Story Archives 2017

I’m the Black Kripple founder of Krip-Ho Nation.  Like our bi-line says, Krip-Hop is more than music, Krip-Hop Nation has been on a roll with interviewing creators of comics books and animated films and sires who are Black. From Kounterclockwise’s THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF KOUNTERCLOCKWISE aka Deacon Burns & Kaya Rogue Cleveland’s first hip hop sci-fi animated series to D.M.C.’S first comic book, D.M.C. (with my nephew Tiburcio Garcia) and Rosalind Alexander-Kasparik's upcoming comic book Recall and Given, Krip-Hop have been on it.  Well Krip-Hop is back with this interview with Joshua Leonard about Team Supreme, an upcoming animate cartoon sires with all disabled youth characters.

Krip-Hop Nation, KHN: Before we get into  the cartoon, Team Supreme, I want to talk about your background being homeless because hurrican Katrina to actor to CEO.

Joshua Leonard: I was born in Miami, FL in 1983 to a military family.  I moved quite a bit as a child.  I lived in Alaska, Miami, Maryland, and Biloxi, MS.  I’ve always been able to draw, but as a child and teen, I was mainly focused on sports, mainly football, where I was recruited pretty well.  Injury set in my senior year so I turned to the arts.  I did music for a while and toured a few cities, where I was featured in VIBE Magazine in 2007.  After the music, I began to act.  I have been in 6 movies, and 2 shows.  Before all of this, I was homeless from hurricane Katrina in 2005.  That small setback just motivated me to work harder.

KHN:  Being a Black non-disabled how did you get an ideal of Team Supreme, a cartoon with characters with disabilities especially have a Black autistic   youth as a lead character?

Joshua Leonard: I knew I wanted to do something different.  Something that has never been done.  I had the idea for TS for years because I have friends who have children with a special need.  A few of my friends have a child with autism, so I was able to study and learn from them.

KHN:  Can you give us a storyline of on episodie? 

Joshua Leonard:  My episodes will be pretty self explanatory, such as an episode about Bravery, Bullies, etc…

KHN:  Who is writing the scripts do you hire writers with disabilities?

Joshua Leonard:  I’m writing scripts with the help from my daughter for now, but eventually, when I can afford to pay other writers, I can bring in more people, yes.  

KHN:  Lately more and more comics are coming to the big screen with disabled characters like Daredevil, full-length documentary category, Life, Animated, upcoming Power Ranger movie and   What makes Team Supreme different and what is the future of this project?

Joshua Leonard:  Team Supreme is different from these other films because all of my characters have a special need, and super powers.  It will also teach people about these special needs so they can understand them better.

KHN:  Tell us about your studio/company, Leonard Studios.

Joshua Leonard:  Well, I’m currently an animation student at the Art Institute of Atlanta, where I’ll graduate in March 2018.  I always wanted to have my own studio so I could tell my own stories, etc… I believe representation in cartoons is vital.  I also started my own studio because it’s not the easiest to get into these big studios if you’re an African American.  Just check the numbers.  Why?  I’m not sure, but I’ve seen plenty of talented brothers and sisters who would be useful, but just looking at group pictures of these big studios, there’s usually only 1-2 african American people and it’s unacceptable.  

KHN: What is your favorite animated film?

Joshua Leonard:  My favorite animated film would have to be Toy Story

KHN: So I read that you will be starting a Kickstarter campaign for Team Supreme tell us what are you raising for and how can people help?

Joshua Leonard:  Yes, I’ll actually be doing an Indiegogo campaign to raise $25K to make either a short film, or an episode.  The funds will be used for voice actors, music, orchestra, writers, promotion and animators.

KHN:  Do you see this project going into schools and if so how?

Joshua Leonard:  I can see this project being in schools, yes.  My cartoon will be a learning tool, and also an overall dope cartoon that kids will love.

KHN:  Beyond Team Supreme will you continue to create artistic products with a disability them? 

Joshua Leonard:  Absolutely.  I feel like it is needed.  My goal is to have a DC or Marvel type universe with all of the disabilities.

KHN:  Being Black, how do you think Team Supreme will do in the Black community and have Black people, funders, artists support your ideal so far?

Joshua Leonard:  TS will be amazing in the black community because many autistic kids are black.  I have a few celebs behind the project, such as R&B singer Ginuwine.

