I will support any proposal that will alleviate the suffering of low-income individuals and People of Color. As an African-American living in a low-income community, the Police are not friends of my community. We are disproportionately effected by the disease of Police Brutality. My mother was one of the most law-abiding and generous people I know, and like many people in our community she had issues with calling the Police.
I have seen many friends, family and neighbors whose lives were ruined by what the great intellectual, professor, activist and civil-rights attorney Michelle Alexander calls “the New Jim Crow.” In his work “Lockdown 2000,” activist-author Christian Parenti also explains one of the primary purposes of the prison industrial complex, which includes the police force, is to create a separate and unequal caste system in Amerikkka.
Proposition 36 will abolish the most insidious portions of the 3 Strikes Law that is so hurtful to my community and so central to the way the Police impact our lives. Under the 3 Strikes Law, if an individual with two convictions of violent felonies is convicted with a third felony, District Attorneys and judges are authorized to sentence them with 25 years to life regardless of whether the third felony is violent or serious. For example, under State Law a petty thief with a prior petty conviction is vulnerable to the 3 Strikes Law.
The enactment of the 3 Strikes Law was an emotional and irrational response to the murder of Polly Kauss by ex-felon Richard Allen Davis, who had a history of 3 decades of violent felonies. The Conservatives used this murder as an opportunity to fuel fear and pass the 3 Strikes Law. The emotional and irrational response to a death led to wild and irrational prison sentences.
People have been severely and harshly sentenced by the 3 Strikes Law. Over 3000 inmates have received sentences of 25 to life for non-violent and non-serious felonies. Make no mistake: everyone in the in Belly of the Beast and Behind the Wall is guilty. Many individuals are represented by overworked, underpaid and sometimes incompetent public defenders that fail to explain defendants' rights, or might simply escort them to their slaughter. The rich and the well-off have the resources to hire a private attorney to represent them the most effectively. The rich never spend time in jail awaiting trial because they have the resources to bail out of jail. On many occasions, young and less sophisticated innocent defendants plea guilty even when they are not guilty because the D.A. offers to let them go or gives them a short prison sentence. These young people only realize after they're arrested again that they just sold their souls with the previous guilty conviction.
Many brothers and sisters have changed, with the story of Malcolm X as an example of such a transformation. Many of my friends are now responsible fathers, grandfathers, brothas, sistas, uncles and relatives, who have committed crimes in the past that are classified as serious and/or violent and face the possibility of serving 25 to life for non-violent and petty offenses.
There is that old axiom, “come to California on vacation, and leave on probation.” This statement shows the overzealous nature of the Police Department and District Attorneys that has always harmed us, the poor and People of Color. The 3 Strikes Law has been used as a tool to get innocent folks to plead guilty to crimes they have not committed. If defendants are eligible for sentencing under the 3 Strikes Law, the D.A. will offer a plea bargain; they plead guilty and receive a sentence for a crime they did not commit because of the threat of receiving a 25 to Life sentence.
It has been said California spends $55,000 to incarcerate someone, and many feel that these resources could be better spent. It is difficult to argue with this logic, but regardless of what the cost is we should be against the 3 Strikes Law because the law negatively effects our communities regardless of the cost. The passage of the 3 Strikes of Law is part of the War on Communities Color and the criminalization of poverty. The results of a draconian law are defendants getting 25 to life sentence for allegedly stealing a slice of pizza, a carton of cigarettes and/or 3 golf clubs. This law operated part and parcel with the War on Drugs, which was a war on Latinos and Black folks.
The repeal of the 3 Strikes Law with Proposition 36 will take a tool the away from the Police and D.A.s that have been used to oppressing low-income and People of Color Communities. Any respite from the oppression of racism and capitalism on poor folks is worth voting for. So I say yes on Proposition 36.
“California Department of Corrections/PBSP-SHU policies and practices, have violated our human rights and subjected us to torture – for the purpose of coercing inmates into becoming informants against other inmates, etc., for the state,” writes one prisoner held in solitary at California’s infamous supermax Pelican Bay State Prison. This excerpt of his letter to the internationally renowned human rights organization, Amnesty International, is featured in Amnesty’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in California’s Security Housing Units.
The Amnesty report states that “no other US state is believed to have held so many prisoners for such long periods in indefinite isolation.” At least 3,000 California prisoners are being held today in an extreme form of solitary confinement known as “super maximum” custody. Furthermore, the CDCR reported in 2011 that over 500 prisoners had spent over ten years in the Pelican Bay SHU, with 78 having spent over 20 years there. Explaining the recent emergence of SHUs, Amnesty writes that “California was at the forefront of moves to toughen penalties, and its prison population escalated during the 1980s and 1990s following the introduction of some of the nation’s harshest sentencing laws. Once a leader in the philosophy of rehabilitation, California also passed legislation which expressly described punishment rather than rehabilitation as the central aim of imprisonment. Pelican Bay SHU, which opened in 1989, was one of the first super-maximum security facilities specifically designed to be ‘non- programming,’ that is, constructed with no communal space for recreation, education or any other group activity.”
