T he Case made for our protection from these deadly sweeps under the 14th Amendment By Jeremy Miller/Poor Peoples Law Clinic at POOR Magazine/Homefulness The Supremacist Court’s recent decision to uphold the hateful will of those governing Grants Pass , Oregon in their systematic assault on homeless people has sent shockwaves through the nation as its impact is already being felt by people with inadequate or non-existent safe housing options currently residing in these United Capitalist Prison States of America.  Specifically what it has done is overturn a 2019 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling ( Martin v. Boise ) proscribing (en)forced removal (including people and belongings) without there being an adequate shelter alternative available.  This earlier decision grounded itself in an interpretation of the eighth amendment of the Constitution and its proscription of cruel and unusual punishment.  One of the key reasons why Grant’s Pass has been so impactful is that Martin v. Boise  had become such a popular shield against the regular assaults on dignity and humanity conducted by various law-enforcement agencies and their private sector collaborators against unhoused folks in the western part of the settler colony.  To be clear this was a shot across the bow from the rarefied heights of the judiciary all but declaring war on homeless people.  Also, relying on plain meaning of language (which is precisely what the Supremacist Court was supposed to do,) only someone who has never experienced homelessness or had intimate emotional relations (such as familial) with someone who has could possibly challenge the characterization of current anti-homeless ordinances/laws as being cruel.  We will set aside the unusual aspect for the moment because it seems that regularity of oppression is a weak argument for justifying let alone enshrining atrocity in law. Fortunately, despite all the hand-wringing and jeremiads, not to mention the triumphalist poor-bashing laps being taken by such “liberal” oppressors as California Governor Gavin Newsom or San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the legality of homeless sweeps, property confiscations, camping bans, and unnecessary incarceration for “quality of life” crimes is not dependent on an affirmative definition as either cruel or unusual.  There is an older and deeper constitutional provision which, if applied, would make all of these anti-homeless laws, ordinances, and tactics extremely difficult to legally defend. The Original Right to Life More than thirteen years before the Bill of Rights was composed (encompassing the first ten ratified amendments to the Constitution) the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson.  Its preamble includes some of the most notorious of lofty (and largely unrealized) political sentiment in the entire history of the nation’s political philosophy and letters.  Most “Americans” know the words by heart even if due to a dearth of civics education they cannot place where they are recorded.   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Now of course we could allow ourselves to be derailed here by a digression into which men were actually envisioned by the slave-holding Jefferson, what the implications were for women’s enfranchisement etc. but, while politically suggestive especially from a liberationist frame, this elides a key point.  All modern legal  interpretations ascribe a race/sex/gender universality to the language.  The emphasis on the legal is critical here.  Despite the fact that most people think of this language as merely late eighteenth century ideological pontification, a large chunk of it has been introduced into positive law.  The vehicle for this is the first section of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, rendered shorthand as the “Incorporation Doctrine.”  In relevant part it states: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [Emphasis author’s own.] While the right to “the pursuit of Happiness” is displaced by the more vulgar right to property, significantly the right to life is maintained and theoretically possessed by “any person.”  The incorporation doctrine effectively was an answer to the question of “states’ rights” or its constitutional corollary in the tenth amendment to the Constitution.  The tenth amendment was a concessionary measure (or to some a balancing measure) for those desiring a state level counterpoint to emerging federal power.  It states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This effectively was the ultimate argument in Grants Pass v. Johnson.  Justice Neil Gorsuch concludes the majority decision saying: The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy. It is precisely this type of abdication of responsibility that the incorporation doctrine was meant to preclude.  Specifically, by articulating a right to life in the Constitution it denies the right to the states to create any law, ordinance, or engage in any act(s) that deprive people of life save within the narrow parameters of something like death penalty jurisprudence.  In fact, spending a moment on the current Supremacist Court’s greatest hits, when dealing with abortion the only reason why the anti-abortion “right to life” could not be more successfully countered by the original right to life (with emphasis on the life of the mother) is because of the strange hermeneutics of competing claims as to when a fetus is endowed with this special attribute of life. This legal interpretation of the right to life is also codified in international law.  In 1966 the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  This entered into force (making it obligatory for states parties) a decade later in 1976.  Significantly for our purposes it was ratified by Congress in 1992 with certain “reservations, understandings, and declarations.”  The RUDs are effectively amendments or provisos stipulating that a country will ratify the treaty making it positive national law so long as this, that, or the other interpretation or clause remain non-binding in particular domains or do not threaten jealously protected national interests or prerogatives.  As a relevant example, Article 6, section 2 of the ICCPR sets out what to some may be construed as stringent requirements circumscribing the use of the death penalty as punishment for crimes.  The United Capitalist Prison States of America did not want any supranational body to be able to dictate under what conditions it could sentence people to execution and thus entered a reservation to the limitation concerning the circumstances in which capital punishment is imposed. This same article of the ICCPR (Article 6) is relevant for our argument here.  Specifically Article 6, section 1 reads: Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. This right was further clarified in 2019 by the UN Human Rights Committee, the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by states parties. In General Comment 36, Section 3, Paragraph 26 it asserts in relevant part: The measures called for to address adequate conditions for protecting the right to life include, where necessary, measures designed to ensure access without delay by individuals to essential goods and services such as food, water, shelter , health care, electricity and sanitation, and other measures designed to promote and facilitate adequate general conditions, such as the bolstering of effective emergency health services, emergency response operations (including firefighters, ambulance services and police forces) and social housing programmes . [Emphasis author’s own.] Since none of the RUDs have any language that contradicts this definition of the responsibilities states parties have vis-à-vis the ICCPR, the nation is enjoined in upholding them.  