Story Archives

by Staff Writer

I was looking for a certain content destroye of my columms.

Found myself the usual suspect that I had accidenty pressed some toggle or wrong command switched taking all my columns off.

For those reading my columns(less than a few hundred I dare say)
Thank you for your concern,
I'll try to retrace the accident to get it back on.

Another mess I've gotten myelf into.

For San Francisco Liberation Radio I'll be there again probably at a different day and time.

Thank you listner's especially those lovely women sending pics of their lovely upper abundance exposed with phone and addresses attatched(joking haven't any color pics but can dream.

So not to worry folks,
not to worry. Bye for now

by Sam Drew/PNN

"Hip Hop Tried 2 Kill Me" is the eye-opening title of the new book written by 20-year music veteran, Fleetwood. His book, with a tentative release date of May 19th (Malcolm X's birthday), is a look at the inside world of Hip-Hop from a talented writer, rap artist, music producer, videographer, motivational speaker and community activist.

Hip-hop destroyed the person I was and gave birth to the man I am today, for that reason, I'll always love Hip-Hop,says Fleetwood. Fleetwood's passion for Hip-Hop began during the days of the Sugar Hill Gang, one of the first groups to use rapping in their songs. He wrote his first rhyme across the street from the cemetery where his mother was buried down South.

Fleetwood has the humble personae of a down home country boy. But he has roots in both California and in North Carolina. As he states with an infectious smile, I was breaded in San Francisco's Fillmore district.

His desire to perfect his craft lead him to the frigid climate of Minnesota. He was accepted to Music Tech in Minneapolis, where he received an A.A. degree in music. He produced a young talented singer known as R.L. before he became popular with the R&B group called Next. But after college came a major setback in his musical career. He became a victim in the war on drugs.

I owned my own record labels, I sold dope for my record labels but I kept getting caught,said Fleetwood with amazing candor. What straightened his path was a change in his spiritual outlook or as Fleetwood proclaims, Finally, I put my faith in God!
Fleetwood returned to San Francisco and produced several groups. One group named Probable Cause opened up for acts like E-40, Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs N Harmony. During his budding producing career, Fleetwood got involved in community work helping young people. He got involved with the Proposition 21 movement that focused on justice and freedom for youth in California.

I was part of the problem,said Fleetwood. My Father was a major heroin trafficker. I wanted to be part of the solution, revealed Fleetwood about his becoming a community activist.

Fleetwood has indeed become a one-man solution to the problem.I didn't have any special hookup you just have to use the resources you have available to you,he said.

Beside writing his upcoming book "Hip-Hop Tried 2 Kill Me", for less than $150, he has also established his own non-profit, The Homeboy Hotline, which helps ex-offenders with their re-entry into the community through job resources.

I do the footwork, said Fleetwood about his non-profit. I don't get you the job but I can show you where to go to get one. I help you find clothing, housing and medical care. I also show you how to get grants and avoid the poverty pimps, he said.

He also conducts an annual toy giveaway for children whose parents are in jail. I plant a seed of hope and care around the time of Christmas to reverse the cycle of hopelessness. We go to family shelters with new toys. We'd like to see entertainers and athletes from the Raiders, 49ers, A's, Giants and Warriors help donate new unused toys.

On the drawing board for the future is the launching of a new inspirational God fearing movement called DOPE BOYZ, which stands for Doing Our Part Equally. The mixtape “Blessing” is on the streets now and can be ordered on line. The inspiration for the groups name stems from Fleetwood's early music career. Dope Boyz was the name of my first group in Minnesota. I flipped the script from gangster to Hip-Hop, remembered Fleetwood

In life what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Adversity, it can destroy you or it can build you. In my case it built me to the man I am today, claims Fleetwood about his life. But being truthful and helping others in need helps spread your good name around the world. Fleetwood knows he can go anywhere be it East, West, North or South and know he will get Love from the streets.

Many record companies manufacture street credibility with hired teams of expensive public relations experts who pump out lurid gangster tales to create a street buzz to sell records. Fleetwood's street cred comes from years of pounding the pavement, assisting troubled youths and defending the community from predatory attacks.

The corporate media controls Hip-Hop,Fleetwood bluntly tells me. But he has a remedy to the watered down corporate Hip-Hop forced on us by the media giants. Keep it underground and put it on the internet. Put more truth in your music. Make music to inspire people.

To order Fleetwood's most anticipated book of the year, "Hip-Hop Tried 2 Kill Me", go to Marcus Bookstore, Barnes & Noble or Borders Bookstores or purchase it at his website myspace.com/ Fleetwood 189, where mixtapes can also be purchased. There is a tentative date of May 19th (Malcolm X's Birthday) for a book signing at Marcus Bookstore in San Francisco. Check the website for more details.

by Carol Harvey

In Mid-March, Shaun Fausz, 25, blond and fresh-faced, left his aunt's house in Pasco, Washington. Walking to Portland, Oregon, he spent the last of his money on Amtrak fare to San Francisco seeking work on ships. He stumbled onto St. Anthony's. Directed to Buster's Place, he showered and slept all night in a chair. Shaun sat talking to me among 100 or so homeless people, mostly men, quietly conversing or dozing at Buster's Place Drop-In Center at 211 13th Street.

"I work on boats. Before Pasco, I lived in New Mexico. There is nothing but desert," he said wryly. "They had no need for a deck hand."

Shaun discovered here that he needed a merchant mariner's document, a Z-card, "which costs $300 I don't have."

