Feature Archives

On August 25, Aleyda Rodriguez was grabbed by ICE agents in East Palo Alto as she, her husband, and their child were leaving to go to work and school. She fainted when agents pulled her out of her car and carried her away. She was brought to Stanford Hospital, kept under watch of armed guards, and five days later discharged to DHS while in a catatonic state. Shortly after, hospital workers and community members staged a protest.

Over 100 members of Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento and their allies staged a sit-in in the lobby of Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in Sacramento on August 27 as U.S. Senator Alex Padilla participated as a featured guest in Politico’s corporate funded inaugural California policy summit. The protest was part of a Jewish-led day of action across the state calling on both U.S. Senators from California to stop voting to arm Israel.

As the California Legislature returned to session after summer recess, climate activists organized multiple events at the state Capitol. On August 18, demonstrators unfurled large banners in the Capitol rotunda proclaiming “Newson Stand Up To Big Oil." On August 20, advocates representing a coalition of 140 organizations held a press conference on the Capitol lawn to call attention to oil industry-backed bills moving through the session this year.

On August 19, Santa Cruz County Supervisors introduced an ordinance that would streamline the destruction of RVs and other vehicles that are deemed illegally parked or abandoned on public streets, even if they are inhabited. Santa Cruz Homeless Union President Alicia Kuhl and other advocates warned the Board that the ordinance could increase street-level homelessness. The proposal was continued to a future date.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency injunction on August 18, blocking the Trump administration from handing Oak Flat over to a private mining company while three lawsuits challenging the land exchange proceed. Without the injunction, the public lands about 40 miles east of Phoenix were expected to be transferred to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of multinational mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP.

Organized as part of Stop Billionaires Summer, a rowdy "tour of shame" of banking and insurance institutions in San Francisco’s financial district took place on August 18 to shut down business as usual, and emphasize the connections between genocide, the climate crisis, capitalism, exploitation, and oppression. After a sit-in in the lobby of BlackRock ensued, police arrived and arrested demonstrators, taking them away in paddy wagons.

John Malkin speaks with Emile Suotonye DeWeaver about his book "Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy and an Abolitionist Future." DeWeaver became an activist and journalist while incarcerated for twenty-one years and co-founded the organization Prison Renaissance. He envisions a culture without white supremacy, where police and prisons are replaced with healing systems that create safety and accountability.