Story Archives

by By GARRETT THEROLF/reprinted from The LA Times

A mother’s plea for a criminal investigation into the death of her son-whose life ended while he was in the Los Angeles County foster care system-Tuesday elicited a trembling and tearful apology from County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who pledged to demand answers from county officials about what happened.

Hours later, Molina and her colleagues approved a $1-million settlement in the lawsuit brought over the boy’s death.

Molina’s remarks and the board action followed an emotional appeal by the boy’s mother.

Debra Reid, 44, entered the hearing room grim-faced, flanked by eight family members dressed in black. At her side was her son Debvin, who was placed in foster care for 15 months in 1997. His older brother, Jonathan, was taken away at the same time. The children were taken from their mother after social workers concluded that she was unstable and not tending property to their medical needs.

But Jonathan died six weeks after being placed in foster care, where social workers, by the county’s admission, failed to inform medical workers of his severe asthma. Reid has been fighting the county in the courts ever since.

"This is five years in coming." Reid began.

Wracked with sobs, Reid recalled how she begged social workers to treat Jonathan’s asthma. Social workers had dismissed Reid’s account of the severity of the child’s asthma, county officials acknowledged.

"They said my child was healthy," Reid told the board.
"Well, that child now lies in an Inglewood cemetery."

None of the social workers has been disciplined in the case, county officials said. Reid begged supervisors to launch a criminal investigation, alleging that social workers had falsified reports to take the boy from her.

"We have sought true justice and we have not received it until someone sends this case for criminal investigation," Reid said.

"All we have received is a payoff, and we’re not satisfied with a payoff.

"Not one person from the county," Reid said, "has bothered to apologize."

Reid’s appeal to the board is one of many it has heard about the foster- care system.

Virtually every week, a parade of parents come before the supervisors, pleading for help in getting their children out of that system. Most weeks, they leave empty-handed, as supervisors insist that they cannot involve themselves in matters that are before the courts. The pleas often meet with indifference from county officials, who typically talk among themselves as parents address the supervisors. Tuesday was different.

As Reid spoke, the hearing room went silent. Aides and department heads dabbed at tears. In an adjacent chamber where officials nibble on snacks and sip coffee, all movement ceased.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke asked Reid whether she was satisfied with the settlement. After conferring with her attorney, Reid said she was, but reiterated her call for justice.

Then Molina spoke, her voice trembling, her eyes watering.

She recalled how supervisors routinely rebuff requests for help in foster- care cases, and how she had told a congresswoman pleading on Reid’s behalf that she had to trust in the courts.

"I don’t know that my apology to you will help you at all, "Molina said. "I can only say I apologize for not being more attentive."

Reid said Molina’s apology "meant a lot. She was sincere.
That is the first sign of remorse I have seen in the county."

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

by Valerie Schwartz/PNN Community Journalist

Roughly a year ago, I had camped out on the corner of Mc Allister and Larkin. There were about eight of us in all. I had made a small lean-to, out of sawhorses for a construction site and cardboard, in front of the small gray concrete power plant in the midst of all the government buildings near city hall. The night was discomforting and eerily quiet like a mausoleum awaiting a new tenant. I finally managed to fall asleep briefly and was woken to the sound of a nightstick banging on the pavement next to my head, accompanied by an officer's voice shouting, "get up and show me your identification now." I had no ID; it had been stolen too many times and it seemed futile to obtain another one. As I explained this to the officer, he wrote me a ticket for camping out in public/being homeless. His partner, now busy doing the same to the other tenants of the sidewalk then announced, "get your shit the hell outta here and don't come back!" I then asked if there was anywhere, a person could sleep outside and not get a ticket. I was told to go sleep under the Army St. ramp or go to jail. Needless to say... I did not sleep that night. This was not the first time I had been given a "quality of life" citation.

It is now two a.m. on a typical San Francisco night cold ,damp, and the misty tendrils of fog swirl and dance for me, while I am looking out the window. As I find myself wishing I had on a pair of thermals to fend off the chill I feel a radiant warmth from the smile of Darlene Smith, a 40+ woman of Cherokee and Irish descent, who refused to pay $2,500 for sixteen "quality of life" citations. For those of you who do not know, what a refusal to pay a fine of this amount usually means for a person who can not pay it.... means they wind up doing "County-time". A quality of life citation is a ticket essentially for being homeless/living on the street.

"They treated me like I was a criminal for being homeless", said Darlene. As we sat there I listened to Darlene tell her story. As it unfolded, full of things that many homefull people find hard to believe because they have not experienced lives like ours and therefore treat our stories like a rueful fairytales. She and I sat sharing the small space at the phone-desk, inside the cubicle known as the "phone room" in the residential treatment program where we are both clients. There is a gray fabric partition with a tinted Plexiglas window. This room inside this large building, originally a convent has incredibly high ceilings, old wood dark stained baseboards and doors. The bone colored walls are semi-cluttered with posted notices for how to run the PBX-phone system and transfer call to the proper Staff and proper phone decorum. Two long pine shelves along the far wall have stacks of various logs,forms, and paperwork that are used daily by the facility. Tonight Darlene is the PBX operator.

"When we first arrived in San Francisco in 1985 we were homeless, we lived and camped in Civic Center Park near the AIDS Vigil, there was a tent-city then." Ms. Smith then explained that she and her husband didn't even know that they were eligible for assistance or knew about General Assistance for the first three-to-four months that they were in the city. They had found out about "hot-line" rooms from other homeless folk and while standing in line on Otis St., for a voucher for from hot -line, they had found out about G.A. (The service for hot-line rooms no longer exists today). She had gotten a room through G. A. and was evicted on Christmas Day.

Darlene says, " My rent was due on Christmas morning in 1985. On Christmas Eve my husband went out to get some money and never returned." When he didn't return the Mentone Hotel, put her out Christmas morning in the rain." I didn't know what to do or where I was going to go, I was told some homeless people hung out at the bus terminal." That cold wet Christmas night, alone she had fallen asleep on a bench in the bus terminal only to awaken to the police. They ran her name and said she had a warrant, that she did not have, and took her to jail to ID her. Darlene then said, " The police put a note on my cart that said, "in jail please leave". "They might as well put a sign on it that said FREE- take what you want!" All of her belongings, including what few meager presents she and her husband had to share with each other, all of his possessions and the cart no longer were there. "When I got out and came back to the terminal the next morning everything was gone, everything."