This should carry additional weight since unlike most other international instruments, the ICCPR has actually been ratified by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush hence theoretically depriving the country of an ability to hide behind national jurisdiction arguments to dodge international obligations.   Contradiction Between Local Ordinances and Federal Law It is no secret that there have always been battles between federal and state or local authorities surrounding policy.  From the Civil War up through to current battles surrounding energy regulation (Sen. Joe Manchin vs. President Joe Biden,) or how evil one can legally be to immigrants (Gov. Greg Abbott vs. President Joe Biden,) major life altering issues have been adjudicated in formal settings like the Supremacist Court or informal settings like the street.  And while it would be a pipe-dream to expect this strife to completely disappear, from a legal standpoint there is a pecking order that can at least doctrinally be relied on to determine which view prevails.  This is known as the Supremacy Clause.  Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution states: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. Thus the Supremacy Clause on its face clearly establishes that in conflict of disposition the Constitution, and all treaties made carry the day.  They cannot be overturned by petty despots such as London Breed, Eric Adams, Gavin Newsom, or the City Council of Grants Pass Oregon. Why Do We Bother with the Man’s Law? The question regarding how we treat the poorest among us is ultimately an ethical question and no written compact ought to be necessary to compel our compassion and camaraderie.  But unfortunately the logics of capitalism have been so deeply ingrained in many people as to make this thought process not necessarily a foregone conclusion.  Thus we see rampant cruelty in local policies around the nation enforced to maintain order, which for some appears to be a more precious value than humanity.  Due to this we can not necessarily rely on ethical or moral appeals to prevent attacks on homeless people.  This is specifically why Martin v. Boise  was so significant for homeless folks.  It not only named their oppression, but provided the law as an imperfect shield against its enforcement.  People have not changed so much in the intervening years.  The moral fight will continue ad nauseum.  But, especially in light of grotesque escalations of anti-homeless abuse by municipal and state actors, since the Grant’s Pass decision broke the Martin shield a new one must be hoisted.  Gratefully it already exists.  On the fourfold legal foundation of the Declaration of Independence, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, the ICCPR, and the Supremacy Clause all people, including homeless people, have a right to life that is clearly being abrogated by current policies.  The sweeps are not only unethical, but illegal.  So to hell with Martin!  It was good while it lasted.  We don’t have time to mourn it.  The law is still squarely on the side of humble people fighting to live.  We just have to remind the oppressors of this every damn time!

By Leajay Harper /POOR Magazine  “What is supposed to happen when people get arrested for being homeless? Do you come out housed? Do you get out healed?” a woman (who did not state her name) asked the Berkeley mayor and other council members at last nights city council meeting. The meeting was for Berkeley city to now support the executive order placed by the governor last month. The executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them, and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same. Since the order was In Place, we’ve seen violent sweeps happening in San Francisco, where Mayor London Breed promises to make people camping outside uncomfortable. One of the strategies that many cities are using to respond to the order is to incarcerate people that refuse to cooperate with police. Vigilante crimes against homeless people have increased as more housed residents across Bay Area cities are reporting about the blight and public defecation. Because of the executive order put on by the governor, people in the community think they can take matters into their own hands in addressing the homeless because they feel law enforcement is behind them. The misappropriation of all the billions of dollars that CA says we have spent on housing and providing services to the unhoused have still failed to provide any reports showing how many people have actually been placed. “You’re not supposed to be texting during a council meeting,” demands Sheryl, another angry resident frustrated because the body language was a direct reflection of how much compassion the stakeholders hold for our unhoused relatives. The mayor was very adamant about people not disturbing the meeting, that if people speak out of turn they will be asked to leave, but my question is: How do they expect people to act when their freedom is a question on the table? In the last month we have seen cities moving very fast to implement policies that criminalize people living outside, while people have been trying to get housing and are being given the run-around from agencies that the county has put in control of this process. Another strategy that we see being used is to offer people bus tickets home… In Alameda County alone, a report on the unhoused states that 68% have lived here their whole lives. And so again we ask,  “Where do we go?” There have been people placed into Tuff Shed communities with the promise from the city that people are temporarily put in tiny sheds for a max of 90 days. But the average time that it takes for a person to receive the housing through the coordinated entry system is a minimum of a year to actually get housed, and that is if you have a high enough score to get matched with a placement. There are less than 300 county beds in shelters and over 7000 people currently unhoused.  I was unhoused on Wood Street and when the city relocated me to a city sanctioned RV lot, I was lost and disconnected from the community I felt safe in for 10 years. In December, I was blessed to be welcomed as the 16th resident in permanent healing housing model, rent-free for life, at POOR Magazine’s Homefulness, which operates fully on the radical redistribution of wealth hoarders’ money. I would like to add that I didn't have to go through any bullshit ass city-ran agency to move into this community. It was the genuine love of the community that understands how much a person can strive once given the opportunity to heal from trauma, a lot of mine came from being swept time and time again.  I think the most fucked up part for me is that there are plenty of self-ran communities that have been around for years and that provide people with everything that they need to remained housed forever. It doesn't make sense that more communities (like Homefulness) aren’t being supported or even modeled after because these communities put the people first instead of feeding the lie of capitalism and colonization. Here’s how you can get involved with us: On October 4th 2024 Wood St Commons (west oakland unhoused community) and other supporting organizations and community allies will be riding our bikes from Oakland to Sacramento. We are hoping to meet with all of the Assembly and Senate Members that currently sit on the Housing committees and the Governor's office. For more information, see this Google form . You can also donate to the GoFundMe .