KHN:  How can people support this project and reach you? 

Joshua Leonard:  People can support this project by emailing me at: joshua@leonardstudios.com

Or on twitter @joshua__leonard

Instagram @joshua__leonard & @leonardstudios

Image credit: Coalition for a Taser-Free Berkeley

On November 3, 2017, the San Francisco Po-Lice Commission voted 4 to 3 to Yes on the question of should the San Francisco Police Department be awarded with Energy Conducted Weapons i.e. another weapon (Tasers)?  

This question has been raised 5 times in the last 13 years, and San Franciscans, for the most part have answered with a resounding No!  Yet, the question of arming the SFPD, with an additional weapon in their arsenal has resurfaced again.  Why?  The SFPD, argues its need of Tasers is because “it is an intermediate force weapon between a baton and guns.”  Or is it because the national push to arm police departments with Energy Conducted Weapons, is due to the lobbying and big spending that Axon, manufacturer of ECW’s has done, miseducating many to believe that these weapons are a safe alternative to other options?  

As a black person of African descent living in San Francisco, I am highly suspicions of arming the SFPD, with these so-called “less lethal” weapons.  My suspicions are partly based on recent studies that point to the disparate impact that ECW’s have had impact on Black folks, and People experiencing mental crisis, the homeless and disabled.

The State of Connecticut:  Electronic Defense Weapon Analysis and Findings, 2015.  The Central Connecticut State University analyzed data submitted by 79 Connecticut police departments in 2015.  The state-wide data indicated that 83% of persons tasered were unarmed, one-third of the individuals subject to being tased were described as emotionally disturbed and people of color were more likely to be tased and less likely to be given a warning before being tasered than whites.

The Baltimore Sun analyzed data on statewide Taser incidents between 2012-2014 and found that out of nearly 3,000 Taser uses, 64 percent of those hit by the stun guns were black men, and nearly 60 percent of those hit by Tasers were described as “non-compliant and non-threatening” (i.e. officers often turned to Tasers before exhausting less forceful means).

A cornerstone of police community relationships requires trust between the police and community members.  Arming the SFPD, with ECW’s will not engender trust in my community.  It is seen as awarding the SFPD another weapon to be used against vulnerable populations and will serve to widen the chasm that already exists in our communities regarding police community relations.

De-escalation techniques, time and distance, is a real solution,” something which the officers, mental health advocates and social workers made up of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), through community pressure already implements.

This martial state apparatus answer to the crisis of black and brown youth being murdered by terrorist organizations - popularly known as the police, was a thinly veiled more humanitarian approach, e.g., “it is better to be shocked, than shot”.  Now the po-Lice and po-Lice Commission seems to have effectively and successfully co-opted the communities rightful anger and demands for accountability through this seemingly humanitarian solution.  A kinder and gentler settler-kkkop, method.  While neglecting the legitimate concerns and fears of those who will be disproportionately impacted by energy conducted weapons.   

Tasers are a thinly disguised veil use to obscure the hyper-militarization of law enforcement and its repression of black and brown communities in San Francisco.

So let’s now give credit where credit is due:

We want to give credit to the san francisco police commission for their cowardice and capitulation to the reactionary elements of the city of Francisco.

We want to give credit to them for once again siding with these reactionary element against the people's will and demands to not to arm the SFPD with additional weapons that will be used against black, brown and red people, the disabled, people experiencing mental crisis and the homeless & the poor. I.e., vulnerable segments of our community

We want to give credit to po-Lice commissioners,Sonia E. Melara Thomas Mazzucco, Joe Marshall and Robert Hirsch, for their blatantly, shameful, obvious disregard for the concerned community members who attended the meeting to voice their continous opposition to this racist and classist weapons policy and the sham amendment that would require these weapons next year.  It would have taken a year to implement ECW’s, anyway, so this was a bullshit amendment anyway.

We want to give credit to the San Francisco Po-Lice commission, for once again reminding the people that this commission is nothing more than a Rubber-Stamp commission, doing the bidding of mayor Ed Lee, The San Francisco board of supervisors, San Francisco po-Lice department, and Axon, the manufactures of these weapons, who will continue to profit off of the police state and the misery the police state places on our communities.

