Story Archives 2015

1st Nations. Black, Brown & Poor Peoples Demands for Justice and Self-Determination

2) State-wide Moratorium on Luxury Housing Development /Condominium Development

3) State-wide Anti-Speculation Tax be imposed on all new developments- ( example would be San Francisco's Prop G introduced as a state-wide initiative)

4) Institute Rent Control /renters rights protections in "exempt" regions like Salinas

5) Demand the Conviction of Police Officers who Murder the citizens they claim they here to protect

6. Support/Fund/Implement Community Autonomous Elders Councils and Restorative Justice Models to Move off the US myth of Security and Policing

April 28, 2015

WHAT DID YOU PUT IN YOUR POCKET?

It occurs everyday in this natural food holler:
Something looks suspicious, somewhat askew.
Doesn't look like a Yuppie, probably don't have a dollar.
Any Black man, any poor brother will do.

Like a solid shadow, the watchdog follows his steps
Through neat, crowded aisles of health:
Past free-range chicken, organic kale, turn left
Tailing a brother, walking by himself.

ARE YOU SHOPPING AT OUR STORE? OR STEALING?

Ready to justify their low-paid position,
Guard refrigerators filled with another's wealth
Past almond milk, rice cream, halls of nutrition,
The watchdog catches a brother----scoping out
the cold kombucha shelf.

UNLESS YOU'RE HERE TO BUY, LEAVE. NOW.

No stories printed in the newspaper,
No photos on TV news, when push came to shove,
But the watchdog feels satisfied, busting a
nothing "caper"-----
On warning flyers, a brother is made an example of.

IF YOU SHOW YOUR FACE HERE AGAIN,
9-1-1 WILL BE CALLED. BELIEVE THAT.
_______________________________
W: 4.8.15

April 28, 2015

Numeral: 400

As in 400

Parts per million

Carbon dioxide
We release
Into the atmosphere,
Among other gases.
Chemical
Warning signs in the sky
We still ignore.
We can't take
The heat
Rising below the clouds.

But still we burn
Coal and petrol
And still we burn
Carbon dioxide
And still we release
Clouds of exhaust while driving cars
And still there's
No more ozone layer
And still the sun
Feels much hotter than usual
And still arctic
Glaciers melt
And still there's
Floods happening
And still there's
Droughts in some places
And still there's
Crazy weather, on the real
And still there's
Almost no more polar bears
And still there's
Chainsaw reversal of nature
Forests into deserts
And still there's
Oceans turning acidic
And still there's
People who believe this is false
And still we ignore
The everyday changes
The worst kind
In Pachamama
And still we believe
None of this is our fault-----

Mors voluntaria totius terrae*----

Numeral: 400

As in 400

Parts per million

Carbon dioxide
In the atmosphere.

350 parts per million
Would be better. 260----desirable.
____________________________
W: 3.13.15

*LATIN: "Suicide of the entire earth."

Letters, Words, Poems & Memories from Youth Skolaz at Deecolonize Academy's Revolutionary Youth Media Education Class for Malcolm X

Dear Malcolm X,
By Ana Lapota/PNN/RYME Youth Skola
Thank you for all you've one. You've helped touch hearts, change perspectives, and make people aware. You helped people to believe not only in themselves, but in others as well. If I were you I would refuse to be known with a colonizers name as well. Your speeches are a reminder to people that the toughest thing a person can go through is losing faith in themselves and the idea of justice. There are no limitations for us revolutionaries in life because as long as we believe we will succeed. It's like my little sister always says, “ Don't tell me the sky is the limit when we have footprints on the moon.” Because of you we are stronger, and able to fight with twice as much desire for a better tomorrow.

Dear Malcolm X
By Queenah /PNN RYME Youth Skola
You were a good leader and you know your history. And when you said your first speech it was good cause you talked about slavery and how you did not know your father's last name and your grandfather's last name.

When Malcolm x was on a interview with a white man he was telling the truth about his people that was a slave in his family.

Dear Malcolm X,
Heidy Serrano/PNN/RYME Youth Skola
Thank you for speaking the truth and standing up for people of color. Without you and other amazing peoples work who knows what would be of us. Thanks to you people are standing up and following your teachings. The work you have done its truly incredible and inspiring. People now are doing amazing work in your name. Thank you for believing in the equality for everyone. For standing up for women. Just thank you for everything. Like you have said we shouldn't hate our culture or the color of our skin, we should be thankful for it. You make me proud of who I am.