Though his knees were sore from walking, he already had three job interviews. "Once I get that Z-card, I'll be making all kinds of money again."

Hearing that the Mayor's proposed budget cuts will close Buster's Place on March 31, Shaun observed without this safe haven, "I would probably be sleeping on the streets and end up with that $79 fine I can�t afford. It would put me deeper in debt and make me homeless longer."

Jennifer Friedenbach, Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, called Mayor Newsom's plan to re-design the emergency homeless system "coldly negligent." It excluded the most vulnerable population at the central city's only 24-hour drop-in center, women escaping violence, homeless seniors, the disabled, people with substance abuse and severe psychiatric disabilities. 150 people are served daily, 90 at night, 700 annually.

In recent frigid weather, Buster's caseworker, Louis Roman, said more suffering clients were allowed inside at night. "We're not supposed to, but we do."

Said Friedenbach, "San Francisco is balancing its budget on the backs of its most vulnerable people...This proposal would put 150 at-risk people out on the cold concrete, some for the first time in their lives with nowhere to go."

She confirmed that (Buster's) is the only place to go in an emergency in the middle of the night It provides the sole access to shelters between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. It offers support services and addresses a public health and hygiene crisis with bathrooms and showers (some wheelchair accessible)--- though far more bathrooms are needed.

It is an emergency drop-in place, where women on the streets could go if they are feeling in danger.

With no walls to climb over, no barriers to push through, it is really low threshold. You can just walk in and get some help.

Louis Roman who is a certified substance abuse counselor experienced with dual and triple diagnosis, HIV/ Aids clients stated, "We were supposed to house people and refer them to appropriate agencies. The aim was to at least get (those who were) sleeping at (the old) Fell Street (drop-in center), without being seen, talked to, and, hopefully into their own places; appropriate shelters, SROs, assisted housing developments for elderly, and people with limited mobility."

"A third of our clients are seniors, 60 or over." Louis was saddened by the deaths of three people in the last few months. This was exacerbated by the agency's limited financial ability to refer them to services. "They sit in wheelchairs with heart trouble and other medical problems, and they just aren't seen."

Friedenbach stated that two years ago, when Buster's temporarily replaced the McMillan Drop-In Center, the original vision was broader. "We were moving towards not a holding place, but a place of healing, where the most vulnerable could engage in intensive work with caseworkers to get themselves off the streets. Instead of calling the police, people in psychiatric crisis could go to Buster's. Case managers could do preventative work with the most traumatized clients, addressing their needs with something as simple, perhaps, as a haircut or a massage in a comfortable healing place where they feel part of the community. This new program got intercepted and interrupted by the Mayor's mid-year budget cuts.

Three Buster's Place attendees, like most unhoused people I have interviewed, were warm, funny, and smart. Their views about the repercussions of this drop-in center's loss, exactly matched their advocate/activist counterparts.

The disarmingly charming Shalako Brooks between talking to friends, agreed to answer some questions. Shalako said that in 2005, Kevin Berger, now feature editor for Salon.com, profiled him in San Francisco Magazine. The article no longer appears in full on the Magazine's site, but Google quotes the first sentence, "Ordinary / extraordinary, (Shalako) seemed like just another homeless guy."

Shalako has a Master's in psychology. For 13 years he was personal and executive assistant to L.A. film industry heavy-hitters, Carol Lombardini, (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), and Sherry Lansing, CEO of Paramount Pictures.

Finding his partner of 13 years dead "started this whole cycle." Open about his alcohol addiction ---a half-gallon of vodka a day --- he said, "I'm just screwed up, I hit the skids. That's all." He has been in medical detox 13 times and rehab 12, "but I just can't seem to get over this hump." He partly drinks to fight insomnia.

A 'major alcoholic,' educated and articulate, he found it difficult to convince counselors or half-trained interns that he needed help.

He got entrenched in a homeless lifestyle because it became familiar.

He wants to go back to work. "People are impressed that I have a resume, cover letter, a reference list, and a salary history."

He was burned out of his SRO hotel, because "some crack head" lit his floor on fire.

Shalako has used Buster's Place every day and night for three weeks. With its closure, he would have no place to take a shower or use the rest room, leading to more urination and defecation on the street. He would be forced at 8:00 a.m. to use the Department of Public Health bathroom "when people are shooting up and passed out in the toilets."

He feels the larger numbers of people displaced from Buster's will waste police time when psychiatric problems render them unable to take care of themselves.

More people will sleep in doorways and get tickets for trespassing.

"People need a place to come and feel safe. At least here they're not going to get hurt."

Robert, 52, a New Yorker, sleeps at Buster's nightly. He kidded, "You could be a hostile reporter working undercover for Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh (who run) off at the mouth that the homeless need to do something, because we work so hard sitting here in these chairs at our microphones that we are about to pass out from exhaustion."

He noted Limbaugh's Oxycontin addiction. "Basically it's pharmaceutical heroin. He claims he got a bad back. Every junkie on the street has a bad back, too. He's not unique."

Robert observed that when Buster's closes, "all these people will be scattered elsewhere" making dealing with homelessness harder. "Good luck finding them, keeping track of who they are, where they are, what they are up to."

"With everybody here concentrated in one place, it is easier to address people's needs. At least there's some sense of order to it."

If they decide to come up with funding, the caseworkers could work one-on-one, which is basically needed.

Robert notes that Buster's protects people from criminalization by police and civilians when forced to walk the streets in certain areas alone after dark.

Robert expressed feeling a sense of security, community, and connectedness seeing other homeless acquaintances each day at Buster's.

