Search Results

By Gera “WE WANT YOUR MOM” Arriving in Guam was really uncomfortable even though I did not have anything on my person, I totally felt like we (me and my girlfriend at the time) were being followed. As we got near the baggage claiming area you could see the Customs agents huddling up around the metal detector exit line. We then claimed our baggage and proceeded to the exit where we were met by agents who stopped us. "Would you happen to bring any narcotic into my island.” "No sir absolutely not.” In my mind I was thinking 'I do not' and although my girlfriend does, I have to act like she does not have anything on her also. Immediately, they separated us despite us yelling “We are US citizens,” while reaching out to each other, unable to touch one another's fingertips. Next, the interrogation process started, which I knew they were experts at doing. Within the first 15 minutes they told me that they had found drugs on my girlfriend and she said I had dope on me as well, which I knew was a lie. The whole time I was denying what they were telling me, asking for an attorney and for a phone call, being denied each time. I learned fast that not only did they not believe me but the communication between us was complicated because they spoke little English, they only spoke Chamorro (the Guamanian language). After, they took me for a long drive, angrily saying I had drugs on me and that I was lying about it and how they knew I was the son of the “king pin” (my Mother). They made me feel like I was being taken to be killed and “make me disappear,” as one of the Guam customs agents said back in the interrogation room at the airport. I was shackled up in the back seat, being held against my will by one big Guam agent on each side of me making sure I didn't release out any drugs from my body without them noticing. I prayed out loud and let them know I am not a bad guy and I think they are making a mistake, because I honestly do not have any drugs on me and I don't know why they are saying my girlfriend has some on her because I have no idea what they were talking about. It was a 2 hour drive when they made me hop out the back seat still shackled arms and legs, it was dark all around. It looked like an abandoned military base and we walked up a long flight of stairs. I asked if I could please have a cigarette because I noticed one agent smoking. They granted me a smoke with an attitude, saying that I was lying about things and I was lucky to have one. Finally I was taken to a room where some white doctor came out and asked me if I was sure that I did not have any drugs in my person because if so then now was the time to tell him. I said, "NO, but I need my phone call.” The white doctor assaulted me with a blue rubber glove that he had on his hand as he stuck his whole hand up my rectum, feeling around for anything foreign inside me. It was the worst feeling ever! As the doctor gestured to the agents that I was clear, they all looked at each other dumbfounded being that they all were making bets if I was packing or not. With watery eyes from the man's hand that just came out of my body, I was pissed off that they did that to me and were still asking me questions about my Mother along with this whole conspiracy thing they threatened me with . "We want your Mother,” he said. They showed me recordings and paperwork of all the people that were cooperating against Mom, saying it was enough to send her away forever so “You better start talking.” "We want your Mom,” said Duenas, the Guam customs agent at the dark abandoned military base that was also the medical facility they violated me at minutes ago. They proceeded to interrogate me and finally forced me to cooperate as they continued threatening my Mom's life. They even knew names of my people that were also at risk of indictment. It was unbelievable the things they knew. All I knew at that point was I had to save Mom's life. One of Mom's so called "friends” was in the process of setting my Mother up back home and I was able to put a stop to that. When I was given my phone call finally upon booking into the Guam prison in Hagatna, I called home collect and said in code language to let my Mom know they are coming for her. There is no way around that because they had been investigating for 6 months and more than a few people had claimed she was the ring leader. Upon my call I was able to tell fam to make sure she got out of there NOW. She went on the run and was captured 2 months later. These are the things that are caused by oppression in a crapitalist society. Crime is the first stage of rebellion, we resort to crime when the law is not meeting the needs of the people and defending what we believe in. The US Government breeds rats and will not follow through with the promises they make upon cooperation, although in my heart I know what I did was the best way to handle the situation in order to save my Mother. Still, she received 7 years when they said she would get the mandatory minimum of 3 years for cooperating the same as I received. I recommend NEVER to cooperate with any Government agency as they will deface your character and make false promises. This is not part of my current lifestyle but an experience I feel needs to be addressed to the people in hopes of creating awareness and change. Til this day, me and Mother are on the Government watch list and they bother us daily by gang stalking etc.

From the Western Regional Advocacy Project Dear friend, An urgent reminder to please sign the SB 1011 opposition letter by April 3 and distribute this action alert widely. It only takes a minute to sign on! EVERYONE DESERVES EQUAL RIGHTS. Join the Equal Rights for Every Neighbor Coalition in opposing SB 1011 (Jones) – a harmful and discriminatory bill that violates the rights of unhoused neighbors. We need as many organizations and individuals to sign on as possible! Use this form to read and sign on to our opposition letter by April 3 OR Personalize and submit a separate letter [here and attached] to the Senate Public Safety Committee by April 9. WHAT IS SB 1011? This bill is similar to last year’s SB 31 (Jones), which the EREN coalition successfully killed. SB 1011 would prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing personal property within 500 feet of any public or private school, open space, or major transit stop, making large swaths of cities off-limits to unhoused neighbors. It would also prohibit being on any sidewalk or street anywhere if a homeless shelter is “available.” HOW WOULD SB 1011 HARM OUR COMMUNITIES? SB 1011 would criminalize the very existence of our unhoused neighbors in public spaces state-wide. We are gravely concerned that SB 1011 would further demonize, destabilize, criminalize, and violate the human rights of unhoused Californians while failing to address the underlying driver of houselessness: the lack of affordable and accessible housing to Californians with the lowest incomes. Join us to demand equal rights for EVERY neighbor! In solidarity

By Reddie Harris The black window of a 30 foot RV (my castle) hangs wide open. A large bag of cat food sits unopened inside. Four litter boxes are laced over with translucent spider webs and I feel like a total failure. I do my best to provide security and shelter for myself and those I possess in my right hand. As a non-resident of California, I have no rights, even though my castle is across the street from the overseer (police) station. I have no papers linking my kitty, Lil Mama, to me. Lil Mama is an affectionate spirit covered in fur. Gray tiger stripes decorate her fur and she does her best not to scratch me as she crawls and climbs from one end of the castle to the other. With the black window open, she can come and go as she pleases. Her food dish is always topped off, so I need to stay stocked. The litterboxes stay cleaned only when there’s something inside to clean. It is on me to protect and provide for her because she can’t buy food or clean her litter boxes “I would like to keep her until her shots appointment next week. Get a chip in her. How do you feel about that? Her and my cat are insanely attached. I didn’t expect that…Ok, if you have $500 for all that and can prove it’s a healthy environment, I will return Lil Mama” Oxford defines appropriation as “the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission” “Can you take time to consider this? She’s thriving. I give them four meals a day. She goes out as she pleases. She has her own water fountain with fresh water at all times” Does this sound familiar? Have you heard this argument before? Has anyone tried to justify wrongdoing on grounds that they made things better? That’s what happened to me, but I remembered some very good advice that turned this situation around. “As long as you keep your composure no matter what’s going on, you’re doing great”. It wasn’t my clever wit or domineering authority that turned the situation around. I didn’t resort to threats of retaliation because realistically, the overseers have little to nothing to gain by defending my rights. Without a mailbox, the city is constantly trying to purge me and others from it. No, I don’t think the city is an entity that plots against me. There are things like this that happen all over the city, but predators always follow the same patterns. A predator’s first choice will always be the vulnerable, the underrepresented, the unattended. When Crazy Cat Lady first took Lil Mama from the castle, (I don’t know if she went inside or got the kitty as she was outside), she saw her unattended, thought she had no representation and was vulnerable to prey upon. Let me tell you what works. Prayer and patience. You know, I do not believe that talKing is an action, unless it’s in prayer. I prayed on this and had trust that Allah would eventually sort out my affairs, as always. I prayed