Dear Malcolm X
By Kimo Umu/PNN/RYME Youth Skola
Thank you for being the people who risk their life. And for us to be proud of our self and not to hate each other . Inspiring people to be what we want to be. Without you (and others) wed be shining shoes for the white man.

Dear Malcolm X
By Tiburcio/PNN/RYME Youth Skola
It was your name that changed you from everyone else you thought about everyone even your self. You used evolution to cause a revolution. You fought the constitution before technical pollution. Malcom X was really cool cause' he made O' connor look like a fool.

Dear Malcom X
By Ty’Ray Taylor/PNN -RYME Youth Skola
Thank you for making this world better as much as u were able to

When I was watching your interview you were representing your culture and what you believed

I learned a lot about you at Deecolonize Academy and Meadows Livingstone school. I think that you were trying to stand up for your rights and the worlds rights- BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

It started the moment my uncle, the poet, wrote the lines—

A handful of carabao
Dung has more spirit
Than 10,000 white men

I thought my uncle was crazy. He wore a ponytail that flapped and swung in the wind when he meditated or did Tai Chi. He hung out with old Filipino men for hours in Chinese restaurants. One old man had a mouth like a billiard pocket, except for one tooth the shape of an axe blade. Another old man had one finger on each hand—the middle finger. Claimed to be a writer. My uncle would sit and listen and tell stories afterwards. My father got a kick out of my uncle’s lines about the carabao dung. He copied it on a small strip of paper and stuck it in his wallet. He’d stand in the mirror and recite it mimicking John Wayne, Jimmy Cagney, Sidney Poitier. He’d laugh. He rarely laughed. He was a janitor who woke up at 5am and left us with the sound of jingling keys as he slammed the door. He went to a garage sale and picked up a stack of National Geographic Magazines. Sure enough there was an issue that featured carabaos. He looked at the pictures transfixed, each photo teleporting his soul—his spirit—to an ancestral homeland or at least an ancestral state of mind. I picked up the magazine and went to the toilet. I sat looking at the photographs. Outside the window a cat meowed and meowed.
“Will you shut up!” I said.
“Meow”

I flipped the pages, focusing on the mountains in the pictures; mountains laced with green and rain and lushness with all kinds of stuff underneath that the camera didn’t catch. The words “mountain tribes”, “rice terraces”, and “various dialects” slid past my eyes like rocks slipping off a mountain. I turned the page and saw it—2 big horns, 2 eyes that carved itself into anything it looked at and 2 nostrils leaking rainforest snot. It was a carabao. In one picture it was in a rice field, mud all over its body. In another picture it was on a street pulling a cart with a boy atop its back. In yet another picture it was in front of a church, bowing on all fours, asking God for the things that carabaos ask for. I looked at its face, its ugly face. It resembled a guy I went to school with named Andre Watts. Andre had a face that looked like a shoe print. He used to beat me up; he beat everybody up. I kept looking and I began to see other resemblances. Soon the carabao looked just like my father with his large nose and distrustful eyes. I nearly dropped the magazine when I heard a loud knock on the door.
“What are you doing, sleeping in there?”
“No”
“Get outta there. I gotta take a shit!”
“Ok”
“Don’t ok me…get outta there and don’t use all the toilet paper”
I wiped, flushed and put the National Geographic nicely in the rattan book holder next to the toilet for my father to read.

