Calendar
Qilombo is dedicated to supporting our communities and neighbors every day, whether we’re open or closed. It’s that time of year again: It’s Hella cold, Oakland and many of our neighbors are facing this winter outside. Tent cities are a part of Afrikatown until we can build the economic support to enrich us all. So let’s pool our resources to create winter gear kits to help folks better survive the outdoors. See the list we have created, but also think of vital necessities that go under the radar!
The 2-day event (also Jan 3, 10am-6pm) will consist of a fundraising benefit concert and a volunteer driven distribution event to disperse all the collected donation items to the local homeless community. Local business will also have the opportunity to host drop boxes to receive donations leading up to the distribution event. The need for warm-wear items during winter is critical for the homeless community as many die each year from hypothermia and other cold weather related illnesses.
PARTY WITH A PURPOSE!
Local Bay area artists come together to rock out for a good cause. With live performances, dancing and a DJ bay area citizens will be able to “Party with a Purpose”!
The event will also be an opportunity for guests to drop off items or to sign up as a voluteer for the blanket giveaway. Partial proceeds from these events will go towards purchasing distribution items
BLANKET GIVEAWAY!
Our plan is to distribute a Keep Warm Kit as well as a hot beverage and meal into the homeless Community in the Bay area. Every winter we provide essential aid in the demand for warm-wear items during the colder months. This campaign is called “KEEP WARM!” This year as we bring the campaign to the Bay Area we hope, that with your help, at least 300 will have the necessary provisions! Sign up as a volunteer now!
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
Abolish the death penalty
In our formative period, the Peace and Freedom Party joined with the Black Panther Party in the movement to free all political prisoners and abolish the death penalty. We have invited the Founding Chairman of the Black Panthers, Bobby Seale, to discuss this history. We have also invited speakers representing current death row prisoners, including Kevin Cooper in California and Rodney Reed in Texas.
FREE! (Please buy food & drink at the Pub.) FREE!
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.
The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
The Peace and Freedom Party Presents
Abolish the death penalty
In our formative period, the Peace and Freedom Party joined with the Black Panther Party in the movement to free all political prisoners and abolish the death penalty. We have invited the Founding Chairman of the Black Panthers, Bobby Seale, to discuss this history. We have also invited speakers representing current death row prisoners, including Kevin Cooper in California and Rodney Reed in Texas..
Doors open at 2, the program starts at 2:30 and ends by 4:30.
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month from 2-4:30 pm. The featured panel will start promptly at 2:30 pm and the forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.
ARC General Meeting, Sat, Jan 2City Council will be holding their January 5th meeting in Kofman Auditorium to accommodate what is sure to be a huge crowd to discuss their ordinances to address the rent crisis. Renters need to make a strong showing, and we also need to be well informed on what will be presented and how we can make the strongest case for rent control. Therefore, this will be the primary focus of Alameda Renters Coalition’s General Meeting, this Saturday, Jan 2nd, 2:30pm at 2027 Clement St. Below is the agenda for this meeting. If you’ve never been to a meeting before, this is definitely not one to miss. If you have, try to bring friends. We need all hands on deck! Also, please bring sign making supplies, markers, poster board, card stock, sticks, etc. See you this Saturday, and again on Tuesday! 1) Drive for attendance at Jan 5 City Council Meeting |
Save the date! On January 3 we’ll hear a report from Paris by Pennie Opal Plant, who attended COP21 as a representative of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Sunflower Alliance general meetings offer a great opportunity to learn more about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice efforts in our region.
Your voice matters, your participation makes a difference. We welcome newcomers.
TPP 101: WHAT IS THE TPP AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE? Sign up here:
Once you sign up, you will get the number and login link to the meeting room.
Free Movie: Let the Fire Burn (2013 documentary Directed by Jason Osder) Found footage film about the May 13, 1985 bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia that killed 11 people (including 5 children) and destroyed 61 homes. Free.
Planning Meeting: Interfaith Action for MLK Weekend
For the second year in a row, the Bay area will mark Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday with a 96-hour period of direct action demanding thorough transformation of the social structures that contribute to the war on Black lives.
If you would like to help plan a faith-based action for that weekend, please come to this planning meeting. We are open to planning a single interfaith action, multiple actions representing multiple faith traditions, or an action that consists of waves of people, with each wave representing one faith tradition.
O C C U P Y F O R U M O F F – S I T E M E E T I N G
Enter on Rhode Island, turn to left up the stairs, conference room is to the right.
Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition Meeting:
National Emergency
Everywhere across this nation, people gather in shock, despair, rage as another black person is murdered by police without accountability. This is a national emergency.