RoofLessRadio Reporters HerStories and HisStories, transcribed. Genie Sullivan My first memory as a child was sleeping on the floor at the place my dad was working. We weren’t supposed to be there so I just remember this feeling of needing to hide. This process continued every few years that my family was evicted and we spent nights in our vehicle, on couches, or with family.  As a child, I thought my family was a failure and I blamed my parents. However, as a 27 year old going through the same experiences, I realized that a lot of people go through the same thing because of the system’s causes.. —------------ Daewon Aone 3 years ago, I found a gardener’s plot with a tiny house on it. And I’ve been there all on the grace of the Infinite. I use meth from a fail attempt at connecting writing ? as an slective for my PTSD Oakland traumatic J and I make continuous efforts to learn/teach all the Supreme wishes 4 me to HAVE YOU SEEN COPS Erday BRUH on motor bikes and always in a dam helicopter I came to a conclusion or epiphany: “A dude my age shouldn’t be still living with any ? so I made some happen —----------------- Amy After working really hard, being beaten/shamed to be what they wanted, I was told that I still   wasn’t enough.  So, at 14 I decided to follow my own path. Over the years, my struggle has been cultivated by/intertwined with depression, anxiety, neuro-divergence, domestic violence, addiction, art, travel, freedom, thriving through survivalism. —--------------- Dani Dani-mother to Deshae, Danau and Danyel, poverty skola, formerly houseless & now currently homeful at Homefulness. My auntie kicked me out because of a lie her daughter told her. I stopped smoking meth when I first moved to Oakland, but quickly got back into it. I got lost in the dope world, but I learned how to survive. I was abused mentally, physically and emotionally by my partners. I thought that was the way to be.  Because of all of this I now suffer from depression But I am now currently in the process of healing at 33 year old. —------------------ Kharizma At 9 my mom got evicted from our apartment in West Grand so we lived homeless at Peoples Park for 3 months. —----------------- LeaJay My lst time being homeless I was 17.  It was 2 months before my high school graduation- I stayed out all weekend & my mom was mad when I got home. She told me to stay wherever I had been at or leave, but I couldn’t stay anymore so I took my duffle bag to Peoples Park in Berkeley to try to fend for myself. —---------- Rozz Veloz Electrician by force not by choice. Pops owned the company.  We build grocery stores and shit like that.  ?  the guy most f? Do not want to see on their jobsite. Because it means you’ve ? and you about to get the ?  worked for Tesla, I ? LAX and ? $3,000 wk but all I really want to be is the best daddy I can be.  I am story short hold my house in Laguna Beach?, moved up here, to be near my son, custody battle. I income is s75,000.  Dogs were stolen, jeep was towed. Everything inside stolen, truck, tools stolen, couldn't ?, everything gone.  Liberated.

By Jay Paulino The downfall of the city will occur if sweeps keep happening the way they are. There is harm, violent people, and danger out in the world everywhere, and police are ignoring the real Harm. Cops are supposed to be the ones protecting and serving, right? That’s not what it looks like now.  There are many police in the system that have to be defunded because they are still killing and hurting us today. I see someone with a nosebleed and his head gushing blood; police just stay and ignore it. They call for unnecessary backup instead of an ambulance to address the real problem. This isn’t the only issue with police. It’s also the police brutality against Black/African American people, driven by racism. As I’m walking with Tiny and Poor Magazine downtown in the City of San Francisco doing roofless Radio, the more I see houseless folks hurt. I see police ignore and keep wiping homeless people off the street. Police sweep houseless folks every single day when there is no crime. Our Brothers and sisters are hurt every single day because they have to worry about where they rest their heads at night. Even if they do rest their heads, they have to worry about police taking their homes away at any time of day and throwing their belongings and life in the trash. In the Tenderloin, I have seen a lot and it showed me that there's more people out there looking for Poor Magazine to make this change a movement. Our Mayor London Breed has been following in the footsteps of the last mayor, and the more sweeps that occur, the more lives are lost to the violence of sweeps.