Darlene then told me that the reason the hotel had put her out was because her rent was late; that she had a check coming in on the first and the hotel would not wait, her rent was late because: The hotel had charged her husband $10 nightly to stay there with her, that they had been made to apply separately for G.A., but had to apply for food-stamps as husband and wife. This in itself made it hard for them to rent a room as a family unit therefore; both of their checks went to paying the rent of that room. Hers, in a BI-monthly payment and his a nightly visitor's fee.

" Have you received, how many quality of life citations have you received since being homeless in San Francisco?" I asked. Darlene replied, " Oh God yes, pages and pages listed on the computer, bunches and bunches, probably hundreds. I never went to court on any of them, after so long they usually pull them out of the system. I got a ticket once for Obstruction at the water fountain in United Nations Plaza while sitting on one of the cement blocks of the fountain." She told me that she hadn't understood what she had been obstructing and that all kinds of different people always sit there and how it just did not make sense to her.

" Recently you had some of these tickets, did you go to court and what was the outcome?" I asked. Darlene then told me, that after she had been in program for a few days she had gone to court for $2,500 of citations for being homeless/quality of life tickets. Most of these tickets were for 647(J) PC (unlawful lodging in public) and the rest were 372 PC ( maintain public nuisance). she refused to pay the tickets because she felt that it was outrageous, that she had no way to pay them, was in a treatment program and that most of all homelessness should not be a crime. Says Darlene, " I entered treatment on my own, I hadn't had a job for ten-years, a drug history, and had been homeless for almost as long. I couldn't find work or a place to live. I knew I needed some kind of help to get off the streets and get my life together.."

Ms. Smith refused to pay the fines and she was held in custody until the next morning when she went to court again. She told the court that she was in a program...The prosecutor told the judge that the District Attorney's Office would drop the charges upon completion of a one-year program , although she was only in a six-month program. The judge said that one-year was too much and that after she had completed her treatment-program he would dismiss the charges and that the court was to be given a progress report every two-months until she had completed treatment.

I am a person whom has experienced homelessness and has been ticketed for living on the street. I find this makes no sense and I feel that it is a shame for the court to arrive at this solution. She went into treatment on her own, not because she had committed a crime. What is her crime... poverty? Why weren't the charges dropped right then; I feel as though she should have been commended for making a sound healthy decision for having found the desire and the courage to change her life for the better. Instead she has, in a sense, been given an ultimatum, a mandate for being poor and deciding to better herself.

We then talked about how hard it is for homeless people to make and keep appointments with agencies and people in general such as: Welfare, SSI, the courts, jobs , medical and therapy appointments. Says Darlene, " Yeah, its almost impossible to make or keep appointments. You have to find someone to watch over your stuff, you have to worry more about the cops taking your belongings than the thieves and of course we don't have phones or alarm clocks." Then she related how many people who camp out, sleep during the day because they recycle and that, "Society doesn't want to see poor people out on the street in the daytime."

I asked Ms. Smith if she felt that the public views homeless women in a more derogatory light than homeless men. She looked at me rather strangely, as if to question why would I ask her a question that she knew I knew the answer to. Says Darlene, " Yes, definitely! It is almost like they say... she has a ____, she should be selling it and if you do; then you aren't a person you're a whore. If you don't prostitute you are considered stupid, its double standards across the board. Sometimes I wish I could do that but I can't." Then she added, " The cops write all of us tickets except the young cute girls that they blatantly flirt with."

The building was now quiet and still. No phone calls were coming in, and we continued on our discussion. Darlene talked about how she felt about the shelters here in San Francisco, the lack of beds and the obvious lack of beds for women. As I listened to her tell me about her experience in the shelters; none of them sounded as though they had been positive of helpful, it sounded like being on a Tilt-a-Whirl of despair.

I then asked her, " As a homeless/poor person have you ever experienced what you consider or know to be harassment, unfair or unprofessional treatment by the SFPD?" Ms. Smith answered, " Yes to all of the above." Then I put forth my next question and was not surprised with her answer. I asked, " Have you ever sought help from the SFPD and been ignored?" She became quiet and a bit sullen for a moment while reflecting and then told me, " Yes, myself and three other people tried to flag down two different police cars over by the old library. A homeless man had been stabbed and was laying there dying. The first car slowed to almost a complete stop and then just drove on. Then the second car did the same, they had already been called by 911. They just kept going! It took about thirty-minutes for the man to die. Another time I tried to stop the police when a woman in a wheelchair was being robbed on Market St. Two men were trying to pull her purse out of her hands. I stood in the middle of the street and flagged down a police car. He stopped and said, 'it's not my district and my advice to you is; if its not affecting you... then just walk on by', Obviously it was affecting me, I flagged him down!"

I found myself wondering about the lack of information available to poor people and asked, " Have you ever been given any information about: people, agencies, or groups who could help advocate for you and help you find some kind of housing?" Quick with a response she fired off the answer, " They tell you to go to the shelters, information is not given by the cops but some of the medical vans give information. I found out from a friend that the Coalition on Homelessness would help me with the tickets/citations for being homeless. The Coalition didn't help me. They said that the tickets weren't even misdemeanors and therefore not an infraction, that it must be a misdemeanor."

There has been a lot of negative opinion and stereotyping in the press lately about poor people urinating and defecating in the streets. I asked Darlene, " Did you find it hard to find a place to bathe and are public restrooms hard to find?" She answered, " Yes, that is absolutely true. There is nowhere, the shelters are very limited and there really is no other place to go, even just to the bathroom, no wonder people resort to going outside, its not like they want to... they don't have a choice sometimes."

" How do you feel being homeless had affected your self-esteem, health and well-being?" I inquired. Darlene answered, " I didn't feel any lesser but its just demeaning, you have no privacy, little if any safety, and you have to run and find a bathroom in the morning when you wake up. I guess it does effect your self-esteem and health because everyone tries to make you feel less than human, the cops , the bureaucracy, even the merchants, even if you have money to spend. They won't allow you to be around them, they treat you like lepers, like you have the plague. I'm angry, bitter, resentful and fearful of losing what I have tried so hard to have: food, clothing, sleeping bags, the necessities. It is incredible that Americans can be so ignorant and uncaring about other American citizens....Homeless people don't have shit, except a hard time. a hell-hard time."