For the third Monday, OccupyForum will be taking place at the Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition Meeting. Because so many of us showed up (17 out of 70 members so far) for the Bayview and for Mario, and against police executions of blacks in the streets of our country, we are becoming significantly involved. We have been at many actions, including the Town Hall Meeting with Police Chief Suhr, the Police Commission Protest at City Hall, the Rally at 850 Bryant and march to the District Attorney’s office, the Press Conference at City Hall, the Kwanzaa Protest, the Tamir Rice protest in downtown SF, and the Rally at the African American Community Police Board Meeting (which was cancelled and barricaded because they heard we were coming and they were afraid to face our questions about why cops executed Mario Woods, and their accountability). We join in the outrage, and in the planning process of how we will address this national emergency.
The Coalition’s demands are:
- Fire Chief Suhr
- Indict, Convict and Jail the cops who murdered Mario Woods
- An independent investigation into the murder.
Please join us and become part of the Coalition. We need all hands on deck. Please bring friends, groups, family.
BACKGROUND:
On Wednesday, December 2nd, Mario Woods was gunned down by a firing squad of San Francisco Police officers in the Bayview, allegedly for brandishing a kitchen knife and “threatening” police at the scene. Videos showed Woods confusedly stumbling around after police shot bean bags filled with lead pellets and pepper spray at him; then being assassinated by police as he attempted to limp away. Citizens of the Bayview and throughout the city held a vigil that night, followed by testimony at a Town Hall Meeting called by Police Chief Suhr. A meeting at the San Francisco Police Commission characterized by the rage of the community was held December 9th with at least 200 protesters packing into City Hall filing public comment, including Archbishop Franzo King who said, “If the chief continues to defend the right to kill and slaughter people on the street under his command, then he becomes a co-conspirator to murder.” On December 18th, hundreds of youth, families, community and religious leaders throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area held a massive rally on the steps of 850 Bryant Street. Following the rally, the group marched to the offices of District Attorney George Gascón.
In a Times.com article, John Burris, attorney for the Woods family states, “our view is that this was a person who was shot multiple times at a time when he did not put officers’ lives in imminent danger.” Attorney Burris goes on to mention that the San Francisco Police Department broadly exhibits a “continuing pattern and practice of misconduct.” Other witnesses claim police shot Mario Woods (+20) times. The national trend of police abuse is all the more troubling in the City of San Francisco as the African American makes up 3% of the population, but continues to be disproportionately impacted by police murders and abuse.
The Justice for Mario Woods Coalition formed to unify citizens who are outraged and sickened by the shooting which is one in a long series of racist police brutality and violence against members of the black community. The Justice for Mario Woods Coalition is made up of concerned residents of San Francisco, advocates, leaders and community organizers who want to stop the trend of violence experienced by the black community in San Francisco at the hands of the police. The coalition demands are:
- The immediate removal of Police Chief Gregory Suhr
• Officers be charged with the murder of Mario Woods
An independent investigation of the execution
Video of the shooting of Mario Woods (GRAPHIC CONTENT) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcd1JlbXN8
http://time.com/4151979/mario-woods-shooting-san-francisco/
http://abc7news.com/news/protesters-sound-off-at-police-commission-meeting-over-sfpd-shooting/1116833/
http://abc7news.com/news/funeral-held-for-man-killed-by-san-francisco-police-/1127341/
http://abc7news.com/news/protest-held-against-sf-police-shooting-of-mario-woods/1128529/
http://sfist.com/2015/12/10/police_commission_meeting_about_mar.php
- A resolution for the Peace and Justice Commission to consider recommending to the Berkeley City Council, making permanent the current one-year moratorium on BPD acquisition and use of drones, which expires this February, will be heard.
- Your presence and comment in support of this effort is welcome.
1 PM PRESS CONFERENCE in front of the building.
2 PM HEARING in Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers’ Courtroom.
(bring your ID to get into the building)
Defend Student Protesters’ Free Speech Rights! Stop the Resegregation and Privatization of UC Berkeley!
Defend the Right to Public Higher Education for All!
Fight Police Brutality! A Badge is Not a License to Brutalize and Kill!
UCB student and community protesters have a right to bring the UC Berkeley administration, UC Police, and Alameda County Sheriffs to trial for brutalizing student protesters on UC Berkeley’s campus during the Occupy Wall Street movement!
Demand Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers rule in favor of an open and public trial, not an individual judicial “summary judgement”!
DETAILS: The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) will present our case against the UC administrators, UC Berkeley Police (UCPD), and Alameda County Sheriffs Officers (ACSO) responsible for the brutal police riot on peaceful student protesters on November 9, 2011 when students at UC Berkeley tried to set up an encampment in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Students protested to oppose income inequality, to defend public education, and to restore affirmative action at UC Berkeley. To this day, the UC administration and the police are defending and justifying their attack. They want to protect their prerogative to repeat this kind of brutal censorship of student political protest when it is aimed at furthering equality and integration.
