Calendar
Vallejo community vigil tomorrow at 5. Come pray for our city with us! pic.twitter.com/JRd16IUpiC
— Melissa Nold, Esq. (@savage_esquire) July 26, 2024
BAY AREA: ALL OUT TO DEMAND THE ARREST OF NETANYAHU 🚨
🗓️Saturday, July 27
⏰1:30pm
📍SF Federal Building, 90 7th St., SF pic.twitter.com/IdQ80gUOjq— CAIR-SFBA (@CAIRSFBA) July 26, 2024
National Day of Mourning: Justice for Sonya Massey & Alexander Antonio Lopez
On July 6, a 36-year-old Black woman, Sonya Massey, called 911 to report a suspected intruder at her home. Her first words when she opened her front door to them were “don’t hurt me.” Instead of protecting her, Springfield, Illinois police shot and murdered her inside of her own home. The sheriff who killed her, Sean Grayson, was on duty in his 6th policing job of his career after being disciplined in five previous police departments.
Sonya is more than a victim of the police state. She was a mother, a sister, a daughter and a loving community member. We say her name as we continue to rebuke the paradigm that dying at the hands of the state is an unpreventable leading cause of death for our people.
Join us on Sunday for a vigil, healing ceremony and community gathering. There will be speakers, performers, healing justice practitioners and an open community mic.
As we join in this national day of mourning, we also want to honor the life of Alexander Antonio Lopez who was murdered right in our backyard by SFPD just last weekend.
Antonio was killed in the Tenderloin, in an area where homeless folks are frequently swept. As the state cracks down on people sleeping in the streets with nowhere to go, we call out this murder as part of the state’s efforts to disappear our people in the name of maintaining the illusion that the status quo of white supremacy and violence works for us all. It never has and it never will. We rebuke it in the name of our divine humanity.
Sonya Massey should still be alive. Alexander Antonio Lopez should still be alive. We continue to fight for a better world in their names.
We gather every Friday morning in front of the office building at 1528 El Camino Real in San Mateo, the location of the office of US Representative Kevin Mullin between 9 and 11 AM to demand he take a strong stand for a permanent ceasefire and no more weapons for Israel. He represents District 15, which includes San Mateo County, and now these neighborhoods of San Francisco: Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Little Hollywood, Mission Terrace, Oceanview, Outer Mission, Portola, and Visitacion Valley. Various groups are represented at our weekly protest including San Bruno Ceasefire and Peace Action San Mateo. Please join us.
SAN FRANCISCO EMERGENCY ACTION: US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! STOP FUELING REGIONAL WAR!
Join us in protest as we pass 300 days of continued Zionist violence and atrocities against the Palestinian people. Israel, with full backing from the United States, has continued its genocide against Palestinians with total impunity. With continued escalations in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, the Zionist occupation has made clear how desperate it is to spark a regional war before putting an end to the genocide of Palestinians.
We call on our community to mobilize and demand that the US stop fueling regional war with the Zionist entity: Hands off Gaza, hands off Lebanon, and hands off the Middle East—US out of the Middle East! US out of everywhere! For our martyrs. For our prisoners. For Gaza. For the struggle towards a better world!
Oakland: Kamala, stop sending bombs for genocide!
Sun 8/18 11am
Lake Merritt Amphitheater
Masks required
Covid surging in the bay per wastewater data. Respect your & your comrades' health. Covid is a vascular disease that continues to damage years after infection. pic.twitter.com/wzlne1xl6v— Cisten Schmidt (@TristenSchmidt) August 15, 2024
We’re days away from the California State Senate voting on three transformative bills to hold Big Oil accountable and protect communities from deadly oil and gas pollution. We just need to secure a few more votes to get these crucial protections passed into law.
How do we do this? Come out to the Capitol on Monday 8/26 at noon for a big joyous outpouring of support for this important legislation. Senators will be reviewing hundreds of bills in the final days of the session. We need to focus their attention on these bills and secure their support.
Sign up here to take a stand on the Capitol lawn!
Front groups for the oil industry have spent millions of dollars lobbying to sink these bills and protect Big Oil profits. One notorious oil industry group (sounds like whiska!) is even planning a rally next Monday at the Capitol. At high noon. Are we going to let them outflank us? Outnumber us? Nope!
