Calendar

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE HOMELESS IS ORGANIZING

Occupy the Sidewalks

DON’T STAND FOR SIT LIE

Stop the war on the poor

Section 168 of the San Francisco Police Code, makes it unlawful, with certain exceptions, to sit or lie on a public sidewalk, or on an object placed on a public sidewalk, between 7AM and 11PM.

(4) participating in or attending a parade, festival, performance, rally, demonstration, meeting or similar event conducted on a sidewalk under and in compliance with a street use or other applicable permit;

Protesting the law allows you to sit. The constitution guarantees you’re right to peaceably assemble in the commons. Remove their ability to prosecute and persecute the homeless. The commons belong to all!

The sidewalks of San Francisco have been a battleground if you are homeless. Sit lie is used to shuffle the poor out of sight. We take the shopping district on black Friday.

Join us for a speakout and rally against the recent white supremacist shootings against #4thPrecinctShutDown and #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators in North Minneapolis and in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Chicago in the wake of Laquan MacDonald horrific murder by police in 2014. From the growing white nationalism of Trump’s campaign to the now over 1,000 people shot down by law enforcement in 2015 alone, such systemic white supremacy has ushered in a new phase of the black liberation struggle. Now is the time to take sides and get organized.

Big ups to our comrades in Berkeley and East Oakland who have walked out of school and stood firm in the face of police terror.

Bring signs, banners, and noise makers!

Various community speakers will address the crowd as well as guests calling in from Minneapolis and Chicago!

#Oakland solidarity rally for #Justice4Jamar #Chicago #LaquanMcDonald #4thPrecinctShutDown. Fri November 27 5pm. pic.twitter.com/v2TyW1WcrD

— FireWorks (@FireWorksBAY) November 25, 2015

Rally on the Old City Hall Steps beginning at 4:00 in support of the Homeless Occupation and Protest now ensconced on the grounds, in support of #BlackLivesMatter and against Berkeley’s participation in Urban Shield, an annual militarized police training and military-style equipment show.

Items concerning these issues will be on the City Council Agenda this evening – three anti-homeless ordinances, a spineless report about the Berkeley Police and their actions during the Black Lives Matters protests a year ago when people were tear gassed, shot at with bean-bag rounds and struck with batons, and something to continue Berkeley’s relationship with UASI, the funder for Urban Shield.

There will be a march commencing at 6:00 PM to the Longfellow School at Derby & Sacramento; there will be a press conference at 6:30 PM; and then the regular City Council meeting will begin at Longfellow at 7:00 PM.

Hit the Streets tomorrow 9am-noon Montgomery BART in SF for the #climate & against #policeshooting in #SF by #SFPD https://t.co/JSBykhk7LO

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 3, 2015

In conjunction will the rally in solidarity with Climate Change protesters in Paris.

MARCH in Oakland #JusticeForMarioWoods 4pm Sat Dec 5th 14th & Broadway #Oakland #MarioWoods fuck #SFPD fuck #OPD pic.twitter.com/Su1iibykUX

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 4, 2015

Since December 9th 2014 the Community Dinner Project (a group of concerned citizens and volunteers who are working on building a more unified, compassionate and just community), have fed the hungry, distributed needed clothing and toiletries, and provided other assistance to them as needed or requested, in front of Sacramento City Hall every week. We feed around 75-130 people a week! The homeless people who line up and gather near City Hall, are fed a nutritious organic meal by the volunteers, who by feeding said homeless people, are in violation of a local ordinance that criminalizes said feeding. The local ordinance requires a permit to feed that costs over $300.00. This is a sum that exceeds the financial wherewithal of many people and groups, but more importantly, places an inhumane financial burden regarding people in need.

Following the healthy organic meal, a number of concerned citizens and some of the homeless people themselves, enter City Hall to address the city council during their weekly meetings to discuss issues of homelessness and the effects on their lives. We all have been vigilantly advocating for the repeal of the anti-homeless laws in Sacramento (especially the unlawful camping ordinance), and standing in solidarity to discuss and bring to the forefront other important community issues (police brutality, Black Lives Matter, Nestle’ water profiteering, the right to grow your own food (urban gardening), reopening the city park bathrooms, more effort towards housing first (rapid rehousing), raising the minimum wage, and more affordable housing, etc. We believe that by uplifting those who have been ignored by society with healthy food, a positive environment, and a supportive group to help them find a voice to speak out against injustice, we can help usher in a more unified and compassionate City of Sacramento!

On August 6, 2015 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), issued a statement of interest concerning a federal case over a camping ordinance in Boise, Idaho. In this case, seven individuals are suing the city over their conviction for the “crime” of camping. This case has been ongoing for over two years, and now the Obama administration has weighed in stating that the ordinance in question violates the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of The United States! This is a significant decision regarding the issue of homelessness in our country and we think that the time is ripe to press the City of Sacramento to undo its draconian ordinance that criminalizes homelessness and the right to feed the homeless.

