Feature Archives

At the March 27 Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, five-plus hours of discussion ended with a decision that Urban Shield as currently constituted would end after the 2018 war games and exposition. The vote left open-ended what Alameda County’s regional disaster preparedness activities would be in future years, but the Supervisors were decisive that it would not be the Urban Shield event, which began in 2007.

Update: Oakland passes strongest community control of surveillance in the nation on May Day.

Davis and Berkeley have adopted the new law that mandates public transparency, vetted use policies, and annual reporting to protect human rights and reins in secret, unfettered surveillance by local law enforcement. Oakland is in the final stages of the adoption process. A California surveillance transparency law (SB 1186) passed through its first policy committee on April 5 at the State Senate Public Safety committee.

On April 13, the United States, together with its British and French allies, launched one hundred and five cruise missiles from sea and air striking three alleged chemical weapons facilities in Syria.  Anti-war protesters CodePink Women for Peace responded immediately with actions the following day in front of the Pacific Heights homes of Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Later in the afternoon of April 14, an emergency demonstration at Market and Powell in San Francisco demanded an end to the bombings.

On April 14, the second annual March for Science Bay Area included a walk around the Lake Merritt path, speakers, and live music. The sunny day event also featured information booths and hands-on demonstrations, speakers, live music and activities for children. Organizers explained they want robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity.

When members of the Bay Area group Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) heard about the imprisonment of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi for slapping the Israeli soldier who had shot her cousin and was now invading her family’s home, they wanted to see her picture prominently displayed during January's Women’s Marches. QUIT! teamed up with artists from the queer arts collectives, Street Cred and Bay Area Art Queers Unleashing Power (BAAQUP), to create a powerful image that has now spread around the world.

On March 14, thousands of San Francisco Bay Area students participated in a national walkout against gun violence, with 1,500 marching in the suburb of Menlo Park alone. However, not all went smoothly for some Bay Area students seeking to express themselves. One district superintendent in the South Bay accused students of not thinking things through, and stated that “Organizations have their own agendas and they’re using kids as pawns."

On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives took to the streets to demand that their lives and safety become a priority, and that gun violence comes to an end. Northern California is marched in solidarity. The national mission statement declared: March For Our Lives is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.