BAMN has filed a federal lawsuit (Felarca v. Birgeneau) on behalf of 21 student and community activist Plaintiffs against UC Berkeley (UCB) administrators, UCB police and Alameda County Sheriffs for police brutality, false arrests and violation of their free-speech rights. In our lawsuit against UC Berkeley administrators and police, we intend to put the former Chancellor and the top administrators responsible for the attack, together with the police officers and supervisors in charge, on the stand to have to answer, publicly and under cross-examination, for their decisions and actions that led to a police riot on peaceful protesters.
All the evidence uncovered in BAMN’s case shows that the UCB administration were completely responsible for the police violence on Nov 9, 2011 because they were afraid of the movement growing on campus that could unite with the Latina/o and black communities of Oakland and wage winning struggles for public education. The administrator defendants deemed the political speech of the student movement so hostile to the financial and political interests of the university’s private donors and corporate investors that their response to the specter of Oakland uniting with the student movement at UC Berkeley was to have riot police violently suppress and attempt to disperse the demonstration by force.
Thousands of students gathered to defend the tents that had been put up by Occupy Cal from the administration’s efforts to take them down. Videos of baton-wielding police beating students and even some professors, while the protesters held the line and refused to retreat, went viral and gained national media attention.
The UC administration authorized the use of batons against the student protest in violation of its own policies on November 9. Then UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, sanctioned the use of indiscriminate force to terrorize and disperse the second protest action on that day, even as public outrage over the earlier violence was growing. The UCB anti- Occupy policy was so fanatical that students were banned from even walking through the campus with tents,bullhorns or “signage” of which the administration disapproved. People across the country were shocked that police would brutally beat peaceful protesters at UC Berkeley, the historic site and center of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.
The UC Berkeley administrator defendants claim they have the exclusive and unfettered right to dictate any and all “time, place, and manner” restrictions on student political speech. To absolutely no one’s surprise, these restrictions are only ever invoked against the most progressive and popular student political speech – against the fee hikes, against privatization, against the increasing racism, sexism, and inequality at UC Berkeley and in this society.
Chancellor Birgeneau made clear that the decision to suppress Occupy on the campus and to shut down the movement was also fueled by fear of the campus being “taken over” by “outside anarchists” on to the campus. Other members of the Chancellor’s “Crisis Management Team,” in charge of formulating the policing policies for the day, referred to their fears of “intransigents” coming to the campus. The term “non-affiliates” was also used as code to describe the people and politics they were hostile to and wanted to keep barricaded off from the campus. This was understood among them as code for denying people from Oakland access to the campus. The variety of demagogy against ‘outsiders’ has never had anything to do with protecting the right of students to govern their own campus and fight for their own interests. It’s a defense of elitism, of racism, of discrimination against immigrants, and in end it’s a reflection of the administration’s fear of its own students and their potential to join and lead a national movement. UC Berkeley is the world’s premiere public university because of its history of radical student protest and the gains won and enforced by the student movement. All the hallmarks of a great university – academic freedom, social criticism, honest scientific inquiry, and a dedication to the ideals of democracy, equality and justice – were won by struggles waged on this campus and in our communities.
In contrast to the fear and pessimism of the University, the anger and optimism of the new generation of civil rights and immigrant rights leaders are already propelling our whole society in the direction of freedom and equality. The explosive and militant mass resistance in Ferguson, Baltimore, Oakland and Berkeley show that the status quo is becoming increasingly unviable and volatile. In the Bay Area, BAMN played an active, and at times, crucial leadership role in the Oakland and Berkeley marches to win justice. BAMN is building a movement that can connect our campus with the ongoing struggles of minority, progressive and oppressed people around the world. The growing inequality and polarization in the United States and across the world means no shortage of struggle in the next period of history. Whether these struggles win or lose is a question of leadership – it’s up to us and what we do. Come fill the courtroom for this court case, where the power of the people can make and shift history!
LINKS TO OUR UCPD POLICE BRUTALITY TRIBUNAL:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/
**************************
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
Get the word out! January 5, tell the mayor & council: Keep rents fair & low – stop the unjust evictions!! #alamtg pic.twitter.com/10RYsR4nLc
— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) December 28, 2015
Item 7.11 (On Consent)
Subject: Creation Of A Privacy Advisory Commission
From: Office Of The City Administrator
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Establishing The Privacy Advisory Commission, Providing For The Appointment Of Members Thereof, And Defining The Duties And Functions Of Said Commission.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group invites you to come and support the creation of a first-of-its-kind privacy commission for Oakland, an outgrowth of our work opposing the Domain Awareness Center.
