Calendar
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Hello everyone!
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I have just received the most outrageous news tonight that I believe requires our immediate attention!
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The young women and young men (including CAL student) who launched the Black Lives Matter movement and led the amazing shut down of the BART for 4.5 hours during Black Friday are being charged with criminal trespassing and restitution for their acts of civil disobedience. If you missed the impact of this shut down, here is the link:
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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/28/1348086/-Breaking-Black-Lives-Matter-Protesters-Shut-Down-BART-at-West-Oakland-Station
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There initial hearings are Monday and Tuesday morning at the Alameda County Courthouse and we need people to turn out in large numbers. If there are any clergy, particularly non-black clergy, who can turn out in clergy attire, it would be very helpful.
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Also, we need people to flood BOS President, Supervisor Keith Carson office (510) 272-6695 and the District Attorney Nancy O’Malley office (510) 272-6222 over the next 48 hours to dismiss this case. There is a growing trend across the country to retaliate and target protest leaders to shame, threaten and deter their/our leadership. Meanwhile, masked anarchists who appear to be largely non-black cause vandalism, fires, and property damage and are not arrested or charged!!!
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We must stand with them and make this public. These young women are our generation’s Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, etc.,
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Please let me know if you are with me so we can make plans…be clear things will be very fluid here on out…so, let’s gear up if you are able!
Proposal for Prison Noise Demos Across North America on New Year’s Eve
… we organize noise demonstrations every New Year’s Eve outside the walls of prisons,
jails, and immigrant detention centers. Sometimes these are the facilities
where specific comrades are held and sometimes these are facilities in which
social prisoners and rebels unknown to us have been left to rot. Either way,
we use our voices, banners, sound systems, instruments, and fireworks to
remind prisoners that they are never alone.
National Call out For NYE Noise Demos: http://t.co/cx04ewMGiL For Oakland meet at 14th & Bway at 21:00 on 12/31.
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 20, 2014
On New Year’s Eve, as the clock winds down on 2014, the powers that be will hope to be ringing in a new year that carries forward business as usual. That must not be allowed to go down because business as usual in Amerikkka includes wanton police murder of Black people. The refusal of grand juries in Ferguson and Staten Island to indict the cops who murdered Michael Brown and Eric Garner made this clear. So the powerful, beautiful and necessary outpourings that have disrupted this society’s normal routine must continue and escalate on New Years Eve and into the New Year.
We should live in a society where those who are entrusted with public safety would sooner risk their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. But in this society, cops who brutalize and murder are given the benefit of the doubt and are almost never punished in any way for their crimes. This is illegitimate and unacceptable. It must be STOPPED, and it’s up to us to stop it! On New Year’s Eve, we must act in many different ways to do just that.
If you think that police murder must STOP, be out in the streets with that message out on New Years Eve. Say in a loud, clear voice – NO NEW YEAR UNDER THIS OLD SYSTEM! And – WE CAN’T BREATHE! Bring your whistles and blow them loudly. Bring your signs and banners.
And if you think that torture, that violence against women and attacks on women’s rights, that attacks on immigrants and the pillaging of the environment of the planet, that US wars for empire and attacks on people for who they love and how they love and more must be stopped; join us in the streets on New Year’s Eve. Bring your signs and banners too. Figure out imaginative ways to say NO MORE to all these horrors.
All Families of Love one killed by Gun Violence, Please bring an 8×10 photo and Love one favorite color balloon to be release.
Come meet us at the Grant Station for the 5th annual vigil/celebration for Oscar Grant to be held on New Year’s Day at the Grant Station (Fruitvale BART Station).
Join the Oscar Grant family on this Day of Remembrance!
WE ARE ALL STILL OSCAR GRANT
SPEAK OUT:
• Family of murdered victims
• Artist
• Community Activist
LIVE Performances:
• Libation
• African-Native-Latino Ceremony
• Poetry, music, spoken word
• Candle lighting, Balloon Releasing
• Words of inspiration Min. Keith Muhammad
• RGB–Young Gifted and Black–Our Children
GUEST APPEARANCES:
Ryan Coogler — Director of Fruitvale Station
Skyler Jett — Preforming “Peace is the Answer”
http://www.youtube.com/
Taylor Burrise,
http://www.youtube.com/
Sabel
Rankin Scroo,
https://www.facebook.com/
Kev Choice,
http://www.youtube.com/
A.D.Burrise
Jasiri X — Preforming
https://www.youtube.com/
Ras Ceylon “, Ras Ceylon is an emcee, educator and organizer bringing revolutionary music, a hip-hop meets reggae dynamic and explosively conscious lyrics.”