In the Summer of 2011, prisoners held inside the Pelican Bay SHUinitiated a multi-racial hunger strike that began on July 1 and spread throughout California’s prisons. While the Pelican Bay strikers declared victory on July 20, other prisoners around the states continued for up to several weeks longer. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reported that at least 6,600 prisoners in at least one third of California’s 33 prisons participated in the hunger strike. Ending the use of prolonged solitary confinement was one of the strike’s five core demands.
“Following concern among prisoners about what they perceived as a lack of progress in
implementing changes, the hunger strike resumed briefly in late September 2011, but was
called off after meetings between prisoner representatives and CDCR and further assurances that CDCR would institute changes. While no disciplinary action had been taken against the first hunger strikers, the second hunger strike was treated by CDCR as a major rule violation and some prisoners were punished by having their property and canteen privileges confiscated. Fifteen of the strike leaders were reportedly moved to harsh conditions in administrative segregation cells for a short period,” writes Amnesty International in their new report.
The CDCR has responded to the striking prisoners’ demands with their own proposals. Amnesty critiques the CDCR’s proposed reforms, arguing that “the reforms do not go far enough. There are continuing concerns about both the fairness of the procedures for assigning prisoners to what could still be indefinite SHU terms, and about the length of time in which prisoners will remain in solitary confinement…. While measures to reduce the number of prisoners held in security housing units are a positive step, in Amnesty International’s view the proposals should ensure that only prisoners who present a clear and present threat, who cannot be safely housed in a less secure setting are assigned to the SHU. Given the serious consequences of SHU confinement, the authorities should ensure that STG [Security Threat Group] validations are based on a thorough and impartial investigation, and only with concrete evidence of gang-related activity posing such a clear and present threat; that prisoners have a fair opportunity to contest the evidence; and that such decisions are subject to regular, meaningful review.”
When these concerns were raised “during Amnesty International’s meetings with CDCR staff in November 2011, the department stressed that there were inmates in the SHU with serious gang connections, but acknowledged that they ‘over-validated’ and that there were prisoners in the SHU who did not warrant such a restrictive level of housing. CDCR also acknowledged that there were people assigned to the SHU as gang associates who had no direct role in gang activity. CDCR stated that the reforms under consideration were aimed at making the system fairer as well as targeting resources more effectively, taking into account the high cost of SHU confinement and the need to manage a tight budget. Amnesty International was told that the process would ultimately reduce the SHU population to ensure that only prisoners who could not be safely housed in a less secure setting would be assigned to the SHU.”
The bottom line of this important new report: “Amnesty International considers that the conditions of isolation and other deprivations imposed on prisoners in California’s SHU units breach international standards on humane treatment, and that prolonged or indefinite isolation, and the severe social and environmental deprivation existing in Pelican Bay SHU in particular, constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in violation of international law.”
Unfortunately, getting the US to respect international law is not as clear-cut as the act of documenting human rights violations. Notably, The Edge of Endurance explains: “The USA has sought to limit the application of international human rights law in its conduct by entering reservations to article 7 of the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] and article 16 of the Convention against Torture as a condition of ratifying the treaties. The reservations state that the US considers itself bound by the articles only to the extent that ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ means the ‘cruel and unusual treatment or punishment’ prohibited under the US Constitution. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the USA to withdraw its reservations as defeating the object and purpose of the treaties in question and therefore incompatible with international law.”
Tessa Murphy is the campaigner for the USA team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. She has provided the research for and worked on Amnesty's reports on supermax prisons and solitary confinement through her visits to a number of prisons, including the recent visit to California SHUs as part of the team that published the report cited above, entitled The Edge of Endurance. She also authored Amnesty's special report on the Angola 3, entitled USA: 100 years in solitary: ‘The Angola 3’ and their fight for justice.
A3N:In our introduction to this interview, we cite several key aspects of the recent Amnesty International report about SHUs in California. As someone who visited these prisons as part of the Amnesty delegation, what did you learn about them first hand that perhaps can’t be conveyed in a written report? What did the SHUs feel like?
TM: It is hard to convey the sense of desolation in the SHU's. From the moment you step foot in the SHU, the senses are assailed by artificial lights, stale air and muted silence.
Off long drab corridors, prisoners are isolated from each other in pods of eight cells; these pods are self-contained with a shower and recreation yard, so that, with few exceptions, they rarely leave the pod.
This bleak environment of tiny windowless cells where little natural light infiltrates, few personal possessions, no programming to offset the boredom, out of cell time in ‘outdoor’ yard with a view of a patch of sky, minimum human contact, and a view out of the cell of a dirty white wall is the totality of the prisoners' world.
A3N:Accounts of the prisoners themselves are featured throughout your report. When it came to deciding which topics to focus on in your report, to what extent were you influenced by the striking Pelican Bay prisoners?
TM: AI's report on California is part of a body of work on conditions in prison isolation units in the USA; including Arizona, and Texas as being of particular concern. When we began our research into conditions in California’s SHUs, a number of issues became apparent very quickly; First that there were a large number of inmates who had been held in the SHU for very long periods of time, secondly, that the majority of inmates in the SHU were being placed there for alleged gang affiliation/membership, thirdly, that there was no step-down system to allow these individuals to transition out of the SHU, and fourthly that physical conditions, particularly in Pelican Bay, were very harsh. Based on this initial research, the organization requested access to California SHU units before the prisoners initiated the hunger strikes.
