at the scene." said one of the police officers. "You need to come with us to the Homicide Division." (mesha was so shaken up, in a state of shock, that she doesn't even remember ever riding in the patrol car.)

My demise remerged your very soul, giving velocity to your courage and commitment to save others. My departure from the clutches of the wickedness that's plagued you and everyone, will never be in vain:

At 5:30 a.m. mesha called Summer to give her the terrible news. "Baby, your man is dead." Once the word "dead" registered in Summer's ears, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. All along, while she was being interrogated, she kept asking the officers "How is E? Tell me how is E?!" (Idriss's nickname.) "Don't worry, darling, he's fine. He's going to be just fine." kept contending the investigators.

"It is internal policy that when there is a shootout, everyone must empty their gun" Holy Pera, from the S.F.P.D Homicide Detail Division replied, when she was asked by mesha three days after Idriss's death, "Why so many bullets?" There was never any real "shootouts" because of the blatant fact that Idriss didn't carry a gun for the officers to justify an officer-involved shooting via unjustified use-of-deadly-force in Idriss's case.

Or is it possible that the officers emptied their firearms to mislead investigators as to which officer fired first, during the ballistics investigation?

After the officers killed Idriss, they allegedly tried to perform C.P.R. on him for 45 minutes.

They then dragged his dead body through an emergency exit of the Sony Metreon into a dark alley away from public view and scrutiny. Idriss' body was riddled with bullets that ranged from his skull, exploding his brain, his neck, chest, arms, abdomen, thighs, calves, etc., etc.
Idriss's body was practically covered from head-to-toe with bullets holes and blood.

It was also reported that there were bullet holes in the walls by an exit door of the theater. Was Idriss actually trying to flee despite the hail of bullets that ultimately took his life? This is mind shattering, given the fact that Idriss's entire body was now literally shattered to shreds, yet now there was an attempt from Idriss's killers to "revive him?" by performing CPR? On a man whose brain matter is splattered on the theater seats?

What was really taking place in that "Dark Alley" from a "Darkened Theater" may still remain a mystery, unless new information would ever surface.

"Idriss Stelley's case is at the root of the 40 hour mandatory mental health training." said S.F. Public Defender, Jeff Adachi in 2002, a year after Idriss's death. These sentiments by Adachi were somewhat ironic because mesha, herself, conducted comprehensive, "de-escalating" police intervention training series, at the S.F.P.D. Academy and for the S.F. Sheriff's Department until 2000, while she was successively the program manager of La Casa de las Madres, Woman, INC., SHANTI and Hayward Emergency Shelters.

In the past, mesha has also repeatedly offered her technical assistance to prior S.F. Police Chiefs, Fred Lau, Earl Sanders, and current SFPD Chief Heather Fong. In addition, she offered the same to S.F. Sheriff Department. "All, but to no avail." mesha stated, disappointedly, but not the least surprised by their overall lack of response.

They may have taken my life, but my soul and spirit will continue to inhabit, comfort, and cloud you. I've sent you many loved ones, shielders, and protectors, for you are always right as rain:

In 2003, mesha won an out-court-settlement (after she sued the City of San Francisco over the unjustified use-of-deadly-force against Idriss) for the sum of $500,000.

After her lawyer Andy Schwartz collected 35% of the money, she entered a business partnership with the remaining $250,000 with Willie Ratcliff's Liberty Builders, Bayview, INC., while keeping $25.000 to open IDRISS STELLEY FOUNDATION and keep a (clients and services) rolling fund.

"I did this in the hope to strengthen Black and Brown ownership in the SF Bayview District." mesha said during the interview.

A day after the SF "Fajitagate" scandal exploded, (indictment of 12 top brass officers) mesha was issued an apology in 2002 - at her mediation in front of a retired judge, towards a possible settlement from Heather Fong, was just nominated Deputy Chief that very day, before being appointed to head the S.F.P.D. by S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004.

