We’ll be out in the new garden space today (28th and Foothill) from 4:30pm-6:30pm. Come join!
Donations needed: soil, redwood/non-chemically treated wood for raised beds, and nails! Email stoptheinjunction@gmail.com to donate supplies or funds.
Stop the Injunctions Coalition is continuing to build stronger ties and political awareness in Oakland. Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been in the community with Phat Beets at the Cesar Chavez Celebration in Dover Park (North Oakland), at the Occupy Oakland/Black Panther Reunion BBQ in Lil Bobby Hutton Park (West Oakland), and getting our hands dirty pulling out weeds for a fantastic garden project on Foothill Avenue (East Oakland). All over the city, we are excited by the steady building momentum as people come together to create the neighborhoods they want to live in.
GET INVOLVED! The community garden project is underway! Neighbors and organizers are meeting in the plot next to Mi Carnal market at 28th and Foothill on Thursdays at 4:30 pm. Come! Bring a trowel/shovel and workgloves.
This week we’ll be pulling out the overgrowth of poppies, stinging nettles and grasses to make room for a wood chip delivery. Last week we made a huge compost pile of weeds, picked up 5 bags of trash, and took soil samples to check for heavy metals in the ground. With work and enthusiasm, we look forward to building a real community safe space: a place to gather, to grow healthy food and to display/host art. We are still in the ‘building’ phase, but neighbors are already excited about a seed swap and planting party.
The garden project is looking for donations! Needed: good soil, redwoods planks for raised beds, and– for future– seeds, starts and perhaps a simple tool shed.
Come on Thursdays if you are interested or email us.
Join STIC at the César Chávez Youth Day Celebration this Sunday!
*Music*Art*Aztec Ceremony*Free Food*Garden*
Sunday April 1, 11am-3pm
@ Healthy Hearts Garden, Dover Park (57th ‘n Dover, North Oakland)
Hosted by Phat Beets and featuring rad community groups like Xicana Moratorium Coalition
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In the news:
Santa Barbara Gang Injunction May Hinge Disclosure of Juvenile Records: The City of Santa Barbara is facing opposition to the injunction they sought a year ago because, as we’ve seen in Oakland also, the injunction case in court (and “gang identification”) relies on “juvenile court and arrest records, which are confidential under Welfare and Institutions Code 827.” Jammed up in court now, the judge is deciding “which rules apply to the police information from “contacts” and run-ins with the defendants that didn’t result in an arrest.” Read about it more here. As you read, something to think about: how are youth criminalized? How does law enforcement (police, juvenile hall, the legal system) target youth and then increasingly inflict further harm as people get older, justifying it with cop-activity from years earlier?
Also, the Central Valley town of Sanger, outside of Fresno, is targeting 21 people in their second gang injunction since 2003. The Fresno District Attorney is pursuing the case, which will be funneling more money into Sanger’s fledgling 2-officer Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC). Read more about it here; note: heavy police and legal system-biased reporting. Where’s any discussion of real solutions that serve communities, come out of community activity (self-determination), or address people’s needs? As with any news of police and lawyers using gang injunctions as tools, STIC asks where are the resources for programs and services that address the roots of harm and violence?! Injunctions steal limited resources and energy from solutions that work.
SUPPORT OUR ALLIES FOR REAL SOLUTIONS. STIC will be here, talking to folks, passing our flyers and with activities for youth!
WHAT: Press conference with parents, teachers, and neighbors of Santa Fe Elementary, as well as civil rights attorney Michael Siegel
WHEN: Tuesday, March 20 at 2:45 pm.
WHERE: The steps of Santa Fe Elementary, 915 54th St. at Market in North Oakland.
