Calendar
Because of great public demand, we will provide an encore showing of “Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial” this coming Thursday, January 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission district! If you attended the premiere, then you know how powerful of a film this is, both for its art and its honest evaluation of the Alex Nieto case. Now you can bring more friends or come for the first time. Read the reviews and know that you are in store for an unprecedented experience. Note, however, at the premiere, we were totally packed, so please get your tickets online to avoid the crowds and a sold-out sign.
Join the Facebook event page and blast this great news out to the world!
We combat injustice with community creativity, solidarity, y amor.
A Barrio Bushido and Maya Media Production
Click on the link to purchase tickets: https://apps.vendini.com/
Click on the link to view the trailer for “Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial”: https://www.youtube.com/
Click the link to read all “Lowrider Lawyers” reviews and watch the trailer:
https://
Tim Redmond’s article in 48 Hills: Evidence in Nieto case casts doubt on police story:
http://www.48hills.org/
Click here to read a review of the film and event, “Lowrider Lawyers” Put the City on Trial”:
http://www.48hills.org/
Click here to read an article about the “Lowrider Lawyers” film premiere:
http://missionlocal.org/
“Lowrider Lawyers” Live Grand Premiere Show!
https://www.youtube.com/
“Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial” trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/
Click on the link to read a critical article about “Lowrider Lawyers”:
Click here to listen to the “Hard Knock Radio” Lowrider Lawyers Interview that goes from 30:50 to 59:50: https://kpfa.org/player/
Click here to listen to the “La Onda Bajita” Lowrider Lawyers Interview:https://kpfa.org/player/
Click on the link to find out more about Alex Nieto: http://
In Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial, the barrio community rises with creativity and amor for Alex Nieto, scholarship student security guard and beloved son, who was unlawfully killed by 48 bullets fired from the San Francisco Police Department on March 21, 2014 on top of Bernal Heights Mountain.
When the Homies discover that Alex, who had never even been arrested in his entire life, has been unjustly executed, they request that the heavy hitters handle the case. Caravanning with other fine rides, the Lowrider Lawyers lowride in a wine-colored 1966 Chevy Impala Convertible to the colonial courthouse, where indigenous danzantes drum out and stomp over evil spirits, and summon the truth into the justice system. A jury of peers, cholo homeboys and homegirls, listen intently to the evidence presented.
Using legal articulation, the Lowrider Lawyers begin with a clear, concise opening statement. They then move to critically examining the witness who actually saw the killing and contradicts the police narrative, a dog owner whose wolf-like dog attacked Alex, and the person, who without reasonable cause, called the police on Alex. The courthouse is then magically transformed into the barrio, where the last Lowrider Lawyer interrogates the police officer who killed Alex Nieto. Balmy Alley’s gentrification mural becomes the vibrant backdrop, and the Homies painted on the walls serve as the jury. Substantive answers from witnesses and the police are based on the actual San Francisco District Attorney’s Report, deposition testimony, and other true accounts.
Real footage of “Amor for Alex” marches and lowrider shows concludes this powerful, unprecedented type of film. Written and directed by Benjamin Bac Sierra and filmed and edited by Peter Menchini. Starring Homies from San Fran and around the Bay, San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ District Nine Candidate Edwin Lindo, national entertainer and singer Favi Estrella, and Stanford Law School graduate and international development consultant Adriana Camarena. Soundtrack by “Dr. Loco” (Jose Cuellar) and Favi Estrella.
Watch the Lowrider Lawyers trailer online at: https://www.youtube.com/
Box office opens at 6:00 p.m. doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Con Safos.
A film by Abigail E. Disney and Gini Reticker
The untold story of the everyday women who brought a warring nation to its senses, armed only with the courage of their convictions is an uplifting and inspiring as well as enraging story of a group of Muslim and Christian women, rich and poor, urban and rural, who bring peace to their beloved but war-torn Liberia. This unsung achievement is gripping suspenseful and ultimately incredibly satisfying. Touching and even funny this film will stay with you for years. In the words of Archbishop Tutu it “captures the power each of us innately has within our souls to make the world a far better, safer, more peaceful place.” A wonderful way for our congregation to bring in the New Year.
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Cmte as part of our Conscientious Projector series.
Wheelchair accessible.
Come protest the new Sprouts “Farmers Market,” a racist, sexist, corporate, big box grocery store chain that has just moved into Oakland. Sprouts is NOT a farmers’ market, but in fact imports food from around the world and doesn’t treat their workers well. Stand against the gentrification of Oakland, in solidarity with Occupy the Farm and the Gill Tract Community Farm, and in support of local food economies and the real farmers markets and local markets owned and operated by the people of Oakland.
