East Bay News

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office applied for and received a grant targeting incarcerated Black Muslims. The Homeland Security CVE, or Countering Violent Extremism program, has been criticized for not addressing the rising threat of white supremacists. The Sheriff's Office said that their "Operation E Pluribus Unum" is necessary to expand local reentry services for all people, including Muslims, but civil rights advocates say the project only targets one group of people: Muslims.

UPDATE 11/8: While millions of ballots remain uncounted in California, it appears Prop 10 was defeated.

Grassroots activists have been campaigning hard for the Affordable Housing Act, a ballot initiative to repeal California’s Costa Hawkins state law and return control of rental housing law to local jurisdictions. Several localities have promised to act rapidly should Proposition 10 pass. But real estate interests have spent over $70 million to defeat Prop 10. Should it not pass on November 6, housing rights activists remain committed to pushing for rent control and other tenant protections locally and statewide in the future. Nationwide, a new movement has been inspired by California's efforts.

On October 19, the United Nations Special Rapporteur to the Right to Adequate Housing, Lelani Farha, released her new report documenting the “global scandal” of homeless encampments. In January of 2017, Farha spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California to meet with unhoused residents and housed advocates and described the conditions as "cruel and inhuman." The only U.S. cities explicitly called out for violations in the UN’s report on global homelessness are San Francisco and Oakland.

Strikers on the picket lines at Marriott hotels in San Francisco, San José and Oakland are determined to fight poverty level wages and increased medical costs as they struggle to live in one of the most expensive areas in America. Bay Area laborers who have walked are joined by workers in Boston, Detroit, and the Hawaiian islands who are striking against the world’s most profitable hotel chain. On October 20, over 3,000 workers and supporters marched in San Francisco. Of 300 who protested in San José that day, a contingent stayed to drum and chant through the night, keeping awake the few hotel guests who crossed picket lines.

The country was transfixed when Christine Blasey Ford testified against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh on September 27. On the same day in Palo Alto, neighbors, friends, and colleagues of Dr. Ford rallied to her support. Actions in Berkeley, San Francisco, Mountain View, and San Mateo demonstrated the Bay Area's commitment to supporting victims of sexual assault and protested what they called Republican rape culture. A major demonstration in the nation's capital will be held with a sister rally in San Mateo on October 6.

Direct Action Everywhere and co-founder Wayne Hsiung, along with dozens of unnamed individuals, are forbidden from stepping on Whole Foods property in Berkeley. On September 21, the Alameda County Superior Court granted a restraining order seeking to stop protests against the company. Whole Foods had sought to ban protests on its property throughout the entire state. Despite the court ruling, "Occupy Whole Foods" is proceeding as planned September 23-29.

On August 5, upwards of a thousand people assembled in Berkeley to march on the planned white supremacist, fascist rally. During its attempt to reach the “alt-right” rally in Martin Luther King Civic Center Park, the march repeatedly encountered heavily defended police barricades. Police fired upon the crowd with a variety of projectiles. Anti-fascists continued to march. Several City of Berkeley cars, a Marines recruiting center, and a bank had their windows smashed. Twenty people were arrested.

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.

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.

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.

OneFam in West Oakland is a community-based organization that includes Bikes 4 Life and the 7th Street Rev Cafe, with roots going back to the Oscar Grant movement. Over the last decade, the Black community in West Oakland has faced massive displacement as gentrifying forces steamrolled through the neighborhood. And, now, OneFam is fighting imminent eviction. Solidarity BBQs on 7th Street are happening every Saturday afternoon, starting June 9.

Park Advocate reports: The foliage in People's Park is thinner this year. Another tree is gone, and various bushes and shrubs have disappeared. UC Berkeley has further whittled away at the park, and a new press release states that development plans are to be revealed after this academic year ends. The University of California is well aware that as the 49th anniversary of People's Park has passed, eligibility for historical protection is right around the corner.

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."