Contact:
Marianne Moore, North Oakland Neighborhood Assembly
Phone: (508) 241 0698
Email: m.mckinnon.moore@gmail.com
Michael Siegel, Law Offices of Siegel and Yee
Phone: (510) 839 1200
Email: michael@siegelyee.com
On March 12 the Oakland Tribune reported that Superintendent Tony Smith has rescinded his plan to close 20-30 Oakland schools over the next two years. Though at the beginning of this year the financial projection for the district was so bad that the only way to break even was to close five elementary schools immediately and plan to shutter many more, apparently this coming school year the district will be operating without a structural deficit in its budget for the first time in years. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_20149024/oaklands-painful-school-closure-era-might-be-over
STIC is deeply disturbed to see Oakland City Officials gouging out more public city resources from an area targeted by one the City’s two temporary gang injunctions. While the City unquestioningly spends more money on police tools and prison/jail-oriented solutions, they continue to fail to invest in the most fundamental elements that make safe communities: schools. One of the schools slated for closure is Santa Fe Elementary. Santa Fe is an historical Oakland school serving a deeply-rooted, African-American and working class community in North Oakland. North Oakland has been hit especially hard by unemployment, education cuts, and gentrification. Santa Fe Elementary is one of the only public schools in North Oakland, and thus one of the very few public spaces in which young people and their families have access to meaningful programming and receive consistent adult mentorship in the neighborhood.
Closing Santa Fe is an affront to the hard work of families and employees of the school, who have put in unquantifiable energy into making it a place where neighborhood youth grow and succeed. The school has partnered with community organizations to provide outstanding after-school and tutoring programs, as well as to create many beautiful murals around the school grounds. In the OUSD Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Competition, Santa Fe has taken first prize eight years running. When there are real community resources and building facilities creating viable safe spaces for youth, their families, and neighbors, STIC is outraged to see the City shut these spaces down. The North Oakland injunction has been called ineffective and waste of money by City Council members Pat Kernighan, Nancy Nadel, Desley Brooks and North Oakland’s own representative Jane Brunner, yet they refuse to take action to end the injunction and thus free up viable City funding resources for real solutions. Why let schools and families flounder when failed policies like injunctions suck up $1.8 million City dollars? Why close schools and continue to spend money on policing policies that City officials say do not work?!
The Santa Fe closure brings about more questions regarding safety and daily needs. The OUSD plan to close Santa Fe makes no accommodation for the transportation needs of families who will no longer be able to access their neighborhood school. The majority of Santa Fe’s parents currently walk their children—Madeline Jackson and her 3rd-grader, Sabrina, live five minutes from Santa Fe. “When I heard about the school closing, I was devastated,” she said. “On days when I have to work, my mom doesn’t drive, so it’s very convenient for my mom to walk my daughter to school.” If the school closes, Madeline will enroll her daughter in Emerson, a twenty-five minute walk from her house. “My mom has diabetes, so she really can’t do a lot of walking—she gets tired,” she added. “It would be different if they had buses for our children, to transport the children to school.” As yet, the district has provided no busing option for children like Sabrina. Elementary school kids — as young as five years old — will be expected to catch AC Transit buses to their future school site. The district has told parent that a lottery will be held to determine which students receive free bus passes. No bus passes will be available for parents.
While the City of Oakland continues to spend disproportionate funds on police and ineffective gang injunctions, community spaces like Santa Fe Elementary and the surrounding neighborhoods suffer from lack of prioritization. Real solutions for our city, for our youth and for family support, must be grounded in local education resources. Oakland must invest in close, accessible resources for people of all ages who grow up, live, and work in Oakland. Santa Fe is a highly utilized and valued community resource; funding community institutions like this a real solution for safety and stability.
UPCOMING with Phat Beets!
The City of Oakland and Alameda County are actively trying to circumvent Constitutional due process protections in the established criminal “justice” system to target activists and communities of color. They are using the courts to impose “gang injunctions” against those they call “gang members”, and more recently against “occupy protesters” via “stay-away orders”. Both types of court orders are police state practices, which misuse the court system for political purposes to criminalize individuals and communities, without actually proving any criminal violations.