The next day I went to school. I couldn’t concentrate on the math scribbled on the board. I kept thinking about the carabao’s face. I started thinking about carabao shit—first a handful then a roomful. Soon the classroom was filled with carabao shit, knee deep. I imagined the teacher screaming, saying, “what is it?” I saw myself, chest puffed out like a frog answering “it’s spirit Ms. Fargo, we’re knee deep in school spirit”. I got home to find my father in the living room. He was sitting on the floor Indian style with a pair of 1940’s Everlast boxing gloves wrapped around his neck with rips and tears. He kept repeating “a handful of carabao shit has more”…
“Dad” I said, “I thought it was a handful of carabao dung has…”
“Don’t give me your lip”, dad shot back, closing his eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like I’m doing?”
“Sitting”
“I ain’t sitting. I’m meditating”.
“Can I try?” I asked, squatting on the floor.
“Why don’t you meditate on going to the store and getting me an eskimo pie…oh yeah…and bring me a paper”
Dad gave me a dollar and change. I faithfully delivered his order like the good slave that I was. When I got back, dad was sitting at the dinner table. On it were sheets of paper with designs painted on them.
“Sit down” dad ordered.
He tore open the eskimo pie and bit into it.
“What do you think of this?”
“Think of what?”
“The papers goddamn it! The drawings!”
I looked at the papers. It was hard to make out what they were. They looked like designs that psychologists gave patients to fuck their minds. They looked like watercolor blotches randomly set to parchment—basically abstract explosions of insanity confined to an 8.5×11 space.
“They’re ok, I guess”
Dad flipped through the papers.
“I’m trying to make a logo”
“A logo…for what?”
“For my…I mean…for our new business”.
“What new business?”
Dad gesticulated as if he were a famous artist or photographer who’d gained fame by producing chickenshit art that no one could afford.
“It’s gonna be called the carabao cleaning service…where cleanliness is happiness. You gotta go for what you know sometimes…go for broke. I need to make some real money. Need to take a chance. Now, which one of these drawings do you think should go on our business card?”
I looked at the pictures next to dad’s watercolor paint set. I looked and looked. I thought to myself, I could do better.
“I’m making you vice-president of the company” dad said. “My second in command”.
I laughed silently. I had just been fired from my first job 4 months ago. I was a delivery boy for the San Francisco Examiner. I was fired when I failed to deliver the paper during a holiday. I thought it was a holiday for me too. Vice president of a janitorial company? My immediate answer was no, I wanted no part in manning the phone, swinging the mop or swishing the toilet with the mighty toilet brush. I wanted to play ball. I had no choice. Dad held one of the papers to my face. I looked at the watercolor frenzy on the page.
“What does it look like” dad asked.
I took the paper in my hands. I ran my finger over the watercolor blotch. I spoke.
“It looks like a mound of carabao shit”
The curtain at the window rose in panic like a skirt in a storm. My father’s jaw clenched. He yanked the paper from my hand.
“It’s a carabao!” he said, holding it up like a special edition newspaper. “See the horns?”
He slammed it on the table and began pointing out all the details of his watercolor blotch until I fully comprehended.
“It’s gonna be our logo for our business card!”
I looked at the papers scattered about. I thought about my uncle with the ponytail and Tai Chi moves. I sat down and watched my father meditate on what lie ahead.

© 2009 Tony Robles

I am Kimo James reporting on PNN.T.V I'm here talking about another black man who was killed by another white cop.Walter Scott was shot 5 times in the back.

And because he was shot in the back Walter Scott died.

We know this because a person was lucky enough to witness the . cop shoot him down in cold blood, a 55 year old man.

The background of Walter Scott was he was a member of the Coast Guard, He was discharged because of a drug related incident, After that he had four children but also had ten arrests on his police records and also owed child support and because of this is why the cops pursued him.

My opinion on this is cops are getting more lazy and use their weapons more than ever.

This is Kimo James Reporting From PNN TV out.

(Photo from Climate Leadership March in Oakland 2015) 

Free West Papua

The Struggle for Freedom

by:Ana

I am 15 years old in the tenth grade and I am a proud and strong Tongan woman. I don't feel the need to put my name because while most people will worry about who I am another person somewhere else in the world is being murdered, raped, abused, oppressed, and stripped down of their identity and humanity. Now for those of you who can't catch on to the point I am trying to make I am talking about the indigenous people of West Papua.

West Papua is located near the south pacific and was colonized by the Netherlands in 1898. When the Republic of Indonesia became an independent nation state in 1949, West Papua remained under Dutch control. At the end of 1961, West Papua held a Congress at which its people declared independence, and raised their new flag, the Morning Star. Life for them was amazing and they felt like they were living the dream. Little did they know that their dream would only turn into a nightmare as the Indonesian military invaded West Papua and as of right now continue to live in fear for the Indonesian military has taken full control of West Papua. It is now illegal for them to be Papuan.

Benny Wenda, a West Papuan independence leader said, “When I was a child my village was bombed by the Indonesian military and many of my family were killed. Later, I began to campaign peacefully to free my country from Indonesian occupation. For this ‘crime’ I was arrested, tortured and threatened with death. I managed to escape to the UK, where I now live in exile. My people are still suffering. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, raped and tortured. All we want is to live without fear and for West Papua to become a free and independent country. Please hear my peoples’ cry for help. Please support the Free West Papua Campaign.”

I think that this is extremely sad and completely outrageous. It should not be illegal to be who you are when the land rightfully belongs to the people that were living there before colonization. They should not have to live in constant fear of being raped or murdered. It not only affects them but me as well since I am a pacific islander and they are people of the pacific. I might not be going through what they are but I do know what it feels like to always be in constant fear and not knowing whether you would be able to live to see another day. I know what pain feels like and the least I can do for the strong citizens of West Papua is bring their story to light and make it aware to everyone around me. This much I owe to them.