for the safety of Lil Mama and even through this trial, she was safe. I was patient in remembrance that Crazy Cat Lady, like so many walKing on cracked concrete instead of grounding themselves in comeyounity, is hurt. I couldn’t possibly expect her to sympathize or rationalize on her own. Neither her or I have ever been in control of this or any situation. The Creator hears and answers prayers. With patience and trust, she was brought black to my castle by the one who took her. Despite this trust, I must admit that I was surprised how much pressure Crazy Cat Lady got from the people around her. All I had to do was tell her to listen to the voices around her. The truth is a beautiful song coming out of someone else’s mouth. I dare not interrupt. Crazy Cat Lady told me she knew she was being selfish and asked me what I thought she should do. I suggested she search her heart and do what is right. Regardless of what we’ve been through, regardless of what we’ve done or seen, regardless of the state of the world, we are people. We are. If I see someone, I see mycellpH. If I feel something, that’s felt all over the world. I treated her the way I would like to be treated, with compassionate honesty. May Allah be pleased After much procrastination and with tears abundant, Lil Mama was brought to my door by Crazy Cat Lady. She (Lil Mama) jumped right in and on my lap for pet-pets. I didn’t protest as Crazy Cat Lady stood outside swollen-eyed lamenting over her love of all things furry. Personally, I think she is trying to fill an empty space, like so many others. When comeyounities fall short, people seek ineffective alternatives. Cats are not parents. Cars are not children. Money is not a lover and childhood cannot be relived through substances. Try as we may, we cannot consistently rely on anything or anyone but the Creator. This situation has reminded me that things and people will come and go. That is life and it’s best not to get too attached. Be happy for what you’ve got and try not to oppress anyone Lil Mama is with me happily feasting on yum-yums and getting pet-pets at the castle. I still see Crazy Cat Lady around from time to time and no grudges are held. Not all situations are resolved so amicably though. My firstborn son was taken away from me by my family because they feel that they can take better care of him than I can. Palestinians are being forced away from their land by people who think they can care for it better. There is no escaping loss, theft and appropriation, not without faithful prayer

Text: Dedicated to redistributing resources directly to poor, unhoused, and formerly unhoused single mamaz, (fathers) and children who are unable to afford rent, a drivable vehicle, diapers, food, and other emergency needs related to their survival and thrival. The po mama fund was created by the people and supported by the people that is why the po mama fund is so important to impoverished families like mine. The po mama fund should be expanded all across the WORLD because families in a poverty crisis need all the help we can receive in a “non county” time frame. Many of us po mama’s including myself have been in life or death situations and have been victims of violence. Speaking from experience the county and its selective resources will jeopardize your lives even further and refuse to relocate families in danger HOWEVER the perpetrators of the community violence- those that create hostile, dangerous and uncomfortable situations for other folks in the community get the best housing resources and the victims get zippidy do dah! I should know as I have to see the bullet holes in my daughter’s wall every day while the perpetrators of the violence received a brand new unit in the same complex!!! I say this because my point is this is why the po mama fund and Homefulness Healing Housing is direly needed and should be supported that way we in the community can help our own folks and relocate families in danger because unfortunately the county/state MAY help your family once you are on the morgue slab!

RoofLessRadio Street-writing workshop in the Palm Tree Inn Crisis dialogue- #1-Crisis is universal-we have all had it.  Please briefly describe one of our worst crisis below- financial, family, self, health, etc. #1 Edward Diaz My crisis began in 2002 when I lost my parents. My rock and my foundation had been hit and it was up and down, up and down in the county and in prison. I never really got the chance to bounce back. I’m just here trying to get my foundation back underneath me. It’s hard ya know, just being out of my element. I’ve been homeless before but never a period this long, it’s going on 9 months now. It feels a lot longer than that but it’s something that’s just new to me. I’ve always had a job, a house, a place to go to, I’ve lost everything, recently, ya know? My wife, my house, my job. Shit happens, ya know? It’s hard to bounce back. I’m trying to understand. Recently, I lost my daughter, about a month ago, a month and a half ago, it kicked my ass. She was 34 years old, she had cancer. It’s hard man. I’m learning how to cope with life. And I get harassed by the cops, they think I’m doing drugs, doing this, doing that. I’m just trying to get some work. It sucks, it really sucks dealing with this cause I look like a certain type of person they put me in a certain category ya know? I haven’t sold drugs in years. But I got that name on me and they always assume I have drugs on me. It sucks, it really sucks man. I’m trying to bounce back, live life the best I can. I appreciate what this organization is doing but I got a lot going on in my head and my mind. It’s hard to fully understand where I’m going right now but I’m happy I’m alive. https://youtu.be/m4wHR6UCvZE?si=ZrgK2Zsll0-cj3lI #2 Lou King Im going to try to make this short and brief but it might lead you to tears. My name is Lou King and I spent 27 years locked in a box. I got out after that and my family refused to remain, ceased to exist. How can I live like this? With a broken a heart, my feelings dismissed It’s like a wound that you hurt, that you never gave aid, you scrape, you scar and you just put over a Band-Aid and the scars come back. Regardless of one’s profession, you do it and you reach this place called depression. It gets you to look over it. It’s sometimes that I spill, it’s in the format of rap but everything I say is real. I ran the drill and everybody listen to what I’m talkin about. I made it from under the mud and still I’m coming out. My heart is screaming shout and then I said ain’t no doubt. So I hope they comprehend and understand just what I’m talkin about, a struggle and I’m just gonna keep it real. You runnin the drill but you still climbin the hill going up and down and it’ll make you trouble cause when you livin your life in the lane, you can’t stay on one level. Up and down that’s how I go. Can you wait? I went through the struggle now time to elevate. It got grim and I’m appreciating these people who hurt my life I think i’ll be dead but then I spite it. Like I said I am Lou King and many don’t like it. They said that I gotta go get it and then I am off the park. In my right eye I carry a storm. I see the light, see it bright. Like the ones in the bible. Spit. Imma stunt. If you listen closely to the word that I said, seen and done. https://youtu.be/O5SFxJgK27c?si=JuF6nXWMN0GgFOYQ #3 Hayden My name’s Hayden, I’ve been struggling with being houseless for the last like 10 years. I was blessed to be living I guess you would call it the van life, but I had a school bus. That was pretty fun. I lived in New Mexico, I couldn’t stand the city here. Everywhere I would go the cops would get called you know? They didn’t like the sight of me and what I was doing. Literally all I was doing was parking somewhere and that’s it. If people don't recognize you in their neighborhood they will call the cops and then they come and search through my shit and Inevitably they’ll find a little herb or something and then you’ll lose your vehicle and then it all starts over. Man starting form the ground up is not easy in this environment, in this world these days, without help. People go and judge you when you ask for help you know, a lot of the times. Luckily, things seem to be turning around, I’ve been getting some help lately. Right now, I am in a room in a motel that is provided by the city and then they’re going to help me with some housing after that. I’m just, I’m so grateful. But it all really started with police. I mean shoot, I got PTSD with the police. Ever since I turned 16 I started smoking weed, ya know drinking beer like kids do. Then I get caught by the police, get sent to jail, get told that ya know that you’re not a good person, all this shit and it wears on you. Eventually it became so prolific that everytime I see a cop I feel some type of way, I get scared. I almost want to pull over right away, get out of the way. It’s scary. All these parking tickets, registration bills, insurance bills, you got to pay. There’s actually a lot of good people on the streets, interesting people that have a lot of talents. It's incredible. What’s going to waste, what people overlook jsut because of their financial or housing situation. I actually have a fine arts degree, I got a bachelors degree, I’m an artist so pretty much my whole life I’ve known I’m going to be poor laughs. So ya know that’s another thing, you get caught up. There are artists who figure out ways to make money and I commended them but for some reason my brain didn’t quite work in the entrepreneurial fashion. Unless its selling weed, I can sell weed pretty good laughs. And that’s another thing, if people just smoked herb I’m sure things would be better. Interviewer: So tell me about the place you are in here, they give you housing but they don’t give you freedom. Actually, this motel is one of the