There is also an advisory statement released by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. This statement was to advise communities to stop breaking up homeless encampments. Their reasoning was it makes building productive relationships harder, which in turn makes getting people connected to services to help them get off the streets.

Then there is HUD. In coming months, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to ask local homeless services officials to educate their communities against criminalization ordinances. Communities who do not comply will risk losing funding!!

In light of the federal governments stance, and the fact that we have been advocating for the repeal of our local camping ordinance, on December 8th, We (@Community Dinner Project) intend to occupy Sacramento City Hall to demand that City Council repeal the Unlawful Camping Ordinance.
Please join us in ending this assault on our fellow human beings and rather than punish those less fortunate, let us be a model city and demonstrate caring and compassion, and social justice for all and find more sustainable solutions for homeless people.

There are three levels of support we are asking for:

First, is to agree that the city should repeal, or place a moratorium on, the unlawful camping ordinance. This simply entails calling, writing, or emailing your council member to let them know you do not want your tax dollars (which is in the millions here in Sacramento) spent on criminalizing homelessness, and would prefer the city take a more active role with rapid rehousing!

Second, is as an active supporter which would include helping with supplies or food, coming down to talk with those who are occupying, jail support if necessary, etc.

Third, is to join the occupation by camping with us, and others, on the lawn at city hall, which is the civil disobedience portion.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-homeless-doj-20150907-story.html

Demands:

• Public apology from Suhr to Mario’s mother
• SF pay for Mario’s funeral
• SF pay for Federal Investigation
• Identify all officers who fired weapons
• Fire all officers who discharged weapons
• Fire Police Chief Suhr

This Wednesday at 5 pm @ San Francisco City Hall: Demand Justice for #MarioWoods, murdered by #SFPD. pic.twitter.com/2bYKIzuP2K

— CRC Media Corps (@CRCMediaCorps) December 7, 2015

#ShutItDown #JusticeForMarioWoods #SanFranciscoWalkoutForMario pic.twitter.com/1AIKvvplu9

— Michael McBride (@pastormykmac) December 11, 2015

Rally today for #TamirRice at 14th and Broadway #Oakland 1pm-7pm The cops who killed #Tamir were let off. #BlackLivesMatter #MarioWoods #SF

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 28, 2015

#Oakland: Today #Dec28 #tamirrice Rally @ 14th & Broadway 1pm-7pm https://t.co/cNhRhncIgU

— SHOWERPROMOTION (@SHOWERPROMO) December 28, 2015

Bay Area rises up in solidarity with Tamir Rice’s family one year after Cleveland police officers killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Please join Black Lives Matter Bay Area, Black Lives Matter and the Last 3 Percent Coalition as we gather in solidarity with the family of Tamir Rice and Black Lives Matter Cleveland, and to uplift all of the families of those we have lost to police violence.

This is a black led ceremony that is centered in Black love, Black healing and Black rage. We invite allies to join us under the direction of our elders.

We support the family’s demands:
1. The immediate termination of Officer Loehmann and Officer Garmback.
2. A Federal Department of Justice investigation of Timothy McGinthy, and his removal as Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
3. A Federal Department of Justice investigation of the shooting and murder of Tamir Rice.

Tomorrow! #ReclaimSF pic.twitter.com/PMeK4rnR2O

— FireWorks (@FireWorksBAY) January 6, 2016

“Suhr & Lee: Stop Killing SF & Its Black, Brown, Disabled & Poor People -Mayor Lie Must Resign & Greg Suhr Must be fired”

Bring a car, truck if you have on to help folks who are disabled- we will drive, march, walk up to his house which is three blocks away

Statement by impacted, displaced, and po’Lice terrorized:

For Mario Woods and all crimes of displacement and police terror against our poor, Black, Brown and disabled bodies we, the most impacted, are calling for the resignations of the San Francisco Mayor and Police Chief

“As a Black activist with a disability I have seen/read in 2015 alone three high-profile cases of police brutality against Black disabled men on the streets of San Francisco including the recent killing of Mario Woods,Today in 2015 we realize that more promises of training is not the only answer, it’s time for institutional changes in the police department and on the police commission board..” said Leroy Moore, Race and Disability writer for POOR Magazine and founder of Krip Hop Nation.

In response to San Francisco Police murders of Mario Woods, a disabled, African-American resident of the Bayview Hunters Point district of San Francisco, Amilcar Lopez earlier this year and Alex Nieto last year, a group of poor, disabled, Black, Brown, homeless and poor residents, advocates and youth who have personally dealt with eviction, displacement and police terror are demanding the immediate resignation of police chief Greg Suhr and his overseer SF Mayor, Ed Lee. This latest tragedy involving a young man of color murdered by police is directly connected to Mayor Lee’s prioritization of wealthy development over people. As well, we are putting forth and demanding an urgent solution; to elect a community member to the Police Review Commission and the San Francisco Planning Commission.