When the strike began, we were contacted by members of the mediation group who made us aware of the prisoners’ demands. During the course of researching the report, we were in close contact with the mediation team, as well as families and friends of inmates held in the SHUs, as well as with lawyers, as well as state employees, including legislators as well as grass roots groups. Of course, we also sought information from CDCR.
A3N:The Amnesty report states that “the growth of super-maximum security facilities has been linked to the huge rise in the numbers of people incarcerated in the USA from the late 1970s onwards, together with a shift away from rehabilitation as a goal of imprisonment to more emphasis on punishment and control.”Can you say more about how mass incarceration and prolonged solitary confinement relate to each other? Why did they rise together?
TM: The prison population in the USA has quadrupled since 1980; this has come about due not to rising crime but to harsher sentencing policies that emanated out of a "get tough on crime" attitude pervasive in the 90's, such as three-strikes law, truth in sentencing laws, as well as mandatory minimums.
Supermaximum prisons were borne out of this need by elected officials need to be seen to be tough on crime, as well as to respond to the needs of an increasingly overcrowded prison system. The first such prison to be built, designed with social and environment deprivation inbuilt was SMU 1 in Eyman State prison in Arizona, this was the prototype for Pelican Bay Prison, built in 1989. Many states followed in building their own supermax prison, and many retrofitted current prisons to supermax criteria of holding prisoners in isolation with minimum social interaction for prolonged periods.
States rationalized the building of these prisons with the argument that only by the large scale isolation of the "worst of the worst" prisoners, could violence be controlled throughout the prison system. However, studies have shown that predatory violent prisoners are but a small proportion of those held in isolation, which is replete with individuals with mental illness, persistent rule breakers and those alleged to be in a gang.
A3N:With over 2.4 million prisoners today, the US now has the most total prisoners and the highest incarceration rate in the world. Much of the world has rightly condemned the US for the well-documented torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, but what do you think the state of human rights inside prisons within US borders says about the US?
TM: The US does have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. It also is the only country that uses prolonged isolation as a routine prison management tool in prisons built for this purpose. This reliance on long term isolation has profound consequences; first, it costs significantly more to house a prisoner in isolation than it does to house them in general population; secondly, the focus on punishment, rather than rehabilitation, that forms the backbone of this prison tool, has severely negative consequences on the prisoner—from mental and physical health, to their success in positively reintegrating back into society. So the costs on society are huge in both financial and other terms.
The conditions and policies of supermax prisons that affect over 30,000 prisoners across the country, falls short of international laws and treaties governing the humane treatment of prisoners, to which the US is a party. This casts a large shadow over any claim by the US administration that it is a champion of human rights.
A3N: In two previous interviews (1,2) we covered the case before the European Court of Human Rights, of Babar Ahmad and Others v The United Kingdom. Recently the Court ruled against the co-appellants, who are fighting extradition to the US on grounds that the US tortures prisoners, which writer Chris Hedges has argued, “removes one of the last external checks on our emerging gulag state.” What do you think is the significance of this Court ruling for the US, Europe, and beyond?
TM: Although the ruling denied the appeal, it conceded that there were circumstances in which prolonged incarceration in ADX could amount to a breach of Article 3. It accepted that there were sufficient safeguards in these particular cases on the basis of information provided the US government while largely disregarding the submissions provided by the lawyers for the applicants. We will be following the actual conditions under which these prisoners are held post-extradition. See this link to the statement AI issued last week.
In terms of the ruling having broader consequences for other cases, each new case that comes before the court will need to be examined on its specific facts and evidence. When it comes to obligation of non refoulement (no transfer to risk of human rights violations of different kinds) a large part of the analysis in each case is highly specific to the evidence in the particular case.
A3N:Shifting to another campaign you’ve worked on, why is Amnesty International calling forthe release of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 from solitary confinement?
TM: Amnesty has been working on the case of the A3 for over a decade; however it became a priority case in recent years when the focus of our work shifted to the issue of long term isolation in US prisons. Our support for the case rests on a number of issues: first that they have been held for such a long period in conditions of deprivation; that the process for reviewing their placement in these conditions is no more than a rubber stamping exercise by prison authorities; that serious questions exist about the legitimacy of the legal process - including the evidence used to convict them, the lack of DNA evidence to link them to the crime; and that their political beliefs may in part be responsible for their continued placement in solitary, and even for the charges originally brought against them.
Both men are in their late sixties, the decades of incarceration has debilitated them physically, they have no disciplinary violations, they have never demonstrated that they are a threat to the safety of the prison – or to others, or themselves (and this was confirmed by prison mental health staff). Do they conform to the definition of the “worst of the worst” predatory inmates for whom prolonged detention in solitary confinement is the only administrative option? No, far from it, and yet there they remain after 40 years.