better ones. They give us lots of freedom. They let us come and go when we please. They are very kind and patient. Honestly, this is the best place I’ve ever been. Cause usually that is how it is, if they give you help they want to be like mom and dad they want you to do what they say, you know what I mean? If you live under our roof you have to respect our rules. And sure they have rules but they are very basic rules like don’t cause a ruckus, don’t hate on others. So this place is actually one of the better places that I’ve been to so I’m really happy with it. For me to not get kicked out yet is miracle cause I’ve been kicked out of every place I’ve been. https://youtu.be/OvVdelGhUp4?si=6vDl4gW1geVUxuKG #4 Becca Since I could ever remember, since I was small, I dealt with addiction in my family, with my father so that lead to struggling with my alcoholic father ya know? Watching him beat my mom and my brothers going and pulling him off of her. Those are struggles that you deal with every day, ya know? They stay with you even as an adult ya know? It’s how you deal with the situation. I struggle everyday here. I was out on the streets before, this is my second time around. I was out on the streets about 10 years prior to this time out. So then I had my first kid, got sober for 7 and ½ years and unfortunately I went back out which caused me to have more struggles. I went back out onto the street, I couldn’t stay with my mom anymore. I had ot le tmy son stay with my mom, not to bring him out here so I didn’t sturgggle more. So then I’m our here, I’ve been ut here for about another 10 years. Going to trap houses which are abandoned houses, then back out to the street again, then trap houses, then back out to the street again, back and forth. It’s a struggle everyday. I’m in this program, Inside Safe, and it’s a struggle here. It’s not knowing how, the people that work here, are going to wake up that morning that is going to set up our day is a struggle. I stay in my room. I go out here and there to do what I need to do and then come right back. But other than that you don’t see me out of my room. We can’t go into other people’s rooms ya know? There are struggles everyday here. You got people overdosing. My friend, I’ve known him for 21 years, he overdosed. I was one of the people trying to help and he wasn’t revivable. It’s sad ya know? People have to go through this alone when they shouldn’t have to be alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qZZNHwD0VM #5 Lanana I’ll just give an instance of something that happened to me while I was on the street. Like you know one time they were doing a couple years back they were doing a sweep on the streets and it was like the hottest day of the year. It was October 9th or something. They had this sweep that had been going on all day so hot you know that’s to wait until like after like 2 o’clock in the morning just put her stuff back up you know like just because that’s sweeping and the day and stuff I ended up like redoing my camp like really really late at night somebody came came by you know like just bugging just pulled a gun out on me and stuff like that. Then my dog got taken away for 3 months ya know mean. To get him out it cost me over 1,200. That was affecting to come up with that or to have him neutralized. It was devastating. Even an instance of coming here, everything’s traumatic. They effort me off the street with false promises like “don’t you want a clean bed?” But the first night I got here there ended up being like a million bedbugs in my room and I’m so glad that I didn’t lay in the bed. I sat in a chair and I watched the TV for like three hours cause I watched a movie and hbo show and I looked back at the dogs and I looked back at the bed and there are bugs everywhere. So f*cking creepy bro, so f*cking creepy. I came downstairs, understandable mad cause there’s something to be mad about. I wasn’t even being over the top and just the way I was treated.. then insinuating that the bugs came from my car to where I came from. They came here from here ya know what I mean? Nobody paid for me to go there. They’re gonna pretend I’m crazy. It took them three weeks to clean my room and I had to sleep in my car so I could keep my spot. I’ve seen them switch up peoples rooms no problem but because they didn’t like me they made me wait three weeks. Just cause they could. I had my $1,00 bike stolen here. They wouldn't even roll back the tapes to show me. It was tied to my car. They stole it right off my car and wouldn’t roll back the tapes, ya know what I mean? Interviewer: What do you think about them tripping because we are doing a poetry workshop. They criminalize us when we are trying to be in community. All government programs are trying to keep you in some superior shit. I don’t understand. Why do they have to run it like this? Why do they have to continue like this? Their behavior. I don’t even know what gets you kicked out and what doesn’t. I don’t even want to deal with any of the staff cause they are not equipped for any situation. From anyone overdosing to having a bad attitude. They’re supposed to be babysitters, I don’t even know. It’s always a horrible experience and there’s no reason for it to be like that. Why is that how they do things? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bzaN7jVk2Q #5 Right after my mom died I got depressed. Going from there, I was running in the streets, smoking dope, getting into a lot of trouble, going to jail. Running on the streets. When I grew up I never had a day job, never had to clean my clothes or my room, nothing. I never learned how to take care of myself. I always had safety around. Once you don’t have that and everything’s gone, you want to make a change. We should be able to do what we want to. We shouldn’t have others telling us how to be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wg9TxRKiUw&t=13s Edward Diaz #1 Become homeless 12-10-22 Started Top When you multi-task No more Otopusing tents on Aetna Build my own place with ? was homeless for 8 months #2 Food stamps FDD and work Anonymous #1 after 27 years blood pain tears, I guess by the grace of god they let me up outta there Kookie #1 How I became homeless.  I was ? when it started, I was the only girl, 9 brothers I never knew my mother, my father was dealing, using, at the age of 13 I started using, helping my dad. I made $20 you know, the old magazine folded, I was raised by my Dad and 9 brothers. We are no family bond, I wasn’t one that started every drug, straight to heroin in out of jail, prison, being judged. I found myself, by myself, lost children, I found myself, 0 home, children. I never gave up, dust myself off and keep running- this race, I was never one to give up. I never had a chance. I was already judged. My past addiction, this is me. Homeless, addiction trying to find a way. Out. Giselle “Gelly: Harrell #1 One of My first crises was a health scare. I was ill and wasn’t getting any better, so I drove myself to the hospital. They took me in immediately and ran some tests. The doc came back and said that I was diabetic and that my blood sugar level was over 600. He proceeded to tell me that I was lucky because I could have gone into a coma. That shocked me. I was in the ICU for a week. They would prick me every hour and I wasn’t allowed to eat anything for like 4 days.  Total misery. All I could think about was my young children. I didn’t want to miss out on her life and being their mom. Giselle “Gelly: Harrell #1 One of My first crises was a health scare. I was ill and wasn’t getting any better, so I drove myself to the hospital. They took me in immediately and ran some tests. The doc came back and said that I was diabetic and that my blood sugar level was over 600. He proceeded to tell me that I was lucky because I could have gone into a coma.  That shocked me.  I was in the ICU for a week. They would prick me every hour and I wasn’t allowed to eat anything for like 4 days. Total misery. All I could think about was my young children. I didn’t want to miss out on her life and being their mom #2  Never start/quit Its’ not for me!!! Anonymous #1 Well I just got out of prison after 35 years and I have been shot, stabbed, and got cancer living on the streets and now I have 6 months to live. Claudia Anglan Yee #1 2017: I got evicted from my Sec. 8 Housing and decided to move to Vegas to get an opportunity for cheap housing and a local job. Eventually it didn’t work out so I moved back to LA. #2 so it was hard to find housing and ? My son was home schooled at the time and got bored at the lifestyle while waiting to get an apartment. He ran away and ended up in foster care. I lost the case and he ended up at foster home with a wonderful ? and he is been with us ? with my 2 daughters and doing great. Thanks for your support. Jordan Ramos #1 The day I was born we were getting evicted. I was born into homelessness and it’s been a constant and ongoing battle ever since. I’m now 28 years old with a ten year old daughter and I feel like I failed her as a mom. It hurts that it’s been a repeating cycle that followed my family throughout generations. #2 Call my mom and figure it out Paisley #1 My mother told me when I was ten that she was going to kill herself. I talked to her and she stayed living. A crisis began. It led to my purpose. But this period was tumultuous. Parents fighting, cops coming, little brother pissing, me consoling him, mom taking pills, depressed in bed.. being unsure what’s going to happen next. I felt at the same time weak and strong, small and grown, holding the answers to questions I didn’t quite understand. #2 Squat in the unit and draw out the eviction process as long as possible while building skills to live and care for others. Outside/in a vehicle if possible. Build and support community which is the only way I can get through.