Finally, we want to give credit to this rubber stamp commission for clearly illustrating that what is needed is a Democratically chosen and Elected, People's Commission for Justice, that will replace the current rubber-stamp Po-Lice Commission with a People's Commission for Justice, with the power to fire, suspend, investigate, charge and prosecute offices and control the budget of the SFPD.

In other words, the San Francisco po-Lice commission’s betrayal of the people’s will and its continued support of the blux klux klan,  justifies our calls for Community Control of the po-Lice.

All Power to the People!!!

The rubber sides of the boat were like arms- thick - round - hard. “These are the boats refugees have to travel through, men sit on the side, the women, children and elders in the middle, sometimes getting splashed and sick with the leaking gasoline from the engine because they are covering miles of ocean to go from one country to another,”

Each of the tour guide’s words from Medices Sin Fronter MSF (Doctors Without Borders) rolled out of her mouth like water, narrating the “Forced From Home” traveling exhibit of removal, government/empire wars and NGO/Govt abuse of indigenous bodies across the global south. As she spoke she cut lines into my already broken heart, breaking it into even more pieces. Our liberation school Deecolonize Academy was on a field trip to this exhibit, sitting together in a dull gray rubber raft which was sitting on the black asphalt parking lot behind the kaiser auditorium in downtown Oakland. We were surrounded by everything that was allegedly modern and clean and part of this stolen Lisjan/Ohlone territory known as Oakland, California, United States.

As the guide took us through the literal experience of “refugees” across mama earth destroyed, dismantled and exploited from the empire fueled wars and kkkorporate land grabs in  Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Tanzania and South Sudan and more, directing us to “pick five things we could take with us with only a 10 second warning, I stood there deciding between a laminated card with a water bottle, passport or money icons on it. I began to get a pit in the deepest part of my stomach. I had been here before, so many times. the minutes to second warnings varied from situation to situation. This was my life as a houseless child.

Beginning at age 11 when i had to decide whether to take my favorite stuffed rabbit, my 6th grade class photo or one other pair of jeans in the hefty bag we were about to throw out of the 3rd floor apartment window me and mama were being evicted from, the 5-10 second warnings began. This was the first eviction we were faced with, our first in a long line of poverty and disability fueled displacements. Then there were the cars that we were living in that were towed, giving me and my mama 2-5 seconds to grab “everything” before they were hitched onto the tow trucks and driven away, never to be seen again. We were towed over and over because we  were parked overnight in neighborhoods that didn’t want “homeless” people and their hoopties (broke-down cars)  on their streets, so we would accumulate “illegal lodging” tickets, which we could never pay until they would tow our home away for good.

And then there were the 5 minute warnings of poLice and Department of public works before all of our belongings were going to be thrown in the trash when we were sleeping in doorways, on benches and in parks, but by this time the deciding got easier, there was hardly anything left to decide on. This was when the numbness of loss set in, this is when the poverty eats you up and you just become the move, the trash, the loss, the end. When the privilege of “belongings” is no longer yours to even consider. When the loss and trauma becomes normalized.

Our poor mama and uncle led liberation school Deecolonize Academy located on the liberated Ohlone Lisjan land us landless peoples at POOR Magazine call Homefulness went on a field trip to report and support for POOR Magazine’s revolutionary journalism class. All of us formerly houseless, currently houseless poverty mama and youth skolaz , whose Black, Brown, unhoused and disabled lives endlessly struggle with eviction, poverty, racism and different forms of Amerikkklan oppression, false borders and poLice terror and community violence, were sadly really natural for us to make this series of horrible crisis decisions, as we rolled through each mock station.  

“Imagine you are stateless,” the tour guide called out as she directed us to different sides of a tall erected fence in the installation. “You are an IDP,.. an international displaced person,” no nation will claim you, no nation will protect you,”

“You mean like me, like Afro-indigenous peoples here,” sis-star warrior, co-teacher at Decolonize Academy and co-founder of Kiss My Black Arts Tracey Bell-Borden, said to me under her breath. “Our Black and Brown bodies always under attack by the state, never protected, never respected..” her voice trailed off and we both got quiet.