TM: The title comes from a quote by Robert that despite the abolition of slavery in the USA, the 13th Amendment legalizes slavery in US prisons.
A3N:Were you surprised that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal refused to meet with the Amnesty International delegation that hand-delivered a 67,000 signature petition to his office on April 17, 2012?
TM: No, we weren’t surprised that he didn’t meet with the delegation as he hasn’t engaged at all with AI on this case. In July 2011, we wrote to him asking that we meet to discuss the case at the soonest possible opportunity. He chose not to respond.
A3N:AI responded to Gov. Jindal by launching a newer petition targeting James M. LeBlanc, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. What was your strategic thinking behind targeting the Dept of corrections?
TM: Over the years, a number of statements have been made by authorities involved in this case that are not supported by evidence. This includes statements by Attorney General James Caldwell that Albert Woodfox is “the most dangerous man on the planet” as well as being a violent rapist. Albert’s prison conduct does not support Caldwell’s first statement, and Albert has never been charged with – let alone convicted of rape. And yet, Caldwell is not held to account for such assertions.
We decided to target James le Blanc because he issued a statement on the anniversary of Albert and Herman’s 40th year of incarceration, that they were being held separately from other prisoners to protect prison employees, other inmates and visitors. Yet neither man has had any serious prison infraction for decades, and the prison’s own mental health records indicate that neither man pose a threat to themselves or to others. So, we decided to hold Secretary Le Blanc to account, and ask him for the evidence behind this claim.
Limit the use of isolation units so that is it imposed only as a last resort in the case of prisoners whose behaviour constitutes a severe and ongoing threat to the safety of others.
Improve conditions for all prisoners held in isolation units, including better exercise provision and an opportunity for more human contact for prisoners, even at the most restrictive custody levels.
Allow prisoners in isolation units to make regular phone calls to their families.
Reduce the length of the Step Down Program and providing meaningful access to programs where prisoners have an opportunity for some group contact and interaction with others at an earlier stage.
Immediate removal from isolation of prisoners who have already spent years in those units.
--Angola 3 News is an official project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com, where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. Additionally we are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more. Our articles and videos have been published by Alternet, Truthout, Black Commentator, SF Bay View Newspaper, Counterpunch, Monthly Review, Z Magazine, Indymedia, and many others.
(Image of RuyataAkioMcGlothlin and Joseph Bolden(seated) at the Poor Peoples District 5 Candidate forum sponsored by POOR Magazine and the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper)
I'm Joe, a po' strugglin' black man and this is my attempt at a voter guide- with a note- Alot of my African -American ancestors died fighting for my right to vote-so i think this is our duty!
This is a run through of most if not all the Propositions on our ballot from 30 to 40.
My Source: Official Voter Information Guide or Book of The
California General Election (and lil ole me!)
Prop. 30 Temporary taxes to find Education Guaranteed local Public Safety Funding
Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
Vote Yes: The state will increase personal taxes on high income tax payers for
seven years. The new tax revenues would be available to fund programs in the
state budget.
Vote No: The state would not increase personal income taxes or state taxes,
state spending reductions primarily to education programs, would take effect in
2012-'13.
Prop. 31 State Budget. State and Local Government. Initiative Constitutional
Amendment and Statutes.
Vote Yes: Certain Fiscal responsibilities of the legislature and Governor, including
state and local budgeting oversite procedures, would change. Local governments
that creates plans to coordinate services would receive funding from the state and
could develope their own procedures for administering state programs.
Vote No: Badly flawed initiative that locks expensive and conflicting provision into the
constitution causing lawsuits, confusion, and cost. 31 threatens public health, the
environment, prevents future increases in funding for schools, and blocks tax cuts.
Teachers, Police, conservationists, tax reformers vote on Prop. 31.
Prop. 32 Political Contributions by Payroll Deduction. Contributions to Candidates,
Initiative Statue.
Vote Yes: Unions and Corporations cannot use money deducted from employees
paychecks for political purpose.
Vote No: Unions and Corporations keep taking from employee paychecks for
political purposes.
Prop. 34 Death Penalty, Initiative Statute.
Yes Vote: No offender could be sentenced to death under the law but re-sentenced
to life without the possibility of payroll.
No Vote: No change to offenders the Death Penalty stands.
Prop. 35 Human Trafficking, Penalties. Initiatives Statute.
Vote Yes: Longer prison sentences, larger finds for committing Human Trafficking
crimes.
Vote No: Existing criminal penalties for human trafficking would stay in effect.
Yes Vote: Means some criminal offenders with two prior or violent felony convictions
who commit certain non-serious, non-violent felonies would be sentenced to shorter
terms in state prison.
No Vote: Three Strikes Law stays as is with two strikes violent felony criminals
continue to serve longer or life sentences for third non-violent felonies no change in
three strikes law.
Yes Vote: Means Genetically Engineered Foods sold in California would have to be
specifically labled as being genetically engineered.
No Vote: Means Genetically Engineered Food would not have specific labeling
requirements.
Prop. 38 Tax to Fund Education and Early Childhood Programs. Initiative Statute.
Vote Yes: Personal income tax rates increase for 12 years. The Additional revenues
would be used for school, childcare, preschool, and state debt payments.
