Calendar

Join us for the Bay Area premier of the new short film “Transforming California from Red to Blue: How Community Organizing Changed the Political Landscape”

The film documents the success of social movements in California in creating a more progressive political atmosphere in the state, pushing for policies and legislation that challenged dog whistle politics, xenophobia and structural racialization. Through interviews with key movement leaders and historical footage, the 10-minute video documents an important chapter in the California story. Following the film, a panel of activists will discuss the video and the significance of the gains made, as well as the challenges ahead.

Free. Wheel chair accessible. Food and drink will be provided

The Internet Archive presents the first ever Military Powerpoint Karaoke: a night of “Powerpoint Karaoke” using presentations in the Military Industrial Powerpoint Complex collection at archive.org that were thoughtfully extracted during the Internet Archive’s most recent end-of-term web crawl. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 6th at 7:30pm at our headquarters in San Francisco. The show will be preceded by a reception at 6:30 pm, when doors will also open.

Also known as “Battle Decks,” Powerpoint Karaoke is an improvisational and art event where audience members give a presentation using a set of Powerpoint slides that they’ve never seen before. There are three rules: 1) The presenter cannot see the slides before presenting; 2) The presenter delivers each slide in succession without skipping slides or going back; and 3) The presentation ends when all slides are presented, or after 5 minutes (whichever comes first). We’re thrilled to have Rick Prelinger, creator of Lost Landscapes and Prelinger Archive, and Avery Trufelman of 99% Invisible, joining us to deliver headlining Powerpoint decks. The rest of the presentations will be delivered by you — the audience members who sign up.

This event will use, as its source material, a curated collection of the Internet Archive’s Military Industrial Powerpoint Complex, a special project for the Internet Archive’s 20th Anniversary in which IA staff extracted all the Powerpoint files openly available from the government’s “.mil” web domain. This collection contains over 57,000 Powerpoint decks, each charged with material that ranges from the violent to the banal, featuring attack modes, leadership styles, harness types, and modes for requesting vacation days from the US Military. As a whole, this collection forms a unique snapshot into our government’s Military Industrial Complex.

This event is organized by artists/archivists Liat Berdugo and Charlie Macquarie in partnership with the Internet Archive.

MERCHANTS OF DOUBT, co-presented by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change.

Register

We’re at an important crossroads on how law enforcement agencies and courts are using big data and new technologies. Will they be used to reduce incarceration rates or to exacerbate unjust, biased enforcement patterns in policing? This is the moment to ask hard questions about how these systems are developed, and what kinds of checks are in place to ensure they meet high ethical standards.

We’ll explore the challenges and opportunities of these new systems and offer ideas on ways forward with a distinguished panel of experts in law, policing, and big data. This forum is part of Impact Justice’s Impact:Ideas series of occasional conversations, book discussions and panels designed to provoke fresh ideas about the future of our criminal justice system. The panel will feature:

• George Gascón, the District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. Prior to his appointment in 2011, Gascon served as Chief of the San Francisco Police Department. During his tenure as DA, Gascón has implemented a series of reforms and initiatives focused on bringing more data-driven solutions to preventing crime and recidivism. Most recently, he has led efforts to reduce the role of money in pre-trial decision-making, increasing the use of risk assessments and diversion programs in San Francisco bail and sentencing decisions.
• Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and a nationally-recognized expert on the use of big data systems in policing. His new book, The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement, examines how surveillance technology and predictive analytics shape modern policing.
• Christy Lopez, a distinguished visitor at Georgetown Law School and former Deputy Chief in the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. While at DOJ, Professor Lopez led the team that investigated the Ferguson Police Department as well as investigations of many other law enforcement agencies, including the Chicago Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. She also served as a federal court monitor of the Oakland Police Department.
• Antoinette Davis (moderator), Director of Impact Justice’s Research and Action Center. She is an expert in research, analysis, and evaluation, particularly around criminal and juvenile justice system reform. Her work is centered on finding strength-based solutions to complex systemic and social issues. She is currently leading several multi-site, mixed method research projects and has authored research reports on such topics as youth incarceration and the harmful effects of adult incarceration on girls.

Please join us! Light refreshments will be served.

Catherine Crump & Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

This event will feature a conversation between scholars interested in issues related to surveillance, policing, and civil liberties. In his talk, The Rise of Big Data Policing, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson will focus on how cutting-edge technology is changing how the police do their jobs, and why it is more important than ever that citizens understand the far-reaching consequences of big data surveillance as a law enforcement tool. He will reveal how these new technologies – viewed as race-neutral and objective – have been eagerly adopted by police departments hoping to distance themselves from claims of racial bias and unconstitutional practices. Yet behind the data are real people, and difficult questions remain about racial discrimination and the potential to distort constitutional protections.

In her presentation, Surveillance Policy Making By Procurement, Catherine Crump will discuss ways in which federal funding for surveillance equipment disrupts local accountability mechanisms that typically regulate policing. These federal funding programs generally are designed to prevent terrorism but in reality are overwhelmingly used for routine law enforcement purposes. The talk will discuss in detail the structural and institutional features that lead local law enforcement agencies to adopt surveillance technology that is out of step with community norms, and will review the ways in which some local communities have passed laws in an attempt to address this issue systematically.

A light lunch is included for attendees who RSVP in advance.

RSVP

August 9, 2014, in the wake of the brutal
police shooting of Michael Brown the
people of Ferguson, Missouri rose up.
Like Montgomery, Ala. 60 years before
gave birth to the Civil Rights Movement
and the prominence of Martin Luther King,
the defiance of the people in Ferguson,
gave birth to a new wave of struggle.
The Black Lives Matter movement
emerged and with it a new clarion call to
struggle for justice.