International displaced person or IDP’s…as i stood behind that fake fence I thought wouldn’t this be a logical title for Black, Brown and indigenous folks endlessly predated on by the poLice and the politricksters, peoples like Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat and Amilcar Perez Lopez and Jessica Nelson Williams.  And unhoused, criminalized, displaced folks in this stolen indigenous territory ruled over by the land-stealers, banksters and real estate snakes, who thanks to the buying, selling and profiting off of mother earth have made it impossible to afford the basic human right of safe, affordable housing in most urban cities in the United Snakes Families like me and my mama who were permanently outside for over 10 years of my childhood and later when i was a single mama with my infant sun.  

“Now you can only bring two things, and you have 2 seconds to decide,” as she spoke we all numbly dropped our cards, leaving things we would have needed to live, eat and survive. Not because it made sense or was a good decision, but like so many of our brother and sister international refugees, were being told, we had to leave. Cards with food, coins, tools, and ID’s were dropped numbly by all of us into a barrell and we all shuffled off to the next to last installations.

“This is one of the most important parts of what MSF provides in refugee camps, it’s the clean water and sanitation tent,” our guide proceeded to show us an extremely simple shower and water station cobbled together with plastic water bottles and canvas that all derived from a large box of imported clean water that MSF brought to all the camps they supported. Again this was exactly what unhoused folks here need. At every unhoused encampment, folks are criminalized for the sole act of relieving their bodily fluids. Every time a poverty skola is asked directly what they need, we always ask for a porta pottie.

“Where can we pee?” as she spoke about the urgent need for the sanitation to keep everyone in the camps healthy, my mind jumped to the endless attacks on unhoused, disabled Black elders of Aunti Frances Self-Help Hunger Program just to have and keep one porta pottie in a North Oakland “public” park in a neighborhood they were all from and now were displaced from, due to high-speed land-grabs of all of Oakland and now reside in what my mama Dee used to call the card-board motels. The installation of working and maintained porta potties is one of the things that made the self-determined Here/There encampment in Berkeley so beautiful and logical and insane for the Berkeley politricksters to remove.

And then we were directed to the last “station” which was actually a tent. My heart heavy with me and mama’s own street housing and the extreme and non-stop police harassment and DPW removals (called “sweeps”) of tent encampments from Frisco to Berkeley to Oakland, i walked slowly into this station. All of us sat quietly in front of this, the last story as the tour guide spoke.

“This is the story of a young girl, a teenager, who was an IDP in Rohinga, she showed up at the gate of a refugee camp after having five minutes to flee her village out her uncles back window because she would have been killed after her parents had been killed. When she arrived at the refugee camp which she ran and walked all the way to with just the clothes on her back, they wouldn’t let her in, so she, having Nowhere else to GO…Nowhere Else to Goooo, Nowhere Else to Go ( my mind stuck here, as that is what we houseless, displaced, evicted elders and families always say, feel, face,) slept outside the gate, unsheltered in the mud and rain. For weeks. Until she became seriously ill with cholera and almost died. Then they let her in. Then they let her in… Then they let her in..

“After getting treatment and healing several weeks later, she woke up one morning and decided to try to get her  life back together. She had been going to culinary school in her village before her family was murdered and she was forced to flee. So one morning, after getting all her books and things ready, she got dressed, got her hair fixed, her shoes and socks on and walked toward the door of the tent, and then stopped, paralyzed by fear and trauma and turned around. She could not leave…. paralyzed by fear and trauma, she could not leave. At this point, my chest tensed up, my head started to pound, my heart started to race and i couldnt breathe. tears streamed down my face. I began violently shaking. I couldnt move in my metal chair. my sun and the other youth skolaz at our small school surrounded me, holding my hand and repeating, “its going to be ok Mama tiny,”

My mama, a torture survivor, whose own teenage immigrant, abused mama had tried to kill her, and who barely survived extreme abuse in foster homes and orphanages, could not leave the house, even when we had no house. I was her sole caregiver, i held her through that torture, that terror, everyday as her daughter, until the day she transitioned. It was why she could no longer work after being laid off, “one more little murder of the soul, Lisa,” she would whisper, and then grip my arm and then just sit down. She tried so hard, just like this young warrior, she tried so many times. And yet she could never overcome that terror. She could never leave the car, the doorway, the tent, and then eventually the apartment once we were finally re-housed.