The newly emerging “Interfaith Committee in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter–Bay Area” is hosting a vigil and candle-lit funeral procession on the Friday afternoon preceding Martin Luther King Day weekend.
This solemn action will call on Oakland city officials and residents alike to see, connect with, and mourn the Black and Brown lives lost to police violence as well as the losses born by communities of color in Oakland as a result of over-policing, displacement, and gentrification. It will also put City Hall on notice that they can expect continued pressure from Oakland’s faith community to prioritize Black and Brown lives by reallocating money toward affordable housing and alternatives to over-policing.
If you can, please bring a small candle in a clear cup or glass to carry in the procession.
We will walk approximately 3/4 mile together.
*** This action is a response to the callout for 96 Hours of Direct Action to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy.
PUBLIC PANEL DISCUSSION DANGERS OF TASERS
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE
Jeremy Miller, anti-Taser activist, Idriss Stelley Foundation
(moderator)
Aram James, activist and former Palo Alto Public Defender,
and expert on nation-wide dangers of Tasers
La Mesha Stelley, Idriss Stelley Foundation
Marion Jackson, founder Officers for Justice,
retired Inspector, San Francisco Police Department
Jennifer Friedenbach Executive Director,
Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
Steve Zeltzer, United Public Workers For Action
Sponsored by
Idriss Stelley Foundation
Sponsored by: COMMUNITY DEMOCRACY PROJECT
Street Convos for Racial Justice in Oakland
We will reach out and talk to people about racial justice, MLK, policing, and the city budget.
Carnival de Resistance happening at 30th & Broadway gentrifying Sprouts 'Farmers Market' 11:30am-1pm drums, costumes, stilts #FreeTheLand
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 16, 2016
- Venezuela: Eyewitness Report
- What happened in Venezuela’s parliamentary elections on December 6? This report will convey the impressions and first observations from two recent trips to Venezuela by Rick Sterling. What were the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution over 17 years? Why and how was it under attack?What are the prospects in the coming year?
A facilitated group discussion about racial justice, MLK, policing, and the city budget.
Planting Justice is teaming up with Community Check Cashing right outside of CCC in Fruitvale Plaza
Monday, Jan 18th, 9:30 AM as part of the #ReclaimMLK 96 Hours of Action Weekend:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1678077069118027/
Join us as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision around ending poverty in America.
The brothers and sisters of Moving Forward (an association of Planting Justice Staff) are teaming up with Community Check Cashing to create space on this sacred day around economic justice and empowerment in our community.
Join us as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision around ending poverty in America.
The brothers and sisters of Moving Forward (an association of Planting Justice Staff) are teaming up with Community Check Cashing to create space on this sacred day around economic justice and empowerment in our community.
Meet us at Community Check Cashing
We will read excerpts of Dr. King’s speeches around poverty eradication,
enjoy a brief meditation and hear from members of the community around their journey to regaining control of their finances and economic resources.
Refreshments including
green smoothies and healing herbal teas provided by Planting Justice urban gardens and students of Planting Justice.
Generous support provided by Community Check Cashing, America’s only not-for-profit check cashing spot designed to help move low income individuals and families out of poverty.
Pre-march protest in solidarity with the fighting people of Haiti:
Black Lives Matter from Haiti to the Bay
· Drummers
· Report from Haiti – By Pierre Labossiere
A part of the 96 Hours of Direct Action to Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” We will march to join the 11AM rally and march at Oscar Grant Plaza
Haiti is in the streets almost every day – as tens of thousands turn out to demand that the stolen 2015 election be thrown out. The mass movement is telling the U.S./U.N. occupiers: “Don’t Steal Our Votes!” It is demanding “Reclaim Haiti’s sovereignty!” from foreign occupation.
Haiti’s struggle is our struggle. It’s now 50 years since the U.S. Voting Rights Act, but it’s been rolled back to systematically deny Black people the right to vote – again. In Haiti the 2015 elections were plagued by endless and well-documented ballot stuffing, vote buying, armed coercion, naked vote rigging – yet the U.S. ambassador gave his “OK” to the faked election results. In effect, whether it’s here or in Haiti, the U.S. rulers are deliberately interfering with the people’s right to freely choose the representatives that they want.
Haiti’s fight is our fight. Just as we in the Bay Area are fighting against police murder of Black people, so it is in Haiti. The State Dept wants to suppress the surging popular movement – using police terror against the people. During the 2015 elections, special US-financed police units sprayed machine gun fire into working-class neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince and Arcahaie to suppress the vote, killing scores of people.