Vote No: Means State personal income tax rates would remain at their current levels.
Prop: 39 Tax Treatment For Multi State Businesse. Clean Energy And Efficiency Funding.
Initiative Statute.
Yes Vote: Means Multi State Businesses would no longer be able to choose the mothod
for determining their state taxable income that is most advantageous for them.
No Vote: Means Multi State Businesses continue choosing which method one or two to
determine their California taxable.
Prop: 40 Redistricting. State Senate Districts. Referendum.
Yes Vote: Means State Senate district boundaries certified by Citizen's Redistricting
Commission would be continued to be used.
No Vote: Means the California Supreme Court would appoint (special masters) to
determine new state senate district boundaries.
For over 10 years of my life, starting when I was 11 and my mama became disabled and unable to work, we struggled with different forms of houselessness. Sometimes we would scrape together enough money to afford a cheap motel, sometimes we would squat a storefront with no heating, or electricity, freezing at night and/or burning ourselves almost to death with mini fires ( I still have the scars). Butmost of the time we resided in our car. In every one of these scenarios we were criminalized, watching for cops/sheriffs, “landlords” and/or security gaurds, always there to protect the most valuable resource in AMerikkkka; private property.
In the end, when I was 18 I was incarcerated for the act of being houseless in Amerikkka and for the crime of sleeping on the streets without paying “rent” or having a piece of paper stating that we "owned" the stolen land we were on.
I reflect on all of this pain now with the fight to bring the insane, hate-filled, 21st century version of the Dickensian pauper laws into the allegedly progressive Berkeley in the proposition S, backed by businesses, mini-corporate interests and the politrickster mayor of Berkeley currently in office. This law would make it (more) illegal to sit or lie in Berkeley streets.
Because of revolutionaries like attorney OshaNeuman and my fierce Black-indian mama who never gave up, no matter what, I am conscious and alive today, but in all of those years, the criminalization, the endless citations, harassment and eventual incarceration caused me so much trauma that I still suffer today. And in many instances, tried to take my own life due to that trauma.
Fighting for Proposition S we have the 21st century settlement house workers and missionaries like Options Recovery founder Davida Cody saying this will “help” (read: save) all of us poor people because it will force an “intervention” on all the “drug addicts” who sit on the street in Berkeley.
My mama and me never used any substances, drugs or alcohol. We couldn’t afford it. If we did we wouldn't have had enough to pay for the meager food we would score at corner liquor stores and discount supermarkets. And no matter how many times we were "helped" with incarceration it never made a difference in our impossible struggle with poverty and houselessness.
As I read a beautiful op-edrecently published in the SF Bay Guardian by OshaNeuman, entitled The Return of the Ugly Laws, I was reminded of the insane way that the non-profit industrial complex, places like Options Recovery and others, literally makes profit off the broken backs of us poor folks, and when Cody fights for the so-called “helping” aspect of Proposition S, she is following in the footsteps of what Susan Schweik points out in her book entitled the Ugly Laws, gathering as many of us up through criminalization so she can get paid by the county for filling the beds in her recovery homes, aka make a profit.
How did we get here? Because capitalism is based on products and consumption and poor people and our multiple problems and the ways we are intentionally kept poor and denied access to reparations as African Peoples, indigenous peoples, im/migrant peoples for all the work, time, blood, sweat, struggle, resources, land and labor we have given or that was stolen from us, to make a few people profit is NEVER considered, because if it was it would throw off the peaceful lie of exploitation that occurs silently everyday in Amerikkka.
Prop S is a lie, like all of the other sit-lie lies (laws) that proceeded it in cities like Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and San Francisco. Or the Ugly Laws, Pauper laws and debtor prisons from the past. It is just about poor people getting hated and scape-goated because its easy to do so and because in the US we have a myth about the existence of poverty. If we can't see it, it must not be there.
And besides there are ALOT of non-profit plantations, prison plantations and corporate plantations there to make money on our increased harassment, incarceration, "saving" and "treatment".
As a formerly houseless single mama, raising three children in a capitalist society that tends to see being houselessness in AmeriKKKa as a crime, I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have been like for me twelve years ago when I was living in several different homeless shelters that kicked us out all day, getting ‘cited’ for being out in a ‘public space’ with nowhere to go, and on the second so-called violation citation, risking the chance of being arrested and put in jail! This is why in the City Berkeley, Measure S, a law that prohibits sitting and/or laying on the sidewalk in certain public areas of Berkeley, which is a direct violation of civil rights, which is being currently proposed on the voting ballot should not pass.
This is still a very frightening thought even now, though I am in a much better place in my life today. I cannot even imagine that the community who I now serve at my job as an Advocate where I work with houseless families and folks, that such a violation of basic human rights is currently being proposed in the so-called ultra liberal City of Berkeley by Berkeley’s current mayor Tom Bates, who is spearheading the proposal of Measure S, the Anti-Sit n’ Lie campaign, which primarily targets poor, disabled and houseless youth communities in Berkeley.