By Dee Allen Its name is displayed on petitions circulated online, in people’s fondest memories. Eight months passed and mourning persists over the loss of a great square of soil popular with locals housed and un-housed. Change came to sidestreets off Telegraph Avenue–Dwight Way, Haste Way, Bowditch Street—January 3, 2024. University of California Regents decided people should lose a piece of Berkeley. A piece of my Anarchist past I used to visit for events. Daily food servings from Food Not Bombs, always free and herbivorous. Mardi Gras celebrations—colourful costumes, beads, masques, gigantic green frog float on wheels—HOPPALEUIAH! Festive anniversary of blessed land’s liberation from the Regents’ greedy grip, hard-won on the streets, clashes with police at the university’s foot, Summer 1969. Native American drum circle, live bands on the painted wooden stage, dancing on open grass, poetry, gardening tutorials. From past revolt, these short blessings. Good times that were mine— Local legend says Julia Vinograd—late jester hat poet from the late, lamented Cafe Babar—was a regular visitor on the land. Often she blew soap bubble trails into an open void joyously— What stands in its place? Rusty Corten steel enclosure. Two levels of stacked shipping containers. Real-time Tetris structure 17 feet high. Flood lights, Apex security guards, metal NO TRESPASSING sign. The land sits idle, clear behind imposing new wall of separation, alien to Berkeley’s no-nukes, anti-war, eco-sustainable, peace-loving bohemian character. Wall of separation in the Middle East—splitting Israel from what’s left of historic Palestine—may not share those traits. Al-jidar goes against the 1967 “Green Line” surrounding Israel and international law. Built at the height of Al-Aqsa Intifada . Approximately 34,000 miles. 435 miles long, 26 feet high—Israel’s expression of hate. No guards, flood lights or prohibition signs. What the other wall of separation shares are these: Assimilation of the blessed land into the system’s framework, humanity and land forced apart. Both discourage people’s right to return. On an unseasonably warm afternoon in late February, my friend and fellow writer Debby Segal and I took a brisk walk through Berkeley, from U.C. Berkeley’s Art Museum and campus of different, transplanted trees, straight on through Telegraph Avenue. As always, Telegraph bustled with college students and older locals that hit up its convenient shops and restaurants. A race of willing consumers. On our way past Mars Vintage Clothing and Rasputin’s Music, in the direction of Amoeba Music, my eyes bulged in utter shock at the gross steel monstrosity where the blessed land used to be. It’s reported that the walled-off land awaits construction offor 1100 beds. Debby and I walked far away from the ugly thing that played a prison wall part so well and secured a glorious future for someone—unlike me. I long for the day that wall of separation sees dismantlement and removal. Container by container. Regents of U.C. Berkeley Have chalked up a victory Keeping all the People’s Out of their own Park . _________________________ W: Hiroshima Anniversary 2024 [ For Whitney Sparks. ]

For Immediate Release: Contact: Jaz colibrí (413) 522-3116 / Tiny garcia (510) 435-7500   In the ongoing and violent war on houseless peoples bodies and lives The city of Oakland schedules a dangerous "Sweep" of a large houseless comeunity on West Grand and MLK.  What : Resource Fair for the Houseless ComeUnity of West Grand and MLK   When:  8am Monday, Sept 16th  Where: On the Block of West Grand and Martin Luther King Jr Way "We are not sure where we can go now," JohnX, a disabled elder resident of West Grand and MLK shakes his head  while trying to balance on his crutches and drag a hefty bag of his clothes away.  John X was one of the WeSearch reporters that contributed to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report   released in August on the increasingy violent sweeps being ordered by Governor Newsom and Mayors from Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets of so-called California.(WeSearch report Sweeping us to Nowhere ) One of the findings of the WeSearch report is the majority of the residents of the MLK /West Grand Comeunity are gravely disabled elders. Additionally, the City has limited to no housing resources to refer people to that are ADA accessible.    Alternatively, a community of houseless/formerly houseless advocates, care-givers and housed allies are planning an urgently needed resource fair for the West Grand /MLK comeUnity to help residents in crisis with housing, food, medicine, health care resources as well as legal advocacy to ensure their Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rights are not being violated and they are legally protected in the face of this state sponsored violence.   Since the Grants Pass Vs Johnson ruling was made and the subsequent order by Governor Newsom, the mayors of towns across so-called California like Sheng Tao,  London Breed and Karen Bass,  have been waging a war against our houseless bodies. Sweeping, disappearing and arresting us to nowhere.  Resource Fair organizing committee includes Wood Street Commons, POOR Magazine/Homefulness, Coffee Not Cops, Lesgetit Networks, Anti-PoLice Terror Project,  Love and Justice in the Streets, Where Do We Go, EBLC, Punks With Lunch, East Oakland Collective. The Resource Fair will offer resources to actual solutions like the work being done by fellow houseless people at Wood Street Commons and Homefulness  and ways that housed people can actively get involved in  houseless peoples-led solutions, as well RoofLESS radio story-telling workshop, poetry, produce and healthy food distribution.  1st RoofLessRadio WeSearch Release