About the bills:
- Idle Well Clean-Up (AB 1866 – Hart): Forces oil companies to clean up their idle wells much faster.
- Low-Producing Well Accountability Act (AB 2716 – Bryan): Fines oil companies operating in the Inglewood Oil Field $10,000/month for operating low-producing wells near communities.
- Local Environmental Choice and Safety Act (AB 3233 – Addis): Protects local governments’ authority to restrict oil & gas production in their jurisdictions. Passage of this bill will enable a Contra Costa drilling ban.
All of us together can show that our movement, and not Big Oil, has the people’s support. Please join us on Monday! Sign up and recruit others from your networks. Childless cat ladies most welcome.
Again, here’s the link to RSVP and request or offer a ride.
Cosponsors include 350 Sacramento, 350 Bay Area Action, California Environmental Justice Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, The Climate Center, Food & Water Watch, Greenpeace USA, Last Chance Alliance, Oil & Gas Action Network, Sacramento Climate Coalition, Sunflower Alliance and Third Act Sacramento.
Let’s have some fun on Monday and get these bills across the finish line. Yes, We Can win these vital protections for Californians, local democracy, and our climate! Please join us at this important demonstration of people power.
Sunflower Alliance
https://350bayarea.nationbuilder.com/
Pro-Israel lobby sways Berkeley councilmembers to replace commissioners on the Peace & Justice Commission that was scheduled to discuss a Gaza Ceasefire reso tonite. Mtg canceled due to bogus technicality. Rally ON! pic.twitter.com/6b0NmfrEuf
— Elana Auerbach (@elana4berkeley) September 3, 2024
Bay Area: please show up for the Global Monthly Vigils happening around the world on the first Wednesday of the month, every month, as we urgently tell President Biden: Close Guantánamo NOW and release the 16 Muslim men who have been cleared for release—some for well over a decade.
Biden must follow his own words and CLOSE GITMO ASAP!
“America will not torture. We will uphold the rights of those who we bring to justice. And we will close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay…. [W]e say to our friends that the alliances, treaties and international organizations we build must be credible and they must be effective. That requires a common commitment not only to listen and live by the rules, but to enforce the rules when they are, in fact, clearly violated”
~US Vice President Joe Biden, February 2009
President George W. Bush declared his wish to shutter the prison that he had opened. Both Obama and Biden promised to do the same. NOW may well be the last chance for Guantánamo closure; Trump had planned to enlarge the facility for more ‘bad guys’; Kamala Harris has thus far been quiet on the issue.
Please join World Can’t Wait, Amnesty International and the many co-sponsoring organizations worldwide to deliver that message on Wednesday, September 4, 3PM at the traffic island (Harry Bridges Plaza) outside the SF Ferry Building.
Assaults on refugee camps, including those in Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarem, constitute the largest attack by Zionists on the West Bank in over 20 years. Bold-faced forced displacement exposes the genocidal intent of the Zionist entity.
Join us Friday, September 6th, 6:30pm at San José City Hall to demand Hands Off the West Bank! Stop the Genocide on Palestine! No More Zionist Apartheid and Terrorism! Stop U.S. Aid to Israel! Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!
Initiated by San José Against War (SJAW)
The City of Oakland is planning a massive eviction, so the People have planned a Resource Fair.
Beginning Monday, September 16th, at 8am at West Grand and MLK. pic.twitter.com/ueqlzaCCMW— Mama Lisa (@LisTeague) September 15, 2024
Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/B5XC2lVtV9
— Y Disassembler (@loomdoop) September 23, 2024
Please join the rally!
“If you’ve been waiting to turn up for that one protest action for the unhoused, this’ll be it! We need numbers, folks, as we want the city of Berkeley to here our outlay at their unjust actions! See you there.”
The resolution to fund and expand ShotSpotter will come before the full Oakland City Council Tuesday, October 15th at 3:30pm. That means there is still time to urge your city council member to vote against the resolution.
The Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission recommended to the Council that the Shotspotter contract not be renewed, because of lack of evidence that it is effective, noting that the monies could be used for things that are known to be effective in reducing crime. The Council, however, is leaning towards ignoring that recommendation, a recommendation made by the Commission the Council, well, commissioned, to make such technical evaluations.