This is truly a ‘war on the poor’, a social atrocity on every level of presumptive racial, class and mental health incrimination upon a very vulnerable community. Instead, why isn’t there a measure proposal being implemented to allocate City funding for year-round drop-in centers with direct access to mental health services for houseless communities, especially for young and mid-aged adults? Why has an alternative proposal not been considered, instead criminalizing poor houseless communities, most who have untreated and/or self-medicated mental disabilities and settling for a fragmented social help system in Berkeley who don’t really work in tandem together and have limitations to what services they can render to poor communities in Berkeley, which causes many people to fall through the cracks and not have access to getting the basic support systems they need?
Some nonprofits, like the one I now work for, do only certain types of services, however what needs to happen, is not profiling and criminalizing poor communities for simply having ‘nowhere to go’ during the day, as there are already civil sidewalk ‘blocking’ laws and ‘sleeping on the sidewalk’ laws already in place in Berkeley. And, any time I see a houseless person ‘sleeping’ on the sidewalk, the police are always there, harassing them anyways…so why would Berkeley need another pointless ‘law’ that would only end up failing and costing unnecessary money for the city, after it’s been evident that San Francisco’s anti-sit and lie law has failed. Where are people to go? …Jail? Where was I to go during the day when I had no money to spend in the stores? Why do we need a costly and discriminating law that’s being backed by utopian gentrifying upper middle-class Berkeley commercial property owners and elite business owners and residents?
Why should the affluent yuppies in Berkeley’s ‘Gourmet Ghetto’ (personally, I find this name insulting), be able to park their privileged asses on the grassy median (which is already illegal by law, but not being enforced in privileged communities) and their kids be able to sell lemonade on the sidewalks of public street corners, when poor houseless communities, who have nowhere to go are cited and incarcerated for being a ‘criminal of poverty’, because some yuppie doesn’t like they way they look???
For all of you who live in Berkeley, vote “NO” on Measure ‘S’, as it violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights and all basic ‘human rights’, as it only punishes poor houseless communities.
I ran into a brother the other day at the bus stop. I’d just gotten off work and was heading home. I heard a voice call out, Hey Tony! I flinched, thinking I’d been recognized by someone I didn’t want to talk to. It is part of what my dad calls the duck and dodge, a strategy whose main purpose is to avoid getting into other people’s shit. I didn’t want to get into a useless conversation that would strain not only my nerves but my ears. I looked to see who called out my name. It was a brother in a baseball cap and dark shades. I looked for a moment and recognized the brother as a cat named Terry. Terry used to be part of a work training program at a non-profit organization that I had worked at a couple years ago. Hey, what’s happening brother, I said, shaking his hand. The cool air seemed to warm as we talked—catching up: how you doin’ man…how’s your mother? We were glad to see the story in other’s faces.
Seeing his face was refreshing given the faces I have to endure on the busses, coffee shops and worse—on TV. All those stale, sterile faces walking along Market, Valencia and Divisadero Streets—minds stuffed with self-satisfaction from years of being told how wonderful they are—their thoughts, their poses—as hipsters, parading around as if they were real San Franciscans. Can smell ‘em a mile away. Terry was born and raised in San Francisco, the real deal straight outta Fillmore. Real nice guy and there’s something royal about that velvet jogging suit he wears. It’s for lounging, not jogging. I am in the presence of real class, a guy just being himself without the need to cover insecurities with tattoos or gimmicks—physical, verbal or otherwise.
In short, Terry is a beautiful brother. I always thought he was too good for that job program. His job was piecing and assembling mosaic tile kits for an organization that serves people with developmental disabilities. The tiles were made into kits that were later sold at retail outlets. I’d sit and watch Terry count and weigh those little tiles that looked like crackers. You were paid according to how much you assembled, bagged and sealed. All that fun for so little pay; all those folks in the program, some dropping off only to return to that stack of heat sensitive, see-thru bags. The welcome mat was always nice and tidy.
One thing I remember vividly about Terry was his love for music. He'd devote his spare time to producing mixtapes at home—on cassettes. He’d sell ‘em for 5 dollars a pop. I bought one although I didn’t own a cassette player anymore. I asked him what kind of music he had on it and his face lit up as he ran off names of musical groups I’d grown up with, had love, whose lyrics held meaning for me.
Sideshow by Blue Magic
Mind Blowing Decisions by Heatwave
People Make the World Go round by The Stylistics
Fire and Desire by Rick James and Teena Marie
I remember Terry performing during the job program's Christmas party. He came decked out in a powder blue suit with wide lapels. He got on the mic and sang an old song by the Manhattans.
There's no me...without you
He was smooth, gliding across the floor, his bad leg no longer bad but providing him a leg up on whatever barriers he had to face, now or in the future. It was poetry, beautiful to watch—a brother doing what he was intended to do without shame, without apology…just free to do it.
I bought one of his mix tapes but couldn’t listen to it. I then found an old tape player at a garage sale and no sooner did I put the tape in the deck than the player chewed and mangled the tape. The tape spilled to the floor like an out of control tapeworm. But I thought about those songs. They were in my mind and couldn’t be erased.