Gang injunctions and stay away orders are being used against a person or a group suspected of being involved in a gang, protest, or other state identified “nuisance”. While the gang injunctions and the stay-away orders are different in many aspects, they both serve to punish our community members and violate our rights to assemble without actually convicting anyone of any violation of the law. Gang injunctions use the civil courts and stay-away orders use criminal courts; both expand upon what is considered criminal, thus giving a corrupt police force further discretion and more power to arrest and harass people who have been enjoined or ordered to not be in certain areas or with certain people at certain hours. Because of the civil nature of gang injunctions, there is no attorney (such as the Public Defender) appointed on the defendant’s behalf, thus legal fees are placed on the defendant. If a civil gang injunction defendant lacks resources to hire an attorney, they risk a “default” and the injunction will take effect without allowing the defendant to legally defend themselves.
In the case of occupy protesters, Mayor Jean Quan’s “stay-away orders” are issued without factual findings and before many people have an attorney. The “stay-away orders” are being given as a condition of bail or release on “own recognizance” to restrict where people can be- in this case prohibiting them from being within 100 or 300 yards of Oakland City Hall. In the case of the North Oakland and Fruitvale gang injunctions, those named cannot be in large “safety zones” at certain times, nor can they be with other individuals named in the injunctions, among other restrictions. Both stay-away orders and gang injunctions unconstitutionally deprive our community members of liberty to engage in basic life activities, like associating with friends and family. Gang injunction curfews restrict defendants’ ability to work, and stay-away orders restrict defendants from airing grievances at city hall, taking BART from the 12th street station, or participating in civic life in the central public plaza.
In response to the Oakland gang injunctions, a large coalition developed to oppose the injunctions proposed by the City Attorney. Due to the massive campaign launched against the injunctions, only two of the eleven proposed have been able to be put into effect. The campaign also caused the City Attorney to reduce the number of people named by the injunctions, and make the injunctions somewhat less restrictive, though we see any “gang injunction” as a gross abuse of state power and a sanctioning of police abuse. The coalition has made clear that these injunctions are based entirely on the word of police/parole/probation officer intelligence, which is tainted by racist assumptions of Black and Brown “gang” culture and also specifically targets men who have won lawsuits against OPD for harassment. Also, numerous men targeted by gang injunctions have been incarcerated in the past, and this fact is used against them in court to prove that they need to be enjoined. Thus, the gang injunctions employ a type of double jeopardy, using past crimes as justification for limiting civil liberties when many of the targeted men are trying to get work and live healthy and sustainable lives in their respective communities.
Mayor Quan’s “Stay-Away Orders” are another gang injunction-like tool used to repress and punish those expressing dissent. The stay-away orders have specifically targeted more than twelve people who have been arrested at Occupy Oakland protests and are based purely on the word of OPD and the DA. These individuals have not been convicted of any “crime”, yet a judge has imposed orders that take away their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. These orders represent the ongoing political persecution of people who are protesting against extreme economic inequality, corporate control of the government, and police state practices used to uphold this oligarchy. The stay-away orders and other political attacks on our communities show that instead of working to provide real solutions to economic disparity, racism and police brutality, the City uses fear tactics and repression to eliminate political dissent. City officials continue to talk out of both sides of their mouths, saying they sympathize with the occupy wall street movement’s goals of challenging corruption and economic inequality, while sticking riot cops and cruel weaponry on local occupy wall street protesters. City officials often speak in favor of alternatives to incarceration and repression such as “restorative justice”, while concurrently using the court and prison system to instill fear amongst protesters. It is clear however where their cards lie. We must learn from the fight against gang injunctions that the only way to stop stay-away orders in their tracks is to pack the courts and target those officials that are pushing for them for public shame. We cannot let the police, city and DA impose anymore gang injunctions or stay-away orders, and we must fight to eliminate ALL the existing gang injunctions and stay-away orders.