I asked Darlene how she felt being in a treatment-program would help her. She looked up at me. Her eyes with glinting sparks that seemed to light a fire of determination and told me that she was learning how to: change her behavior so that she would become a clean, healthy and productive person, find a good job, and find decent housing. She told me that, " These are things I never could have accomplished while being on the street and homeless. Hopefully, I will never have to worry about receiving another "quality of life" citation ever again."

by Connie Lu/PNN Youth in the Media Intern

Gusts of cold wind rush past my face with each car
passing under the overpass, as I prepare to cross the
street where the First Bay Area Hip Hop Film Festival at SomARTS
Cultural Center is being held to raise funds for the
The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper. The festival was organized by filmmaker and writers Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunters Point) and JR (The SF Bayview) in collaboration with many other independent media makers. There are
brightly painted murals filled with vibrant colors on
the outside of the building. The stage inside is
draped with heavy black curtains behind the large
screen in the middle. There is a long table to the
left with a royal purple tablecloth, prepared for the
panel discussion. Apart from the dim lighting are
frequent bright flashes of light from the clicking
cameras that are capturing the many events and faces
throughout the Film Festival. I am sitting in the
fourth row of orange chairs near the center aisle, as
the lights darken in commencement of the first film.

The first short film is called, "Estilo Hip Hop,"
directed by Vigilio Brava. It depicts the culture of
Hip Hop and its influence throughout various countries
of South America such as: Brazil, Chile, and
Argentina. Hip Hop provides an outlet of expression
through dance, vocalized lyrics, and the art of
graffiti to the people living in these countries who
are poor, but are driven to "maximize and optimize
every opportunity". Hip Hop is not only an interest
to them, but a is a true passion that strives and
feeds the creation of new elements.

The next film is "Voice of the Voiceless," directed
by Tania Cuevas-Martinez. It is a powerful
documentary film based upon the appeal process for
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Pennsylvania journalist who exposed
police violence against minority communities. The
documentary showed violent footage by using effective
film techniques such as, split screens and overlapping
montages of these minority communities being bombed
and residents being beaten and sprayed with
high-pressure fire hoses in 1978. Mumia was then
wrongfully sentenced for shooting a police officer and
has been on death row since 1982. Various Hip Hop
artists and activists throughout the film express
their support to free Mumia, who believes "Revolution
is my religion".

After the film, there is a panel discussion with
representatives from several media sources. Kiilu
Nyasha of "SF Bay View/Black Panther Press" explains,
"The sponsors of the 'Bay View' are refusing to place
advertisements because of the political content of the
articles, which leads to the 'Bay View' not having
enough money". She goes on to express how "The system
doesn't tolerate 'real' free speech". Willie
Ratcliff, Publisher of the "SF Bay View" continues the
discussion and emphasizes, "The great need for young
people in the media because they are the future".

Despite the fact that each representative on the panel
was from a different media source, including KPFA, POOR Magazine/PNN, The Bay Guardian, and Greenscene, I could sense the
unity in coming together for the common cause of
supporting the "Bay View". I was also reminded of my
own role in the media through the words that I write,
which represent the skills I have gained from POOR
Magazine to help shape the media, instead of the media
showing what it wants to portray.

The last film of the night is "Nobody Know My Name,"
directed by Rachel Raimist, who depicts the influence
of Hip Hop on women as artists who are determined to
overcome the demeaning way of the media portraying
women as sex objects and nothing else. Asia One, a
B-girl in the film explains that she felt intimidated
to be the only woman among several men when she first
started breaking. But now, she takes pride in being a
woman in a field dominated by men and hopes to see
more women becoming involved in Hip Hop.

The female artist I was able to connect with the most
in the film was DJ Symphony because she expresses, "I
used to be really shy, but now I'm more comfortable in
front of a crowd of people". DJ Symphony also likens
the turntable to a musical instrument, which I
reminded me of having to perform at piano recitals and
feeling nervous with each note that sounded from my
shaking hands upon the ivory keys. She explains that
it is hard to get respect from the male DJ's because
there aren't that many girl DJ's. But her goal is to
be respected by the men, instead of others seeing her
as, "She's ok, for a girl".

After I left the Film Festival, I realized the vast
diversity of the people at this event that I had not
initially noticed and felt the willingness of the
community to share in the experience of uniting to
support the powerful the voice of the media through
the "Bay View".

by Carol Harvey

"The baby grunted again, ...`If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' said  Alice, seriously, `I'll have nothing more to do with you...

`Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cheshire Cat.
 

`I said pig,' replied Alice; `and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly:  you make one quite giddy.'

One day, The Haight-Ashbury Clinic's Dove logo and a link to its site appeared on Care Not Cash.org.   Like the Cheshire cat, at the Clinic's request, the next day it was gone.  

In his promotional Chronicle op ed in the July 16th Chronicle for his Care Not Cash initiative, Newsom wrote: "...I have joined with medical professionals and organizations such as Dr. Pablo Stewart of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic...in support of comprehensive reform of how we provide care to homeless San Franciscans?"
 

In his July 16 Political Notebook, "Winning Care Not Cash," Samsun Wong echoed the statement, "Newsom has constantly emphasized the medical community's support (repeatedly citing)..."Dr. Pablo Stewart of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics."

In his Chronicle article, on July 2, "Homeless measure makes sense/Care Not Cash plan should make ballot," Ken Garcia quoted Dr. Frank Staggers, Jr., medical director of the Free Clinic's substance abuse programs. "We're seeing Third World-type poverty and malnutrition, and anything that gets these people more food I would support."

Garcia incorrectly connected Staggers to proponents of Care Not Cash following this quote: "That will explain why...compassionate people such as Dr. Pablo Stewart of The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic...are solidly behind Newsom's plan."

In an interview, Dr. Staggers denied the association telling me, "I am an apolitical advocate for homeless people without polemic or agenda."

Do such disinformative maneuvers undermine Care Not Cash's credibility? Do Newsom's suddenly vanishing claims of support from the medical community amount to --- in terms of Alice in Wonderland --- a baby, a pig, or a fig (ment) of his political imagination?

Ken Garcia's article suggests that both Dr. Staggers and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic medical staff en bloc, support Newsom's CNC plan.  Yet, on July 17, 2002, Majett Whiteside, administrator at the Free Clinic told me, "CEO, Dr. Darryl Inaba states that we have not accepted or adopted an official policy on the Care Not Cash initiative."

On July 18, 2002, Dr. Inaba, CEO of the Haight Ashbury Clinic, answered my phone query; "Does The Haight Ashbury Clinic or any of its doctors support Care Not Cash?"

"We have written clarifying letters to the editors," he replied.  "To date, none have been published.  This has me concerned about the objectivity of the papers. "My biggest concerns are: "How does he (Newsom) assume that the 2,500 people on GA are all addicts? And where are they are going to go right away?  I don't know
of 2,500 more slots for treatment or beds in the city."