Shaun, Shalako, and Robert echo Friedenbach's argument against the Mayor's cutting $1,000,000 from next years budget for this critical service.

Without Buster's Place, there will be:

No place to go at night.

No safe haven from danger or bad weather.

Lack of basic hygiene facilities,

No protection from police harassment,

No access to shelter even if there are open beds.

No one-on-one casework to resolve addictions, apply harm reduction principles, or address mental health problems.

Caseworker Louis pointed to reports that Seattle and L.A. are "doing wonderful things. They build housing, and they put people in there. Here it's the opposite." He felt San Francisco is held back by the judgment of City Hall and the Public "coming down on people because of behaviors or lifestyles."

On Friday, the Ides of March, James Chiansini of HAT, the Healthcare Action Team, led a demonstration at City Hall. Nurses saved Bruce Allison, garbed in Caesar's robes, from the Mayor's thousand cruel sword cuts to vital social services for seniors, the disabled, the homeless and others.

Bobby Bogan, Seniors Organizing Seniors, addressed the crowd. ��Last year at this time we were celebrating the biggest budget in (The City's) history, 6 billion dollars. There's too many big salaries. This year, the money ran out. I know what wasteful spending and mismanaging money is. It's like constantly pumping gas into a car (without an) engine.

On the steps, Supervisor Chris Daly told me, "Every year we are back with proposals from the administration around cuts to basic health and human services. This rallyˇ is righteous. The way to (deal with our budget woes) is to make sure the most vulnerable are protected, and those who have the most to give. We are going to fight like hell to stop the closure of Buster's Place."

by Amanda Smiles/Race, Poverty and Media Justice Fellow

Across the room the words "Shipyard News" call at me on the suspiciously crisp newspaper. At the top of the page, in rich colors, are sketches of a community that looks as if it belongs in a fairy tale- or at least every other cookie cutter redeveloped town in America. Below is a headline, "Abandoned and neglected shipyard set for renewal".

On the front page words like 'hope', 'parks', and 'jobs' buzz in glossy black text and on the bottom of the page is "Hunters Point Shipyard Today". Here they are slyly cropped to show dilapidated buildings, rows of broken windows and construction trash laying in the streets. Somehow I feel as if I'm not getting the complete picture.

Then, in quiet letters at the very bottom of the paper are the words 'Lennar Homes of California, Inc.' and I realize this 'newspaper' isn't a paper at all. Instead, it is a cleverly disguised advertisement for Lennar Corporation's newest housing project and most recently targeted gentrification and displacement zone, Bayview/Hunters Point.

Lennar Corporation, a construction company specializing in redeveloping ex-military compounds, has a history of building shoddy homes on toxic land throughout the country. Due to the toxicity of the land, Lennar is able to acquire land in poor areas, such as the Bayview, for close to nothing. Lennar then develops the area, building market value homes that current residents cannot afford, driving them out of their neighborhood.

In the Bayview, Lennar has already acquired 500 acres of land that makes up Hunters Point Shipyard and is expecting to receive hundreds more if their June ballot initiative is passed. This initiative not only would give Lennar access to hundreds of acres more of land but would also provide millions more in tax payer money for the project. The initiative makes no guarantees about providing jobs or affordable housing to Bayview residents, but instead works to promote Lennar's own self-interests.

The word community is smeared all over Shipyard News, citing the broad support Bayview residents have given the project. However, some Bayview residents aren't exactly supporting the project, in fact, some Bayview residents are fighting back.

Residents of the Bayview have created their own initiative expected to accompany Lennar's on the June ballot. This initiative demands that 50% of any of Lennar's new housing developments are affordable to existing residents of the Bayview, that is rented or sold at 30-80% of San Francisco's median income. If passed, this initiative would play a vital role in protecting Bayview residents, many of whom live below San Francisco's median income line, from displacement.

The slow deliberate process of gentrification, which begins years before ground is broken, has already begun in the Bayview. This process, which has systematically wiped out black communities such as the Fillmore, West Oakland, and now New Orleans, occurs in areas where market values are high and land is scare.

"We call it ethnic cleansing, to push people out and not give them anything and no say," say Willy Ratcliff, publisher of the San Francisco Bayview newspaper, "The whole city is pushing people out so rich developers can come in and have wealthy people move in. They squeeze the poor and push them out. It's happening all over the country."

There are certain elements involved that are responsible for the destruction of gentrified communities. One of these elements is keeping communities poor, specifically by keeping jobs out of the community while rents increase. In Bayview/Hunters Point the unemployment rate is at 30% and the city has offered little direct services in this area, forcing residents to leave the city in order to survive.

"The jobs have never been up here," says Radcliff, "There's a conspiracy to keep jobs out of here so they can get the land. They keep jobs away from black people and if you don't have a job you can't live in San Francisco."

Take the hotly debated T-line for example. Initially the project promised jobs to Bayview residents and was touted as a way to promote employment in the area. When ground broke, however, no neighborhood faces were seen working on the line. Instead, in an area that is primarily black, the majority of the construction workers were white.

Jobs weren't the only sacrifice Bayview residents made for the line. In exchange for the T-line Bayview residents gave up the 15 bus line, which ran every 15 minutes in and out of the Bayview. The T-line runs chaotically and some residents have experienced waits up to three hours, leaving them stranded without a dependable way to get to work or school.

"I think cutting off the service to that area is a way to strangle the existing community," says Laure McElroy, a former Bayview resident, "Once they get the people out of there they want then service will get better."

