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A bulldozer rumbled into the Beach Flats Community Garden early Thursday morning, March 24, tearing out mature fruit trees and nopales plants that city staff had earlier promised would not be touched, and damaging an already strained relationship between the City and community. Despite the loss of land, fruit trees, and nopales, the Beach Flats Gardeners are committed to making the best of the 2016 planting season.
On March 23, the family of Freddy Centeno filed a lawsuit against the Fresno Police department alleging that officers Zebulon Price and Felipe Miguel Lucero acted beyond the limits of their authority when they shot Freddy seven times on September 3, 2015. Freddy was unarmed, carrying a spray nozzle to a garden hose. The officers opened fire less than six seconds after they exited their cruiser. Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer said that the video showed the officers giving Centeno multiple commands, but Freddy is seen in the video being gunned down immediately after a second command to "get on the ground." Chief Dyer had said in August that de-escalation, implicit bias and mental health training was underway, although after the lawsuit was announced, Fresno police Deputy Chief Robert Nevarez said the responding officers did not have time to implement the training. The shooting left Freddy in a coma for twenty-three days before he passed away.
 Read More with Video
Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) has embarked on an historic 28-day tour of the West Coast to organize a major offensive on the world’s largest berry distributor, Driscoll’s Berries. The local independent farmworker union, based in Burlington, WA, is touring the coast at a crucial moment in their campaign for a union contract at Driscoll's supplier Sakuma Brothers Farms. Driscoll’s and Sakuma are feeling pressure from a growing amount of boycott activity. On Thursday, March 31, there will be a major action at Driscoll’s headquarters in Watsonville.
On February 19, State Senator Mark Leno introduced SB 1286, a bill allowing greater public access to police records related to serious uses of force and sustained charges of misconduct. While California statutes and case law prevent the disclosure of most peace officer records, states such as Texas, Kentucky, Utah, and several others, make information available to the public when an allegation of misconduct has been confirmed. At least 10 other states, including Florida, Ohio and Washington, also make these same records public regardless of whether the incident has been confirmed.
The California Police Bill of Rights as it is known today could be on its way out if California SB1286 becomes law, shining increased light on police misconduct in the state. Police "unions" and lobbyists like the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) are expected to fight to maintain the secrecy that currently shields their bad behavior — and legislators historically tend to kowtow to their wishes. The public, however, clearly wants greater access to police records. Polling data shows that nearly 80 percent of Californians believe the public should have access to the findings of police misconduct.
 Read More |
Deadly Secrets: How California Law Has Shielded Oakland Police Violence (2011) |
The Police Bill of Rights, Copley, and Where We Are Today in CA with Police Accountability
(2009)
With the hope of nudging the city forward toward making good on its months-old public promise to initiate permanent investment in the Beach Flats Community Garden, and under imminent threat of legal proceedings against them, on February 16 the gardeners of Beach Flats decided to sign a city letter acquiescing to temporarily leaving the garden plots they have tended so carefully over the past two decades.
Norman “Wounded Knee” DeOcampo (Miwok), a long-time resident of Vallejo, will be taking part in the Longest Walk 5 beginning February 13 at La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California. Wounded Knee is the Founding Executive Director of the Vallejo based organization Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes. (SSPRIT). He is the only person who will have participated in all five Longest Walks.
For many years, Norman “Wounded Knee” DeOcampo advocated for the protection of sacred site, “Sogorea Te” located in the Glen Cove area of Vallejo. A spiritual occupation of the Native American Sacred Burial Site lasted 109 days, beginning in April of 2011 and ending in August of 2011. In 2014, Spiritual Walkers of the Longest Walk 4 arrived in Vallejo and stopped during their walk at sacred site, Sogorea Te. The longest walkers offered prayers to the ancestors buried at the sacred site and held a brief discussion, followed by a pot luck.
Wounded Knee states, “The Longest Walks are held to bring attention to issues that directly affect Native Americans". The Longest Walk 5, will cover 3,600 miles, and will travel through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, before ending in Washington, D.C. on July 15, 2016. Dennis Banks, Co-Founder of the American Indian Movement, will be leading The Longest Walk 5 and has declared this walk to be a “war on drugs”.