"Has the Clinic ever come out in support of Care Not Cash?" I asked Dr. Inaba.
 

"No," he answered. "We haven't decided whether  we are for or against it.  To be honest, we've never taken any vote.  Several doctors, Dr. Joseph Elson, Medical Clinic Director, and a psychiatrist here, Dr. Adam Nelson, are strongly opposed.

"He (Ken Garcia) is quoting a doctor, and saying it represents the Haight Ashbury Clinic.  The doctor is not authorized to speak on behalf of the Haight-Ashbury Clinic."

"Dr. Stewart supports that initiative," Dr. Inaba continued.  "He has worked here many years as a real advocate for homeless rights and care.  He is frustrated over the lack of resources for (them).  He has probably been misled that this (Care Not Cash) is going to give them more care.  I have heard him tell people in the newspaper that this is his own personal opinion, but Gavin and everybody else keeps quoting him as the Haight Ashbury Clinic. "

To counter this mistaken impression that the Haight Ashbury Clinic is supporting Newsom's proposal, Dr. Inaba sent out a press release on July 18 with the headline: "Haight Ashbury Free Clinics Take No Official Position on Care Not Cash November Ballot Measure."

The statement is worth quoting at some length:  "Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc. (HAFCI) today announced  that it has taken no position on the Care Not Cash November ballot measure that changes the way the City approaches the dispensing of homeless services.  It has come to our attention that several of our employees have taken public stands on this ballot initiative, either pro or con, and we want the public to know that Haight Ashbury Free Clinics as an organization has not taken an official position on the measure," said Darryl Inaba, HAFCI's Cheif Executive Officer.

"While we support an individual's right to speak out on matters of public  policy, any statements attributed to HAFCI employees in regard to the Care Not Cash initiative are their own personal opinions, and not the official policy of our organization," added Dr. Inaba. 

"HAFCI has been providing primary health care to the uninsured and medically underserved for 35 years...at no cost to the Individual," said Inaba,"and we will continue to do so no matter how public policy regarding the homeless is changed in our City."

In an interview, I asked Dr. Staggers, "How do you answer the claim of Newsom's Care Not Cash folks that the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic is solidly behind their new proposal? Ken Garcia has written this article with your quotes suggesting you support Newsom's Care Not Cash initiative."

Dr. Staggers replied, "When he called, I told Ken Garcia, 'It is shameful that I am seeing Third World poverty.'  The true context of my statement was the atrocious state of homeless care I see in San Francisco, not that I am supporting this or that.   People have taken that Third World poverty quote and said, 'He must be behind Gavin Newsom.'  I don't have a position (on Care Not Cash) that I am willing to state publicly.  I have no comment.  My position is as an advocate for the homeless.  They are underserved, and they die quicker."

Garcia's pairing and placement of Dr. Staggers' quote immediately before Dr. Pablo Stewart's, a single Haight Ashbury Clinic M.D. who supports vouchers, was particularly innovative in its attempt to suggest a political position by association.

It shifted the focus toward Care Not Cash and away from Dr. Stagger's life's work in promoting adequate health and social services for homeless people.

Dr. Staggers said, "I'm an addiction, hypertension, and published stress specialist.  I've been in this business since the '80s and with the Clinic since 1990.  Before I came here, I was with clinics in Alameda County, and I direct a Hayward methadone program.  I have designed homeless shelters and programs.  I trained at Highland Hospital in Oakland.  I was surprised because I thought it (allowing himself to be interviewed) was a way to get my feeling out there.  He (Garcia) didn't do it that way.  He said my words exactly.  But, it's just the way they're situated.  I can't speak for Pablo Stewart.

"It (Garcia's quote) makes it look like, 'Dr. Staggers is saying he supports anything, so he must support this,' and I was say, 'No!'  My emphasis has always been making sure the homeless have decent adequate services.  Homeless people don't have enough psychiatric, medical, or social services.  (What services there are) need more funding, just basic things like bathrooms, showers."

In our lengthy interview, Dr. Staggers drew upon his many years' experience working as a medical provider to homeless people.  He emphasized four main points about the illness, suffering and premature deaths caused by homelessness:

1.  "We all know that homelessness wreaks havoc on physical and mental health," Staggers said.  "Homeless people live a shorter amount of time.  One study by Drs. Goldman and Sacks around 1990 first showed that homelessness itself is a risk factor for premature death.  Subsequent studies indicate if you are homeless you have more chance of getting killed, you are at risk for AIDS, or TB, for mental breakdown.  Homeless people die prematurely. I always emphasize it is hard in San Francisco to find services for my homeless patients.  We don't have enough services, and the services we have are at risk of getting budget cuts."

2.  "It depends on the city, but a huge number of homeless people have addiction problems,"Staggers continued."Homelessness and addiction is a significant thing. Statistical studies (reveal that) the number of homeless people who have mental illness, mental illness and alcoholism, and mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction is huge.  The overlap between addiction types and homelessness is also huge."

3.  "Dr. Staggers," I asked, "Newsome and his Care Not Cash camp are tarring the homeless with the addiction brush.  People say that drug addiction leads to homelessness.  People say homelessness creates drug addiction.  What is the truth?"

Dr. Staggers' answered, "The truth is it can go either way.  It's a two-way street.  I can't count the number of folks who had decent jobs, were good all-American citizens, then got on drugs, and now they're homeless.  We see that all the time.

"However, I have also seen the opposite.  For example, most of the women patients I've got are routinely and repeatedly raped within a few days of being homeless because it is very hard to protect yourself.  Many of my women have all these survival skills.  They reverse their sleep patterns because if they stop moving at  night, they'll get raped.  They come in to me and they say, 'Doc.  I can't sleep during the night.  I have to keep moving at night in order to stay alive.'  I support (the general public) being educated on how stressful homelessness is because that is not understood.  You can tell people I have women who are repeatedly raped.  Then they have post traumatic stress disorder.  This can lead to the use of substances in order to anesthetize the stress.  People don't know that.

"A lot of people are one paycheck away from being homeless.  I see patients who are normal folks who become homeless.  They get raped, mugged, beat up.  They totally become stressed out, and then they start taking drugs as the result of the stress of the homelessness.  I see it all the time --- homelessness leads to stress, which leads to drug abuse.  I'm glad you asked that question because it is such an important issue that people don't understand.  If you are going to write about it, I would be very grateful if you could get this information out there.  Homelessness is a major physical and psychiatric stressor which can lead to substance abuse and addiction."