Violence also plays a crucial role in the displacement of communities, where developers and city governments have residents trapped on all fronts. Violence feeds violence and whole communities are killing each other off in desperate and ill fated attempts to negotiate the poverty in their area. Much like the Tenderloin, Bayview Hunters Point is treated like a containment zone, where violence is tolerated in order to prevent it from spreading to other, wealthier parts of the city. The city's refusal to mediate this violence is an active step towards letting a poor community wage civil war on itself, destroying its self from within.

Families who do manage to survive the violence in the Bayview are faced with their only option to stay alive: moving out of the area. Mass media plays a role in advertising sensationalized numbers about the killings and shootings in the Bayview, ensuring that, while families move out seeking sanctuary elsewhere, no one else moves in until the district is thoroughly "cleaned up".

For those families who are victims of violence, Victim Services is an attractive avenue for help. However, in California, anyone applying for Victim Services is required to move out of their county. This is under the guise of being for their own protection, however, most people applying for these services are from poor areas like the Bayview. For these people support services come at a cost: their homes and community. It is no coincidence that the way the government deals with violence, which occurs in marginalized communities, is by getting rid of the community itself.

Then there the actual evictions, which at best are contrived and manipulated and at worst down right illegal. One former Bayview resident was evicted from her apartment days after a rental assistance agency attempted to pay her back rent, offering a guarantee to assist her monthly with her rent payments. The landlord refused, and a day later sent the police to the resident's house, giving her twenty minutes to pack her belongings before being shuttled with her family to a nearby shelter.

"I'm reliving it every single day," she says, "When is it going to come to the time of living like a normal family again? As a mom, going back to work, to school."

For the residents in existing housing projects, such as Hunter's View a 267-unit public housing development, the evictions are far more backhanded. These residents, who are facing the destruction and reconstruction of their current units, are asked to sign agreements and pay down rental payments for their future units. The residents who refuse will be evicted and will not be accepted to live in the new units. Those who do sign are agreeing to additional fees and new criteria, and if unable to meet these conditions, face eviction and will not be allowed to live in the new community either. Very few existing residents will be able to meet the criteria on these contracts.

The Development Committee of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission (SFHA) held a meeting on the relocation of Hunter Point residents. When POOR Magazine arrived at the meeting on the advertised day and time, they were told the meeting had actually taken place the day before, just another example of the length developers and SFHA will go to keep the community out of their negotiations.

There are promises in Shipyard News. Promises of a new and shinier era in Bayview's history, when more green space will be available, the 49ers will have a new stadium to call home, and jobs and housing will be in abundance. Who knows if Lennar will be able to keep these promises, like the T-line, only time will tell. Lennar does have one promise it can keep, however, that when ground breaks on the new plan no existing Bayview residents will be "dislocated". Because, at the rate of displacement in the Bayview/Hunters Point, there will be no residents left to dislocate.

by Bruce Allison/PNN

As of March 31st, the only 24-hour homeless drop-in center in the city of San Francisco, Buster's Place, is closed. Now, chairs will be set for men only at 150 Otis while the many women who relied on Buster's Place for shelter find themselves on the streets.

For just three months, men will have fifty, less than half of what was provided at Buster's Place, chairs to sleep in before construction begins to create low-income housing for seniors at 150 Otis. These senior apartments, however, will not be finished for four years, leaving hundreds of seniors out in the cold.

"I feel sorry for these guys… after just three months these people will be on the street again…don't Mayor Newsom and the City Officials know what they are doing," said one shelter monitor.

On March 28th about 40 people from seven groups, including the Senior Action Network, the Gray Panthers, Mission Resource Center, Cannon Kip Senior Center, Glenda Hope, Seniors Organizing Seniors, the Coalition On Homelessness, People of Buster's Place, and Code Pink, went to City Hall to show support for Buster's Place. Together, we set up Buster's Place outside of the Mayor's Office.
The Coalition staff passed out food, hygiene kits and soap.

Despite all these organizing efforts and protests, the city still closed much needed shelters and only six seniors out of 150 got housing in SROs.

"Due to Buster's Place bad record-keeping we could only verify seventeen names- one we couldn't find and six didn't want the housing we offered them," the Mayor's housing and homeless director said when questioned about the small number of seniors offered housing.

Stay tuned to POOR Magazine for more updates by poverty scholar and author Bruce Allison after the Governor's budget revise.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

We’re not just members of the bar
Here in Familawt,
Familawt

We’re connoisseurs of the bizarre!
Best interests of the children is our watchword
We frown upon disparagement and blame
In short there’s simply not, a more congenial spot

For ending your relationship than here in Fam-i-lawt
Familawt.
Familawt…

(Sung to the tune of Camelot, written by David Fink.)

San Francisco Judge Marjorie Slabach was allegedly one of a group of judges who performed in this caricature of Camelot about family law. She played the part of a queen in the performance

"As an advocate for poor mothers and families in the court system, I was shocked to witness Judge Slabach's flagrant anti-mother and biased rulings," said Tiny, co-founder of POOR Magazine to a group of single mamas vigorously shaking their heads in agreement.

Tiny is just one of many poor single mamas who has witnessed the inappropriate, highly prejudiced behavior of Judge Marjorie A. Slabach in San Francisco's Unified Family Court Division. A Family Law Commissioner, Judge Slabach was appointed in 1997 to preside over family law cases, including child dependency and custody cases. Since then she has consistently ruled against mothers and mistreated them in court by belittling or verbally insulting them and, despite a number of complaints, she has been allowed to continue this inappropriate behavior.