Hello Ms. Walker and , Leigh Ann Davis, Program Manager of Justice Initiatives,

Thanks for answering my Facebook request.  If you don’t know my history I’ve been an activist against police brutality against people with disabilities especially those who are Black since 1980’s.  Almost three years ago I read an article that that national office of Arc received a DOJ grant to create a clearinghouse on police encounters with persons with disabilities.  I always wanted to know what Arc has done especially now with the height of Black Lives Matter movement.  So I know myself and my community would like to know certain things about the program.

Leroy Moore:  Please explain the history of the Arc with the issue of police and people with disabilities?

K Walker, L A Davis: Originally, it was parents of people with I/DD who saw a need to train police officers about how to communicate with people with different types of I/DD. In the 1990s, it was parents who started the movement to educate officers, leading to simple training tools, which led to development of a 3 hour training, more federal projects on victim-related issues and eventually to the development of NCCJD. In 1994 The Arc received funding from DOJ under ADA Title II to create brochures on the topic of providing accommodations to people with disabilities. See our website for a timeline here: http://www.thearc.org/NCCJD/justice-history

Leroy Moore:  How did this issue and this National Resource Center come up with the Arc & was there any outreach with community advocates?

K Walker, L A Davis:
We currently have a list of advisors from other national organizations. Our outreach on the community level comes in the form of our DRTs. DRT stands for Disability Response Team. These are the teams that our training creates. Based in tenants from community based participatory research, our aim is to provide a skeleton training from the national office that can be molded to the needs of individual communities.

Our chapters of The Arc (almost 700 throughout the country) can apply to become a DRT lead. They then recruit law enforcement officers, victim services providers, and attorneys from their area to join the disability response team. Most importantly, the DRT leads are responsible for recruiting self advocates—people with disabilities who have chosen to be outspoken advocates—to help with the training.

The overall role of DRTs is both proactive and reactive. We hope they will identify community specific goals and adapt the training accordingly. Then, DRT members are responsible for getting members of their profession to attend the training. By having both self advocates and other professionals explain disability issues side by side, we hope to bridge gaps between the criminal justice system and the disability community, proactively identifying potential issues, and stopping them before they start.

We also hope that the DRTs will remain intact post-training and serve as a resource to react to bad situations in the criminal justice system when they do inevitably happen.

Specifically to your point about outreach to community advocates, we hope many will attend our DRT events around the country and, as we gain momentum, be able to learn from one another too.

Leroy Moore:  In my experience there is no national numbers/report on police encounters with people with disabilities.  How would the center collect this information and if you do collect these numbers how do you plan to have it accessible to community advocates?

K Walker, L A Davis: Our data collection is limited to cases where people contact us. We then log them in our internal information and referral (I&R) log. We’re happy to share those statistics with community advocates and we would also appreciate community help in reporting and cataloging. NCCJD is a two person team, and we simply can’t know about everything going on around the country. We need community advocates to help us determine the scope of the need for NCCJD to grow to meet the demand for this resource.

Leroy Moore: In my years of advocating on this issue I always hear the same answer, more training.  Is the center looking more broader then just training?

K Walker, L A Davis: I think I answered some of this in the DRT explanation above—we hope that the training we’re doing will also push criminal justice professionals to recognize their ignorant attitudes about people with disabilities and adjust accordingly. We cannot understate the importance of heavy self-advocate involvement in our training endeavors. We hope that our self-advocate trainers will do more than just cover the information in the curriculum. We hope that their interactions with trainees throughout the day will humanize disability in a very practical and real way, leading to better overall outcomes in the criminal justice system.

Leroy Moore:  Once again how is this center reaching out to community groups and advocates who are doing the work in their communities?

K Walker, L A Davis: For now, we are piloting our Pathways to Justice(TM) training program, but our vision is that the training will be very Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) based once completed. Disability Response Team leaders will be responsible for identifying stakeholders in the community and asking them what their priorities are for reform. NCCJD provides a training outline with some core learning objectives, but we hope the community groups and advocates will step in and heavily customize the information to individual localities.

Leroy Moore: Now with Black Lives Matter and my reports saying that most of the police brutality are on Black/Brown disabled and none disabled bodies, how is Arc & this center dealing with race & disability issue especially those of us with developmental disabilities?

