Feature Archives

11/3/2004:Measure Y appears to have passed, perhaps due to superior advertising by its proponents.
Education Not Incarceration and a number of community groups, unions, and local politicians spent months mobilizing to defeat Measure Y, the November ballot measure in Oakland that puts funding police and the fire department ahead of funding violence prevention programs. Measure Y will raise $19.9 million per year from a regressive property tax that will place the most burden on renters and small property owners. Education Not Incarceration believes that Measure Y includes no workable plan for “violence prevention,” and that Oakland needs a carefully designed initiative supporting social programs that are proven to work.

Events: Volunteers walked precincts, phone-banked and held up signs at major intersections, such as on November 2nd. The victory party will be held 11/2 at 8pm. A rally was held at the opening of the trial of the Oakland Riders on November 1st. On Friday, October 22nd, No on Measure Y screened the film Every Mother's Son as a fundraiser for the No on Measure Y campaign, from 8-10 at the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street. On Saturday, October 23rd, Stop America's Other War: March for Social Justice and Against Measure Y, beginning at 11AM at Lake Merritt (Macarthur and Grand). On Monday, October 25th, No on Measure Y held a Rally Against Police Brutality, Racial Profiling and Harassment at the Oakland Police Headquarters, 7th St. and Washington St. Community Outreach continued on October 30th and 31st, and during rush hour on November 1st and 2nd. Former Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr. Debated Police Chief Richard Word on Tuesday, October 12th.

Partial List of Endorsers of No on Measure Y
Organizations: Oakland Education Association, ILWU 10, SEIU 24/7, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Global Exchange, Alameda County Green Party, Alameda County Taxpayers Association, Rental Housing Association, Bay Area Local Organizing Committee of the National, Hip-Hop Political Convention, Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party, Justice Now, Just Cause Oakland, Education Not Incarceration Coalition, Prison Activist Resource Center, Oakland Community Action Network, Bay Area Policewatch, Oakland ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), League of Pissed Off Voters, Youth Together, Poor Magazine/Poor News Network, Proyecto Common Touch, Out of Control Committee to Support Lesbian Political Prisoners, All of Us or None, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Data Center, Critical Resistance, Black August Organizing Committee, Copwatch, International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement, African People Solidarity Committee, Xicana Moratorium Committee, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and the Suppression of a Generation.
Individual endorsers (organizations are for identification purposes only): Wilson Riles; Greg Hodge, School Board Member; Patricia Loya, Centro Legal de la Raza; Councilmember Desley Brooks; Fannie Brown, state co-chair, ACORN; Dwayne Wiggins; Ricardo Barba; Jumoke Hinton Hodge; Jane Jackson, founder, Mayor's Commission on Persons with Disabilities, Imam Keith Muhammad; Eric Mar, San Francisco Board of Education, Commissioner; and Estria Miyashiro, owner of Tumi's Design.
No on Measure Y meetings were held Thursdays, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. at the Eastside Art Alliance, 2587 International Blvd. in Oakland. It is accessible by AC Transit #81 and Fruitville BART. Weekend outreach times and locations. No on Measure Y flier (pdf)

9/10/04: Hundreds of residents showed up to voice their opposition after the Mendota City Council and Federal Bureau of Prisons approved plans for a new federal prison in town.

While protesters marched outside, heated exchanges between Rodney Anderson of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and angry residents took place inside the council chambers. Town residents questioned whether the federal prison will mean boom or bust for the small agricultural community where almost two out of every five residents can't find work.

Anderson argued the prison could provide up to 350 jobs for "qualified applicants" -- those with a four-year degree or three years' experience in a supervising position, as well as passing a background and credit check. Residents countered that the prison is far too close to homes and their high school, and almost anything could improve the town more than a prison, even "a cemetery." Photos and video by Sun Mt.: 1 | 2

9/14/04: Another young man has died inside a California Youth Authority prison. CYA staff found Dyron Brewer "unresponsive" in his cell at the N.A. Chaderjian ("Chad") facility on Sunday, 9/5 at about 3:45 a.m. Dyron was 24 years old. He was from Oakland. "We need answers, we need to know why [he died]," says his sister Twanisha Brewer.

Brewer's is the fourth death in CYA custody this year. Two wards, ages 17 and 18, hung themselves in January in a cell they shared at a facility in Ione; another, Roberto Lombana, 18, died later that month at Chad after ingesting cleaning fluid.

Jakada Imani, program director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, said a photograph of Brewer was "deeply alarming" to the family: "Dyron was almost beyond recognition to them in these pictures"; there were "marks on his body that we don't know what to make of because we're not pathologists."