Momii Palapaz Poverty Scholar, reporter, radio programmer PoorNewsNetwork “You are not to talk about the Hunger Strike,” said Oakland Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to defense lawyers. "And if you bring it up again, I will put you in contempt.” On Monday, June 24, 2024,  the first day of  trial against James Perez, David Cervantes, George Franco and Guillermo Solorio, Judge Rogers attempted to squash and discredit the  2011 prisoner led movement against solitary confinement.   In 2015, the four men were charged with gang conspiracy, gang enhancement,  and gang racketeering.  Federal prosecutors hoped to make a slam dunk with a wealth of federal witnesses and thousands of pages of “evidence” against the hunger strikers.  All the defendants lived in solitary confinement of the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay for decades.   It’s a cover up of injustice with a coverup of claiming gang related crimes.   Suppressing the truth about the protest wasn’t the case yesterday, July 29, 2024. Into the second month of the trial, no objection was made to questions for the FBI witness regarding the “hunger strike."  It was a surprise to myself and the few spectators, including Lydia, sister of one of the defendants. “Yeah, I thought that it was not allowed to be brought up in court,” she said.  But we agreed that it was a good thing. Ceremony for brothers of Pelican Bay State Prison presented by POOR MAGAZINE HOMEFULNESS at the Oakland Federal Building SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IGNITES SOLIDARITY AGAINST TORTURE In 2011,  between July 1 and September 26th, James Perez, David Cervantes, George Franco and Guillermo Solorio were part of a hunger strike protesting solitary confinement. Organized by The Short Corridor Collective, the residents sent messages that spread Statewide and throughout prisons and jails on turtle island.  Languishing for years, without daily sunshine, forced into a loner life, fellow prison residents and guards are the only physical contacts.  Those living in the SHU, receive only non-touch visits, denied the right to free movement beyond a cage, denied the right to quality nutrition and the right to touch earth. Prison hunger strikes, for decades, in such places as San Quentin, California, and Red Onion State Prison in Virginia have repeatedly protested years of cruelty and inhumanity.  For example, it is known that “the only way to get out of solitary confinement was to tell on another,” called debriefing.  Temptations to lie to free yourself of the torture was testing all the men.   In 2012, The Short Order Collective at Pelican Bay constructed “An Agreement to End Hostilities” in the continued ongoing struggle for unity amongst the imprisoned.  Both the hunger strike and the “amendment” simultaneously targeted the federal government and the US industrial prison complex.  Much to the prison authorities' surprise, they immediately tried to suppress and cover up the uprising.  When I say cover up, I mean the feds have pulled every stupid idea out of their supremacist head to claim the reason for the hunger strike was to get in gen pop and sell dope.  This is the thinking of the Bureau of Prisons.  The practitioners of this corrupt system cannot believe there is intelligence, even genius amongst the thousands of men behind bars.  Now the hunger strikers are on trial. POVERTY TO PRISON PIPELINE It’s the 13th anniversary of the Hunger strike by residents of the  Pelican Bay State Prison in California.  This is so significant that the US government with its gang of FBI is now attempting to railroad 4 men in Federal court. Supporters gather at the Federal Building in Oakland before the trial denouncing the inhumanity of solitary confinement Short Corridor Collective co-organizer of the hunger strike and Amendment to End Hostilities, Todd Ashker, said “Alleged gang-affiliation was sufficient cause for the CDCR to consign prisoners to SHU for the remainder of their lives, unless they were willing to snitch on other prisoners (the “debriefing” process), reach the end of their prison sentence (parole), or die. Prisoners described their choices as ‘snitch, parole or die.’  The Ashker  settlement supposedly ended the practice of sending prisoners to SHU for alleged gang-affiliation alone.”  Mr. Ashker is in his 27th year of solitary confinement. Another member of the Short Corridor Collective, Paul Redd, was incarcerated for 44 years,  30 of them in the Special Housing Unit of Pelican Bay.  He was the go-to lawyer for residents inside.  From Critical Resistance, "he was one of the most skilled and well known jailhouse lawyers in the US prison system.  A leader amongst not only blacks but all colors seeking his advice. He was instrumental in building a unified force against the system of SHU and confronted divided and conquer tactics amongst inmates." Said warden, “The only way Redd will leave Pelican Bay is in a pine box. " In May, 2020, with the support of legal advocates and then SF DA Chesa Boudin, Mr. Redd was released standing and walking, not in a pine box.  He left Pelican Bay with Terminal Stage 4 lung cancer.  He passed 2 years later on June 19, 2022. PRISON TO REVOLUTIONARY PIPELINE In US prisons, Over 80,000 men are doubly imprisoned, BEING separated from the general population and THEN in solitary confinement. The revolutionary power of incarcerated men and women, child and elder, is their strengthened mind, feared by corrupt power.                 “Pelican Bay Art” “SHU Syndrome” Michael D Russell In 2015, a landmark decision  “intended to end indefinite solitary confinement throughout California prisons” was not implemented. No surprise. Over 1000 residents of California prisons participated in a 60 day no eating protest.  It continued in stages first on July 1, to September 26, 2011 and then on July 8, 2013.  It grew to over 6,000 men and women in the State.  On August 12, coinciding with the hunger strike was a written statement called “An Agreement To End Hostilities." This was organized by those held at Pelican Bay.  The message spread in California and rippled through other penal institutions across the US. The following are demands created by the residents and issued throughout the system.   Eliminate group punishments for individual rules violations; Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria; Comply with the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement; Provide adequate food; Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for those indefinitely sentenced to the SHU. All prisons in the US must be abolished. Millions of boys and young men, like Husband, entered the penalistic system when they were teens or in their early twenties.  So now you see that many men still incarcerated are in their 70’s, and 80’s.  The C # will indicate the year, which is about the 1970's.  The US prison machine is the machine of fascism.  Many of it’s projects, plans and policies have escalated over centuries and instituted and streamlined into outside institutions.  The police, military and imperialist wars are in our everyday life.  The inside is trying to tell us on the outside.  We are all connected. THANKS TO SPIRIT OF MANDELA, PRISON RADIO, Critical Resistance, Center for Constitutional Rights, Solitary Watch, Todd Ashker website and mainstream press for information, stories, opinions and art from inside by Michael D Russell. Article by Dorsey from all of us or none “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution. Pass on the torch. Join us, give up your life for the people.” George Jackson