The U.S. State Department is the main actor trying to push through the fraudulent elections – maneuvering to exclude Haiti’s most popular political party – Fanmi Lavalas – from any role in the next government. The U.S. wants to keep in power corrupt puppets who are willing to give away Haiti’s abundant mineral resources … privatize the mines and the electric company … and keep factory wages at US$3/day – continuing a long tradition of the U.S. and France stealing the wealth and the labor of the Haitian people.
Lighting the fires of struggle – Many have commented that the Haitian people, in their vast majority, are very aware of their history – proud inheritors of the Revolution of 1791-1804, when Haiti defeated the army of Napoleon, ended plantation slavery and declared independence from France. “It’s on every lip,” said one Lavalas activist. “People are saying that in rejecting this stolen election, we are lighting the fires of struggle, continuing the fight for equality and sovereignty that our ancestors fought for 200 years ago.”
****After the protest we will walk 2 blocks to join the 11:00 AM rally and march at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th & Broadway) to Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. ****
For more information, connect with the Haiti Action Committee: www.haitisolidarity.net @HaitiAction1 and on Facebook
Facebook event with description here.
We are marching from Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway, to the Bay St Mall in Emeryville.
WE DEMAND:
The resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf
The immediate termination of Chief Sean Whent
The immediate termination of Chief Greg Suhr
The immediate termination of the officers involved in the murders of Richard Perkins, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto, Demoriah Hogg and Richard Linyard
The immediate reallocation of city budgets: reduce police budgets and reallocate those funds to provide for affordable housing that allows Black, Brown and other people of color to remain in San Francisco and Oakland.
This year, we shut it down in the names of:
Yuvette Henderson
Nate Wilks
Richard Perkins
Richard Linyard
Demoriah Hogg
Yonas Alehegne
Amilcar Lopez
Mario Woods
Alex Nieto
#mlkshutitdown
#96hours
#reclaimMLK
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
(https://www.facebook.com/
Police are the shock troops of gentrification. Mayors give them a mandate: make this city appealing to developers by any means necessary. City Councils fund police and constantly seek to expand their numbers and their powers. As a result, people of color are being pushed out of cities at unprecedented rates, by an out of control rental market, increased police occupation and terrorism against communities of color, as well as crackdowns on those who dare protest these unjust policies.
A year ago, people across the country began taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers; storming shopping centers, blocking streets and highways, interrupting cultural events and public transit. And the people SHUT IT DOWN. We SHUT IT DOWN because there is a state-sponsored war on Black, Brown, and other marginalized peoples in the United States. WE SHUT DOWN BUSINESS-AS-USUAL because business-as-usual is an out-of-control epidemic of police terror.
Last year, in partnership with comrades and allies, APTP launched 96 Hours of Direct Action in the Bay Area, and answered a national call to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy which we did through a march that brought over 7,000 people into the streets of Oakland. We believe it is important for our movement to draw on King’s legacy to ground ourselves, to reinforce our conviction and confidence in the tactics and strategy of disruptive direct action.
A year later, while we are starting to have an impact, we also see that we have a long long way to go. So this Martin Luther King Day weekend, Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project* is calling on you to help us SHUT IT DOWN – again. Together, we will unleash the vast creativity and organizing capacity of our communities to produce a spectrum of disruptive and creative activity. In the spirit of MLK, we want these to actions to meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, concerts or prayer vigils and to do so with action logic that links our resistance to fighting racism, economic injustice, and imperialism. We want you to plan these actions independently, but together we will coordinate collective support for these actions through a spokescouncil so that they have maximal support and impact.
Please visit the 96 Hours facebook event page: Updates, meeting agendas, calendar, and other info will be posted:
https://www.facebook.com/
Also see the Second Annual March to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy event page:
https://www.facebook.com/
Invite your friends!
Check out the web site for more about APTP’s vision: http://
The weekend will once again culminate in a King Day march that embodies the true spirit of King’s resistance to capitalism, imperialism and racism.
WE DEMAND:
- The resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf
- The immediate termination of Chief Sean Whent
- The immediate termination of Chief Greg Suhr
- The immediate termination of the officers involved in the murders of Richard Perkins, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto, Demoriah Hogg and Richard Linyard
- The immediate reallocation of city budgets: reduce police budgets and reallocate those funds to provide for affordable housing that allows Black, Brown and other people of color to remain in San Francisco and Oakland
Spokescouncil Meetings are scheduled to take place:
January 5th @ 7pm at the OMNI
January 9th @ 7 pm @ the OMNI
January 12th @ 7pm (San Francisco Location TBD)
January 14th @ 7pm (Location TBD)
Reminder this is a call out for affinity groups to organize autonomous solidarity actions in line with APTP’s Principles.