Fong's words in front of the City Attorney:"On behalf of our department and the City of San Francisco , I apologize for what happened to Idriss. It was wrong, and we want to make sure such thing never happens again" Mesha's attorney was gasping, ecstatic.... But she immediately knew that such contention, occurring during a CONFIDENTIAL mediation process, was inconsequential in terms of outcome of her case.

Ma, I heard, and please stop crying, for I'm no longer dying, anymore. You were reborn and revitalized to save others like me, tell people like me, and given a heart like jewel to forgive anyone, even the killers of me:

mesha publicly forgave the police officers for their execution of Idriss, something most moms or fathers rarely, if ever do. She decided to use the rest of the money to create the grassroots, nonprofit organization that would hold law enforcement accountable for unethical conduct(s) during the course of their duties: THE IDRISS STELLEY FOUNDATION. "I could not entertain the thought of spending a penny of Idriss's blood money on myself! mesha exclaimed.

You may have not got my justice the way it should've been served, on the other hand I placed it on your shoulder, and assured you I'm always there, never past tense:

In September of 2004, mesha took the S.F.P.D. Citizen's Academy Training 15-week course to get a better understanding of the organizational culture of the entire department. While mesha was attending, she learned the fundamental basics that a police officer would need in order to "serve" and "protect" the public.

She learned tackling techniques, applications of containment through pain-inflicting physical measure and weapons. mesha could not bear to participate in target practice, which was totally understandable.

Just a couple of years ago, mesha showed me a picture of herself, between Ltd. Flores and Chief Heather Fong while holding her graduating certificate.

Don't ever think for a second, mama that evil will prevail, for my supreme father has toured me through the gates of heaven and hell. Many get so discouraged, despite how hard they fight, but little do they know of the glory that is yet to come. That day is coming, they shall all see:

As I prepared to wrap up the interview, mesha concluded with her final thoughts of hope, strive, and commitment towards keeping the soul and legacy of Idriss Stelley alive to help others who've experienced her pain.

"Two nights ago, I dreamt of a storm raging through my bedroom. Idriss was sitting on my bed while dead leaves accumulated around us on the bed sheets. Then without transition, we held each other, looking down the Sphinx River and seeing the bodies of our ancestors drifting down the dark waters. Some of them were rotting, others chipping bones, while others were mere transparent shadows. I felt that Idriss is calling me."

Before I packed up my paper and pen, mesha gently tapped my hand. "But it ain't over until the fat lady sings. I will not rest until we make substantial strides against illegal racial biased policing and lethal force against our Sisters and Brothers. Let's keep going safe and strong in serving and protecting each other."

As I hugged her goodnight, she quietly told me to "keep a stiff upper lip" and not to take any �wooden nickels".

"In Pro Per Power!" she said, giving references to my civil suit against the City of San Francisco via S.F.P.D. misconduct last year, when I represented myself with no one to help me. Though I was unsuccessful, I will never misrepresent myself in heeding those very powerful words because they forever echo in my heart.

Epilogue:

After the Idriss Stelley Foundation was created through the settlement case of Irizarry vs SF City & County & SFPD it has been changed to the Idriss Stelley Action Resource Center since May, 2008. It is located in the heart of the S.F Mission District, 2940 16th St., Suite #209 , SF , CA 94110 .

The center provides the following free Direct Services:

24-HR Bilingual Spanish Hotline 415-595-8251;
the hotline answers crisis calls and inquiries to:

- ISARC,

- Education Not Incarceration SF Chapter,

- SF Copwatch

- FORWARD (services for Families of Parolees),

- Black and Brown Equitable Drug Policies Coalition,

- and is the weekend back up for Sonoma County PACH, Police Accountability Clinic Hotline.

* Know Your Rights training;

* Support Groups;

* one on one Counseling;

* Attys' referrals;

* Community Altars;

* Volunteer & Youth Internship Program

* over a hundred yahoogroups hosting for Survivors of Police Misconduct, Grieving Families, local and nationwide Social & Racial Justice Activists

* Low cost professional translations (Eng/Spanish/French)

* Technical assistance to newly forming Police accountability centers

* and Cultural awareness and organizational behaviors seminars

For more information or to request provision of free services:
iolmisha@cs.com (ISARC)
or call (415) 595-8251

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"S.F.P.D, don't conspire with I.C.E!"

(Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

"No Human Being is ILLEGAL!"

"Stop Illegal Raids!"

"Municipal I.Ds NOW!"

"Free Trade is not Fair Trade!"

"Newsom, meet with us your constituents!

40% of all San Franciscans are Immigrants!"

The sounds of these protest signs by numerous Immigrant Rights protesters and supporters couldn't have spoken louder than the outcries of the protesters, themselves. These signs, carried by protesters and supporters took their siege on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on a nippy, dew-dropped sunshine-shifting, Thursday afternoon, in response to the sieges/ raids (deportation) that were unrelenting against migrant workers, at the hands of I.C.E (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

The lack of intervention(s) by the City of San Francisco itself, vs the immediate intervention and outrage for numerous San Franciscans, shows everyone that once again the real power comes from the voice and actions of the People...........not the politicians.

This day of December 18th, 2008 marked the day of the International Migrants Day as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly. This was also a landmark, in sink with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which celebrated its 60th anniversary a week ago.

As "proclaimed" by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

"All human beings are born free and equal
in dignity and rights
and that everyone is entitled
to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein,
without distinction of any kind,
in particular as race, color, or national origin."

The ongoing battle/movement for the Rights of Undocumented migrant Families, Youth, Workers, and people in general in the face of City, State, and ultimately the U.S Government continues.

This year's Migrants Day occurred at a time when S.F's Immigrant Community is facing unbearable budget cuts to critical public services.
Today's Migrants Day also occurs at a time where the Human Rights of all Undocumented Immigrants are constantly under attack, alongside of the budget cuts.

"My basic concern is that they (I.C.E) are deporting the Youth, 12 and up." Ray from H.O.M.E.Y (Homies Organizing the Mission and Empowering Youth) explained to me as I kept my other ear to the rally. "They're deporting these kids to unfamiliar countries with no money, no clothes, and no families to go to once they get to that country that they are deported to."

H.O.M.E.Y was just one of the estimated 30 organizations that saturated the steps of S.F City Hall to voice their total opposition to the rampant attacks against Undocumented Immigrants.

Teresa Molina of POOR Magazine's Voces de Inmigrantes en resistencia program which teaches POOR Magazine’s brand of revolutionary – change journalism to migrant workers was there with me re-porting and sup-porting on the important action for PNN.

"Young Latino people are being picked up (racially profiled) by the S.F.P.D for small offenses." Abigail Trillin from the San Francisco Immigrants Legal Services explained to me. She further explained that minor offenses often turn into felonies, which then are reported to I.C.E by the S.F.P.D.

Constant questionable traffic stops of people of presumed Latino ethnicity have not gone unnoticed as well. Elizabeth Alexander of the Central City Collaborative (also in attendance) brought awareness of this issue to me, a few weeks ago as I strolled through the Tenderloin District on my way to a meeting.

"We've had multiple cases of young looking Latino men being stopped and accused of running red lights and having expired tags." said Barbara Lopez, of La Voz Latina Project of Tenderloin Housing Clinic. "They (S.F.P.D) are pretexts to uncover unlicensed drivers and tow their cars."

The San Francisco Immigrants Rights Defense Committee has revealed a platform of proposals to make Dignity a matter of Equality, and Due Process of law a reality for all San Franciscans, including Immigrants.

In recent months, the administration of S.F Mayor Gavin Newsom has taken a number of measures that have had a wounding impact on Immigrant Families and threaten to undermine the fundamental Human Rights principles in San Francisco .

The Committee calls on the City of San Francisco
to do the following:

* Uphold the 1989 Sanctuary City Ordinance, including ending Racially Biased Policing and all law enforcement's harassment.

* Revise San Francisco 's new Juvenile Justice policy, implemented this past July, because it denies due process to Immigrant Youth by requiring that probation officers refer these youths to I.C.E.........before a hearing.
(Undocumented Immigrant Youth breaking the law must be routinely processed through Family Court, not the Adult Criminal Justice System, as it now stands).