April 11th, Thursday 5pm ComeUnity Reparations into Land Liberation and Homefulness Location: UCLA Luskin, Room 2355, Public Affairs Building Join for part two of the presentation UnSelling & UnSettling Mama Earth with tiny (lisa) gray-garcia aka PovertySkola. April 13th, Saturday 1pm Writing is fighting, Writing is healing Location: Eastside Cafe 5469 Huntington Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90032 Your stories of struggle & resistance to racism, poverty, gentrification and homelessness are healing power. Stipends and food provided. Co-sponsored by Reclaiming our Homes, PrensaPobre/POORMagazine Sábado 13 de abril 1pm Escribir as luchar, Escribir es sanar. En el Café del este 5469 Huntington Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90032 Sus historias de lucha y resistencia al racismo, la pobreza, la gentrificación y la falta de vivienda son un poder curativo. Estipendios y alimentos proporcionados. Copatrocinado por Recuperando Nuestros Hogares, PrensaPobre/POORMagazine

A 5,700 year old sacred burial ground is finally returned. By tiny aka @povertyskola, daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio Patriarchy Builds Parking Lots Patriarchy builds Shopping Malls & everything Matriarchy Does NOT Patriarchy drops bombs on Palestine And builds Prisons instead of skools on Turtle Island Patrarchy kills mamas while they hold their babies Patrarhcy shoots children and when we fight back shoots us and calls us Crazy Patrarchy is violent But Matrarchy is a sacred, healing mama trident Matriarchy weaves palabra and quilts, prayer smoke and warming gifts, Matriarchy lifts Up love into sky spirit - calling down Grandmother Moon and Mama Ocean Matriarchy begins with the womb -offerring life always even in the face of violent brutal strife Matriarchy protects water, and ancestors and air Matriarchy threads liberation into our hair No colonizers you can’t define our herstories. We R RIGHT HERE We will continue to come with un-ending prayer, You can’t stop the mamas, the grandmommas, the babies, the uncles and the fathers The liberation mamas and the LandBack Suns and daughters #WestBerkeleySHellMoundIsFREEEEE MamaEarth Is NOT for SALE - in perpetuity Steam rises from the broken concrete. Krapitalism buzzes in the distance. A train roars it’s approach. But here in a parking lot on 4th street in West Berkeley.. it is so quiet.Only the murmur of a wind…. And then if you listen very carefully. You hear it. A 5,700 hundred year old whisper. It swirls above the asphalt and the painted lines of metal and rubber and plastic. Sacred Shellmounds buried deep below click together in unison. If u listen carefully you hear the ancestors. They whisper together until it becomes a song #LandBack….LandBack… “Over the last eight years thousands of people came together and said YES at the same time to the Lisjan ancestors. We collectively prayed, sang, danced and created art together. As the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation joined in a six year long legal battle alongside the City of Berkeley to protect a Shellmound and village site over 5800 years old, Ally’s and accomplices continued to show up and we have together set the Shellmound Free!!!” Said Tribal chair of the confederated villages of Lisjan Corrina Gould This Houseless, half colonizer daughter of a disabled indigenous Houseless mama and all of our youth, adults and elders at Homefulness, POOR Magazine and Deecolonize Academy have had the blessing of standing with Corrina and her beautiful family and all the warriors who have fought prayed, called, showed up and marched for this precious moment of resistance to be Mamafested. It is important to recognize that Corrina and all of us have been fighting for something that should have already happened. We have been praying, fighting, marching for something that is repair and return. Return and repair because something has been deeply broken. A centuries old sacred burial ground, that should have been revered and protected, loved and honored by all people. Not just the descendents of the ancestors there. Just like cemeteries and mortuaries are. Instead it was a parking lot for a seafood restaurant. This is not an accident. This was not a mistake or an error in planning. This is violent colonization in a trajectory of other violent colonizaiton that deemed indigenous bodies inhuman and therefore not deserving of life, land or respect, muchless burial grounds, sacred spaces or lands of origin. “I am so thrilled that i get to see this in my lifetime, we have all fought and worked for so long and this is truly beautiful,” said Ruth Orta, an 89 year old elder Ohlone mama and grandmomma and daughter of a survivor of the Colonial boarding schools. Imagine the cemetery where your family is buried being turned into a parking lot. “This was long past due, to correct this historic harm to Ohone peoples of the Bay….Let this be an example for other cities, other towns, and states across the country - to address the historic injustices that have been perpetrated against Native American People on our ancestral lands…” said Melissa K. Nelson, president of the Board of Sogorea Te Land Trust. As Melissa spoke, the ancestors rose up, quietly, steadfastly, standing alongside the Youth and elder Ohlone/Lisjan family of warrior mamas and aunty’s and daughters and suns and uncles that lead the Sogorea Te Land Trust and the allies and accomplices that circled around them. They were right there. Heads held high into the healing smoke that rose into the morning. “It was important for us to contribute and support Sogorea Te Land trust at the same scale that is commiserate with the hurt and harm that they have experienced for centuries It was also important for us to pay Shummi land tax as our organization and our staff is located in the bay and It’s not up to us to decide how the resources were used, but rather to be in solidarity with Sogorea Te Land Trust, trusting that they will use the funds in the way that is most impactful.”  said Nwamaka, CEO of Kataly Foundation whose foundation radically redistributed 20 million dollars, which in addition to the 1. 7 million of the City of Berkeley made this HERstorical distribution possible. This powerFULL moment of indigenous land return is the intersection of many things. It’s about the colonial violence of having to buy back your ancestors resting place, your sacred spaces where our ancestors are buried, which all humans deserve. It is about the violence of krapitalist greed and real-Esnakking and the lie of private property causing the casual (yet intentional) genocide of erasure, removal and desecration of not only a burial ground but a sacred site that is thousands of Gregorian years old. And finally the settler violence of greed, hoarding and accumulation that would put an insane, almost unimaginable “price” on Mama Earth and dane to charge the peoples whose lands of origins this land belongs to, whose lands we are all standing, sitting, dreaming, thinking, buying and selling billions of blood-stained colonial dollars just to get it back. But this is our ancient to 21st Century reality. The unrecognized arrogance of settler colonial violence “charging” evicting, erasing, incarcerating and criminalizing lands and the people of those lands. Creating, perpetrating more extraction and removal of indigenous relatives and Mama Earth resources who are here now, so that you have settler towns like so-called Bellingham, Washington, Phoenix Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota and of course, Palestine, to name a few where the majority of houseless peoples are 1st Nations people. Homeless on their own lands. This moment is also about the resistance moves of Kataly foundation which clearly overstands, like we poor and houseless peoples teach at PeopleSkool, that their immense wealth does not “belong” to them, but rather is also stolen, “made” on the broken backs of Black, Brown, Indigenous and 1st Nations peoples and lands. That this kraptialist system is built for extraction and the only solution is radical or what im now calling logical redistribution of these stolen resources and stolen land, rooted in love and repair, back into the thousands of places and spaces like this small part of Lisjan Land, in so-called West Berkeley, so we can all heal. “We owe this victory to the ancestors and every single person who stood beside us in this fight, we did it!” said Deja Gould, mama, organizer/leader with Sogorea Te Land Trust and daughter of Corrina Gould. This moment is about all of the settlers who stood, marched, prayed, screamed alongside Ohlone/Lisjan relatives. Knowing clearly that 1st peoples are not gone. That colonizaiton didnt work. That the human spirit is strong and together we can heal from this colonial hell with our voices, our humility and our actions. And for all the CONfused settlers reading this, LandBack does not mean re-making the same settler violence that was perpetrated on 