“The MSF offers mental health treatment to folks in the camps as well, we are still working with this young woman, and she is still trying,”

As the tour guide wound down, the stories of 100 year old evicted elder Iris Canada who died within two days of being forced from her home, of Elaine Turner, Ron Likkers and so many more elders whose lives are destroyed, whose bodies and lives are abused by the violence of Ellis Act evictions that plagues the land-grabs of the Bay Area and causes so many of us poor and working class families, elders and folks to become unhoused.

“Have you ever considered the “refugees” right here, right around your installation?,” we asked the tour guide at the end of the tour pointing to several tents across the street near the state building.

She didn’t really have anything to say. she nodded her head as we explained the situation of so many people in poverty right here.

As we all walked away slowly, in a daze, I  pondered our own state of being IDP’s. The connections between the original peoples colonization and genocide. The way that those same settler colonizer laws inform poLice culture that terrorizes Black and Brown peoples, that endlessly removes and displaces and criminalizes poor and houseless elders and families from their communities of origin and legislates the so-called public land so its never for the public good. And how this same empire and stolen state supports wealth hoarders and starts and funds wars all across Mama Earth so peoples from Yemen to Palestine, Sudan to San Francisco we are always “forced to move” and all becoming IDP's

Since 1951, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been working to provide free healthcare for refugees and internally displaced people. I had just learned this today when myself, along with my class, went to a workshop created by MSF to inform the city and community of Oakland what they do around the world.

They had us go through a mock simulation of what it would be like to go on these journeys that these refugees go through having to discard certain items and make hard decisions. Toward the end of the tour, MSF showed more of what they provided to help along the way. 

One of the stops was explaining what it was like, crossing the Mediterranean into Greece on a boat made for fifteen and holding one hundred and fifty.  Another station told us what it was like for people to have to be forced out of their house and have to choose five things to bring in a matter of seconds. I could relate to that one because I was n that experience many times in my life when my mother and I were forcefully evicted from apartments and houses.

In the beginning of the workshop, they gave us a passport type of thing that told us where we-we came from. I was from Honduras. The main reason why most people are migrating from Honduras is that of the high murder and homicide rate from the cartels and gangs.

I have been thinking of you.  There’s an emptiness since you left us.  I do not speak merely of your physical presence--the presence of an elder whose mere gestures and silence spoke of the community that was built by hands such as yours—a community that is being taken away from us;  but a presence that was as real as any tourist landmark—more real, in fact, because you spoke to us, to our core of what it means to be an elder, a black woman in San Francisco. You refused to be silenced.  Postcard images are flat and tailored made for the whimsy of those who are just passing through.  Perhaps the words, “Since you left us” is inappropriate, for it betrays the truth of what you were burdened with in the last years—last moments of your life.  You were taken from us, your memories and your life—the years that wrote itself in the creases of your face, the aroma of your kitchen, the colors that surrounded and bloomed in your living room—minimized and disrespected in the ugliest way in an attempt to erase your presence from our landscape in the name of making money at any cost.  To those who bought your building, you were the “furniture that came with the place”—an old lady that “needed to go”--because there were units that needed condo-converting and you were old--there wasn't space for you and what you represented.  We know better.  I needn’t repeat how ugly the city was in your eviction struggle, allowing a 100 year old woman to be evicted; sheriff’s locking you out of your home while you were away at a community senior program.  This is San Francisco?  San Francisco is a city of facelifts and buzzwords—beautify, renew—words that get tossed around a whole lot.  But this beauty is surface beauty only.  The fault lines are hidden, invisible to many but they break through just as sure as the fog eventually breaks.  As rich as this city is, it is evident that its infrastructure is falling apart—that of civility, decorum, community—those things that connect us as human beings. Iris, I am ashamed of this city and I am ashamed of how it treated you and the legacy that was you, that was your community—without so much as a thank you.  This city lives with a poverty of human connectedness. We needn’t intellectualize this—it is abound.  Iris, we miss you.  The roots you left are still strong.  We still feel your presence—we have not forgotten you—those of us who love this city, those of us who don’t forget the connectedness the city has to our lives in real ways that can be breathed and tasted and felt and touched, beyond commercial exchanges mediated by the digital parade that gives the illusion of connectedness.  Iris, you lived 100 years and every day I walk in this city and see 100 lifetimes in the faces living in the cold--broken but still here.  Iris, we want to push onward but how do we?  How do we throw off the blanket of indifference that smothers this city?  Iris, the broken bodies, minds and spirits are piling up under a full moon fit for a postcard addressed to no one.  Iris, we miss you, we haven’t forgotten you or the city that forgot you.  How can we forget?  How can we forget your face?  How can we forget your voice?  How can we forget what the city allowed to happen to you?  How can we forget your so-called neighbors and landlord who wanted you out?  How can we forget such abuse of an elder?  We are hungry for your words, your wisdom, your heart.  Speak to us, Iris.  We need you.