POOR Magazine writer and co-founder of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project for the children of families struggling with poverty, Jewn Strohlin is a mother who has directly experienced the overt prejudice of Judge Slabach. Jewn was in court regarding a restraining order in the 2007. In one of the hearings, Judge Slabach said Jewn was a "vengeful glee" and told her she had been observing her "since she walked into the courtroom."

Judge Slabach also consistently ruled in favor of the party opposing Jewn although he failed to appear numerous times. "I found Judge Slabach to be very biased and partial to my case by her showing blatant favoritism to the opposing party," said Jewn. "She didn’t look at the pattern of [her ex-partner’s] behavior and she continued to let him manipulate the system."

Finally Jewn won her case after the opposing party failed once again to appear in court. Judge Slabach told her she "won by default."

Another fellow POOR Magazine writer, poverty scholar, and revolutionary poet, Kim Swan, (a.k.a Queenandi) experienced Judge Slabach's bias and prejudice in February of 2008 during a visitation hearing regarding Kim’s three-year old daughter and the daughter's father.

Kim arrived at the courthouse unaware that the court had decided to include a second hearing that day for her daughter’s father to challenge the petition of the restraining order that Kim filed against him three weeks prior.

Kim was very upset and shocked that she was never served with a notice for this second hearing and didn't have sufficient time to prepare for it. Kim attempted to explain to Judge Slabach the dangers of giving her daughter’s father visitation rights.

Kim told Judge Slabach that her daughter's father had been an irresponsible parent, who has brought their three-year-old daughter around unsavory people and places, and that he used to have heated disputes with her over very petty things, such as grocery bills, utility bills, and paying for a car seat.

Kim spoke of his violent episodes and of the time he had come to her job to harass her in front of staff. Kim asked the Judge to consider this man’s violent history and the people he exposed her children to. While Kim was speaking, she was interrupted with sarcasm by Judge Slabach, who said, "Why don't you show some mental stability and be quiet!"

When Kim tried to explain that her daughter was afraid of visiting with her father and always started crying and begged her mother not to go when it was visitation days Judge Slabach proceeded to belittle Kim and overtly ruled in the father's favor.

Another mother, like Kim and Jewn, who has dealt with Judge Slabach’s unjust rulings, is single mother Sandra Thompson. Sandra came to POOR Magazine for help in a number of legal situations, one of which was a restraining order against her ex-husband who had been extremely violent towards her during their marriage.

Sandra appeared before Judge Slabach, on December 11th, 2007. Sandra was accompanied by co-founder of POOR Magazine, Tiny a.k.a. Lisa Gray-Garcia, and staff POOR reporters, Bruce Allison, Joseph Bolden and Sam Drew.

In a similar instance to Kim Swan's situation, Sandra was anticipating finalizing her restraining order against her ex-spouse. As soon as Sandra's case was called, Judge Slabach "changed" the hearing into a child custody case. According to Tiny, Sandra's lawyer, Ronald P. St. Clair, did not talk with Sandra throughout the entire period before the hearing commenced.

In fact, St. Clair not only didn't meet with his client, but was actually interacting with the opposing side, and San Francisco Unified School District Attorney Vicki Trapalis, Despite her ex-husband's violent history, the ruling ordered by Slabach was for the father to have temporary custody of the child, as recommended by Trapalis.

Sandra was extremely shocked and devastated by this order of Judge Slabach that placed her seven-year-old son's life in danger. Sandra later learned that her lawyer, Trapalis and her ex-spouse had agreed to an ex-parte motion, which is filed without advanced notice to the opposing side and is decided by a judge without requiring all parties to be present. (Ex-parte motions are suppose to be sharply limited by the 5th and 14th Amendment of the U.S Constitution.)

A series of these motions were filed by Sandra’s ex-husband throughout 2006, He even forged her signature on April 3rd 2006, so that a stipulated request filed to the court, would be official, for Judge Marjorie A. Slabach to sit and act as a Judge Pro Tempore, (temporary) in a matter involving their seven year old son. Even more astounding, a court hearing minutes document claimed that Sandra was "present" at the April 3rd, 2006 hearing, although she soundly swears that she was not.

Judge Slabach ignored all of these crucial factors when ruling against Sandra and endangered her son's life.

"You're very biased and corrupt for putting my son's life in danger of an ex-abuser I want to motion, for you to recuse yourself as the judge in my custody case," Sandra said in a recent hearing.

Of course, Judge Slabach swiftly denied her request.

Justice Fo' Da Mamaz on Mothers Day!!! Join the welfareQUEENS, and Po' Mamaz in resistance at POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork as they speak truth to the Criminal Injustice System.

For more information please call 415-863-6306 or email mothersagainstslabach@yahoo.com

by Brother Y?/PNN

“Killing me softly with his song...killing me softly”
--Roberta Flack

People of color should be able to walk down the street confident that their civil rights will be protected under a black District Attorney. Instead we walk down the street confident of one thing only: Kamala Harris is there for them not for us. It is shameful to say the least that this black woman in skin color only has been responsible for the prosecution of hundreds of black and Latino people while twice or more as many white people have gone free simply by virtue of the color of their skin.

It is and was extremely hypocritical of the Board of Supervisor's to re-endorse Harris for District Attorney because she does not respect or follow the written laws of this City. The chief law in this case being marijuana as the "lowest priority" law that they wrote last year. Kamala Harris still wishes to prosecute me, a disabled diabetic American veteran who out of desperation sought to sell a small portion of my medicine so that I might have adequate food and medicine. As a diabetic I cannot afford to be without food or medicine it would literally be a matter of days before I would die without it.