The bus headed towards Fillmore while we talked. Terry spoke slowly. He told me that a long time ago he had gotten into a car accident that had affected his mobility and speech--that he had to attend a special school. Then he stops and there is a pause. What fills the pause is life, the sound of birds, wind, laughter, gunshots, cries, birth and…
Terry told me he was now making music CD’s, that he was selling them for 5 bucks a piece. He said his girlfriend was helping him produce the tapes since she has a computer. Girlfriend? I said, you didn't say nothing about no girlfriend. "Shit man...i can't tell you everything, now" he replied, laughing. He told me he didn’t have one of his CD's on hand but that, if I wanted one, to meet him tomorrow night at 10 at the doughnut shop on 7th and Market. Ok, I’ll meet you there” I said. We shook hands and he got off the bus.
The next day came, busy at work. I went home. 945 pm rolled around. Then I remembered…the doughnut shop! It was too late…I fell asleep. The next night I went to the doughnut shop. I looked around. Every kind of doughnut you can imagine was looking back at me. Terry wasn’t there. I looked outside thinking he might be out front. My eyes met the night and its eyes melted into mine. I saw Terry everywhere. His music was in the street and it pulled me closer to the city that we were both raised in, the city that knocked us down and raised us up over and over again.
Terry, if you’re reading this, I'm sorry we didn’t connect. It was good seeing you, talking to you, my beautiful brother. The music of your voice is in my ears.
Not long ago I saw an interview with a Filipino writer who spoke of cliché’s that Filipino writers—mostly beginning Filipino writers—use.He cited such things as mango colored suns, white sand beaches and, of course, the obligatory carabao as hindrances to the literary landscape one is trying to create.This writer’s comments made me think of my own writing and the role the carabao has played in it.Firstly, I have never seen a carabao in person.The carabao is a beautiful animal—hard working and loyal—I’ve been told.The people who have told me this of the carabao also happen to be hard working and loyal (and I have been told that I have displayed just the opposite qualities, namely by my father).I have seen the carabao in pictures—National Geographic and in numerous books showing the landscape of my indigenous ancestral home, the Philippines.I felt somewhat guilty in regards to the writer’s comments because I had used carabaos and mango colored skies as metaphors in my writing.“You’re a sham” a friend once told me.“You’ve never seen a carabao in your life, nor have you been to the Philippines”.This was true.But I began to think about the writer, who is quite well known since the release of his book, which has been well-received.I looked at his face, his clothes, his hair—all were immaculate, all impurities swept away in the Arkipelago winds.I was curious if this writer had ever stepped into a steaming mound of carabao dung in his oxfords or boat shoes and subsequently fallen?Or did he ever wake to find carabao crust in his eyes, or walk with carabao mud between his toes or carabao snots running down his nose?These and other questions remain—the mystery persists.
My Uncle, the poet Al Robles, wrote of carabaos.His book of poems, “Rappin’ With Ten Thousand Carabaos In the Dark” are carabao tracks on the page, tracing their journey in the Philippines and in the US.Each poem is stained with the mud, saliva, tears, tae—the life of the carabao, the memory of the carabao, the music of the carabao—the heart of the carabao which is the heart of the manongs.The sound of the carabao brings us closer to home, closer to the earth, closer to ourselves.Carlos Bulosan wrote of the carabao in “America is in the Heart”.In the story his brother Amado beats a weary carabao with a stick, to which his father responds by slapping him sharply across the face. What are you doing to the carabao?I think of one of my uncles poems and the reverence he had for the carabao:
He’s nice one, you know
Carabao is nice to you
When you come in the afternoon from the ricefield
He go home too, by himself
After the sun go down he lay down
Goddam!Like a human being.
International Hotel Night Watch
Manong–carabao
I ride you thru the I-Hotel ricefields
One by one the carabao plows deep
I recently took a walk to the grocery store in my neighborhood.I picked up a few things and headed back home.A couple blocks away from my house I came upon a garage sale.I approached and saw the usual—books, plates, clothes, knickknacks—all kinds of stuff.It all belonged to a young white guy wearing a Giants T-shirt.His face had a pinkish tint due to the unusually hot weather.He sipped on a Pabst Blue Ribbon as people browsed through the items making up his life.I looked at a few things but didn’t see anything I wanted to buy.I was ready to leave when something caught my eye.It was on a table, a wooden figure that looked worn but beautiful, crafted by someone I’d never met but whose feelings I’d feel as my own.I reached for and touched the figure.Its eyes whispered.I tried to make out what it was saying but was interrupted by the guy with the beer.“You like my yak?” he asked before taking a swig of beer.He took a very long swig before proceeding to crush the empty can with one squeeze of his freckled hand.He stood examining my face.I looked at the wooden figure and realized it was a carabao.It was beautiful.It had eyes that were alive.But before I could tell the garage sale guy that what he had was a carabao, not a yak, he went to the cooler and pulled out another beer.He walked back over and told me that his yak had belonged to his ex-wife, who had gotten the lion’s share in the divorce.He made fun of the Yak, saying it needed another yak to fuck (a yak to yuk, to use his exact words), etc.I looked at the carabao, it looked at me.We knew.Then the man started rambling about this and that—a rant of belligerence mixed with a twinge of sentimentality; his words spilling forth in a spirited froth of beverage-inspired verbiage.As I recall, it went like this:
He yakked my head off for almost half an hour.Finally he stopped.Then I uttered two words:How much?