On September 29, 2017 the Appellant Division of San Francisco Superior Court heard the housing case filed by Appellant Gavin against Parkmerced Investors Properties, LLC.

Appellant Gavin alleged in Appellant's brief that Judge Donald Sullivan did not have jurisdiction of the subject matter to hear her case and his decision is void under the law.

Appellant Gavin discovered in the copy of the court's record that Appellant Gavin received for preparation of  the appeal there were very important items missing such as: the original contract for Appellant Gavin's apartment, the Housing Assistance Payment contract required for subsidized housing signed by landlord  Parkmerced and San Francisco Housing Authority and there was no disclosure that Appellant Gavin was a recipient of subsidized housing from the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development.  In other words fraud was perpetrated upon the court.

Parkmerced's attorney David Wasserman states that he followed the state law for evictions in the pleadings.  Attorney Wasserman also signed an declaration stating that Parkmerced looked really hard but could not find the original contract for Appellant Gavin's apartment.  This is also a breach of Appellant Gavin's substantive procedural due process rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.  Parkmerced did not follow HUD's termination requirements that mandatory in their pleadings.

Appellant Gavin alleged several breaches by Parkmerced in the court documents and eviction.  Appellant Gavin stated that under California law for delayed discovery there is no statute of limitation of an err made by a judge that can be proven to be void.  Due to further pending litigation in the case,  Appellant Gavin will not discuss other reasons stated at the hearing.

Appellant Gavin also stated that the actions of Judge Ronald Quidachay were unprofessional and violates Appellant Gavin's family civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

On October 24, 2016 according to Appellant Gavin Judge Ronald Quidachay who is the head of the Housing Court in Dept. 501 at San Francisco Superior Court (SFSC) said to Appellant Gavin, "shut up!" "Get out of his courtroom and take the matter to federal court!"  "He has heard an appeal on this case once before and no matter what new evidence Appellant Gavin had he did not care and will not hear anything about this case again."

Appellant Gavin found these statements to be so egregious and shocking that Appellant Gavin had nightmares about being denied access to the courtroom which is a constitutional right. 

Appellant Gavin was so distraught by Judge Quidachay's appalling behavior that Appellant Gavin filed an appeal on the last day to hear this new evidence.

Appellant Gavin alleges the judicial system has an innate bias against low-income people whom they consider poor litigants.  Low-income litigants are treated with disdain, judged on how they look, the clothes they wear and their language skills.  The SFSC  also dismisses the courtroom reporter and there are unprofessional comments made to these litigants.

The courtroom clerk does not type the unprofessional remarks made by judges because they are suppose to be made off record.  Low-income people should always have at least five people in the courtroom with them or a courtroom reporter if they can afford it.

On July 02, 2012 the day of the court hearing from Appellant Gavin's wrongful eviction case, Appellant Gavin was at SFSC for two hours in arbitration.  In a conflict of interest Appellant Gavin fired her attorney who was insufficient.  Due to heart palpitations Appellant Gavin left the court.  Judge Katherine Feinstein sent the case to be heard by Judge Donald Sullivan.

Judge Donald Sullivan dismissed the jury trial aspect of the case that Appellant Gavin had filed and proceeded with a bench hearing.   Despite not having authenticated evidence, a competent witness, a signature of Appellant Gavin on any document and no jurisdiction over the subject matter, Judge Donald Sullivan ruled in Parkmerced's favor, granting an eviction and issued a writ of possession for the apartment.  All of these actions committed by the judge are a deprivation of Appellant Gavin Family's civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. 

Parkmerced discarded Appellant Gavin's Family property without notice in violation of Appellant Gavin's Family substantive procedural due process. This action is also a violation of Appellant Gavin's Family civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution under the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

The appellant division of San Francisco Superior Court has 90 days to make a decision in Appellant Gavin's case.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.