1st peoples of scarcity and removal and incarceration and death. This moment is a testament to the deep structures of ancestors who never believed mama earth was for sale. Who never saw her as a commodity to be extracted from and desecrated. Who never believed or would allow the violence of homelessness, who lived the values of what us houseless, pan-indigenous peoples at POOR Magazine call Homefulness. Who were never rooted in the violence of scarcity but rather the solutions of sharing and interdependence. Like indigenous peoples all over the world practice.. If one relative has a job or food to eat, everyone eats. If one person has water, everyone drinks.if one family has a roof, like we do at Homefulness, as many people as possible are housed for free. For life. “We made Herstory today." said Cheyanne Zepeda, mama and auntie, Ohlone/Lisjan leader at Sogorea Te Land Trust and daughter of Corrina Gould. "I'm so happy today, because this land is free!" Said Anniyah, Ohlone 9 year old youth povertySkola student from DeeColonize Academy and granddaughter of Corrina Gould So please settlers as I often say, this is not a time to become scared or scarce. This is a calling in, not a calling out, we have all been lied to in krapitalism and we are all dying from it. As Melissa said, let this be an example. Let us all learn more and live into more radical return, logical redistribution and most important, love for Mama Earth and all of us, so we can all be ok. So we can all heal. Together.

Despite 3 sworn officers per tent, the unhoused in L.A. end up investigating each others’ murders. ⚠️ Graphic illustrated descriptions of homicide and police violence By Ruth, an unhoused anti-displacement activist living in public in the City of Los Angeles. She can sometimes be heard on L.A. Public Press’ podcast SMOGLAND RADIO. 🆓🇵🇸 “Too close to home” When LAPD “knocked” on the door of my tiny home late in the morning on a weekday in August last year, I thought they were there to ask me about the incident that had occurred two nights’ prior. My unhoused neighbor had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance in unknown condition. I had just heard him say “Call 911!” and take off running. I didn’t call, but someone did, thankfully, because I heard the brakes of an ambulance as it pulled in (no sirens) and walkee-talkees beeping and buzzing in the distance. A helicopter launched. Eventually, I was ordered to come out of my tiny house with my hands up. Bright flashlights were shone on me. They asked if I knew that my neighbor had been attacked. He was being rushed to Cedars. They didn’t know if he was going to make it. He had told me to call 911, but I hadn’t. My phone at the time was damaged, so the operator would not have been able to hear me. Plus, he had taken off running. I didn’t even know in which direction. In the morning, red blood could be seen splattered on dead leaves and grass. Yellow CRIME SCENE tape was wrapped around his tent. That was 24 hours before this knock. On this morning, the cops weren’t here about yesterday’s stabbing or my injured neighbor, who they think pulled through. They were here about a murder that happened here overnight. I had heard one single gunshot incredibly close, closer than I’ve ever heard one, around 1:30am. The sound had an unmistakable “CLAP” as it reverberated in the night. I ask who got shot. But this murder wasn’t a shooting. It was another stabbing, a fatal one this time. “Overkill,” they oink and grimace, whispering gruesome details to each other. Again, they want to know what I saw, but I still hadn’t left my tiny house. They kept giving me more reasons not to. “Like I said last time, it’s been incredibly dark out here, ever since  —  ” “Maybe the next victim will cooperate,” the cops said coldly. “  —  the lights here went out in November 2019,” I continued. “We’ve asked the City to fix them, we tried 311…” “It’s not safe out here!” the Senior Lead Officer says, handing us his card on his way out. There has been no less than one recorded homicide per day, on average, in the City of Los Angeles for two consecutive years (2021 + 2022). In 2022, there were 382 homicides in the City of L.A., according to LAPD, which was a slight drop from 2021, when there were just over 400 killings. 2020 marked the change from a steady rate of <1/day observed for at least eight consecutive years prior. From 2012 to 2019, there were never more than 299 total homicides recorded by LAPD in a single year. In 2020, there were 355 homicides, or just under 1/day, on average. 1+ daily homicide in 2021 and 2022. What is even more alarming than L.A.’s “new normal” 1+/day homicide rate is that this City is becoming an increasingly dangerous place for the most vulnerable subpopulations among us, and safer for everyone else. Also, justice is becoming increasingly rare for marginalized crime victims and their families, who often perceived by LAPD as not being “taxpayers”, therefore not contributing to their overly-inflated paychecks, and not deserving of their protection. Homicides of unhoused people in the City of Los Angeles have 4,600% since 2010, and more than doubled from 2019 to 2021. From 2010  —  2014, there were never more than 5 unhoused homicide victims in a single year. Unhoused people are disproportionately represented as victims in recent excess homicides —  and our homicides are significantly less likely to result in any consequence, such as the identification and arrest of a suspect. This is especially concerning when you consider that people experiencing homelessness outdoors, in shelters, and in vehicles “on any given night” are <1% of the population — and we typically have far more contacts with law enforcement than the housed majority <1% of the population of L.A. is homeless “on any given night”. (LAHSA) Since we are “known” to police officers due to our frequent contact, crimes against us should be easier to solve, and yet our cases typically go cold. More than half of the homicides with unhoused victims from 2022 were still open in January 2023, when I received an answer (below) to my November CPRA request to LAPD. At that same time, the overall homicide solve rate was only 58%, but it rose to 77% by March 2023 because more cases got closed. UNSOLVED HOMICIDE AND MANSLAUGHTER COUNT WITH VICTIM/SUSPECT HOMELESS FOR DATES 01/01/2022 — 12/31/2022 • Crime: Criminal homicide • Count: 158 • Victim homeless: 48 • Suspect homeless: 5 Note: One additional homicide with an unhoused victim was discovered before the 2022 report, bringing the total to 92. In 2022, 91 homicide victims were recorded as lacking housing, and 291 were presumed to be housed. Recent research has pegged the danger of living without housing as being at least 3.5 times more dangerous than residing in housing. The difference has been widening over the past decade, far outpacing increases in homelessness. 1 in 4 homicide victims is unhoused. Living outdoors in L.A. has not always been this hazardous. 2022’s total of 91 homicides with homeless victims is a 535% increase from 2015, when there were 17 unhoused people killed by homicide. It is easy to dismiss the increase in homicides with unhoused victims as the consequence of increased homelessness in L.A. in general, but it is not that simple. In the time since 2015 that homicides with unhoused victims grew 535%, homelessness in the City of L.A. had increased, but only 63%, according to LAHSA’s point-in-time counts. The rate of deadly violence against unhoused people is increasing at more than five times the pace of displacement. GRAPH L.A.”Point-in-time” Homeless Count 2010 (around 20k) to present. The PIT doubled to 40k between 2019 and 2020. Of the 382 total homicides that occurred in LAPD’s jurisdiction in 2022, over 150 were still not “solved” as of my CPRA request. It is hard to know where to begin to attempt to make the streets safer without peeking into “solved” homicides with unhoused victims. In trying to do so, yet another alarming trend emerges: a dismal rate of “closing” homicide cases when the victim was homeless compared to the overall “solve” rate for all homicides. This is a reflection of the arrest disparity observed in police departments all around the country of homicide suspects in cases where the victim was not white 158 unsolved homicides from 2022 as of January 2023 “Closed” cases with no closure For as much as the City of L.A. spends on its police department     —     over half of the general funds in the City budget, plus LAPD are granted additional funds by City Council motions every year     —     one would think their solve rate for a major crime like homicide would have been better than 48% (less than half) when the victim is a vulnerable unhoused person. In January, LAPD’s solve rate for 2022 homicides was 58%, but 48% when the victim was unhoused, leaving over 50 “open” cases, and possibly over 50 murderers on the lose Unhoused Homicide Victims in the City of L.A. 2010-2022 MO Code 1218 2022 