London Breed is a fraud. When she won her first full term as Mayor in 2018, she spoke of addressing the issues that plague San Francisco . I’d say that she hasn’t done much if anything to help the people of the city. In fact rthese past couple years have shown us that she’s begun to roll back on those promises and goals to try and get  more votes, as she’s pushed most of her voter base away.  When Breed first became Mayor in 2017 after the death of Ed Lee, she was replaced not even two months into office. In a speech made while figuring out her replacement, Supervisor Hillary Ronan said that Breed was supported by “white, rich men” like the billionaire Ron Conway. Not even two months in office and the cracks start to show.  She later joined a GOP led effort to overturn or reform Prop 47, originally passed to combat overcrowding in prisons and save the state money. Her goals were to make it easier to imprison drug dealers, users, and petty thieves. Also happening around the same time was the major street sweeps of the homeless ahead of the APEC conference held downtown. Feels very connected to me! I get what you’re thinking, “it’s politics” right? You can’t accomplish every single thing you want to even if you promise your electorate but it isn’t that simple. She has barely addressed the core issues in San Francisco, she just moves them from neighborhood to neighborhood giving the whole city a facade just like she had been doing for years at that point. Homelessness has actually increased according to HER OWN GOVERNMENT’S SITE from her entering office to this year.  I was born and raised in San Francisco, i’ve seen the good, and the bad and I can most definitely say that the only times i’ve ever been afraid in the city have been while London Breed was mayor. I’ve seen more suffering, less services, and the crime is through the roof. I was literally robbed in broad daylight on Christmas of 2023! I don’t know what will work but I know that what we have now, ain’t it

Mayor London Breed has been following in Governor Newsom's footsteps by continuing the aggression against houseless people. She has ordered more sweeps, more incarceration, and more discomfort for houseless people. Last week, she said she will make it so uncomfortable that "they [houseless people] will have to accept our offer and will have to leave." I went along with Tiny, Momii, Leajay, and two youth scholars to San Francisco last Thursday and Friday to document how houseless people have been dealing with the recent sweeps. By 1pm in the Tenderloin, the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Urban Alchemy were already tossing people's belongings into large trash bins. Surrounding them was a throng of police cars and an absurd number of armed officers ready to carry out Breed's order to arrest or disappear as many houseless people as possible. We were armed with nothing but our phone cameras and breakfast pastries to stand in solidarity with our unhoused neighbors, who all of us at POOR Magazine once were.  POOR Magazine defines WeSearch as poor people-led research.  I watched as the mainstream media camera crew in the Tenderloin turned tail and ran when they saw us recording. Corporate media like CNN and local FOX news stations have never been interested in writing stories that feature our voices. They talk around us, turning us into data points and flattening us into "the homeless" with one story, one viewpoint, one experience, without bothering to ask us how we got to where we're at. After the report, Tiny outlined the point of WeSearch to me, saying, "We quantify data because politricksters like numbers. Crapitalism cares more about numbers than they do about people.” According to Tiny, WeSearch is “a very revolutionary aspect to this kind of community collectivity [compared] to ‘data collection’. Data collection is turning people into data. Community collectivity gives people back their sovereignty.” Part of giving people back their sovereignty is flipping the script on subject and interviewer. When we ask people to share their stories with us, they craft their own narratives, and in so doing, become reporters of their own stories. We met many people affected by Breed's new policies, all of whom spoke of harassment by cops and dehumanization at the hands of city workers tasked with "keeping the streets safe." One ROOFless Radio reporter said, “I got a seller’s permit, that means you can sell anywhere in California. Anywhere! And they still took my shit and impounded it and took everything from me last night with no remorse.”  On Friday, we saw the effects of Mayor Breed’s relocation venture to offer free bus tickets to houseless people regardless of if they are even from outside San Francisco. We met an older houseless reporter in SoMa who had just been given a bus ticket. He said he had chosen Salinas as his destination and they gave him a ticket on the spot. According to him, he has no friends or family in Salinas and needed directions to the bus station. This is elder abuse, plain and simple. The government has forced older adults to leave their homes to go to a random city simply to move the “nasty homeless” out of San Francisco. Displacement is not a solution to homelessness.  In this writer's opinion, poor people are as tired as they are angry. Tired because they have to cope with the daily struggles of being poor and homeless, and angry because they are becoming increasingly isolated as they attempt to carve out a life from the edges of society. Newsflash: we are society. We have our own communities where we live lives of joy and mirth and laughter and loss just like everyone else. We create our own solutions to the problems the government throws our way. We cleverly and skillfully navigate a world that has been set up to deny us basic human rights, and we do so with great success. Homefulness 2, POOR Magazine’s sophomore housing solution built by and for houseless people, is a success that proves every negative stereotype said about poor people wrong.