Ironic as it may seem I do not recall making a transaction with the narc who is the state's key witness against me. I do however distinctly remember that the money looked funny, like it was counterfeit. I am afflicted with diabetes as well posttraumatic stress disorder, both of which have a profound negative effect on the memory. As far as my court appointed attorney goes the best I can say about her to her credit is she did successfully get me or’d which has helped tremendously in my getting my prescribed treatment by my personal physician.

I must state at this time however, that this entire fiasco is a grand conspiracy. The judge residing over my trial is a former lawyer, the prosecutor is a lawyer and my court appointed attorney is a lawyer paid by the same government that is prosecuting me.

The quote at the beginning of this article is from the Roberta Flack song Killing Me Softly. I am diabetic. My doctor has warned me that stress can raise blood sugar levels; the higher blood sugar levels are the greater risk for a heart attack, stroke, loss of limbs and blindness and many other medical complications, and nowhere in the U.S. is any amount of marijuana a capital offense.

Yet the judge is killing me softly by not dismissing the case. The prosecution is killing me softly by not dropping charges against me. The police are killing me softly by constantly harassing, and as far as I'm concerned, stalking me. Kamala Harris the district attorney is killing me softly by pushing my case for prosecution not based on justice or any degree of right and wrong or even remotely considering that racism could be involved. (San Francisco has the highest arrest rate of black people than any other major city in the entire state of California. If the handful of blacks who reside in San Francisco were responsible for the majority of crime here we should all be living in mansions or castles!) Last but certainly not least, my lawyer, a deputy public defender, is killing me softly by not acknowledging and defending my rights as a medical cannabis patient and constantly prioritizing my case last or not at all based on the murder trial she has been working on since she took me on her case load. The deck has been stacked against me since I was arrested.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"Why do you have all of your kids? We took them all from you before,” a San Leandro Police Officer spoke roughly to Elsa Maldonado.

Confused and shocked, Elsa watched as the police officers put handcuffs on her husband and wrongly accused him of a crime he didn’t commit.

“No one has ever taken away my family before…Get those handcuffs off of my husband he didn’t do anything wrong,” she screamed while her husband tried again and again to explain that he didn’t know who “Monica” was or why the police were arresting him.

I listened intently as Elsa began sharing her family’s struggle with Child Protective Services, a struggle that began over four years ago. It is just one of the many painful C.P.S. stories I’ve been asked to write for POOR Magazine’s Courtwatch column, a media advocacy project dedicated to helping families struggling with C.P.S.

Child Protective Services (C.P.S) continues to systematically sink its claws into the lives of unsuspecting poor families and families of color. In the case of the Maldonado’s, the story consists of an uncaring police department, a temporary judge, an ineffective lawyer for a grieving family, a public defender, and a seemingly "sympathetic" city governmental official.

The family’s nightmare began when the San Leandro Police Department came to the Maldonado’s house wrongly searching for a heroin-addicted mom allegedly named "Monica.” The woman they were searching for had no relation to the Maldonado Family did NOT reside at the family’s house, yet C.P.S somehow managed to rob the family of their parental, civil and custodial rights.

Literally kidnapped by C.P.S, their children are still held captive to this day. The efforts by Maldonado Family to rescue their children continue to be thwarted by C.P.S and the San Leandro Police Department, with lies and fabricated allegations.

Rene and Elsa Maldonado joined POOR Magazine’s Community Newsroom on the evening of April 1st to summarize what has been happening to their family since October 13th, 2004 with the unethical behavior of the C.P.S. and the San Leandro Police Department.

Every time I write someone's story regarding police brutality, my mind almost immediately travels back to October 7th, 2005, to my near-tragic experience with police brutality at the hands of a dozen members of the San Francisco Police Department. Like the Maldonado’s experience, mine was also a case of "mistaken identity" and total innocence.

Later in the week, I met with the Maldonados at the San Francisco Main Public Library. During the interview, Elsa fought to drown out her tears. She showed me a picture that was sketched by one of her children in crayon art.

The picture, drawn in a child’s innocent hand, depicted penises sticking straight up. This heartbreaking picture revealed every parent’s worse nightmare and showed the reality of the Maldonado children’s grave situation. I watched the parents’ faces crumble with pain as they held the drawing with shaking hands.

Rene Maldonado is originally from Xalapa, Mexico has lived in the Bay Area since 1989, with U.S legal status citizenship. He served five years in the Mexican Army as an officer, and three years a Drug Enforcement Agent (D.E.A). " I didn't like how they were treating people, so I quit the force." Rene explained.

He first met Elsa at the San Francisco Independent Newspaper in July of 1993, where they both worked at the time. He was a driver, while she worked as a receptionist.

A native San Franciscan, Elsa Maldonado once enlisted in the United States Armed Forces, but was given a medical discharge. She felt that the military mislead and lied to her about the "benefits" it offered, but was never informed by the recruiter of the painful tasks and trainings that followed.

Both parents have lead very squeaky clean, lives with hardly any brushes with the law. They married shortly after meeting each other, and raised four children together. They have two boys and two girls, ages 11, 10, 9, and 5.

Rene and Elsa currently live in a mobile home in Manteca, California. Rene currently works as a heavy equipment operator at Waste Management Company, in Livermore, California, while Elsa stayed at home to raise their four kids before C.P.S took them.