91 2021 85 2020 58 2019 42 2018 39 2017 28 2016 22 2015 17 2014 3 2013 4 2012 5 2011 3 2010 246X more unhoused homicide victims in 12 years Aggravatingly, “closed” homicide cases sometimes offer little more than “open” ones in terms of closure or insights. Sometimes, the type of insight they provide is more telling of the flaws of the criminal justice system as a whole. When a homicide is “solved”, usually it means a suspect has been identified, apprehended and an arrest has been made. The suspect may be in County jail still awaiting trial or out on bond, depending on the suspect’s financial situation, prior record, the integrity of the evidence gathered by police, and the District Attorney’s confidence in the charges. There are other circumstances besides an arrest that can cause a case to be “closed” or “solved”, although these are unusual. One example would be evidence of the simultaneous death of the prime suspect, such as in the case of an apparent murder-suicide. Obviously this scenario is very rare to encounter, but there are more common ones playing out regularly across the country in San Diego, San Francisco and New York City this year. Banko Brown & Jordan Neely had their homicide cases closed despite witnesses, video evidence, and suspects in custody. Two recent examples of cases that closed without “justice” that have gained a lot of attention in the press are the murders of Banko Brown and Jordan Neely, both vulnerable Black unhoused people in places considered “public”, killed by privileged men who are paid to use guns  —  a Marine and a security guard. In April, Banko Brown, a young, Black unhoused trans man and organizer, was accused of shoplifting a small amount of food from a San Francisco Walgreens and subsequently shot in the back by a security guard outside the store. In May, Jordan Neely, a young, Black unhoused subway performer, was tackled to the ground by a U.S. Marine while riding the New York City subway and held there until he stopped breathing. Both of these awful cases resulted in arrests  —  the security guard and the Marine were taken into custody by SFPD and NYPD, respectively  —  but they were only held briefly for questioning before being released without facing any criminal charges. Six weeks after choking Neely to death, Marine John Penny was finally indicted for second-degree manslaughter and, two weeks after that, also arraigned for criminally negligent homicide. But Banko Brown’s killer, armed Walgreen’s security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, was interrogated and released, and D.A. Brooke Jenkins is now under investigation by Attorney General Rob Bonta to see if she abused her discretion by not letting a jury decide. There have not been any updates since July, but the family of Brown have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. For homicides with unhoused victims in the City of L.A. that did result in the apprehension of a suspect —  even in highly publicized cases where video evidence and eyewitnesses were available  —  it is possible that some or all of the suspects ended up walking free, after all One of Granny Annie’s teenage killers got a slap on the wrist for “hobo hunting”. On May 11, two teenagers shot a sleeping 68-year-old homeless woman outside of a San Diego coffee shop with pellet guns, rupturing her aorta. They weren’t arrested until August. On Friday, the 19-year-old who drove their car pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon, receiving a suspended three-year prison sentence, for which he will serve six months in County jail. The shooter has been charged with first-degree murder but has not yet been sentenced. Some of the killers of unhoused people were on-duty LAPD officers. Those are some of the only cases that got solved. How was the officer involved? LAPD shot 37 people in 2022, including ten unhoused people and 15 “mentally ill”* people. They call these incidents“Officer-Involved Shootings” (OIS). *Prior contact with LAPD’s dedicated Mental Evaluation Unit (“M.E.U.”), SMART was the criteria used by LAPD to declare these victims “mentally ill” (MI). LAPD’s classification has nothing to do with the victim ever actually receiving a mental health-related diagnosis from a doctor. Since “MI” designation only has to do with prior contact and not diagnosis, unhoused people are more likely to receive the MI designation because we categorically have more interactions with police LAPD shot 37 people in 2022. In shootings of unhoused people that were not committed by on-duty LAPD officers, LAPD struggled to gather evidence, identify persons of interest and make arrests  —  resulting in over half of them remaining unsolved as of January 2023. By the time of the release of their 2022 Homicide Report, LAPD claims to have solved 64% of “homeless-related homicides”, but that’s a combination of cases with homeless victims and homeless suspects, because LAPD chooses not to differentiate. It also includes cases that were solved without arrest. So, while 50% is objectively a terrible clearance rate, it’s not that much worse than LAPD’s overall homicide clearance rate at the time of my CPRA request, which was 58%, or their arrest rate for homicide suspects, which was 51% when calculated by Washington Post in 2018. Thinking about the fact that in January of this year, there were potentially 158 murderers running around “scot-free” made me feel utterly failed by the over-resourced department’s lack of action over the violence we experienced the previous summer. I felt like I had put in more effort to solve the homicide of my unhoused neighbor than LAPD and LASD, who were also on the case, while also having several frivolous LAMC § 56.11 and 63.44 tickets keeping me deeply in debt to the city still hanging over my head. 3 sworn LAPD officers per tent “Stay safe.” Last month, the same LAPD Senior Lead Officer who questioned us back in August tried to get us to voluntarily move closer to the exact location where the brutal murder occurred last August, while admitting there had been no developments in the case. Click here to hear the SLO promise to arrest us if we did not move from the lit public area where we had resided for six years, down into the dark corridor where the unsolved homicide and assaults took place in August 2022. When I pointed out the contradiction in being criminalized for having “bulky” things like an umbrella in public space (It is actually legal to have up to a 10’ umbrella or canopy per person in public beaches and parks in the City of L.A per 63.44.) and now being told that I was not in public space after all, the SLO suddenly didn’t know anything about my multiple LAMC § 56.11 and 63.44 citations and warnings. If only LAPD’s homicide investigations were handled with the same level of enthusiasm as 41.18 ticket-writing. It was not lost on me that the assaults occurred at the exact same time that LAPD was gaining thousands of additional opportunities to harass and fine us under the resurrected LAMC § 41.18, which was being expanded at City Hall on 8/9 in between the assaults and the murder. LAPD have fully embraced 41.18 by committing hundreds of arrests, which staff of City Controller Kenneth Mejia visualized in an interactive map. Disproportionate penalties It’s not just that it feels like napping is treated as a worse crime than the killing of a napping person in the City of Los Angeles. That feeling is supported by evidence showing a total lack of consequences for many murders, compared to the thousands of dollars in penalties and weeks or months spent behind bars incurred by people who dare to doze off outdoors. A single LAMC § 41.18 charge can result in up to $2,500 in fines and/or six months in jail—the same sentence the 19-year-old driver and accomplice of the “hobo hunter” who murdered Granny Annie in San Diego got handed on Friday. Who is killing unhoused people in L.A., and why are they getting away with it more often than they’re not? It figures that LAPD’s #1 most arrested person is Annie Moody, a Black unhoused grandmother who lives in a tent and has spent around 18 months in jail awaiting trials for 41.18. Meanwhile, the suspects who killed these victims* in 2022 are still unknown or at large: Nicky Chandler, a Black 47-year-old, died on 6/2 after his tent was lit on fire at Grand Ave & 83rd Street Gayane Stevens, a white 43-year-old woman, was discovered dead after being shot in the head at a “transient encampment” on Colorado Street and the L.A. River Alfie Serrano, a 54-year-old Latino, who died of gunshot wounds in a dumpster on Halloween Christopher Schunemann, a white 35-year-old who was stabbed on 8/10 near his tent on Laurel Canyon & the L.A. RiverWay Manuel Moreno Sagrero, found at 2:30am on 7/18 in a burned motorhome on the 3400 block of Marmion Way. “Video evidence shows an unknown male setting fire to the RV.” David Ramos, a 48-year-old Latino was shot through the mouth and neck in the wash at the 3900 block of Chevy Chase Drive