4.  "Some take the position that there are plenty of shelter beds," Staggers concluded.  "You can't just count beds.  You must ask, 'What is the quality and safety of the shelter?'  A lot of homeless tell me, and I have visited those shelters myself and observed, that they are horrible and unsafe, especially for women.  You are actually safer staying ouside then sleeping in shelters."

In the end, Staggers waxed optimistic.  "Most of the feedback I've got is positive.  I have gotten a lot of calls from folks who took my statement in the Chronicle the right way.  They said they were glad to see somebody talking about not enough services for the homeless.   Everybody said that the statement that we have horrible poverty --- it's Third World quality --- they said, 'People need to know that'."

And, in fact, disinformation like Newsom's, picked up and repeated by Garcia and Wong, will only undermine Care Not Cash's credibility. It may be that public refusal of the medical community to support both such disinformative tactics and Care Not Cash will reveal this proposal as nothing more than a fraudulent visit to Wonderland and the birth of a baby, a pig, or a fig(ment) of Newsom's political imagination.

by Andrew DellaRocca/PNN Community Journalist

There isn't much that I really know about LA county. I mean, everybody
knows a little something. Whether you are from South Africa, Bangladesh, or
upstate New York, you've probably seen at least one movie made in Hollywood,
if not a thousand. Folks here in the Bay Area treat LA as a rival. They'll
tell you how tough it is to get around in LA (in contrast to the luxurious
Muni system), they'll tell you about the disgusting necessity of needing a
car to do anything, they'll tell you about the smog that you'll breath,
about the superficial schmoozing you'll see, about the traffic, about the
traffic, about the traffic.

At least that's what they've thus far told me. I don't know if its true.
I've never been to LA.

But, when I heard about the proposed closure of various medical clinics and
hospitals throughout the LA region, and was told to look into it and write a
report on it, I knew that this indeed would be a disadvantage for LA. My
heart, however, did not swell up with pride because I live in San Francisco.
I was not gratified by the fact that we could mock our southern neighbor
for but one more disadvantage. I thought about the folks that would be
affected by these closures, the people who live in LA who have come to rely
on the county health system. How many options were going to be left for
them?

The LA county health system
has found itself in close to a one billion dollar debt, and seeks a federal
bailout similar to the one that saved LA's hospitals in the mid 1990's. In
order to prove to the federal government that they are willing to make
difficult decisions in times of crisis, the county has proposed a series of
cuts, one of which threatens the enormous Harbor-UCLA medical center in
Torrance, which serves the poor and uninsured in most of southern Los
Angeles county.

"We assume that the county will make a decision to show that they mean
business," said Dr. Robert Hockberger, chairman of the emergency medical
department.

Harbor UCLA last year treated about 75,000 patients in its emergency room.
Most of the patients were poor, and without health insurance.

"We provide trauma care for everybody, all medical care for the working
poor. Where will they go if Harbor closes?" Dr. Hockberger asked when I
spoke with him over the telephone. "They can't go to private hospitals, the
private hospitals don't want them."

If the cuts go through, the only public hospitals left in LA county will be
County USC and King Drew in East Los Angeles, as well as a few scattered
clinics throughout the county. Poor folk will be left with few options.

The federal government has invited both the state and county governments to
Washington to discuss a possible bailout. However, the state refuses to sit
down with the county, a condition of the Washington talks, until the county
rolls back the cuts. The county needs to make the cuts to keep Washington
interested, but because of doing so the state has chosen to keep out.

"It's sort of circular, and frustratingly so," said Dr. Hockberger.

I asked the doctor what people could do to help.

"What local people (in LA) could do is to understand that when proposals
come forward to add taxes on property or sales, to not automatically vote
against them. The whole county really has to cooperate, and that includes
me. People could also make phone calls to the county board of supervisors
and the state government, urging them to sit down and talk."

I hung up the telephone slightly more educated about not just the economic,
but the political games that go into determining the welfare of our
population. And although I've never been to LA, I feel for those who are
being subjected to the heavy tide of the market, and to the budget politics
which may determine the extent of their well-being.

by Joe B.

Male Complexity Pt. 2

I left off at women not listening to men as we are always and for good reason accused of not listening to women.

How more stress, smoking, cancer, and or job burnout or nervous breakdowns plus a few deaths forced women to being hearing what men said even if we said it in our limited seemingly eternal cave man ways.

But in "Nature" and USA Today Women’s assured supposed superior sex may not have crumbled it does sport hairline cracks.

Why males exist?

The Human Genome Project has sequenced all genes on the Y chromosome, providing the first clear view of the male genetic landscape.

Excerpt USA TODAY’s: Study makes sense of Y chromosomes by Tim Friend, June 18, 2003 By.

I’ve paraphrased some of his words, the point men are as complex if not more than women its was just hidden deeper in men’s genes, we are as complex as women.

Not forgetting giving birth will always be their ace unless men figure they too can give birth and withstand the pain.

[It has been said men have lower pain thresholds than women].I don’t know if it’s a fact but if so I’ll be in line when both sexes can switch each genes for the best of each others advantages and none of the worst like living shorter, cardiac arrest, osteoporosis, testosterone/estrogen driven rages, diseases from male or female genes, or female pattern balding.

I’m wondering if men enable themselves to do that then does meaning women changes if that ultimate power was a shared ability?

Girls, Women, Ladies, you know guys have minute estrogen in them as gals have minute amounts of testosterone in you.

The real men don’t eat - - you know the rest goes out the window if tough guys like Jar Heads (Marines, Navy Seals, MI 5-6, OSI-NSA or other military or quasi military/covert black ops.

The type folks who handle mental physical stress – eat it, churn it, spit it out like candy.

Women, I ask you if it was couched as secret, reckless, or uniquely deadly dangerous venture to these shadowy grey men who are sworn to secrecy to live and died as part of their solemn fealty oath.

Because it is dangerous every time a woman gives birth and routine just means women around the globe are having babies some stillborn, premature, or mentally, physically, or genetically challenged.

You know few men would take this particular mission but a few would and those few are the breed would save our race.

Besides think of the bragging rights.

"Yeah, had a kid; pain like holy hell, don’t ever tell me women are wimps, weak, or any of that bullcake."

After that ordinary guys will do it and before you know the lowest 90 pound could do and women wouldn’t could never see themselves as having any advantage of being female because their biggest trump card birth can be accomplished by any man.

I don’t know how women would react probably "Kill the slut-male and what in his belly, bash their scrotum in so they can’t reproduce."

I can see women overreacting or saying "This is great for the race we can survive anything now."