Sellassie Blackwell Lyrical, Positive Hip Hop. artist representing the Bay Area will be doing a tribute to Oscar Grant.
And many more artist to be announced
WHY:
1. We Are ALL STILL Oscar Grant
2. We should never forget
3. Release a balloon in the name of your Love one Killed
4. Come to embrace and Support all who have lost a Love one to Gun Violence
5. Show your Love to Oscar Grant daughter, Tatiana, now 8yrs old
Much Love from Tatiana and family of Oscar Grant, Hope to see you at the vigil!! “We Are All Still Oscar Grant”.
There will be poetry, music, spoken word, candle lighting, Balloon releasing and speak out.
“Every tragedy represents an opportunity to move the agenda for justice forward.” We cannot forget and will not forget what happen on January 1, 2009 at 2:11 am. Join us in remembering and celebrating our martyr comrade brother, Oscar Grant. His life was taken to remind us that We Are All Oscar Grant.
It was the COMMUNITY that led to the resignation of Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff.
It was the COMMUNITY that led to the resignation of Bart Chief of Police, Chief Gee.
It was the COMMUNITY that led to the resignation of Bart General Manager, Dorothy Dugger.
It was the COMMUNITY that led to the resignation of police officer Johannes Mehserle.
It was the COMMUNITY that led to the Department of Justice to open a investigation of Civil Rights violation against the Bart Police.
It was the COMMUNITY that led the demonstration Downtown Oakland, making it known, “No Justice, No Peace”.
It was the COMMUNITY that joined with the ILWU Local 10 to shutdown l the ports in Northern California.
It was the COMMUNITY that helped usher in the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals establishing that using stun guns without an imminent threat of harm is unreasonable.
The COMMUNITY have made HISTORY, not VICTORY for the first time in 458 years of California History a officer was charged, arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison for killing a unarmed Black Man in the line of duty. Victory is when we have DESTROYED a racist criminal justice system and replaced with a true Freedom, Justice & Equality for ALL people!
Please come to Wiley Manuel Dept 112 at 2pm on Friday (tmrw!) to do court support for comrades, TJ and DT,arrested at march New Years Eve.
— Russell Bates (@crustyrustyMAD) January 2, 2015
Folks have marched hundreds of miles all over the East Bay from East Oakland to West Oakland and out past North Oakland.
Folks feet gotta be aching by now!
Folks gotta be gettin tired of all the kettling!
so let’s do a night ride and show some love for all our people’s, let’s show how deep the solidarity runs between our communities. How about creating a critical mass bike ride for #BlackLivesMatter for #NativeLivesMatter!
We’ll be riding around Oakland!
Why?
Cause these are our streets!!
this is open to all folks. bring the music, ya feel me! Fixies, commuters, scrapers, peeps with kidseats, roadies, bmxers…if it’s got wheels then you need to show up n show your luv for #MikeBrown #EricGarner #AlexNieto #AndyLopez #OscarGrant & all the countless folks that have lost their lives to police violence.
Some of us will get together this Saturday at noon to help plan for the garden. I would like to invite people from Transition, Berkeley and Albany and the farmers market master gardeners and see if anyone shows up and get more advise.
Members of First They Came for the Homeless and Berkeley Post Office Defenders are asking people to participate in the creation of a community garden on the west side of the Berkeley Post Office. Please come to a planning meeting on Saturday January 3rd at noon. Honey bees, hummingbird flowers, tiered and vertical gardening, heirloom seeds, organic non GMOs, and medicinal plants are all part of the chat. First They Came for the Homeless members have been at the post office at 2000 Allston Way for over 3 months and we want to expand our use of the space with new ecological planting, growing, weeding and harvesting possibilities . This will help to maintain ongoing protection of the Berkeley Post Office and post offices all over the country from sale and privatization and also will support our community connection with the earth.