on 9/3/22 John Dorsey, a 35-year-old Black man was shot in the parking lot of a motel where he was staying on 11/6 at the 8400 block of Sepulveda This is by no means a comprehensive list of unsolved homicides of unhoused people, and it’s possible not all of the victims named were actually unhoused. I selected them based on available details about the location and circumstances of their deaths gathered from news, LAPD data, reports and press releases, L.A. Coroner records, court records, council files and media. Keywords I looked for:  tent, encampment, transient, motorhome/R.V./camper/recreational vehicle/trailer, river, wash, etc. For many people who died in vehicles or on roads, there was no way for me to know if they were possibly residing in their vehicles or unhoused. Please feel free to add or correct info in the comments below. I would like to review all cases where no arrest was made and the victim may have been unhoused to identify patterns that may have gotten overlooked. At least 47 homicides with unhoused victims have occurred so far in 2023. Click here for a list, compiled from open LAPD data (this list includes only 44 because it was made before serial killer Jerrid Joseph Powell murdered 4 people this week, with three of them unhoused. It was the housed victim that he was initially caught and charged for, of course) © Ruth roofless⛺️🛒 Graphics made on Canva Illustrations made with Dream AI

by Israel Munoz/por Israel Munoz The president of Mexico has been creating more jobs so that the emigration of our Mexican citizens does not continue so that the people can survive in our country. He has proven that he has many resources so that the people do not have to leave their homelands. The last presidents who have followed the political tradition of corruption and have no scruples for the people who really need it. These behaviors of indifference are caused by the poor teaching of the schools that the conquerors began and gave us and tried to erase our indigenous schools from our grandfathers and our ancestors. But, this president has been demonstrating the values ​​that our ancestors left us. Everything is still in practice that the past presidents have taken from the people. The president, Lopez Obrador is returning and distributing back to Mexico. He has returned the country’s train tracks. He has constructed schools and airports. He has created social programs for the elderly. He has also silenced major news outlets, tabloids, like Televisa and many others who do not want progress for the common Mexican people. Lopez Obrador is putting elderly people and the next generation and our people first and is much more than any president in the history of Mexico has ever done. The next question is, who is going to be the next president? Will they continue his legacy or will the next president destroy the things that have been achieved and how long will this progress last? El presidente de México ha estado creando más empleos para que no continúe la emigración de nuestros ciudadanos Mexicanos; para que el pueblo pueda sobrevivir en nuestro país. Ha demostrado que tiene muchos recursos para que la gente no tenga que abandonar sus países de origen. Los últimos presidentes que han seguido la tradición política de la corrupción y no tienen escrúpulos ante la gente que realmente lo necesita. Estas conductas de indiferencia son causadas por la mala enseñanza de las escuelas que iniciaron y nos dieron los conquistadores y trataron de borrar nuestras escuelas indígenas de nuestros abuelos y nuestros antepasados. Pero, este presidente ha venido demostrando los valores que nos legaron nuestros antepasados. Sigue en la práctica todo lo que los pasados ​​presidentes le han arrebatado al pueblo. El presidente López Obrador regresará y distribuirá a México. Ha devuelto las vías del tren al país. Ha construido escuelas y aeropuertos. Ha creado programas sociales para personas mayores. También ha silenciado a los principales medios de comunicación, tabloides, como Televisa y muchos otros que no quieren progreso para el pueblo mexicano. López Obrador está dando prioridad a las personas mayores, a la próxima generación y a nuestro pueblo, y es mucho más de lo que cualquier presidente en la historia de México haya hecho. La siguiente pregunta es ¿quién será el próximo presidente que continuará su legado o destruirá lo que se ha logrado y cuánto durará este progreso?

"I have moved from the stage of helping friends and neighbors to the stage of now trying to help my family." GoFundMe linked below "My house wasn't just walls, roofs, and some furniture.. it was my kingdom and a source of security where I and 15 members of my family lived. Three families lived in two apartments. My father, Muhammad (77 years old), had built the house 21 years ago. He laid one stone after another and dream after dream to provide us with a decent life, but the brutal occupation did not leave us a dream or a stone. They demolished the home on January 10th and displaced everyone in it. Homeless in this bitter cold and this fierce war, but we will try to heal our wounds and struggle to survive to build a simple life for every child in the family, the oldest of whom is not yet 11 years. I have moved from the stage of helping friends and neighbors to the stage of now trying to help my family." - Yousef Al-Thani, February 3, 2024 Istanbul, Turkey GoFundMe https://gofund.me/60cf937c Picture by Yousef Al-Thani, 2024

From avaaz.org "Urgent - more than 27,000 Maasai are on the verge of losing their ancestral lands! Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan wants to evict them from their homeland to make way for luxury safaris and trophy hunting, eyeing immense profits. Years ago, when our community stood up for the Maasai with millions of people joining our campaign, the President heard us. Now our partners are asking the Avaaz community to help alert the world, again - sign now to amplify our call and reach 4 million voices! We urgently need your support. Years ago when we faced these threats, more than 2 million Avaaz members rallied behind our call! Together, we created such a storm that the former President promised never to evict us from our lands. But now, the gross eviction plans are being revived! President Samia Suluhu Hassan may not listen to us, but we know she’ll respond to media and public pressure – to all of you! " Sign the petition HERE

Youth Essays by Nija, Jay, Zaire Black Land theft From the 90's to the 2024's By Nija Black land theft was common in the South after slavery because of Jim Crow Laws. These were a group of local and state laws that supported racial segregation. The theft and removal of Black people's land and homes happen now in the 21st century because of segregation happening back then. In 2024 poor black mother Terry B is a black poor mother who is fighting a legal battle . who lost her land on the streets of Oakland after fighting her family and the courts for the place where she stays with her family. Terry has been Going through the probate process since her mother-in-law passed away in 2021. Probate is what the courts go through to lose one's assets like a house, car, or jewelry to decide or divide them equally. Soon after the house entered probate Terry lost her house to her own family and the paper knives of the unfair court system. Terry's family had lived there for 10 years before she was forced to leave. Her mother-in-law owned the house but did not have a living will set in place causing the house to go into probate and the ownership of the house to be divided. Terry's sister-in-law flew from New York 2 days after the funeral to get ahead on the house's net worth so she could profit from it before Terry and her family could even start to think about it. Back in the 1921s, 100 years ago The Tulsa Massacre was a redlined city in Oklahoma that was destroyed because 300 black Tulsans were murdered by white ritors, and a thriving neighborhood of that Oklahoma city burned to the ground, not because of the boy but because it was starting to benefit the black community while also generating wealth for black people. But in May the Black Wall Street Massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, what happened on this day was one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history, with hundreds of black residents killed and thousands left homeless. The same thing happened with Move Africa but in a different way… A horrific incident happened in the year 1985 when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed the Move organization's headquarters in West Philadelphia, Numerous city blocks were destroyed and several people lost their lives as a result of the explosion. 