“I’m really scared, they are doing the final Wood Street sweeps tomorrow, i have nowhere to go..” Rocky, a disabled houseless elder RoofLessRadio reporter, spoke quietly on the phone to me from the last block on Wood Street where houseless peoples have been pushed to after the violent evictions by the City of Oakland last year of their beautiful comeUnity known as Wood Street Commons. She called me on Monday, as I stood in front of a line of hundreds of 20 foot tall  steel barricades, placed on public streets and sidewalks all over the stolen Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi lands known as Chicago. Just beyond those barricades were hundreds more barricades of the same height and size essentially incarcerating public sidewalks, streets and blocks for the billionaire poltrickster party known as the Democratic National CONvention24 (DNC) “You need to move back Ma’am,” the order was mechanically barked to Cheri Honkala, formerly houseless mama, grandmama, organizer and founder of the Poor Peoples Army/Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign as she peacefully, humbly tried to deliver a citizens’ arrest warrant to the Poltricksters in the DNC when heavily armed, robo-cop appearing Chicago poLice officers blocked her ability to walk down a public street. Not ironically, the same 20 foot steel barricades which were placed all over Chicago, were the exact same barriers used to block and destroy Aetna Street, a houseless peoples community in occupied Tovaangar territory, so-called LA, they are as high and as prevalent as the barbed wire fencing being placed all over public streets to destroy and CONtain houseless communities on Wood Street Commons in West Oakland, in Sacramento at Camp Resolution, in Fresno, in San Francisco and on almost every corner that houseless people try to humbly survive and in almost every settler town from Turtle Island to Palestine. These terrifying connections of removal, erasure, arrest, and destruction were frighteningly evident. These are being documented by our houseless RoofLessRadio reporters across the Bay Area in our recent WeSearch release report: Sweeping us to Nowhere - While Silencing our Solutions    The violence being perpetrated against Rocky and all of our houseless bodies across occupied Turtle Island (US) was why sister warrior Cheri and me and all of the Poor Peoples Army were peacefully attempting to bring a citizens’ arrest warrant to the billionaire Poltricksters in the DNC  “If you aren’t going to arrest me then let me pass” Cheri repeated quietly to the military agents of the state increasing with every second around us.    “Why are you trying to arrest one peaceful mama, a grandmother, a woman alone walking on a public street and why are you even here threatening us poor people when the real criminals, the perpetrators and the wealth hoarders are in there?” I shouted at them pointing to the looming red , white and blue letters spelling out DNC logo flashing in the background. The first five officers who blocked Cheri increased to over 300 officers lined up in military formation to surround Cheri,who refused to stand down. The frightening military-like poLice descended on Cheri and handcuffed her as she continued to walk toward the so-called security perimeter near Damen Avenue and Washington Boulevard. Honkala was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, then released and picked up early Tuesday morning by members of the Poor People’s Army. “Think of the amount of homes they could build from all the public money paid to police to arrest a peaceful woman standing up for humanity.” I continued to shout above the din of more and more poLice marching up to surround us.   Now I was shouting to the now over 300 riot gear wearing poLice lined up 10 deep on both sides of me and Cheri, Pastor  Caliph Muab-El, with All of us Or None Chicago.   This small part of public land which was part of the Chicago Housing Authority and the site of another RAD’ destroyed housing project was a security checkpoint through which Harris and Biden motorcades had reportedly just passed through. After Cheri was put in a police wagon, she was held handcuffed for hours, before being taken to a police station for processing. We Had a “Permit” - the Settler Lie of Permission. The Poor People’s Army won a permit, ordered by an administrative judge in February, due to a mistake by the city of Chicago for a missed deadline in response to the permit application. The original application, deemed granted by law, allowed them to march from Humboldt Park to the front steps of the United Center. But in the days and weeks leading up to the March, the city tried to get the group to change their route. As the group held their peaceful 48-hour vigil in Humboldt Park, they were harassed and threatened repeatedly by Chicago Police, including threats to report families there to child protective services. On the day of the March, police blocked some streets listed on the original permit application. The Poor Peoples Army struggle with the “permit” to march reminded me of our struggle at Homefulness to get permits to build and open a homeless peoples solution to homelessness we call Homefulness-  back and forth with lies and new requirements and in the end arbitrarily rescinding it like it was never there.  