…In the beginning of the year we saw Bo Frierson of the Filmore almost tipped over from his wheelchair by an officer, in August we have seen seventeen cops take down Musa Fudge, a Black homeless man with a prosthetic leg in downtown and now a deadly shooting of Mario Woods, a Black man with a history of mental health disabilities in the Bayview district. Back in 2001 the community fought for the police crisis training after the shooting of another Black man with mental health disabilities, Idriss Stelley however more than ten years later, less than half of the department has undergone the training,and the watered down version of the training and funding snatched away and the recent shooting, all points to the effectiveness of the training has always been questionable and now have been seen as a band-aide that has never been the purpose to heal it is the purpose to keep the public quiet as the institutional culture of police continues to be hidden from the community . Leroy Moore.

“As the mother of a mentally disabled young African Sun who was murdered by San Francisco police department after a 911 call for help and who was involved in training police for years, iI don’t believe training can stop the police culture of murder against black, brown and disabled people,” said Mesha Irazarry, mother of Po’Lice murder victim Idriss Stelley. She continued, “They should defund the police and give the money to mental health providers, expecting police to respond to a mental health crisis is like expecting a mortician to deliver your baby.”

“Mayor Lee and Chief Suhr have shown a lack of leadership in this crisis. The Mayor in particular has shown no leadership at all levels and his reaction to the murder indicates how out of touch he is with the community. Mayor Lee and Chief Suhr need to resign”, said Tony Robles, Board president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation.

The brutality of San Francisco police and housing policies against San Francisco’s low-income, African-American and communities of color are so flagrant that our collaboration of very grassroots, poor and impacted people-led organizations have no choice but to come forward with this demand before we are no longer here, said Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, Poverty Scholar and co-author of this statement and author of Criminal of Poverty, Growing Up Homeless in America. She continued, “Police policies put in place by Mayor Lee’s administration have increased our homelessness, have increased our arrests and incarceration and have led to our eventual removal as poor people, as disabled people, as people of color.”

The co-authors of this statement represent the most impacted residents of San Francisco, a city with less than 3% of its African-American population left,down from over 20%, a city with a police chief who enables the extra-judicial killing of its young Black , Brown and poor residents and a City run by a Mayor who because of his investment in luxury development and displacement, makes it impossible for its Black, Brown and Low-income elders and families to remain here.

This media release is co-authored by disabled, homeless, poor, Black and Brown leaders at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, the Idriss Stelley Foundation, Krip Hop Nation and The Manilatown Heritage Foundation and The Coalition on Homelessnes #######

link to statement:http://www.poormagazine.org/mario-woods-san-francisco-call-mayor-police-chief-resign

Mayor Lee has been decidedly absent as we have sought dialogue with him about Chief Suhr’s inability to run a police force. Chief Suhr has created a culture of racism and brutalization that gave those five officers permission to assassinate Mario Woods. If he will not fire Chief Suhr, who refuses to step down, then we will let him know that he can go too. If we do not get justice, he will not get peace!!! We will be at the doors of San Francisco’s City Hall for the Mayor’s Inauguration not in celebration, but in protest!

Everyone please try to wear black. The mayor may be celebrating his re-election but we will turn it into a funeral march in honor of Mario Woods

#calltoaction #justice4mariowoods #mariowoods #shutdownSF #BlackLivesMatter #firechiefsuhr pic.twitter.com/18O61d9eck

— Justice4MarioWoods (@Justice4MWNow) January 2, 2016

                  AND FREE QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL :

The Oasis Clinic in Oakland, CA, which treats patients with Hepatitis-C (HCV), is calling for a demonstration to protest the outrageous price-gouging of Big Pharma corporations, like Gilead Sciences, which hike-up the cost for essential, life-saving medications such as the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, in order to reap huge profits. The Oasis Clinic’s demand is:

                                                                PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal urges you to support this demonstration! As many as 700,000 prisoners are among the nearly 5.2 million Americans infected with HCV, according to the Center for Disease Control, and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is among them.

MOBILIZE  AT THE JP MORGAN HEALTH CARE CONFERENCE.

This JP Morgan investor conference is an invitation-only event which entices corporate CEOs, CFOs, investors and other opportunist big-wigs to slurp up the profits that can be made from gouging the victims of life-threatening diseases such as Hepatitis-C. This includes Gilead Sciences, the “owner” of Harvoni, which is the effective new cure for HCV.