According to Rene, he would for some unexplained reason, get frequent traffic stops, and harassments from a San Leandro Police Officer coming from work. One day Elsa witnessed her husband pulled over, just a few away from their home. Two officers flanked Rene, guns drawn.

Fearing the worst, Elsa made a very frantic call to 911, and was very hysterical. "There are two police officers that have their guns on him. They keep telling him that his Honda Civic is stolen, but its not! I demand that you send a police supervisor out there, immediately."

"Every time we even call you people regarding theft incidents at our home, you never show up, or are slow in coming." Their neighborhood was plagued with criminal activities, primarily thefts at their home by neighbors.

She yelled, "If anything, ANYTHING happens to my husband, I will sue you all!" Elsa heart was hammering inside her chest, as the 911 Operator put her on hold, while she eyed her husband's safety at gunpoint by the officers.

A short time later after inquiries were made, the operator apologized to Elsa for the mistake, stating that the California Highway Patrol didn't update the information to the San Leandro Police Department that Rene had purchased his car at a police impound. Rene was released from their custody.

On October 13th, 2004, Rene was outside washing his car, when he was approached by a San Leandro Police Officer. He asked Rene if he got his snake back, and Rene responded that they found them. (Rene owned three pet pythons and reported one stolen two months prior.)

The officer, although he addressed Rene as "Mr. Maldonado" earlier on, he demanded to see his identification. As Rene began to show it to him, another officer jumped him from behind, unprovoked. Both officers brutally whacked him in the back of his head with their batons, while Elsa and the kids pleaded with them to stop. Rene completely blacked out, as a result of the beating.

When he regained consciousness, one of the officers told him that his identification was a fraud. "When was the last time you saw the water from the border?" asked the officer, in a racist and offensive tone while he shoved Rene into the back of his squad car, without any regard to his head injury.

Two unidentified female social workers from the Hayward Department of Human Services confronted Elsa following the incident. They kept mispronouncing Elsa's real name, failed to disclose any identification badges, and falsely documented Elsa as a "heroin addict" even though she has never done drugs in her life.

A woman named Caroline called them and spoke to them, separately. She tried to convince Elsa to admit that Rene was physically abusing her, and promised to have C.P.S return her kids. Elsa refused to give false statements about her husband. Caroline even asked Elsa if she had life insurance policies on them.

The workers then lied about the "unsafe environment" the children were in and the kids were taken from them. Since then the children have been taken re-located to many other foster care homes.

A short time later, their public defender, David Poulioutt gave them a very strange deal: They had to either socialize with members of their community, or their kids would not be returned to them. The Maldonado Family soundly refused the "offer" and ended up moving from the area. They hired a lawyer named Donald Bloom, who took their money, and ineffectively represented them by not arguing in their defense.

Bloom promised to "have their kids back home with them in three weeks" but failed due to his lack of representation, the hearing was postponed for six months. Rene and Elsa fired him on the spot. From what they saw, he purposely did nothing for them.

A judge pro tem (temporary judge) commissioner at the Hayward Superior Court in the Juvenile Dependency Division unexplainably changed his name from "Paul D. Seeman to Robert Seeman,” after the hearing was concluded.

Rene and Elsa showed me a picture of their mobile home that was destroyed by the San Leandro Police Department, after it was allegedly reported that they were "trespassing" on the owner's property because of their vacant vehicle.

Without prior notification of the department's intent to demolish, or an eviction notice from the owner, their mobile home was destroyed, in July of 2005, along with the theft of their valuables.

Rene and Elsa met with Oakland Board of Supervisor, Gail Steele in February of 2005 prior to the departmental demolition of their home and explained to her what their situation was, and how no one would help them. Gail seemed to try to entice them to admit family domestic problems that they didn’t have.

After speaking with them for some time, Gail suddenly said to them that she would make certain that they both receive "re-unification" with their children. "Why should we have to re-unify with our kids when they stole our kids!" Rene and Elsa said to Gail.

Gail replied, "Don't you see that this is all a game, so play the game and you will get your kids back!"

The Maldonados don’t want to play this game. They only want their children back where they are safe and loved.

The Maldonados are seeking legal aid. To help please call 415-863-6306

by T.J. Johnston/Special to PNN

As of two weeks ago, the staff was bracing for a June 29 closing date, but no final decision on the center's fate has yet been made, said shelter manager Trina Johnson. This comes in the wake of the March 31 closing of Buster’s Place, the city's only 24-hour resource center for homeless people.

Johnson also said that Mayor Gavin Newsom doesn't realize the effect the possible closing would have on staff and people staying there.

"Clients talk to us and feel safe. We have a community," Johnson said. Once homeless herself, she also said she wouldn't turn people away from the shelter.

Neither Human Service Agency Director Trent Rohrer nor Dariush Kayhan, the mayor's homeless policy director, have responded to requests for comment.

Ella Hill Hutch, located in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, is also a youth center that provides education, crime and violence prevention, employment, recreation and other community involvement programs for low- and moderate-income residents.

Johnson said the space might be used for nighttime activities for neighborhood youth, though she doubts anybody would come for a midnight basketball game.

Up to one hundred people line up nightly outside the center as early as 8:30 p.m. to sleep on a mat in the gymnasium from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Most of them secure a spot through the city’s CHANGES computerized reservation system, but some disabled people, recent hospital discharges and people just arriving in town are also accommodated.

Those turned away from the center are referred to shelters at 150 Otis St., Episcopal Sanctuary or Providence Baptist Church.