"A lot of questions remain unanswered. How did Dyron die? Why does this keep happening? How can we stop this from ever happening again?" ask Books Not Bars organizers, who called for a protest on Sunday, September 19th with Dyron's family at Chad in Stockton. Details | Photos

On September 5th, the 4-month anniversary of Cammerin Boyd's death, Bay Area Policewatch, Justice for Cammerin Boyd, and KQED presented a special Screening at Cell Space of "Every Mother's Son," from 8-10pm.
In the late 1990s, three victims of police brutality made headlines around the country: Amadou Diallo, the young West African man whose killing sparked intense public protest; Anthony Baez, killed in an illegal choke-hold; and Gary (Gidone) Busch, a Hasidic Jew shot and killed outside his Brooklyn home. "Every Mother's Son" tells of the victims' three mothers who came together to demand justice and accountability. "Every Mother's Son" alleges that such killings result not only from aggressive police tactics, but also from public policy set at the highest levels. "Every Mother's Son" provides graphic illustration that such police tactics extend beyond poor or high-crime neighborhoods. The film premiered on PBS in August and people and organzations are screening it all over the country.
"Every Mother's Son" Website | Stolen Lives Project | Idriss Stelley Foundation | Article on Cammerin's death by Poor News Network - This Boy had his hands in the Air

9/22: Mistrial Declared in Pepper Spray Case as jury cannot come to agreement.
9/21: Closing Arguments Conclude, Jury Deliberates. The defense (police) yesterday presented its entire argument, calling just four witnesses. Some highlights included testimony elicited from Sheriff Gary Philp and retired Sheriff Dennis Lewis under eviscerating cross-examination by plaintiffs' attorney, Bob Bloom:

9/20 Update: Law Enforcement presents its side in court this week.
9/16 Update: Plaintiffs wrapped up case today.
9/13 Update
The question of whether direct application of liquid pepper spray into the eyes of passive protesters is an appropriate police tactic will come to trial this month, beginning with jury selection on Sept. 8th. (The start date was changed from Sept. 7th to the 8th) A lunchtime solidarity rally was held on Wednesday, September 8th at noon on the Polk St. side of the Federal Building. Jurors were asked to not listen to the speakers and performers. Photos Video Report Oral arguments began on the 9th at 8:30am. An info night was held Sunday, September 5th at the Long Haul in Berkeley. It included a screening of the film Fire in the Eyes.
Headwaters Forest Defense v. County of Humboldt et al. charges use of excessive force by law enforcement in that county. After the first trial in 1998 ended without a verdict, appeals court decisions and finally the U.S. Supreme Court have sent the case back to federal court in San Francisco. After an evidentiary hearing on August 24th, the trial will proceed on September 8th in the same building- the federal courthouse in San Francisco at 450 Golden Gate Ave., with Judge Susan Illston presiding. More details
Read more on Indybay's Forests and Environment Page

Cau Thi Bich Tran was killed by a San Jose police officer on July 13, 2003. The police had come to her neighborhood because they had received reports of an unsupervised child in the street. According to one report, she herself had also called 911 because one of her children was locked in a room in her home. Within moments of the arrival of the police, Tran had been fatally shot in the chest. She had been gesturing with a vegetable peeler, called a dao bao, that is commonly used in Asian cooking, towards the locked bedroom door. Officer Chad Marshall thought that Tran was holding the dao bao as a weapon, did not identify himself or ask her to put down the dao bao, and fatally shot her. She was speaking Vietnamese and Marshall did not know that language. Tran's partner was in the same room and witnessed the killing, while her children screamed in the next room. She was 4'9" tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. San Jose has one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States, but no Vietnamese-speaking officers were on the scene at Cau Bich Tran's home. Police and media reports after the death focused on Ms. Tran's history of mental illness, without mentioning that it might seem unusual for an officer to fire within seconds of arrival on a scene.

Community organizations and concerned citizens have joined together to form the Coalition for Justice and Accountability. The goal of the Coalition is "to prevent this type of killing in the future, to hold those responsible for the killing accountable, and to ensure that the investigation into Cau's death will be fair and impartial." The Asian Law Alliance in San Jose has been one of the most active members in the Coalition. A 100 Day Memorial Vigilwas held on Oct. 20, 2003 at San Jose City Hall. Cau Bich Tran's story was a major part of the October 22nd National Day of Protest in 2003. National Report. Her family filed a wrongful death suit against Marshall and the city in November after a grand jury cleared the officer of criminal wrongdoing. The grand jury had been the first public hearing of its type in San Jose since 1996. A memorial to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her death and the 5-month anniversary of the death of Rudy Cardenas was held on Saturday, July 17th, 2004.

Tran Memorial Website | Silicon Valley Debug: Community Reactions to the Killing of Cau Bich Tran | More from DeBug | Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach story of Cau Bich Tran's death | Flyer from October of 2003

7/17: A Memorial Service and Demonstration were held in San Jose today to demand Justice for Rudy Cardenas and Cau Bich Tran. The memorial service to observe the One-Year Anniversary of Cau Tran's Tragic Death and the Five-Month Anniversary of Rudy Cardenas' Tragic Death was held at St Joseph's Church, with mass said in Vietnamese and English. Afterwards, the rally was held at the nearby Cesar Chavez Plaza. Dozens of family members of Rudy Cardenas, Cau Bich Tran, and other people who were killed by law enforcement in California were present, as well as attorneys and members of a variety of community organizations. Community organizations that were represented included the Asian Law Alliance, the Barrio Defense Committee, and the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3