This year, we shut it down in the names of:
Yuvette Henderson
Nate Wilks
Richard Perkins
Richard Linyard
Demoriah Hogg
Yonas Alehegne
Amilcar Lopez
Mario Woods
Alex Nieto
#mlkshutitdown
#96hours
#reclaimMLK
Questions, ideas, comments, or to get involved…
Email aptpspokescouncil@gmail.co
Tuesday, Jan 19 with 6 pm potluck (list ingredients!); CSAI Accountability Forum 2 at 7 PM. This is the follow-up to our October 30, 2015 Forum at which the gathering called for the Berkeley City Council to address nine specific points. This time we will address “who” enters the Police Academy in the first place, and how to improve the Police Review Commission. That subject will be on the City Council agenda the following week at Berkeley City Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 26th.
The Oscar Grant Committee and the family of Pedie Perez will hold a Press Conference and Speak Out to Stop the Pedie Perez Killing Cover-Up! We will then attend the regular meeting of the Richmond City Council and. speak during the Public Comment period.
After sixteen months of secrecy and hypocrisy, the family of Richard “Pedie” Perez III is still seeking truth and justice in the killing of their son by Richmond Police Officer Wallace Jensen in the early morning hours of September 14, 2014. The police falsely claimed that Pedie attacked Officer Jensen and tried to take his gun. The surveillance video and eyewitnesses tell a different story, and the facts are widely known among the media and the public. Yet Police Chief Chris Magnus, Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson, City Attorney Bruce Goodmiller, and Mayor Tom Butts are all conspiring to prevent an independent investigation by the Richmond Police Commission.
These public officials have discredited their offices, just as Officer Jensen discredited the Richmond Police Department. We deserve better from our police and elected officials. We reject the Cover-Up and call for Openness and Transparency with an Independent Investigation and an Independent Prosecutor!
“I just want flat out justice . . . If the facts are that the cop did what I think he did, well, we don’t need cops like that.” – Rick Perez, Pedie’s father
San Francisco’s police union has called on its members to show up at Wednesday’s police commission in force to support the officers who were involved in the December shooting death of Mario Woods.
A letter was sent to all active Police Officers Association members Jan. 16 asking for a strong showing Wednesday night to ensure the commission remains impartial despite attacks on law enforcement from some politicians and others.
“I am writing to all active POA members to request a show of support by officers at the next police commission meeting. We are asking our members to show support for our brothers and sisters involved in the recent officer involved shootings in the Bayview district,” wrote union President Martin Halloran in his plea. “Our profession is under attack nationally, and especially here in San Francisco”
The union’s request comes as protesters and activists have been calling for Mayor Ed Lee to fire Police Chief Greg Suhr and for the prosecution of the five officers who were involved in the killing of Woods last month.
Suhr has specifically come under fire for his previous handling of a racist text scandal last year and more recently for comments he made after the Woods killing that some say sounded as if he thought the shooting was justified.
Meanwhile, the union’s president has taken a strong position on the Woods killing, saying in the January issue of the union’s monthly journal that preliminary information released by the department indicates that “these officers were forced into an impossible situation with an armed suspect who allegedly stabbed an innocent victim less than a half hour earlier. These officers exhausted all forms of less lethal force and were forced, by the suspect, to discharge their firearms”
We disagree.
Chicago Confessional, documentary by Bryan Gibel
Inmate Stanley Wrice was subject to a police torture squad that operated in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s. The injustices were led by Jon Burge, Chicago Police Department detective and commander who gained notoriety for torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991 in order to force confessions. Stanley Wrice seeks to overturn his conviction for a horrible crime he insists he didn’t commit.
as always, free snacks and popcorn
Justice 4 Mario Woods
The Rules Committee — made up of Sups. Avalos, Tang, and Cohen — is having a special meeting on Thursday and the first item on the agenda is addressing alternatives to use of force in policing.
http://www.sfbos.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=54804
1. 151263 [Hearing – Alternatives to Use of Force in Policing]
Sponsors: Cohen; Yee, Avalos, Breed and Campos
Hearing on alternatives to the use of force in policing, and re-evaluating San Francisco
Police Department General Orders 2.07, 5.01, and 5.02; and requesting the Police
Department to report.