Speaker:
Kimberly Jade Norwood
Henry H. Oberschelp professor of law;
Professor of African & African American studies;
Author of Ferguson’s Fault Lines: The
Quake that Rocked the Nation and
Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the
Myth of Post Racial America will provide us with a
personal discussion on the quest for racial justice post Ferguson.

Film:
Whose Streets: How the Killing of 18 Year Old Michal Brown Inspired a Community to Fight
Back — A People’s Documentary. Director Sabaah Folyan and Damon Douglas take an
unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising following the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown.
Whose Streets? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting not only for their Civil
Rights but for the right to live! The film aims to show how people stood together, resisted
together, and fought together in the name of love and justice for black people not only in their
city but around the world similar to the Civil Rights Movement.

Adolfo Delgado “Jesus” was 19 years old when he was killed in a trunk by a barrage of 30 bullets fired by the SFPD on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.

On March 7^th, friends and community members spoke of Adolfo, how he helped others and helped his Mother. Their words were powerful. The vigil and march were powerful and youth-led.

On Friday, March 9^th, a Community Vigil has been called, All are welcomed,  it is asked that people respect and follow the lead of the YOUTH, who are friends of Adolfo and members of the community.

It is also asked that all respect the family and lift them up in prayers. Please respect them and do not contact them.

From: Adriana C.

“Another thing learned last night…Gascon is charging the young man driving the car for manslaughter, not the cops. Because of a “you made me shoot him argument” that the cops are using. I don’t know who this young man is but we need to have his back too.”

Article from Mission Local:

19-year-old police shooting victim came to the U.S. as a child and grew up and worked in SF’s Mission (March 8, 2018)

https://missionlocal.org/2018/03/19-year-old-police-shooting-victim-came-to-the-u-s-as-a-child-and-grew-up-and-worked-in-sfs-mission/

In January, more than 130 canvassers hit the streets in North Oakland for our Big Medicare-for-All Canvass. They were met with a commensurate number of new people signing the pledge and even more real, substantive conversations about the Medicare-for-All campaign and the two corporate money-free candidates our chapter has endorsed who will help make it happen.

The new grassroots organization Berkeley Community United for Police Oversight has submitted a ballot initiative to create a Police Oversight Commission with actual power (not just advisory, as it is now).  We will begin collecting signatures at our campaign kickoff!

Campaign Kick-off
We will be hosting a campaign kick-off celebration  at the Ashby Flea Market! We will be releasing media + flyers soon!

We are looking for musicians, artists, signature-gathers, speakers, poets, & folks to table, engage the community, and set-up/clean-up to get the community EXCITED for strong police oversight!

Please email our outreach chair, George at george@igc.org, if you are available!

Is what we say as important as the words we use to say them? Could it be that the green party has not grown in Alameda county because of a patriarchy that is reflected in how we talk to one another? Does the movement suffer from the same patriarchy we criticize others of having? Does how we speak and what we say have an impact on our ability to move forward more swiftly? Join your community as we engage in this conversation.

Ourpresenters are Meleiza Figueroa, Vicente Cruz, and Aidan “AJ” Hill:

Meleiza Figueroa is Co-Facilitator of the Movement School for Revolutionaries (https://www.school4rev.org). She is a PhD Candidate in Geography at UC Berkeley, and was Press Director for the Stein/Baraka 2016 Presidential campaign.  She has been a longtime political educator and organizer, and has been involved in a wide range of movements for social and environmental justice.

Vicente Cruz is an Oakland Green, the Producer of the Oakland Greens dinner and movie discussion series, and a sports educator.

Aidan “AJ” Hill  (they/them/theirs) County Council member is an emerging political activist in the bay area living on the intersection of multiple identities. They hope to highlight the disparity of power among marginalized groups and actively contribute to the social, cultural and political movements during their lifetime. Aidan actively works to promote pro-black feminism, trans-inclusion, environmental protections and develop a culture of consent and radical vulnerability in order to create a cycle of empowerment. By empowering others to be vulnerable, we break down stigmas that tell us that we must remain silent and alone. Their ultimate goal is to ensure that all persons have the ability to live a life of dignity and autonomy.

West Coast J20 Solidarity Tour, March 3rd – 18th

On January 20th, 2017, militarized police in Washington, D.C. attacked and mass-arrested over 200 protestors at an anti-fascist, anti-capitalist march, charging 214 of them each with an unprecedented eight felonies. Yet even while facing decades in prison, 194 defendants refused to cooperate with prosecutors or accept plea bargains, supporting each other to beat the charges but also to defend the legitimacy of uncompromising resistance to the Trump regime. As a result, the first trial against 6 defendants ended with a verdict of not guilty on all charges, forcing prosecutors to drop charges against 129 of the arrested. However, the state is now doubling down against 59 remaining defendants, hoping to divide the powerful movement that has successfully defended the arrestees. In an era of escalating repression, these charges aim to stomp out protest and resistance through broad conspiracy statutes, demonization of anarchists, and divide-and-conquer tactics.

In this touring presentation, you’ll hear an overview and critical analysis of the case this far, highlighting its role and significance in the changing landscape of political repression in the United States. From the broad use of conspiracy law to criminalize all aspects of protest organizing to the dramatic victory against the state in the first trial this past December, the case offers insights into strategies for repression in the new administration, connections between different targeted social movements, and the potential of collective defense to effectively defeat the government’s efforts. But most importantly, you’ll learn how this case fits into the broader struggle against Trump and the world that made him, and why it is critical that we support the 59 remaining defendants until they all walk free.