Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point

Petitions to save Bayview Hunters Point, the 91% Black and Brown neighborhood slated for “repeopling” by San Francisco City Hall’s Redevelopment wrecking ball, were circulating all over town today, at farmer’s markets and street fairs and bus stops. Although we now know we have 90 days rather than 30 to submit 30,000 signatures to put the BVHP Redevelopment Plan before the voters citywide, we still need to pour on the steam in order to make the deadline for the November ballot.

So, as we humbly thank all of you who are gathering signatures, we ask you to spread the appeal for more help, both with circulating petitions and paying for them. (The bill from the printer just came; it’s $5,289.38!) Please call the campaign number, (415) 262-0357, or call or email the Bay View if you can help in any way: (415) 671-0789 or editor [at] sfbayview.com. Driving people of color and poor folks out of the cities is becoming a nationwide epidemic – read this week’s editorial – that must be stopped here and now and everywhere.

You who are on this riseup list are some miraculous activists – it’s you who spread the word that brought http://www.sfbayview.com a record number of hits in May: 2,098,670! – and we need you once again to pick up your phone and make another miracle happen. Remember the street naming controversy in Chicago, the proposal by his widow and son to rename the block where he was assassinated “Chairman Fred Hampton Way”?

It was front page prime time news on March 29 when 700 street renaming supporters poured into City Hall for a scheduled vote on the proposal, only to find Congressman Bobby Rush – former defense minister for the Illinois Black Panther Party – speaking to the press in a scheme hatched with Mayor Richard Daley Jr. to take over and subvert the street renaming campaign. Rush was so angry when he was promptly upstaged by the real campaigners that he rushed off in a huff.

And now, in an effort to demonize the campaign, he’s charged one of your favorite Bay View writers, POCC Minister of Information JR, with assault! JR was there and did step forward to interview the surly Bobby Rush. But, as videotape from all of Chicago’s TV news teams shows and as Rush’s Chicago PD bodyguards witnessed, JR never touched Bobby Rush or uttered a threatening word.

Though the assault charge is pure fiction, Rush is pressing it hard. When JR returned to Chicago City Hall April 26 for the next scheduled street renaming vote, he was arrested and held for interrogation for 13 hours. The case is on fast track, and JR must be back in Chicago Monday for the second hearing in as many weeks. This time he’ll have to stay there for lack of funds to fly back and forth.

Don’t let the city whose police force assassinated 21-year-old Fred Hampton – already acclaimed one of the greatest revolutionary organizers of all time, a legendary builder of Black-Brown solidarity – lynch another young revolutionary organizer. Bombard the congressional office of Bobby Rush with phone calls to drop the charges against JR Valrey. Call Rush's D.C. office at (202) 225-4372 or his Chicago office at (773) 224-6500.

For background, read The beat goes on: An interview wit’ POCC Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. about the Chairman Fred Hampton Way street campaign by POCC Minister of Information JR, http://www.sfbayview.com/051006/thebeatgoeson051006.shtml. And then reward yourself with these new Bay View stories:

Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point: No more Fillmore! Editorial by Willie Ratcliff, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml

As urban Black displacement grows, Bayview kicks off referendum drive to stop Redevelopment by Randy Shaw, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/displacement060706.shtml

Bay Area youth are fighting for peace and jobs, without city help by Ebony Colbert, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/youtharefighting060706.shtml

New Orleans public housing residents take back their homes by JusticeforNewOrleans.org, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/publichousing060706.shtml

Countless My Lai massacres in Iraq by Dahr Jamail, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/countless060706.shtml

How to ruin minority-owned businesses without even trying by Nancy Fay, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/minorityowned060706.shtml

Civil Rights Cookout: Bay View back yard was jammin’ Sunday by mesha Monge-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley Foundation, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/cookout060706.shtml

Hip Hop Culture Month by Minister of Information JR of the POCC, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/hiphopculture060706.shtml

‘Pick A Bigger Weapon’: an interview wit’ Boots of the Coup: Part 1 by Minister of Information JR, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/biggerweapon060706.shtml

AIDS fades from white to Black by George E. Curry, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/aidsfades060706.shtml

San Francisco considers slavery disclosure ordinance by Jean Damu, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/slaverydisclosure060706.shtml

Mute Man Talking: Poetry under surveillance, Part 1: Amir Sulaiman of Uprising Records is under federal surveillance as a spoken word artist, African American male and Muslim by Yahsmin BoBo, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/muteman060706.shtml

New massacres anticipated in Bojaya, Colombia: $3.5 billion Plan Colombia involved by Redher, translated from Spanish by Willie Thompson, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/newmassacres060706.shtml

Front line freedom fighter Jalil Muntaqim needs your help, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/jalilmuntaqim060706.shtml

The new missionaries: white filmmakers by Wanda Sabir, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/whitefilmmakers060706.shtml

Wanda's picks by Wanda Sabir, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/wandaspicks060706.shtml

What's Going On Calendar compiled by Ebony Colbert, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/calendar060706.shtml#calendar

Spiritual News compiled by Ebony Colbert, http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/spiritualnews060706.shtml

Have you heard all JR's Block Reports? Listen to one of these inspiring interviews today - check 'em out in the middle column of the home page at http://www.sfbayview.com.