Feature Archives

On July 23, hundreds attended a vigil-turned-protest for two Black women stabbed at an Oakland BART Station. Nia Wilson, 18, was stabbed to death the previous evening while standing on the platform of the MacArthur BART Station in North Oakland. Her older sister Latifah was also stabbed, but survived the attack. Speakers called on the crowd to take action to defend and protect Black women. The stabbing occurred on the eve of a planned white supremacist “Proud Boys” gathering scheduled for Berkeley August 5.

A long-standing logging road blockade defending the Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole River watershed was raided in recent days, but activists are still in the woods and on the road, struggling to hold the line. The Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) wants to gain access to the area to log in un-entered Douglas fir forests. HRC is owned by San Francisco's Fisher family, owners of the GAP empire. Activists say the Fishers need to feel the heat.

In a relatively quick victory after protests at the jail recently ramped up, Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston announced on July 10 that his department will cancel its contract with ICE at the end of a 120-day waiting period. Sheriff Livingston said that protests and public pressure played a role in the decision to cancel the contract.

UPDATE 7/9: Police raid Occupy ICE SF.

On July 2, "Block ICE" protesters set up a chain link and barbed wire fence in front of the main entrance to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in San Francisco. Later, tents went up in front of metal gates used by buses transporting detained immigrants. A core group of protesters are now staying around the clock at the encampment. A statement released by occupiers reads, "We are also standing against a system of border imperialism that makes arbitrary definitions of citizenship".

Demonstrators decrying Trump's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents were in the streets throughout the month of June. An even larger wave of protest hit on June 30, a national day of action, with rallies held locally in dozens of Northern California cities. One of the largest protests was at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, the only ICE detention center in the Bay Area.

On May 24, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced that he will not be filing charges against the police officers who murdered Mario Woods in 2015 and Luis Góngora Pat in 2016. The following evening, protesters expressed their disgust with the decision by shutting down traffic near the Mission District police station. A series of protests have been held in front of Gascón's house.

Approximately 500 animal rights activists organized by the Direct Action Everywhere network staged a non-violent vigil in defense of caged and tortured chickens on May 29. The group was attempting a rescue operation at Sunrise Farms, an industrial egg facility in Petaluma. Thirty-nine people were arrested by local law enforcement after they attempted to enter the farm to document conditions and demand the transfer of sick or mistreated birds.