Many community organizations and individuals have been have been working collaboratively participating in actions to keep this beautiful and historic resource as a post office and for public use. Right now we have had some success as there is no identified buyer and we are waiting to see what will happen with the city lawsuit against the United States Postal Service and how things will develop with the zoning overlay passed by the Berkeley City Council in 2014 to keep it zoned for public use.
You can see more at https://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com
For more information of our community garden project contact First They Came for the Homeless on Facebook
We want the unheard voices to be present so we can begin to rebuild and protect our communities.
This event is to bring together disengaged youth and community members from Hunterspoint, Potrero Hill, Sunnydale, Mission, Fillmore, Tenderloin, and Lakeview who are not currently active in this movement happening across the nation.
Engaging youth requires innovative strategies. Black and Brown intellectuals can analyze the system and organize all day everyday, but “what good do your words do if they can’t understand you”, we need the youth who aren’t plugged in to be apart of this movement. #BlackLivesMatter
Because you matter! We matter! Our hoods matter!
San Francisco has the fastest out migration of Black people since post-Katrina New Orleans. I feel that it is time that we show the city we are still here, we are young, we are strong, we will fight our whole lives long.
This symposium will bring together experts, practitioners, members of community development organizations, local high school and college BSU ambassadors, and youth leaders to create innovative solutions to the racist issues that directly impact youth and their communities. A list of demands to stop police brutality, change current policy and practices as it pertains to law enforcement, and reinvest in Black and Brown communities will be presented to the community at this symposium. The symposium will develop a series of key calls to action and plans for major demonstration utilizing social capital and existing community resources as mechanisms for youth development worldwide.
The active engagement and development of leadership skills among disenfranchised youth in marginalized neighborhoods of San Francisco is essential to national security, stability, capacity building, and increased quality of life worldwide. This symposium will bring together community organizers from around the Bay Area, along with practitioners and members of community development organizations, subject-matter experts, and youth leaders to showcase and exchange their experiences and best practices in this area.
“The great problem is how in the world is one going to invest these children with a new morale and a sense of their own worth if the country isn’t going to do it. The country won’t do it… ”
Please watch this poignant film “Take This Hammer” if you haven’t already of Bayview Hunters Point in 1964 with James Baldwin…everything in this video is still relevant today.
Gear up to get MARISSA ALEXANDER out of jail!
Free Marissa NOW East Bay is holding an exciting fundraising event to fund our cross-country caravan to spread the word about Marissa.
We will have a potluck, music, spoken word, theater, and testimonials from the womyn who are going on the caravan!
Come out, support, and REPRESENT the Bay!
Marissa, a Black woman who defended herself from abuse & threatened death, by firing a warning shot into the ceiling – injuring NO ONE – is still being persecuted, is back in jail plus she has a new hearing coming up Jan 27th!
We are planning a cross-country caravan to arrive in Jacksonville by Jan 27th: Make the freedom of Marissa a national STAND UP, FIGHT BACK cause.
Please bring an organic dish to share, if possible. And don’t forget your own plate, utensils, cup. We go green!!!
And feel free to bring musical instruments, written words to share, and a lot of money!!! Or just bring yourself!
You can also go to our online donation site – THANK YOU BREEZE – at http://www.gofundme.com/freemarissacaravan
Pack the courts! Come out to Department 9 to support James as he begins his fight against serious charges from Black Friday in San Francisco.
CHECK THE FACEBOOK EVENT FOR ANY LAST MINUTE CANCELLATION, POSTPONEMENT OR TIME CHANGE.
“Let Oakland’s New Mayor know, “THERE WILL BE NO BUSINESS AS USUAL” UNTIL OPD STOPS THE WAR ON BLACK LIVES
On Monday, January 5th, Ms. Schaff will be inaugurated as Oakland’s mayor. We will convene outside the Paramount Theater as a silent wall along the sidewalk from BART to the entrance of the theater so that every guest of the Mayoral Inauguration knows that Oakland expects the new Mayor to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to police terror in Oakland.
We ask attendees to join this SILENT protest, wear all black, join the line on the edge of the sidewalk and wear or hold your choice of signage (we’ll be posting some examples for you to print on this event).
We will not shout, chant or do anything that makes this an arrestable action. This action is meant to unify Oakland residents (current and those that have been displaced) in a powerful message of solidarity that says to the new mayor: IT ENDS TODAY.