Read More | Longest Walk 5 website
On February 9, hundreds of people marched through downtown Santa Cruz from the Beach Flats Community Garden to the City Council meeting. Gardeners, along with a large coalition of supporters, are seeking a creative solution to preserve twenty five years of cultivating food and culture in the heart of the Beach Flats.
Bradley Allen writes: Salinas Chinatown, a six block, twenty-nine acre neighborhood, is a refuge for members of our society who have been marginalized and discriminated against. Taylor Farms, the world’s largest producer of cut vegetables and salads, built their new five-story headquarters in Oldtown Salinas, with a view of Chinatown.
The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) writes: 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 a string of 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.
APTP has called for the Second Annual 96 Hours of Direct Action and Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March. For four days, hundreds of community members from over two dozen groups in both Oakland and San Francisco will unleash a spectrum of disruptive and creative activity. In the spirit of MLK, these actions will meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, concerts or prayer vigils.
Demands include: 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, Demouriah Hogg and Richard Linyard; Respect our Sanctuary Cities. ICE Out Oakland and San Francisco! No deportations! No Arrests!; and 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.
Read More |
AntiPoliceTerrorProject.org |
Coverage from 2015 |
First Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy | Oakland 2015 |
 Hard Knock Radio on MLK and 2016 Reclaim MLK 96 Hours of Action
Full List of 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Events from the Indybay Calendar:
[Events listed are mostly APTP 96Hours-affiliated, some independent.]
Friday 1/15: Communities in Oakland and San Francisco will hold actions calling out the rampant gentrification occurring on both sides of the bridge.
96 Hours to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy: Friday in the Fillmore
Event announcements:
 No Sprouts In Oakland: Stop Gentrification of Local Food Economy |
"Can You See Me?" Interfaith Procession in Remembrance of Black Lives |
Reclaim SF! Reclaim MLK's Radical Legacy!
Saturday 1/16: The Oakland Community will call out the many forms of state terror occurring in The Town. Unannounced actions included a protest at the home of mayor Libby Schaaf in Oakland and police chief Sean Whent in Brentwood.
Event announcements:
#CallOutLibby: the Bay Area calls out Libby Schaaf |
Will their killing of MARIO WOODS be exploited by SFPD to acquire Tasers? HELL NO!!! /
SF Forum On The Danger Of Tasers |
Street Convos for Racial Justice in Oakland |
Fast Food Workers' Action |
BAMN-UC Berkeley "East meets West" March |
Santa Cruz NAACP Annual Youth Day & Gospel Night |
Children's Power: Play Action |
Oakland Airport "Say Their Names"
Sunday 1/17: The people will unite in San Francisco to call out state terror, economic terror and the corrupt city governments that allow it to continue. Unannounced actions included demonstrations in front of the homes of mayor Ed Lee and police chief Greg Suhr.
Good Morning, Police Chief Greg Suhr!
Event announcements:
"The moral passivity of a pastured cow" SF real estate walking tour |
Paul Rockwell: Dr. King on imperialism and war |
San Francisco March for Tech Diversity and Equity |
San Francisco Airport "Say Their Names" |
Visions for Racial Justice in Oakland: A Community Conversation |
Black Panther Party history teach-in with Fred Hampton Jr
Monday 1/18: Second Annual Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy March from Oakland to Emeryville. Unannounced was a shutdown of the Bay Bridge.
Reclaim MLK March 2016: Oakland, California |
Workers and Community Activists Rally On 2016 Oakland MLK Day |
Support Black.Seed collective's bail fund for #BlackHealthMatters #BayBridge action! |
Black.Seed Shuts Down Bay Bridge to Reclaim MLK's Radical Legacy |
Black Queer Liberation Collective Black.Seed Shuts Down Bay Bridge
Event announcements:
Children's Teach In: Reconstructing History, Deconstructing Power |
Planting Justice Vigil for Economic Justice & Empowerment |
Pre-March Protest in Solidarity with the fighting people of Haiti |
Artists for Black Lives |
Second Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy / Culmination of #96Hours of Direct Action Weekend |
The 19th Annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Previous Related Indybay Feature:
Bay Area Pulls Off 96 Hours of Action as Part of National Call to "Reclaim King’s Legacy" (2015)
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