* Announce a specific date for the implementation of the Municipal ID program.

* Advocate to stop Federal Immigration raids, and any S.F.P.D collaboration with I.C.E. that tears Immigrant Families apart.

* Preserve funding for essential services for all, including Immigrant Youth and Families.

As I continued the painstaking process of reporting and supporting, the chants tremendously increased solidarity for the Rights of Undocumented Immigrants, deafening my eardrums:

"Who's City?"

" Sanctuary City !"

"Who's City?"

" Sanctuary City !"

"As proud San Franciscans, we're just asking for the right to be accepted." Adoubou Traore, executive director of the African Immigrant and Refugee Center said to me, amidst the crowd's chants. "If our rights are violated, there is NO due process. Africans are the most recent group of immigrants to San Francisco . We intend to fully participate in its community."

Se ve, Se siente"

"El Pueblo presente esta"

"We are greatly alarmed by what is a growing climate of fear and repression that is taking over our communities." Lamoin Werlein-Jaen from the Unite Here Local 2 Restaurant Hotel Worker's Union stated to me.

He expressed his growing concern to the crowd regarding the I.C.E raids, and the rapid, subsequent retaliation ramifications , retaliations that are often aimed at the Undocumented Immigrant Community, should they so much as demand their right to their very own Rights.

"¡Si, Se Puede!"

"¡Si, Se Puede!"

"For me, it is very significant that today's event really showed all of the suffering and struggles that the Youth, Families, and people who are affected by the raids are going through." Teresa Molina of POOR Magazine De Voces Immigrantes said, with a bit of hope towards the end to the I.C.E. raids.

"As a Christian Minister and follower of Jesus Christ, I believe that when we welcome the stranger in our midst, we are welcoming God among us." Reverend Brenda Vaca of Nueva Vida Ministries said to me "In the Christmas Season, we remember a young family wandering in the cold night looking for a warm place to rest. Jesus and his family were migrants."

There were numerous members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, themselves that were apparently in support of Migrants Day and the end to the criminalization of the Undocumented Immigrant Community:

Supervisors Chris Daly, Jake McGoldrick, Ross Mirkarimi, David Chiu, the recently elected Eric Mar, John Avalos, and David Campos were in attendance. All of them voiced their concerns, and support for Undocumented Immigrants' Rights.

Supervisor-elect David Campos for District 9 gave assurance to everyone in attendance that he would exhort his fellow board members to push towards ending the attacks on the Undocumented Immigrant Community, speaking as a former Undocumented Immigrant himself, from the country of Guatemala .

"We will NOT accept second class status!" Campos ' voice splashed into the crowd. Campos informed everyone that on January 15th, 2009, the issue of "Municipal I.Ds" and the Public Safety Committee will be presented on the Board of Supervisors' Item Agenda list for review.(On public television broadcast.)

Another S.F Supervisor Elect, Eric Mar of District ended his support speech: "Keep holding us supervisors accountable!"

by Staff Writer

Where:2926-2948 16TH STREET #301 (at Capp st- I blk below Mission st) in San Francisco

When: 12:00 5:00 pm - Saturday, January 10, 2008

Cost: $1.00 to 100.00 or anything in between.

Lunch Served @ 12:00 � Music, Karaoke, and Poetry REading All day!

Children and adults of ALL ages welcome � Multi-generational art lessons and activities will be offered by POOR Magazine and FAMILY Project teachers all day. Come and paint a part of four large Murals of Art & Inter-dependence. Paint a corner of a wall in honor of an ancestor, an elder, a child�on Inter-dependence

Donors of 25.00 or more will have an office machine officially named after them. Donors of $50.00 or more will have part of a wall named after them. Donors of $100.00 or more will have a doorway named after them. Donors of above $100 will receive a surprise�

For more information call (415) 863-6306 or online at www.poormagazine.org

POOR Magazine�s new classroom and offices are shared with fellow fighters for justice SF living wage Coalition, and CISPES.