Shelter monitor Christopher Nolan criticized Newsom's promotion of the appearance of solving homelessness while he stands sentry as homeless people pick up their pillows and blankets.

"It's sad they don't have a backup (for a new shelter)," Nolan said.

Before his current job, Nolan worked for five years at the McMillan Drop-in Center at 39 Fell St. before it closed in 2006. He believes the mayor's appeal for funding in Washington, D.C. last year without addressing permanent housing needs was a hollow gesture.

"When everything starts falling like dominoes, and the mayor goes to D.C. and brags on how the shelter system is good … why don’t they call him on his shit?" Nolan said. Just because people are homeless doesn't make them hopeless, he added.

Homeless people like Warren McCormack also disapprove of the closing. McCormack has been homeless for two months. As a bipolar SSI recipient, he said shelters should provide supportive services, such as in-house psychological counseling.

"Everybody's materialistic out here," McCormack said, citing increases in housing costs. He also observed a racial dynamic as to who could afford living in the city. "Over by Glide (Memorial Church in the Tenderloin), not one black person owns a home there. There's a lot of tensions," he said.

Roy Hill, a thin, graying Massachusetts native who is seven years homeless, said hotels could house homeless people. "They need to get SROs for everybody, instead of closing the center," he said.

Cat, a San Francisco native who returned from Portland, Ore. on April 2, sid he hopes the center remains open. "I know a lot of people depend on this place," said.

Because he has family in the city, Cat is optimistic about his housing situation.

"I'm glad they have these places,” Cat said. "If they leave this place, one door closes and another one opens."

"It really affects me and the clients (at Ella Hill Hutch), and (Newsom) really needs to hear us speak," Johnson said.

by Joseph Bolden

The vagaries of,birth, life,illness,and death vary from human to human.

Lady or old man death swings the scythe and were gone.

We know how fragile our lives are,we dwell not as often as we use to given our so-called
improved sanitary,medical/technical skills still being discovered and rediscovered.

It’s one thing to die from fatal disease brought on by rodents,birds, tainted cow’s flesh,or plague unknown and or airborne but dying at random is all the more tragic for its out-of-no where-ness.

Recently as last early last night or early dawn, time isn’t pin pointed as yet.

Mr. Jason,a desk clerk in the San Cristina While visiting his Grandmother in Hayes Valley was shot in the head and killed!

For what and why besides unknown we tenants in our one-room dwellings.

We don’t know all we know for sure is that Jason’s sudden death is a shock!

Living in the tenderloin is hazardous like all areas where danger is common its citizen’s do what they can to blend in and not be seen as targets of opportunity from certain prowlers awaiting their victims.

Some of us act 51/50, [crazed or nutty] carry hidden or on our person weapons varying in size,shape,blunt or sharp, move about believing it more difficult to hit moving targets.

There are many modes of self-preservation.

My own varies from concealing a weapon to moving about the city,which was first learned in Los Angeles when the box or freight car killings occurred in the skid row areas of West L.A.

Though I wasn’t a complete loner there was a few buddies we’d walk with we wouldn’t acknowledge our fears but we knew it is safer to be seen as a group than alone.

This is my main reason when good friends drop by especially women buddies.

I make sure they're safe from harm when in the bathroom or walking them to a nearby bart or bus station.

Jason,a personable, regular guy,worked,earns his money and is killed in Hayes Valley away from the Tenderloin.

I'm told about this early today Monday, April. 28,2008,Jason may was killed Sunday at about 9pm.

It’s still a world where my life is a tightrope, I must balance for safety.

I still wonder at the

trust of women whom feel safe along side me or any males for that matter.

Why was Mr. Jason,from what I observed,a decent, young black man working as a desk clerk murdered whether by accident or design for what?

It tells me black folk are still not accorded equality in this killing field Amerikkka.

As Jewish,Arabs, African’s,and Cuban’s other nationalities can express their views about their land and his/her stories I can speak of this land also in equally negative tones.

Oddly funny that especially when Black American's speak on the dark side of America...
the mainstream or what was the majority population tries to drown or silence it.

The truth hurts better it hurt now than let if fester and turn to puss filled cesspool.

Maybe Presidential Candidate Obama’s Preacher says what he says in his church,on his pulpit is true because as young child,adolescent,and adulthood he
saw the evil that a society where laws were specifically set up against of race of people his people were and to some extent are still set against.

Could the problem be that race still the problem in 21st century because it hasn’t yet been resolved in the 20th ?

I’m wondering if the protest against a pastor or preacher’s words is fear of the ever widening chasm of race,class,and economically driven disparity.

Those questions are too heady for me to dwell on.

All I know–is a young black man,working a low wage job,in one
of the most dangerous areas of San Francisco inner city,he wasn't even in the Tenderloin but Hayes Valley
has died,is dead!

Not from a plague infested animals, insects, cancer,high blood pressure, diabetes,or unknown hidden medical condition of arterial heart valve problem.

He was a healthy black male shot to death in San Francisco and for what reason?

Brother men/Women rainbow folks.

THIS IS STILL A KILLING FIELD,I DON’T BELIEVE ITS ALL THAT RANDOM!

And what of those healthy young collage men last seen slightly intoxicated and last seen drowned!

Their parent(s),friends, and loved ones too want to know... WHY?

IF ANYONE HAS INFORMATION PLEASE SEND TO

Jsph_bldn@yahoo.com or local authorities, sometimes they do stop crime,get their suspects.