A report of an aggressive sea lion at the city’s Aquatic Cove made the news recently. According to officials, 3 swimmers were attacked in a span of 5 days by what was described as “aggressive marine mammals”. Aquatic Park Cove is frequented by triathletes and members of the South End Rowing Club—among others—for the chilly waters that can get the heart pumping during an early morning swim. Many professionals, including Doctors and lawyers—the kind that Richard Pryor described as “old white men that be lappin’ yo’ ass while you tryin’ to jog in the park”--no doubt frequent Aquatic Park Cove to maintain both physical and mental prowess that can, ultimately, be applied to the corporate board room or spa. I was intrigued to learn of the attacks because during my visits to North Beach, I have witnessed sea lions on wooden planks lying in the sun, the planks undulating to the rhythms and currents of the emerald waters, still and serene, except for a sudden eruption of barks emanating from their bewhiskered mouths.

Good natured, almost regal they appear, in the presence of tourists from around the globe who gawk at them while stuffing their faces with local fare—bread bowls overflowing with clam chowder, ice cream cones and any number of concoctions featuring the vast array of crustaceans that inhabit the bay and beyond. The sea lions themselves appear to be satisfied—as if lying after a big meal, waiting for someone to toss a cigar, jump in the water, swim over and perform the duty of lighting it.

Having grown up in North Beach, I remember the sound of conga drums, bongos, timbales, tin cans—all coming together at Aquatic Park. With fond memories I embarked on a search for the sea lion deemed the “aggressive marine mammal.” I gazed at the wide expanse of water along Aquatic Cove for 3 days and for three days all I saw were seagulls and ripples in the water. I was ready to give up until I encountered the sight of a sea lion navigating effortlessly the brisk emerald waters it calls home. There was nobody in the vicinity, just the sea lion and I. I got its attention. It swam to the shore.

TR: Hey!
Sea Lion: What’s up? Where do I know you from?
TR: I don’t know
Sea Lion: Didn’t you used to hang out at Aquatic Park? You used to drum with those guys on the weekends.
TR: I remember that. I never played the drums but I listened
Sea lion: It was cool, but everything damn thing they played sounded the same…it was like listening to Santana…Jingo Bop for 10 hours straight
TR: Can I ask you something?
Sea Lion: Shoot
TR: Did you do it?
Sea Lion: What are you referring to?
TR: Did you attack 3 swimmers in 5 days?
Sea Lion: It wasn’t me. But I know who it was. Not all sea lions look alike you know.
TR: Who was it?
Sea Lion: Hey, I ain’t no sea snitch but he’s been around for a long time. He’s scared.
TR: Scared? Why?
Sea Lion: We got internet access down below. We know what’s going on. North Beach is plagued with short term rentals and evictions. There’s a real fear that we’ll get evicted from our planks. Someone will want to use them for a short term rental or condo. We don’t want to live in no condo-submarine, you know?
TR: So, you’re scared?
Sea Lion: Wouldn’t you be? Nobody’s safe. Look, we’re a tourist attraction…people come around snapping our pictures all the time. Taking our best poses and sticking them on postcards. And the verbal abuse we take to boot. And everybody takes a selfie with us. But did they ever ask us if we wanted to be in their little pictures?
TR: But that doesn’t justify attacking someone
Sea Lion: I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t in the vicinity. But I asked him about it.
TR: What did he say?
Sea Lion: He said it was a nip, a love bite. Said he was trying to get their attention.
TR: The guy who got bit had a tourniquet applied to his arm.
Sea Lion: I heard about it. The one who bit him felt bad about it.
TR: Remorse
Sea Lion: I suppose. He did say that those old guys don’t have much meat on their bones. But he regretted it.
TR: What are you going to do now?
Sea Lion: Try to keep out of trouble. But the places we can swim and breathe seem to be getting smaller. We have to share but it seems that sharing has taken a different meaning. A coyote friend of mine told me that there was a mountain lion seen up on Diamond Heights. I’d heard that the mountain lion had gotten wind of the evictions and that the people were vanishing so he thought there’d be space for him. What he didn’t know was that people were being replaced with more people. So they shot his ass with a tranquilizer gun. But we got to share this planet, this space. But it seems that sharing has taken a different meaning. This is a problem on both land and sea.
TR: Any final words or thoughts?
Sea Lion: Yeah, you want a love bite?