One pill a day for 12 weeks does the trick with a 95 percent cure rate, but Gilead charges $1,000 per pill, or nearly $100,000 for a full course of treatment!!

Prisoners are among the most likely to contract Hep-C, and among the least likely to receive the newly available cure for the disease, due to both the exaggerated price, and the refusal of prison administrations to provide proper health care to inmates!

Mumia Abu-Jamal was infected in 1981, after he was shot by police and treated as a prisoner for his wounds. Falsely convicted for killing a cop and sent to death row (he’s now serving life without the possibility of parole), Mumia’s infection began to show symptoms in 2015, which is typical for this slow-incubating but usually fatal (if untreated) disease. Mass mobilization by supporters is the only reason Mumia got any medical attention at all, and he is still denied the curative Harvoni treatment which alone can ensure his survival! The PA prison system is trying to kill Mumia by medical neglect!

 

In violation of National Institute of Health (NIH) regulations, Gilead canceled its program to supply a certain amount of the drug at low cost.   And the New York Times reported that in “a complicated deal to sell hepatitis drugs at a small fraction of their usual cost while imposing tight restrictions intended to protect lucrative markets in the West… for the past year, Gilead has sold the drug to the Egyptian government for about $10 a pill.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal, though he suffered near death for lack of treatment last year, is the first one to point out that he is only one of many. He supports the demands for treatment of some 10,000 prisoners in Pennsylvania alone who suffer from HCV infection.

In a recent federal appeal, lawyers fighting for treatment of Mumia brought out evidence in court of a secret PA Department of Corrections (DOC) protocol which explicitly provides for observation, but not treatment, of HCV infected prisoners!

WE DEMAND:

PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!

IMMEDIATE AND FREE TREATMENT FOR ALL HCV-INFECTED PRISONERS!

NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!

JAIL DRUG PROFITEERS, FREE MUMIA!

This message from:

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

PO Box 16222  Oakland CA 94610 

The Occupy The Farm documentary will be screened on the Sprouts grocery building @ 30th & Broadway today 6pm; protests outside store all day

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 13, 2016

Go to grand opening of Sprouts grocery 30th & Broadway, #Oakland today & tell shoppers to boycott until company stops paving Gill Tract farm

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 13, 2016

“Equality demands dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.”

“When you have mass unemployment in the Negro community it’s called a social problem. When you have mass unemployment in the white community it’s called a depression”

“We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt”

— Martin Luther King, Jr–

Last year, during MLK weekend, The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) answered a national call by initiating #96Hours of Direct Action that culminated in an historic march from Fruitvale Station to Coliseum City on Martin Luther King Day. Over 7,000 people took to the streets and reclaimed the radical spirit of King and celebrated his legacy of resistance! Since then, APTP has steadfastly been organizing to build a replicable and sustainable model for eradicating police-terror in communities of color.

In the months following that powerful weekend, the police and the state have taken more lives than ever before and our communities are facing accelerated displacement due to rapid gentrification that is supported and encouraged by our new Mayor and City Council members.

Based on a vote taken at the last spokescouncil – this year’s 96 Hours of Direct Action will have increased specificity.  Please see below for the weekend’s parameters:

1/15: Actions focused on gentrification will take place on both sides of the bridge

1/16: Actions focused on the many areas of state terror happening in Oakland (police terror, gentrification, educational inequity etc.,)

1/17: Actions focused on the many areas of state terror happening in San Francisco (corrupt police department, gentrification, police murders)

And on 1/18, This year our MLK day march will be even bigger.  We are marching from OGP to Emeryville. We begin gathering at 11:00 AM.

This is a family-friendly event and a celebration of King’s legacy, Black Lives and the struggle for social justice.

Last year we marched through areas in Oakland that are currently in development or are proposing development and we made clear demands to stem the tide of gentrification, end the displacement of Black and Brown residents, replace high-rise plans with affordable housing, and implement local-hiring practices all while demanding an immediate end to police terror in our communities.

Join us as we plan yet another historic day. We are meeting the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7:30 At EastSide Arts Alliance. When we get closer to the date, we will initiate the spokescouncil again so affinity groups can come together – or form – and plan for the #96hours.

APTP is coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending the state sanctioned murder of Black, Brown & Poor people by police departments across the country.

#reclaimMLK
#96hours

InterOccupy | SPOKESCOUNCIL – 96 HOURS OF ACTION FOR MLK CONFERENCE CALL

SPOKESCOUNCIL – 96 HOURS OF ACTION FOR MLK CONFERENCE CALL

INTEROCCUPY.NET

Meet in the Dimond district Safeway parking lot. Organized by SURJ

TODAY: 10:45 meet @ Walgreen's, 51st&Tel to join us for Fast food worker action! #96Hours #RECLAIMMLK

— Bay Solidarity (@BaySolidarity) January 16, 2016