It may sound like fantasy so was every invention in the last century or so, we’re human and for us if the mind can conceive it can be achieved it may take a little more time; ah, but do we have enough time? End of Pt.2

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine


1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

by Joe B.

Again I was reading a long article last week about Neo-Nazis and Argentina as a kind of virtual hub.

Yes, it was in the Chronicle that’s why I’m not a journalist.

I don't read four or five newspapers everyday.

I’m not filling up my noggin with current, printed sound bites that’ll be out of date in days, weeks or years then review 'em again to update so it can again become obsolete.

The way our human brain’s can hold and retain vast quantities of information is astounding but certain kinds of stuff like news and magazine items is not what my brain will be storing.

In Buenos Aires Argentina where the economy has slumped it seems hate groups have gathered there because of increasing pressure to cease their on-line activities.

I won’t name these groups.

By now between the net and word of mouth their sites are known.

I have ideas on how to really piss off not only New-Nazis but every home grown and foreign hate mongers everywhere.

It’s really simple, all these hate groups have problems with people unlike them.

This is where true A grade Hackers both independent and those employed by peace and freedom loving people's can share what knowledge they wish to frustrate, thwart haters at every turn here’s how or at least a few ideas of how.

First find, book mark the sites, browse through them and make hard copies, then after you picked a site or two email them to other freedom loving thinkers like yourself.

Begin a slow and endless campaign of relentless harassment.

One last question – What is their (haters) main problem?

Answer–Anyone that isn't them, doesn’t live up to their view of superiority.

All we need do to really make these A-holes have bad days, weeks, months, or years is place diametrically opposed views on their sites.

I mean from every scientifically racist arguments they place as we place 5 to 10 or 50 true answers.

Truth is anathema to them it throws them off kilter.

Place really graphic depictions of Yellow, Brown, Red, Black, White, and Mixed raced people doing what humans do naturally and often, show kids the same as above with different kinds of parents two men, two women, or one parent and extended family groups.

Get the idea folks?

They’re dirt, filth, and ugliness on the web can be answered not banned all banning does is keep it bubbling underground.

There would naturally lots of sexually graphic material about adults, middle aged couples and seniors of different faiths and cultures getting their grove on all over the globe while the hate monger groups shrinks in size and demographics.

Yes, we must be tasteful and be careful of using age appropriate couples of ever youthful elders of many hues with their children and their children and so on.
I do believe the solution to the hate groups on the web it to attack them with fact, sexy male and female figures cavorting around of mixed cultures languages.
Some illustrators of Adult graphic comics would really have a ball drawing regular people imbuing them with heroic looking bold, muscular bodies because they’re minds are free or fighting to free themselves of antiquated, obsolete ideas, and concepts of race.

Why not show someone winning the psychological fight within themselves and the freer their minds are the better exterior there bodies are. There are multitudes of super people who no longer or never thought of their fellow humans as worthless. This will make many hate mongers do the frustrated jump stomp like a certain former American 1996 Gold medal winner turned red-white-and blue clothed "Smack Down" wrestler.
If readers have better ideas on how to deal with these hate-you-all equally folks, you know where to find my site.

Oh, you might as well make money at it and or place them for free.

But since its on or near the hate site you should back up your works because some of those sites will disappear because of graphic sexual content.

The real reason is all those happy, healthy, multi racial, individuals, couples, children, and grandchildren cavorting on there website.

And whenever they pop up other people will take up the cause.

There are more great people in the world than limited minded ones.

It may be a crack pot idea but someone had to come up with not other people should try it out and see what happens in a few months.

I didn’t mention Sup. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition N.

For Crass ‘N’ Crap, no that, Crook ‘N’ Creep, um Nuked or No Neuron’s.

Clip ‘N’ Collect.

Whatever… Oh, its Care Not Cash,.

Never mind read Prop. N and find out what all the scam-uh, story is all about.

To all Hacker’s internationally, crossing all boarders and languages (which will confuse and further frustrate ‘em to no end) this can be an on going job/careers as long hate mongers swell the net freedom hackers should also be there.

Giving them a bad time and simultaneously learning a craft and being more creative… Bye.

My price range:
$25 per day for apartment or
small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms,

$100 a week, and $2 to $3,000 a month.

Certain homes, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms are to 50

to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0
Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Talibah Shakir and Leroy Moore

Talibah Shakir;

Before I begin, I ask that everyone observe a moment of silence for our comrade Dana, who has joined the ancestors.

Oakland, we are here toady because we share the problem of racial profiling with you and with people of color around the world. We are here because of the beating of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson by Inglewood Police; we are here because we are tired of being condemned by this society because of the color of our skin.

Donovan and his father were attacked because they were 2 black men in a fairly new car, they were attack because in the minds of the police, and most of this society, that people of color are thieves and criminals.

We are not criminals, we are the victims and have been victimized for over 400 years, in this very country that make our school children pledge allegiance to a flag that is supposed to represent liberty and justice for all.

Donovan did not have the liberty to choose to get his ass beat or not. Neither he nor his father had liberty to stop to get gas without being attacked, there was no justice in 4 officers beating one 16-year-old special Education student, and then choking him until he was unconscious.

But there was allegiance on the part of the police and sheriffs that stood by as my cousin was slammed unconscious against the back of a police car, beaten in the face and choked.

What we have here in America is racial profiling and every person of color is, has or will be a victim of racial profiling.

It was racial profiling that brought blacks here to America, that stole the land of the Native Americans, that crossed the border on the Chicanos and established miscegenation laws that forbid Asians to marry whites.

We have protested, demonstrated, and rallied and the beating goes on and on, it is oblivious that Plan A is not working and we must go to plan B. We must make our elected officials stand up for the people and make our demands known and our desires fulfilled.

Either our demands are met, or we do not re-elect the politicians, and I do not care what color they are. No justice no peace and that goes for our politicians as well.

Donovan Jackson should not have been beaten, but racial profiling did not start with Donovan, but it should end with him. AS I stand here for all victims of racial profiling I must ask the question, "Why do we continue to allow this to happen?"

Racial Profiling, police abuse, political prisoners, discrimination, racism, murder of our people, Native Americans on reservations… People we have a big problem, and to the politicians I ask who among will revere our people?

The preceeding statement was written by Donovan Jackson’s Cousin who with twenty-five plus supporters carpooled on a bus from Inglewood, Ca, to the home of the Black Panthers, West Oakland to the Stop Police Brutality Day on August 24th 2002 at the famous Little Bobby Hutton Park.