For More Information or to get involved: antirepression@occupyoakland.org, stoptheinjunction@gmail.com
http://occupyoakland.org/generalassembly/committees/antirepression-committee/
come out! THIS WEEKEND, Sunday MARCH 4th
North Oakland Flatlands Community Brunch and Forum
What do you want to see in the North Oakland Flatlands? Join Phat Beets Produce for a Free Community Brunch and Forum to meet your neighbors and to share your vision for a healthier, safer, more resilient North Oakland community.
Topics to include: community health, urban greening, affordable housing, food justice and beyond. Information from these breakout sessions will be used to shape the direction of community based work in the neighborhood by Phat Beets Produce and community partners. A community resource fair will also be held in the lobby of the church. Full meal will be provided including vegan and gluten free options.
Where: Bring 3 concerns, 3 big ideas and 3 of your neighbors (or more) to Bethany Baptist Church on 54th and Adeline to break bread, share ideas, dialogue, and organize a healthier North Oakland.
NEWS UPDATES:
* Two Stop the Injunctions garden projects are in the works in the Fruitvale neighborhood on Foothill Blvd. If you live in the area or want to get involved, email stoptheinjunction@gmail.com. We’re about to do soil testing (to test for heavy metals in the ground), clear up the trash in the lots and build a vibrant community space.
* Bushrod Rec Center to be home to a beautiful mural by EastSide Arts Alliance (Leslie Lopez, Darren Villegas, Angelica Lopez, Sean Olson) and brother John Brumfeld. Bushrod families and staff love the mural and are excited to display it in their gymnasium.
They are also interested in doing a mural project with the youth in their afterschool programs. If you have resources to make this possible, please email us!
After months of court dates and city council hearings, Judge Robert Freeman issued a temporary gang injunction in the Fruitvale neighborhood of East Oakland on February 23, 2012. The controversial injunction, which has seen significant public opposition, targets a 400 square block zone and names 40 individuals that the Oakland Police Department alleges are gang members. “Judge Freedman’s ruling is disappointing but expected, given that the court refused to permit the defendants to present evidence that injunctions do not work and actually damage the community” says Yolanda Huang, an attorney representing the named individuals. The litigation of the Fruitvale case has already cost Oakland more than $1 million with costs continuing to rise if appeals are filed, even as the city faces continued budget crisis. City Hall recently axed $28 million from public works, public services and economic development agencies and will lay off an as yet undisclosed number of employees as Oakland’s budget woes continue.
The embattled Oakland Police Department, which is facing federal receivership because it has failed to implement changes stemming from the Oakland Riders misconduct case, will enforce the injunction. “This is the same police department that is responsible for killing our loved ones and that clearly values protecting its own over protecting communities,” says Sagnithe Salazar, a member of the STIC, “We have to assume that the same violent tactics that the OPD routinely employs will be at play in the enforcement of the Fruitvale injunction.” In recent years Oakland has paid out millions of dollars in wrongful death settlements to the families of those killed by the OPD.
Meanwhile, Bushrod Recreation Center, located in the temporary North Oakland injunction zone will host a “Black History Month and Stop the Violence” event for youth, families and the Oakland community on Friday February 24th, from 4:00 to 6:30pm. “It’s our way of giving back and at the same time bringing attention to our programming and positive things happening here,” says Anthony Limbrick, program and activities leader at Bushrod. “We need to celebrate our heritage, and before our kids get caught up in violence, we want to be an intervention, give the kids an outlet, have a good time and enjoy ourselves together.” Every day Bushrod serves over 50 youth in its after school programs and hundreds more weekly through sports and other recreation activities.
“In the midst of disproportionate spending on police and ineffective gang injunctions, events like this at Bushrod are evidence that real solutions to violence, to the scars of generations of police violence and gentrification, must come from community empowerment, involvement and from the people who grow up, live, and work in Oakland,” says Kamau Walton of STIC. “According to the OPD’s own status report, the temporary injunction in North Oakland has failed to stem the violence it purports to address. We will continue to fight to ensure that these injunctions are not made permanent.”
