Feature Archives

Alex Sanchez’s family migrated from El Salvador in the 1970s. He was a former gang member who turned his life around becoming an internationally recognized peacemaker and co-founding Homies Unidos in Los Angeles in 1998. On June 24th, 2009, Alex was arrested and named in a federal indictment based on weak evidence, charging him among a group of twenty-three others as an active gang member. On Friday, September 25th, there will be a fundraiser for Alex at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos with live hip-hop music and the film Hijos de la Guerra.

On August 17, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a hearing on the innocence claim of death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis. For years, courts have shown little interest in establishing Troy Davis' innocence, asserting that it was legally irrelevant as he had exhausted his appeals. But now Supreme Court justices have declared that “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.”

Statement From The Chicano Mexicano Prison Project: "Once again, major violence between Raza and African prisoners has erupted within the United States Concentration Camp (Prison) System, this time at Chino California State Prison. Beginning at 8:20 PM, on Saturday evening (Aug. 8), African and Raza (Latino) prisoners, in the most brutal fashion, slashing, cutting, hitting each other with anything that could get their hands on, battled against each other for more than 11 hours. Over 200 hundred were hurt, several were critically injured with severe head injuries or stab wounds."

Michael and Stephanie Williams report that they were brutalized by the Albany police department on June 5th in front of their children. Michael was tasered multiple times and Stephanie was searched under her clothing by a male officer. A rally was held at the Albany City Council meeting on August 5th in support of the family. Michael Williams has a preliminary hearing on Monday, August 10th, for charges related to the Albany police claim that he threatened them.

On August 3rd, Kevin Kumashiro spoke with Teachers for Class War on Free Radio Santa Cruz about reframing education debates, politics of education and realities of classrooms from grade 2 through teacher training programs, looking at intersections of race and sexuality for youth, as well as Asian American experiences.

Leonard Peltier, a sixty-four-year-old activist and political prisoner being held at the Lewisburg prison in Pennsylvania, who was illegally extradited from Canada, tried in a sham trial, and has been denied justice for over thirty-three years, had a parole hearing on July 28th. The results have not yet been announced.

At around 3 a.m. on Monday, August 3, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting two Palestinian children and five Palestinian adults, including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.