K Walker, L A Davis: I think The Arc has room to grow here—and we’re trying to do just that. Understanding the intersection of race and disability has always been important to The Arc and in 2014 we received a grant from the MetLife Foundation to further explore our efficacy at providing support and services that meet the needs of a diverse I/DD community. With this 2 year grant, we have been working with our chapters to understand the challenges they face in their communities and develop strategies that will ensure our services are inclusive. If you or other advocates in your field have suggestions for additional steps we could take, we are happy to collaborate.

Emmitt Thrower/Leroy Moore: Is there a way for a film project around Police Brutality Against People With Disabilities be of use to your mission? Especially if it is put together for community use as a community organizing tool. If the film's goal is to help bring about awareness of the problem and will be utilized as a platform to help bridge the gap between local law enforcement and our community around the issue of Police Brutality and the lack of documentation of Police encounters with our community.  It could be a way to gain more grassroots inclusion into the decision making process which is lacking now. Could Arc utilize a project/film like that  to help towards fulfilling your grant's mission? How can Arc utilize a tool like this if created?

K Walker, L A Davis: While I think a film like that might be outside the scope of our current grant, it is a fantastic idea that I’ll pass up the chain. We have seen how video footage has really impacted how the public has reacted to the incidences of brutality in North Charleston, SC, Baltimore, MD, and Staten Island, NY. And film has helped a prosecutor in Delaware elevate an incident of assault of a person with a disability to a hate crime charge. Film is a powerful tool in making people understand the serious issues we are facing in the criminal justice world.

Leroy Moore: Now that the funding cycle of this grant is coming to an end, how do we, the community read the outcomes?

K Walker, L A Davis: We have some of our publications and our website available here: www.thearc.org/nccjd. We’d be happy to respond to queries about how many people have attended our webinars. We’re still in the process of collecting information around the trainings.

Police Terror Update: Mike Brown and Davon Ellis

Stop the killing of young teens of color

by: Malia Lapota/PNN RYME Youth Skola

I am a 17 year old Tongan girl living in the ghetto of East Oakland. I am a senior at Coliseum College Prep Academy. I was born in New Zealand and moved here when I was just 5 years old. As I grow older, I realize how dangerous Oakland can be. I can see the dangers and struggle that communities of color face each day, whether it's on the streets, at home, or in school. I am just another person going through the struggle and dangers just like everyone else. I am a victim of rape and sexual assault, just like young teens are a victim of unnecessary murder.

Some victims of unnecessary murder are Davon Ellis (shot in Oakland, CA), and Mike Brown (shot in Ferguson, MO). Davon Ellis was a 14-year old African-American teen who shot while walking home with his friends. Davon Ellis was a freshman at Oakland Tech High School and was also a all-star football player for his football team. The suspect for Davon's murder was arrested a couple weeks later. The suspects was arrested for speeding in Hayward, CA and while he pulled over he shot at the police officer. But police officer forgot to notify parents about the arrest of the suspect. When they found out that the suspect was arrested they was thrilled and relieved that the person that shot their son was in custody.

Another victim of unnecessary murder was Michael Brown. Michael Brown was a 18 year old African-American boy who was shot by a police officer. The police officer thought he had a gun when Mike Brown was cuffed on the ground. But an anonymous source states that Officer Darren Wilson says that he was pinned to his car. He also stated that Mike Brown hit him and reached for his gun. Officer Darren Wilson said his gun fired twice in his police car, one hit Brown and the other missed, but officials says that it does not explain the rest of the time that Mike Brown was shot.

I feel that police officers cover up for the mistakes they make. People of color are being killed due to these police officers shooting innocent people. As a person of color, we all face the same things as everyone else. We have as much rights to walk down the street with a hoodie on, rights to be the color that we are, and rights to be human beings in this society.

I am Tiburcio Garcia from Deecolonize Academy and I am reporting for Poormagazine.

Two Mexican Chicano and Mayan poverty scholars died in between 2014 and 2015. Alex Nieto 28, died march 21, 2014 on Bernal Hill in San Francisco, California. He died because of the rich people invading his neighborhood. They called the cops on him when he was sitting down eating his burrito before work. They racially profiled him . Then they killed him shortly afterword.

Amilcar Lopez whose story is less well known, was killed February 27, 2015 in San Francisco California. He was trying to get his Bike out of the house he was evicted from. He was accused of stealing it by the police. Within minutes the police killed him.

My opinion is gentrification kills in U.S and Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto and many others are only the first victims. In this racist state Mexican people whose ancestors were once kings are now laying dead in the streets.