The sea lion gave me a fist bump with his flipper. He trudged along the shore and into the cool waters of Aquatic Cove. I watched as his figure became one with the ocean, among the thousands of ripples taking shape along the current. I headed towards the sound of drums, timbales, congas and tin cans…Jingooooo Bop!

© 2017 Tony Robles

“I was anticipating a breakthrough -- hoping that the protest would not be instantly dispersed by riot police, like so many previous marches. On that day I thought that if everybody does their part, we will have tens of thousands. What happened was a shock to me. Instead of tens of thousands, there were hundreds of thousands”.

-Ahmed Salah, speaking to Washington Post reporter Jackson Diehl

Oddly, people who speak to me about revolution quote theorists of the 19^th Century or their favorite heroes, now dead, from the 20^th. Certainly, there are lessons to be learned there. Yet here in San Francisco, California, we have the key designer of the successful revolution in the most important country in the 21^st Century Arab world. And far from being mobbed with inquiries from admirers, he instead lives in obscurity and near poverty.

How could Americans let Nikola Tesla, the genius who invented the modern era, die alone and in obscurity? Why do we ignore such people, but only revere them in death? Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone?

In 1991, Ahmed Salah was a translator and teacher of Arabic to tourists and journalists. Within 20 years he would become a key player in the Arab Spring and a central designer of the revolution in Egypt itself. His memoir (co-written with Alex Mayyasi), You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution is a textbook for what makes mass social movements succeed and fail, and what makes revolutions triumph against all odds.

They’d tried everything in Egypt before. They’d held marches and demonstrations. They’d taken Tahrir Square before the revolution, only have the police violently take it back. They tried using social media, but that only gave the police their plans in advance. (Yes, “The Twitter Revolution” is an outright lie.) Nothing they tried gained any ground against the security forces until they took their organization and did actual market research, among the population of Cairo. Not that they used that term, but as “journalists”, they took to the streets and asked people if they heard of the upcoming demonstrations. Promising to use no names, they then asked if they planned to attend. Receiving the almost universal answer of “no”, they asked why, and listened. And they took the time to ask each person what their most important concerns about life were.

 “It sounds simple for a group of idealists to express noble sentiments like ‘Bread, freedom, and dignity’—as Arabs articulated their demands during the Arab Spring. Yet as I learned from Youth for Change and April 6th, it is incredibly difficult. Activists and dissidents are humans who argue and make mistakes and let ego lead them astray. “

-You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution, p291

Salah’s memoir gives key insights into issues, not only in Egypt, but in the Middle East as a whole. He grew up in the most secular, educated and modern country in the entire region.

If you think what’s happening Syria is big, notice how central to the Middle East Egypt is on a map. Now note that, while Syria has a population of about 17 million people, Egypt has a population of 96 million. And in spite of all the oppression financed with U.S. tax dollars, parts of Egypt remain outside of government control to this day. There are parts of Egypt the government simply bombs a few times a month, unable to take control, but only fighting to keep rebellions from spreading. The country will fall apart, and when it does, what’s been happening in the Middle East up until now could look like a picnic by comparison. The instability, coupled with the increasing aggressions of Israeli and Saudi forces could lead to anything. Only an education on the realities, not the propaganda, of the region can save it.

 “No one could wait for Mubarak to get out of power. Egyptians filled Tahrir Square, the surrounding blocks, and even the bridges over the Nile so thickly that it took hours to move a few hundred yards. When I managed to call activists over the overburdened cell phone network, I learned that protesters remained at the presidential palace and that worker strikes had ended train service, blocked roadways, “

-IBID p242

The revolutions, of course, were betrayed. Neither George W. Bush, nor Barack Obama had more then rhetoric for the Arab World’s yearning for freedom. Backing a strongman just feels safer to them, since an educated electorate will act in their own best interests, but dictators can be swayed with money and threats. But despite the bluster and out of control aggression of the Trump administration (or perhaps because of it), the empire is faltering. Future rebellions may not be so easy to reverse and threats may be harder to carry out.

Ahmed Salah lives with medical conditions resulting from torture paid for with U.S. tax dollars. He gets by from money earned from speaking engagements and from selling copies of his memoir. You can buy it at amazon.com or by contacting him personally at asea1009@yahoo.com.