The Anti Police-Terrorism is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee in collaboration with individuals and organizations such as The Community Ready Corps, the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Healthy Hoodz and the Black Power Network.
Anti-Police Terrorism Project Facebook
“Reckoning with Torture”
Dramatic Reading of related documents in a film produced by CodePink, ACLU, The National Lawyers Guild & World Can’t Wait
In 2010 CodePink, ACLU, National Lawyers Guild, and World Cant Wait organized a week of“Berkeley Says No to Torture.”
Q&A and Announcements to follow.
Bring the Bay to Department 701 at 9am! Let’s pack the courts to support Marsha, who was arrested doing jail support at Santa Rita.
Use this event page to coordinate rides with one another to the Dublin Courthouse. There is also a call for folks to step up and do childcare outside during the appearance. Support the support workers!
Check the event page before going as court times and dates change!
On New Year’s Eve, our comrade and friend Eric Garcia was brutally and arbitrarily arrested by police and held on false charges. This campaign seeks to reimburse Eric’s bond cosigner for bailing him out of jail. A more detailed description of the incident can be found below.
Eric and his friends attended an NYE noise demo in downtown Oakland, which they left after the demonstration was attacked by the police. Eric was standing with his friends on the sidewalk outside Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe on Telegraph Avenue, a full two blocks from the remaining marchers, among an assortment of cafe patrons and nighttime revelers, when police officers parked on Telegraph jumped out of their vehicles and charged at the small sidewalk gathering. The police snatched Eric from the crowd and violently arrested him, amid shouts of protest against police brutality. Fortunately, multiple people immediately began cop watching, recording the arrest on their phones, but this didn’t stop the police from hauling Eric off to the station and jailing him on completely unfounded felony charges.
Eric’s bail was set at $35,000. Since it was New Year’s Eve, the following day was a holiday, and following the holiday was the start of the weekend, Eric would have been held in jail for 5 nights until his arraignment on Monday if he hadn’t been bailed out, since court does not proceed on weekends and holidays. At his arraignment, given that there was a complete lack of justification for the arrest, no charges have been filed against Eric. The situation he was put in, through no wrongdoing on his part, amounts to state-sanctioned kidnapping and ransom.
Please give what you can to help Eric and his partner raise the amount of the bond payment that was exacted from them. These are very trying financial times for them both.
If you care about women, children and the planet, come see this revealing and inspiring film.
Free goodies available after the screening.
This event is not sponsored by, provided by, or affiliated with the Berkeley Public Library.
If you have been protesting, know people who have or just want to know your rights, you should definitely join us.
There will be civil rights attorneys from John Burris’ law firm who will be giving a presentation and fielding questions mostly about protesting and knowing your rights pertaining to it, as well as knowing what police can and can’t do, legally. They have also agreed to stay in contact with protesters for any ongoing situations that may arise.
There will also be women from Free Marissa Alexander Now east bay who will be discussing our upcoming caravan through the South to Florida and ways you can help support us!
You are welcome to come and bring guests! All welcome!
On January 8th, the city of San Leandro will have a public meeting.
There will be a presentation displaying the “tank” (armored personel carrier – a Lenco Bearcat) at 5:00 pm. The City Council meeting runs from 6:00pm to whenever.
The San Leandro Police Department will receive $200,000 towards the purchase of a Lenco Bearcat Medevac Tactical Armored Vehicle. The funds come from a $1.6 million “Homeland Security Grant for disaster assistance and overall management of regional emergency response activities.”
Military equipment in urban and suburban police departments have introduced a wide range of problems and concerns including crackdowns on legal protest activities, increased profiling, and police attacks on unarmed black men and women.The armored vehicle has “steel armor plate certified to defeat multi-hit attacks from 7.62 AP / .50 Cal BMG, while ceilings and floors provide enhanced blast and fragmentation protection.” according to the company web site. It also features “a roof hatch with a gunner’s stand” and “gun ports.” There is also a military version of the vehicle, but the agenda item doesn’t indicate which version San Leandro is getting.
Come to the meeting to say that small suburban towns like San Leandro don’t need armored personnel carriers and serving and protecting the community is different than terrorizing the community with war machines.