Leroy Moore;

Stop Police Brutality Day

I can’ rest

My disabled brothers and sisters

Are shot, dragged and
beaten to death

Hello, my name is Leroy Moore, I’m a proud disabled African American poet, activist and Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO). DAMO is the only organization for and by people of color with disabilities, our families in the Bay Area and the whole state of California.

one of the many reasons why DAMO & I can’t rest is the long list of disabled people of color who are beaten by police everyday:

And the list goes on and on. Some times I wonder I’m I the only one that hears the cries and screams of my disabled brothers and sisters? These are my disabled brothers and sisters of color who have been murdered by police however most of the times their stories and disability are not known to the public.

Nobody is talking about the raise of police shootings and violence against disabled people of color. Many times their disability is not reported in the media or love ones hide their disability out of shame or try to protect them. This is only silencing the deadly issue and oppressing the victim’s true identity.

This is one reason why DAMO will be kicking off what we call ABC on DPOC, Abuse, Brutality, Crimes on Disabled People of Color project to Break the Silence on this issue and to empower people with disability and their families. Lets come together with all of our identities and fight against police brutality, and other crimes and violence on our brothers and sisters.

This goes out to my Disabled Brother of Color:

My Disabled Brother of Color

My disabled brother of color

Has it rough

Father gone, could not deal

Mother strong, has to be real

Belongs to two communities

Doors slammed and locked

Shocked into reality

Has no identity

My disabled brother of color

On the streets

Dragging his feet

His eyes meet mine

And I can read his mind

Life is long, lonely and tough

If you’re a disabled brother

Mother’s love is not enough

Sisters want a strong, able brother

Your story and history is shunned by society

Confused by what you see on T.V.

No wonder you play down your disability

Am I the only proud disabled brother of color?

My disabled brother of color

Is angry at his brothers and sisters

"Fuck you and your pity

What’s wrong, do you feel guilty!"

Living and working in a world that doesn’t want me

Always under never over

Under the poverty line & pop, pop, pop under attack

My disabled brother of color is OVERWELMED

So what’s the answer,

My disabled brother of color?

Are we going to go on not recognizing each other?

Lets come together

Speak our anger

And set this goddam world on fire

Cause you are my brother

Leroy Moore’s Observations of the Day

After four hours of participating, listening to speakers and networking with:Danny Garcia, Kiilu Nyasha, Russ Redner, Black Panthers, members of ILWU Local 10, the coordinator of the rally, the Liberation Front and West Oakland residents, I was reminded of Spike Lee's movie, Get On the Bus as I watched 25 plus supporters and family members of Donovan Jackson Chavis get back on the bus to drive away. Knowing they will continue their work in their communities. As I walked to the Bart Station, I looked down to a flyer I had in my hand. It read "Just Say No To Jerry Brown! We Don’t Need 100 More OAKLAND RIDERS. PRESS CONFERNCE & RALLY Oakland City Hall Wednesday, August 28th 12:00pm. I took a deep breath as my tired body limped toward the 12th Street Bart Station.

To read more of Leroy’s work on police brutality against disabled people of color go on-line to www.poormagazine.org and click on Illin and Chillin- to get your story of police brutality and/or profiling call POOR at (415) 863-6306

by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin and DAMO

Why does the mainstream media have a laissez-faire approach when it comes to covering issues that touch my disabled community?

Back in 1999, I started writing for POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork trying to find a media outlet that would listen to and publish my stories on the struggles, talents, and rights of disabled people of color. At that time there was very little in any form of media about disabled people of color, and it is still so.

Throughout the years I’ve written about many issues affecting my disabled brothers and sisters of color; from movie critiques, racism in the disability movement, the high unemployment rates among disabled people of color, senseless crimes and police brutality, shooting of people with disabilities, mental illness, as well as the recent government policies that are making disabled and elderly people homeless.

As a disabled activist, Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, and writer, I have realized even in the year 2002 the mainstream media hasn’t changed their laissez-faire approach of issues facing disabled people in general, especially disabled people of color. Do they still have a fuzzy relationship with the Jerry Lewis telethon’s view of disability, that our only problem is that we, all, are still looking for a cure and we are all taken care of by father Jerry, and Uncle Sam’s benefits and programs? How can the largest minority group in the world get little or no media coverage?

Since the birth of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO, we have been very vocal on harsh realities that surround us and have also been a stage for our beautiful talents, voices, and history in the local Bay Area. However, through the five years of DAMO, the mainstream media hasn’t paid us no mind. In the first three years of DAMO we’ve held poetry events, had a public access talk show, put on rallies, press conferences on both sides of the Bay, have done some incredible community and system advocacy, and publicly spoke about hush-hush issues that people are not talking about. For example, issues such as the wrongful incarceration of Black disabled people, and how city bureaucrats are making disabled elderly homeless, but still mainstream media hasn’t made our issues a priority.

Last year the Black community protested the San Francisco Chronicle for a lack of coverage. However, the only time I see the Chronicle do anything which touch the disabled community is during the Americans with Disabilities Act Birthday. Or there are feel-good articles attached to the horrible way mainstream media (i.e., the San Francisco Chronicle) paints the picture of homeless people with disabilities. Just like the Black non-disabled community claimed lack of coverage, the disabled people of color community is claiming when they do a disability piece, nine times out of ten there is a lack of ethnic diversity in their coverage of our communities and issues. In February, Black History Month of this year, I was one of the awardees for KQED local hero. Did I get a call from the Chronicle? No! The only mainstream press in the Bay Area that contacted me was the Oakland Tribune and wrote a full spread article. I think the real reason why the Tribune wrote the article is because the reporter who contacted me and wrote the article also writes for a Black newspaper, the San Francisco Bayview, who was the first newspaper who published my articles dealing with disabled people of color. However this laissez-faire media approach goes beyond DAMO and I!

It seems if you put the word DISABLED in your press release, then you can forget about getting mainstream media coverage. A good example of my above comment was the May 23rd, 2002, press conference at the steps of Oakland courthouse. The purpose of this press conference was to spotlight the inhuman treatment by the Alameda County toward a poor Black family, the Sloans, of Oakland, California. We were also there to speak about how the County has separated this family by putting their disabled elderly mother in a nursing home and are now raising the rent of their own home; causing them to go to court with no representation to see if they can stay in their home and to have custody of their own mother. At the press conference the only media that showed was The Sun Reporter, despite the fact POOR Magazine wrote a press release to all mainstream media and called them repeatedly. After the press conference the Co-editor of POOR Magazine, who were acting as advocates for the Sloan Family, realized that on the press release was the term ‘disabled elder’ and thought back to all the events and conferences held by Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization in which POOR Magazine was the only media that showed up.