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
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)
The MLK weekend will once again culminate in a King Day march that embodies the true spirit of King’s resistance to capitalism, imperialism and racism.
Over the last year, in the Bay Area alone, there have been dozens of police murders. In San Francisco, we have most recently seen the brutal execution of Mario Woods, in addition to police beating a disabled man in front of the Twitter building and racist text messages exchanged between SFPD on-duty officers.
In Oakland, we have seen 8 Black men murdered by police since only June of 2015. In fact, a recent graphic by Mapping Police Violence shows that in 2015, Oakland ranks third in police killings per million people in 60 of America’s largest cities.
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 facebook event page: Updates, meeting agendas, calendar, and other info will be posted.
https://www.facebook.com/events/632827553487864/
Invite your friends!
Check out the web site for more about APTP’s vision: http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/new-events/
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
Reminder this is a call out for affinity groups to organize autonomous solidarity actions in line with APTP’s Principles.
Questions, ideas, comments, or to get involved
Email aptpspokescouncil@gmail.com
Tomorrow! #ReclaimSF pic.twitter.com/PMeK4rnR2O
— FireWorks (@FireWorksBAY) January 6, 2016
We're holding a DIRECT ACTION TRAINING to DEFEND the Gill Tract FARM on Wednesday, the 6th between 6:30 and… https://t.co/Mzw30jeLZW
— Occupy the Farm (@occupyfarm) January 5, 2016
Homes Not Jails is a consensus-based collective of squatters and squat supporters who believe housing is a human right. Our goal is to open as much vacant housing as possible and to keep it open as long as possible. HNJ is a place to organize mutual aid among squatters and squat supporters and housing rights advocates in the bay. We actively fight to make our space inclusive and safe for everybody and combat oppression in all forms.
Kurdish Film Series in #Oakland coming up in solidarity w #Rojava first one Dec 20th 5:30pm @ 1501 Harrison St pic.twitter.com/u2CnfVpbFC
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 17, 2015
Calling all Twitter & Facebook users! We need your help!
Thursday Jan. 7, a team from the E. 12th Coalition and SAHA (our partner developer) will meet with city staff to review a People’s Proposal for E. 12th! This is a major step in our campaign, but the fight is not over. We need to keep up the pressure on city council members to support our proposal.
We are thrilled that District 5 Councilmember Noel Gallo has officially endorsed our proposal (!) and we want to lift him up as a champion and an example for other council members. Will you help by sending 3 tweets or Facebook posts TOMORROW using#SaveE12th?
What you can do:
1. THANK GALLO
Sample Tweet:
Thank you @NoelGallo5, for supporting @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th St.! #SaveE12th
Sample Facebook:
Thank you, Councilmember Noel Gallo, for your support of A People’s Proposal for E 12th! By supporting this community generated plan you show that you care about the people of Oakland and want the greatest public good out of our city’s public land. #SaveE12th
Noel Gallo
https://www.facebook.com/noelgallodistrict5
2. PRESSURE ABEL GUILLEN
Sample Tweet:
I am asking @Abel_Guillen to support @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th St. #SaveE12th
Sample Facebook:
Councilmember Guillen, please support A People’s Proposal for the East 12th parcel. It’s the only proposal designed with direct input from Eastlake residents and it includes more affordable housing than any other proposal on the table. As the representative for District 2 you play a special role and the community is looking to you for leadership. I am asking you to support the vision of Oakland residents by endorsing A People’s Proposal! #SaveE12th
Abel Guillen
https://www.facebook.com/AbelGuillen
3. PRESSURE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Sample Tweet:
I am asking @DanKalb @annieforoakland @desleyb @LynetteGM to support @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th. #SaveE12th
Annie Campbell-Washington, District 4 @annieforoakland
Dan Kalb, District 1 @DanKalb
Desley Brooks, District 6 @desleyb
Lynette Gibson-McElhaney, District 3 @LynetteGM
Sample Facebook:
Councilmember _________, please support A People’s Proposal for the East 12th parcel. It’s the only proposal designed with direct input from Eastlake residents and it includes more affordable housing than any other proposal on the table. I am asking you to support the vision of Oakland residents by endorsing A People’s Proposal! #SaveE12th
Dan Kalb
https://www.facebook.com/DanKalb
Annie Campbell Washington
https://www.facebook.com/anniewashington
Desley Brooks
https://www.facebook.com/desleyb
Lynette Gibson McElhaney
https://www.facebook.com/lynettemcelhaney
#SaveE12th!
“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