11 people were killed including the organization's founder and five children. Over 250 residents were left without a place to live after 61 homes were demolished. Members of Move had regular encounters with law enforcement. When then-Mayor Frank Rizzo, known for having a tumultuous history with black citizens and activist groups. Frank ordered Move to leave their house, and the group entered a 15-month standoff. Nine members of MOVE, often known as Move 9 were controversially found guilty and sentenced to life in prison after the altercation resulted in the death of a police officer. Four years later, Move relocated to the quiet, largely middle-class African American residence on Osage Avenue 6221. Their neighbors continually complained to the city about trash around their rowhouse, confrontations with residents, and that Move members sometimes broadcast obscene political messages by bullhorn. After they’d spent three years on Osage Avenue, then-Mayor Wilson Goode, the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, gave the order to unlawfully evict them. A resident of the neighborhood: “We went to my friend’s house, and later that day we saw the bombing on the news. We were devastated. I was angry and heartbroken. It was a beautiful home. They were travelers. They had priceless things. And they lost everything. Everything”.  This is another example of black land theft. Diane J. The single adult Move survivor of the explosion Ramona Africa was found guilty of conspiracy and rioting and sentenced to seven years in jail. In a civil action verdict rendered in 1996, a federal jury granted her and the families of two bombing victims a total of $1.5 million in damages9. Neighbors returned to shoddy construction in 1986, and by the early 2000s, two-thirds of the neighborhood was bought out by the city. Today, the houses are largely vacant. ` In the Bay Area, there are over 35,811 homeless ppl tht have no home or nowhere to go about 70% percent of those ppl are unsheltered and are trying to live on the streets with and without their belongings. This is because of the high cost of living in the Bay Area and the high cost of the city. The connection that these stories have is that their land was taken away from them forcefully by white people because of systemic racism and classism. Terry did not get evicted because of her mom's past she got evicted because she was poor. In the capitalist system, we have today When poor people get stolen from they become another percent of the homeless in their area. Almost every 3.6 million people get evicted yearly and end up on the streets. Jay A Lot of Black folks get into debt with banksters who raise interest rates, so high they can’t afford the mortgage and they get foreclosed on. This is an example of Black Land Theft in the 21’st century. There are 17,501 houseless  people in both Oakland and San Francisco because of the rates that the government is raising with bills and taxes.  There are roughly  44% of black people that are homeowners, dwarfed by three quarters of  white homeowners. People can become houseless in so many different reasons-eviction landlords raises the rent to high so its  too expensive for a lot of people , substance use  because people go through traumatic experiences, physical disabilities like crisis and depression or unexpected events like family separation and domestic violence and more.. Another process that leads to Black Land theft and often homelessness of Black families is paperwork and laws .  For instance if a family member passes away without a living Will   The government will take over the decisions about Property owned by the family and than lose the property and possibly become homeless. Property is sometimes the only asset a family has. An example of an Asset is when a person or company having a Value and available to meet debts, commitments or legacies. Equity is the value of, could also be known as the amount a business or person is known to be worth. “There were six of us here..    ,” said Terry B, who just lost their home through probate. Probate is the legal process that must happen when a person dies, which involves proof of death (validation) and alot of legal paperwork (administration). Terry B had to go through the probate process and their ending unfortunately was not a good one. The lawyers and judge came to a conclusion that they were not tenants, her sister inlaw was not her landlord and they no longer own the home nor are they allowed to stay at this home. They had gotten evicted. There are many examples of Black Land Theft such as The Tulsa Race Riots was a two day massacre that took place in 1921. This is about African Americans becoming too economically powerful and showing their wealth by creating buildings creating properties and jobs for others. This is what brought on the violence to black wall street, which became ruins with the mob trying to ruin any normalcy, destroying their  places of business houses not to mention their lives. The destruction that was brought upon them was by far the worst act of violence in history. This is a severe act of black Land theft. This Act on Violence on color is beyond me. The Bombing of Philadelphia and the killing of our African American People including children on May 13th of 1985. As they say “small war” The Government was killing our Black african american people by using force with Police. Police hit them with Tear gas and extremely powerful water to try and evict them. The children were soaking wet and There were a lot of people tear gassed and harmed. That’s not the end as they were getting comfortable because of that incident. There was a 2nd most tragic incident embarrassing to Philadelphia on the big Boming to Black African American   to both adults and children a lot of people were killed a lot moved and never came back. What I forgot to mention is that this group called MOVE a young powerful movement to Philadelphia because Black Folks were tired of this white supremacy lead with Move Africa. A small brief on how this is connected to Black Land Theft because the White washed Government/Police bombed two blocks and evicted our people. By taking their land where they live. I think that this situation with Black families getting kicked out of their homes is very unfair.The Government tries to take away people’s homes because of the amount of money the government makes out of selling your house, sadly, that you’re living in.  Don’t worry because you can always put up a fight in Court if they Try to take your home away. Family Unlawfully Evicted By Zaire “We were unlawfully evicted. In 2020 my mother in law passed.” said Terry b Terry B is a mother of 4 who was living with her mother in law for ten years, in the family home that was owned by the mother in law. This is a 21 century example of Black land theft. Black people are more likely to take on debt in order to purchase homes,strapping them down with increased liabilities, this often leaves them with no way to get/ afford a lawyer setting them up for yfailure,“There are not only crooked lawyers but crooked judges also,” said Terry b, meaning if you have the right money they can grant you a an entitlement which is what Terry Bs sister did. Herit law allows an individual who has the right and entitlement to succeed to the wealth and property of the deceased individual, under the signed legal will else personal succession law applicable. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a common  example of black land theft Tulsa Greenwood in Oklahoma /or Black wall started off as a secluded, segregated community for Black folks. Being in the segregated community, black people began to rely on each other,  residents to create a self-sufficient district, making black wall street one of the most successful communities. A fully realized antidote to the racial oppression of the time, Tulsa Greenwood Oklahoma  was home to a thriving Black commercial district, whose many red brick buildings belonged to Black Americans and housed thriving businesses, including grocery stores, banks, libraries. Eventually it was burned down by white people “We are not tenants, and my sister in law is not our landlord, the judges agreed to that, its illegal” said  Terry b stating that what the sister in law is doing is illegal and the judges and lawyers are allowing it because the sister has the money for attorneys With their sister taking the home away Terry B's family became houseless with nowhere to go,  one of the reasons she became houseless is because of the system of probate. Probate is the legal process that you must follow to transfer or inherit property after the person who owned the property has passed away.  A document that can be used to cause black land theft. If Terry B's mother-in-law had a Living Will which is a record of what assets you want passed down to whomever,  it could’ve been settled through a 50/50 split.  I'm sure the mother didn't want her son ( Terry's husband) and his family homeless or for the family to split up over a house. In the end the system is designed to fail us, with racial targeting of Tulsa Greenwood. And laws and documents like probate. Heir’s law etc. These are all examples of black land land theft in history to now.