Five bucks
I dug into my pocket and the carabao seemed to say: if you don’t get me out of here and away from this fool, I’m gonna back up and run as fast as I can, dead at you, and ram one of my horns up your ass.
I found five dollars, gave it to the guy and picked up the carabao that had to endure being called a yak for who knows how long.
Dedicated to all poverty skolaz, warriors and organizers from Back East to Deep East- From Haiti to New Jersey....prayers, love and survival to ALL who were caught in this tragedy...
From Philly to New Jersey. From the South Bronx to Haiti, from the land of my Boricua-Afrikan mama and so many more, us Po' Folks don't need Hurricane Sandy to have a crisis, cause we already in Hurricane Survival. Between gentriFUKation, removal, violence, poverty and struggle just to be housed and clothed and fed and safe. the crisis called Sandy is just one more thing to deal with in an already impossible situation.
From Rikers Island to the projects in the South Bronx- us po' folks are always thought of last. One strike you out in a capitalist society. We gave you a chance, you had a job, you had a house, you lost that job, you lost that house, alcoholism, ptsd, veteran of illegal war, disability, substance use?... too bad for you... we gave you a bootstrap. You poor cause you just lazy...So many lies of shame and capitalism.
Hurricane Sandy hit us all like a knock upside the collective head, effectively ruined a large part of the way folks get around in NYC, gave the excuse to shut off the power in the projects, to close roads and make life even worse at the plantation known as Rikers Island. Folks wit folk made it out alive, but Po' folks and houseless folks evacuation doesn't make any sense at all. Where we gonna go? What little we barely have is all here in this street, in this shelter bed, in this doorway, in this food bank, in this corner sto' , in this hood. And anyway, I'm in a struggle just to stay alive everyday without a "natural" crisis.
What was rarely said in New Orleans Hurricane Katrina tragedy, is folks had nowhere to be before that hit, and its the same thing with Sandy.
Houseless children and families have hit a record high in New york City shelters. Over 19,000 children recorded, highest since the "great depression" Foreclosures have hit elders and families of color disproportionately hard in the US. Thousands more are houseless in 2012.
Disabled elders, children, families, incarcerated peoples are in even more danger when the power is shut off. When floods, hurricanes and earthquakes hit, our already fragile hold on life in this system that implements the separation of people from each other, elders from youth, fathers from families, mothers from their children, means we risk immediate death.
So to my fellow po'folks, in the middle of all of this deeper crisis. Its even more important than ever heal our bodies To all my brothers and sistaz still caught up in the poisons, in the violence, in tha life, if there was ever a time to wake yourselves up - its now. Mother Earth is mad, And Monsanto is the Devil and this monster is EVERYWHERE. but if we aint truly awake we can't fight him/her/it. those of us who like my mama said, have the strength of youth, or health to do so, stop giving our strength to the corporate and streetcorporate poison and start getting ready. Ready for survival, for care-giving, for each other.
To my organizing companeros - its an urgent moment in time to be changing your directions in your organizing strategies. Organizing is survival. Survival from capitalism, from its poisons and its violence and its lies on corporate TV. Learn back your indigenous ways and facilitate the healing and learning with your memberships and families, transform your spaces into gardens, hold your children close. take them away from those killer video games and computers and corporate media lies. Pray and open dialogues with each other in your streets and communities. . And learn back your love for each other.
Its only a philanthro-pimp that tells you there is a difference between an organization that works on tenants rights and an organization that works on houselessness. Between an organization that works on Police brutality and an organization that works on the closure of prisons. All that is keeping you apart is a grant guideline, Decolonize your mind from that rigid lie.
In POOR Magazine after 16 years of struggle, this landless, indigenous peoples movement has acquired a small corner of Pachamama/Mother Earth. With very little money (cuz POOR is in facl Po') and mostly our people power, we are working to build Homefulness- a sweat-equity co-housing model of housing for houseless families, a school to teach back our indigenous languages, a community garden and a cafe. Eventually we want to move completely off killer technologies, the lie of Monsanto and all blood-stained dollars-based economies to barter, sharing and community building. We aint there yet but we have started with the garden and we are already feeding people every week in Deep East Oakland and teaching our youth about their bodies and their communities' health with what we can so we can eventually move our poor bodies of color into health. Our goal is sharing, everything we have and everything we don't have.
The time for collective survival is now. To all my organizer compaz, slice off 10% of your (already stuffed wit too much) week and spend some time helping your folks heal. We all know those of us who care for folks, without the lie of bootstraps, but filled with the love of struggle, of experience, of pain, of loss, that if we got our heads clear we got to be getting the collective backs of our folks who aintgonna be able to.
Heal yourselves/ourselves. Heal our/your land and your/ours communities, even if its not easy and together we can, will and are "preparing" for the rest of the storms still to come and the one that is already here.
