Feature Archives

On Thursday, Nov. 19 2003, students, teachers, parents and concerned community members protested to demand a reduction in the number of people behind bars. Reducing prison populations could save the state millions of dollars that could then be restored to education. They visited lawmakers’ district offices with letters, poems, spoken-word, drawings and stories of how budget cuts have impacted their schools. Also on that day, students held a rally outside the UC Regents meeting at UCLA and another rally was held at UC Berkeley. Video:  1  2  3  4 | Education Not Incarceration

On Wednesday 11/19, 100 people gathered in front of the San Francisco BICE (INS) Building in support of a noontime press conference to protest the beginning of the special re-registrations of immigrants from mainly Muslim countries.
Last year, special registrations meant humiliation, detentions and brutality for many of the nearly 90,000 who registered. In the end, about 13,000 faced deportation proceedings—yet not a single “suspected terrorist” was among them. Now these same people are being persecuted again.
San Francisco's protest was one of many that happened nationally, including New York City.
Photos | Video:1   2   3

11/7: Over a hundred people showed up to demonstrate support for the Oakland 25 at a pre-trial hearing on Friday 11/7. The defendants include 24 protesters and the ILWU's Jack Heyman. All of those being charged were arrested at the Port of Oakland protest on 4/7 when police fired "less-lethal" ammunition at both demonstrators and dockworkers.

Speakers from several groups addressed the Friday rally, which was held in front of the courthouse in Oakland. One of the speakers was Willow Rosenthal, who spent time in the hospital and underwent surgery for injuries to her leg which were caused by police use of wooden bullets.
Report From Rally   |   Photos:   1   2   |   More on April 7th Protest

After what was the broadest case of police corruption cases in Oakland's history of a mostly corrupt police department , jurors acquitted the Oakland Riders on eight counts, while a mistrial was declared on the other 27. Three of four cops (one of whom is believed to have fled to Mexico) stood accused of fabricating evidence, assaulting innocent people, and falsifying reports while they drove the streets of West Oakland in 2000. A new trial on the 27 charges is possible in the future.

A rally has been called by People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) for today, 10/1, outside the Alameda County Courthouse at 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland. Additionally, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement is holding a meeting to organize a response to the verdict.

The Fresno-based activist group Peace Fresno was infiltrated by an agent working for the Fresno Sheriff’s Department. Aaron Kilner, known by Peace Fresno activists as Aaron Stokes, died in a motorcycle accident on August 30, 2003. Kilner's obituary in The Fresno Bee identified him as a member of the Fresno County Sheriff’s department and went on to say that he was “assigned to the anti-terrorist team.” Fresno activists believe that this “anti-terrorist team” is the recently formed Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

Aaron Kilner had been observed taking voluminous notes at several Peace Fresno meetings by Nicholas DeGraff, a member of the group. Other members say they saw him at peace vilgils and on the bus local anti-globalization activists took to attend the demonstration against the WTO ministerial-level conference on Agricultural Science and Technology in Sacramento in June, 2003. Read More

Contact the Fresno County Sheriff's Department

October 22nd is the annual day to remember those brutalized or killed by law enforcement. In San Francisco, people gathered at 24th and Mission, where family members of people who were killed, people who have been harassed or beaten by police, and people who do activism related to police accountability told their stories; protesters then chanted and marched to the music of Loco Bloco and the Brass Liberation Orchestra. The march ended at Civic Center Plaza, across from City Hall, where the Stolen Lives Walls were displayed. The crowd stayed for speakers, performers, and a candlelit mourning circle. Details | Read more | Anarchist/anti-authoritarian contingent
Photos: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Pictures from O22 Protest in Fresno

Since 10/22/02, police were caught on camera brutalizing young Donathan Jackson in Southern California, and were acquitted. Cau Thi Tran was murdered in her kitchen and vilified in the press, with her vegetable peeler turned into a "meat cleaver." An outrageous verdict in the Oakland Riders case gave a green light to police criminality and brutality. Just after that, Terrence Mearis was killed in his sleep by the Oakland police. In August, Jose Padua, a day laborer, was brutalized on Cesar Chavez St. in San Francisco and charged with assault with a deadly weapon -- the cast on his broken arm! Michael Pipkin's federal police brutality/civil rights case against the SFPD began on 10/21.

The Bay View/Hunters Point community will hold a march and vigil in support of police reform (Proposition H) on Saturday 11/1.

9/3/2003: A protest has been called for Wed, Sep 3 against the Police Commission's refusal to set a hearing on the incidents. Community members held a press conference 8/29 to call for an end to SFPD's lethal attacks and cover-ups. Audio: 1 | 2

8/25/2003, Hunters Point: According to reports by Cop Watch and the SF Bay View, two white San Francisco police officers drove up Middlepoint and West Point Road between 6 and 7 p.m., license plate 3XKK304. Lee Collins, a 23-year-old resident of the area, who many know as Baby Finsta and who was featured in Kevin Epps' film "Straight Outta Hunter's Point," was called out by the officers. As they approached him, he put his hands up, and the officers immediately commenced hitting him with their billy clubs, punching and kicking him until he was unconscious. At the same time, they were uttering remarks to his relatives like "Back up, bitch." The officers who made the initial stop called in for their backup to detain everybody in white t-shirts in the area. Approximately 30 officers showed up, pointing guns at children who were as young as 8 years old, as well as other residents who were watching this act of police terrorism.

Fourteen-year-old Marcus Law, an honor roll student who has never been in trouble with the law, was approached and immediately hit with a police billy club, causing him to go to the hospital; at least two other adults were brutalized in the incident. After the 30-minute terror session, Collins was taken to the Williams and Newhall police station, then sneaked out of the back in an ambulance. SFPD refused to allow the family to have any contact with Lee Collins at the police station or at the hospital. A number of African American police officers were sent to Hunters Point the following day, attempting to do damage control and pacify the community, to no avail: community members will hold a press conference at the Green House, 4919 3rd St., on Friday 8/29 at 11 a.m., to call for an end to SFPD's lethal attacks and cover-ups. Read more