This kind of hands off approach is a common reality when it comes to getting media coverage on disabilities issues, art, culture, etc. Even disabled famous people of color struggle to get media coverage. In Teddy Pendegress’ book, Truly Blessed, he discussed how the media wrote that his career as a singer was over because of his fatal car accident that left him physically disabled. After his car accident, his face disappeared from the media cameras. Although he was in concert in Oakland earlier this year, the only source that covered his concert and mentioned his disability in a positive light was the San Francisco Bay View, a Black Bay Area newspaper. This, compared to the love affair the media has with Christopher Reeves and now Michael J. Fox, both White and disabled. It’s not only a Black and White thing either. Have you heard of Gaynell Colburn? If you rely on mainstream news you’ll never know who she is. Colburn is the hottest Latina percussionist on earth and she is physically disabled. Although she has played with Stevie Wonder, Herbi Hancock, and Grover Washington, it’s almost impossible to find her records anywhere. Plus she is nowhere to be found in the media despite her debut as an actress in the Hollywood movie, The Adjudication Hunter. So is it time for the disabled community to picket the Chronicle, ABC, CBS and NBC?

At the kick-off press conference during Martin Luther King’s Birthday to introduce the only campaign in the Bay Area to teach community organizing to disabled people of color, a veteran disabled Latino organizer looked at the small crowd and realized once again mainstream media was not there. He shouted, "If they don’t come to us, we will go to them. Mainstream media, you’re going to get your ass picketed!" This is not a threat, it’s reality! It is time to end the mainstream media’s Laissez—faire approach on disabled issues and our lives.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Executive Director of DAMO

by Richard Midgett/PNN Media intern

"Dear Richard Midgett the city of Fresno hereby denies your claim with the city by operation of law"

7 AM. And 90 degrees Fahrenheit confirmation that I was in Fresno California. It was time for the moment of truth and I had to bike the 2 or so miles from the shelter to my P.O. box. Already sweating from the morning sun beating down I was not looking forward to this adventure. Leaving downtown promptly at 9 AM. I was reviewing all the cases I had filed and thinking to myself if I had left anything out or room for the city to argue some lame excuse for their screw-ups. The more I thought as I rode the hotter the sun felt on my back. Did I name all of the parties involved? Did I use all of the appropriate code violations for all the accusations I had made? Did "I'" fuck this up? Or would I be vindicated in my advocacy for a friend who was being railroaded by anyone in a position of authority.

The closer I got to my destination the slower I felt I was peddling. I had lost my home, my job and my property in this case as "Fresno's' finest" (police) had thrown me out. They violated my civil rights because they had no writ of possession. Also the police only gave me ten minutes to pack and my little car could not fit a bedroom worth of furniture into it.

I arrived in a pool of sweat and panic to the post office. Upon opening my box I saw the last 2 months of work staring me in the face. This literally was it. I either would come through this more prosperous as well as my friend and roommate or… I did not know what the hell the "or" part was or would be. I was relying on my faith and advocacy to bring me good karma.

Using my left thumb I slid my finger threw the envelope opening it slowly and looking for a sign of surrender, defeat or some indication that maybe just maybe the city was wrong in this matter on at least one issue.

"The city of Fresno hereby denies your claim by operation of law". Ok. So I lost this one so it is city 1 me zero. Next play. I was very thorough in my investigations and clearly remember on one of my trips downtown to drop off a finished case their was a group of city officials arguing with the analyst assigned to my cases about the police departments responsibility for dependent adults. I had figured I at least won that case as I proved beyond any reasonable doubt (love that phrase) by citing over 20 welfare and institution codes regarding the police departments responsibilities under the DEPENDENT ADULT PROTECTION ACT.

Their were so many types of case I had filed that as I opened each letter I had to look at the filing dates to remember what each case was.

On to next envelope. In my mind I saw the case as it unfolded again, remembering the date for the circumstances " the city of Fresno hereby denies your claim by operation of law". As I look at the third envelope I am beginning to feel a bit of despair. Did I lose? Or was I losing? I began to start asking my self. I open this envelope a bit more slowly, reviewing the date of the incident with the case file. " The city of Fresno Hereby denies your claim by operation of law". At this point I just start ripping open the remainder of the letters. It becomes easy to see what the position of the city is because your eyes eventually as the letter opens becomes transfixed on the exact location of the page were the words begin. The city of Fresno.. .

I opened every letter from the city. I leaned onto the table in the post office and became sort of numb. I could not believe it. I had taken these cases all the way up to the city council and no one was willing to admit liability. Or were they? . I was too angry to think about that right now. I was to shocked and amazed to think about what I had read very clearly .All I saw at this point was that I had lost and I had lost big. My whole life right in front of me now gone. I was in school. Something I worked over a year to return to. Had a good part time job something else I worked for a year to achieve with my boss so I would not be called in for overtime or extra assignments that would affect my classes. I lost my property. All that stuff I could not fit into my small car like my computer, schoolbooks, bed, and television. The big stuff. Not as important as the little things but can create a real inconvenience when you find a new place and have nothing to put into it. You now have to buy it form scratch.

I got onto my bike and headed towards the college. Another one of those things I had worked hard to achieve was housing closer to school. I am now picturing those little wings that fly around usually holding money in the middle and flying away but in this case the object in the middle is my house and it is flying into a sea of flames. My temporary housing is now gone since it was my sister's couch and she has four children to raise and needs here space. The sun feels hotter against my back as I cruise down the street that I have traveled for almost a year but now not knowing what is at the end of it for me.

It was a Saturday and holiday weekend so no one was really on campus and I first felt a sea of depression coming over me if I stepped onto the campus so I parked at a bus stop bench across the street to gather my thoughts.

I read and re-read each letter I had received at least twice. I then counted the letters. I had received eight letters covering 23 separate cases involving issues of criminal and civil rights violations to general incompetence. This city had broken a lot of laws and did actually admit they had done so.

The city felt a certain level of immunity as no Fresno county judge would challenge their actions as I had tried to do in vain. Also getting any lawyer in Fresno to challenge the status quo of the city, its policies or practices was impossible. They all went to the same law school for Fresno County and were all literally alumni of each other.

If you checked District Attorney records, Public Defender records and a large majority of sitting judges they had all gone to San Juaquin College of Law. Bit of a conflict of interest I had thought.

So I sat on the bench of the college campus remembering my short life here .I will miss you all very much. Have to go now. Back to the shelter to pack my few bags then San Francisco here I come. .