ShotSpotter, produced by SoundThinking, is an acoustic gunshot detection system (AGDS). Its many sensors and microphones constitute a mass surveillance network that does more harm than good to residents of cities across the U.S., including Oakland.
Write to Council members before Tuesday and urge them to say NO to ShotSpotter.
Why ShotSpotter Does Not Belong in Oakland’s Communities
Other U.S. cities, including Chicago and New York, are questioning or outright discontinuing their contracts with SoundThinking because the technology does not live up to its claims of improved public safety or police effectiveness. Houston’s mayor plans to end the city’s contract with SoundThinking, calling their technology a “gimmick” that did not improve the city’s public safety. After a one-year pilot program, Durham, North Carolina’s city council voted against continuing their contract after an audit showed abysmal results. Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Committee (PAC) voted against funding ShotSpotter on April 4th, 2024.
The technology attempts to triangulate the location of gunshots and decrease officer response time to shooting incidents. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) touts ShotSpotter as a crime deterrent that reduces gun violence and keeps communities safer. A growing body of evidence indicates that ShotSpotter fails to achieve any of its supposed benefits.
OPD reports there were 8,318 unique gunshot incidents detected by ShotSpotter in 2023. Of these incidents, only four lead to an arrest. According to OPD’s incident reports, 73% of gun violations were for negligent discharge of a firearm, not a violent crime. OPD Captain Lewis has confirmed “many of the ShotSpotter firearm recoveries are from gun owners doing ‘target practice in their backyard.'” ShotSpotter artificially bloats OPD’s workload, diverting them away from actual community needs.
OPD’s average time to respond to the most serious 911 calls for help has increased. The same increase has occurred in Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis. This trend can be partly explained by the artificial workload ShotSpotter creates for officers. For example, in St. Louis, AGDS added 3,400 new calls per average year in addition to 2,800 citizen-initiated calls – a 67% increase in service calls. OPD categorizes ShotSpotter alerts as a Priority I call (immediate dispatch). Therefore, officers are being diverted from urgent and potentially life threatening emergencies to address ShotSpotter alerts that have a decent chance of being nothing more than a loud noise.
ShotSpotter often sends police officers to chase false positive alerts. The technology is notorious for reporting fireworks, automobile backfires, and construction noises as gunshots. False reportage is not only a waste of time. It leads directly to civil liberties abuses and false arrests, as was the case for 65-year old Michael Williams. In his case and others, court documents reveal that law enforcement frequently requests that ShotSpotter’s analysts modify alerts to support their narrative of events.
U.S. Senators have urged the Department of Homeland Security to investigate funding of ShotSpotter for civil rights violations and discriminatory policing. In Chicago, the 12 districts with ShotSpotter installations are those with the highest populations of Black and Latinx residents. In NYC, 70% of acoustic sensors were placed in precincts with majority Black or Latinx residents. The same racist pattern holds for Kansas City, MO; Cleveland, OH; Atlanta, GA; and Boston, MA.
In Oakland, ShotSpotter has been deployed in four geographic phases. The first two phases of deployment were in predominantly Black, Latinx, and Asian communities, which is easily observed by comparing OPD’s map of ShotSpotter deployment (see page 6) with a race, ethnicity, and diversity map of Oakland. A Stanford University study found that OPD officers display a stark racial disparity in who they search, detain, and arrest. Placement of ShotSpotter sensors consistently follows patterns of historical over-policing, and Oakland is no exception.
The money wasted on ShotSpotter would best serve Oakland residents if redirected toward other community needs. Please write to your city council members to tell them that ShotSpotter is a wasteful and dangerous surveillance technology.
Queers for a Free Palestine meet up and march! All are welcome! Call out state senator Scott Wiener, who has been attacking Palestinian activists at UC and CSU campuses, opposes inclusion of Palestine in ethnic studies, introduced oppressive legislation to silence the voice of the Palestinian people and their comrades, and attacking houseless people. He opposed the cease fire back in January. Mask up, bring friends. Let’s San Francisco now that you oppose SF politicians who have not called out an end to the genocide in Gaza! And an end to the apartheid government of Israel!