The Chicago Police Department received $75 million in funds to police the DNC. The Poor Peoples Army, of which i and all of POOR Magazine/Homefulness  houseless, no-income folks are proud members of, is a national group, led by poor and homeless people, arrived in Chicago after marching 91 miles from Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention in July, where they attempted to deliver a citizen’s arrest to the RNC  “Poor men, women, and children are having their lives and limbs lost from expensive bombs provided by the Democratic Party while poor people’s lives are being lost to the preventable human rights violations here at home.”. Said Cheri at the press conference that proceeded the permitted march by Poor Peoples Army “Neither of these parties are parties of the people,” Revolutionary Pastor Keith Collins who also spoke on the mic at the press conference “Jesus would not be down with the gentrification and removal of our people, he was not part of the Prosperity Gospel and taught and spoke on the necessity for the massive redistribution of wealth,”  In addition to Revolutionary Pastors like Pastor Collins and Caliph, Poor and Houseless youth and elders explained the impossibility of trying to survive, much less ever thrive, as working poor mamas or houseless resident of any of these settler colonial towns, the connection of the genocide here to houseless peoples bodies and the genocide happening to our relatives in Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and the Congo, to name a few. “My baby was born in a tent, i have three generations of family in the Poor Peoples Army and we are not giving up until there is justice for us poor, said Tara Colon, organizer, mama and grandmother with the Poor Peoples Army.      “I am a formerly houseless mom and managed to get a small home and now can barely pay my mortgage, I have three jobs and struggle to make ends meet,” Anne Honkala, a single mama in struggle with Poor Peoples Army said the conference.  Our march with all of these warriors was peaceful, prayerful and beautiful, until we realized the poLice and City politrickters were kettling us into a giant square, with no intention of letting us anywhere even remotely near to the CONvention center. So disrespectful. Every street had over 50 kkkops lined up to block our entrance and keep us going around in a useless circle.  Thats when we realized we needed to try another route.  Thanks to some revolutionary legal work by Andrea Henson, lawyer and organizer with Where Do We Go, and the ongoing resistance by hundreds of housed and houseless  ComeUnity warriors and advocates at Love and Justice in the Streets, Anti-PoLice Terror Project, POOR Magazine and many more there was a temporary restraining order issued to stave off the last violent Wood Street Commons Sweep. “I heard they not coming today, tiny, at least maybe i have a little time to rest, but i still have Nowhere to Go..”

By Alexander De Leon Governor Gavin Newsom, a man in charge of millions of lives, using evil words that minimize the lives of those who suffer daily in the streets. “Dangerous encampments” words said by Newsom, words that hurt my mind and soul. As a formerly homeless person I was taken aback by the new state order given by Newsom. On Thursday July 25th, 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a brutal and horrifying order to California state officials. He ordered state officials to begin an urgent removal of homeless encampments, stating “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part,” telling state agencies to “adopt humane and dignified policies” and “move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them.”  After hearing these statements made by the man in charge of my state I relived the fear I felt as a child when being in the streets. Remembering how alone with my mother, we slept in staircases, benches, we were cold and hungry. I remember seeing my mother crying alone with me in her arms acting strong like everything was ok everytime I asked her what was wrong. The fear of being outside and that there isn't a place you can call home, all of this brought back by the evil words of this man. The questions of where am I going to go? Where am I going to sleep? When am I going to be under a roof?, came flooding back, filling my mind with new questions. I asked myself, where exactly does Newsom plan on “clearing” all of these people he's planning on sweeping away?  Stating that the homeless encampments are dangerous increase hatred and fear towards those who live in the streets. This new order leaves many questioning where exactly Newsom plans on taking the people of these homeless encampments to. He had already withheld money last year from state homelessness funding, because of local governments’ “unacceptable” plans to reduce homelessness by 2% by 2024. Local governments stated that it was unfair for Newsom to take away this funding since it was because of a lack of overarching vision or structure for combatting homelessness from the state that led to a small decrease in homelessness that year.  “... I just wanted to say that the problem isn't the homeless, it's not even the lack of resources that we have outhere, the problem is the capitalist society and that money equals the value of a person,...” said LeaJay Harper formerly unhoused on Wood Street Oakland, now housed at Homefulness in East Oakland. Here LeaJay expresses the reality of a capitalist society and how the amount of money in someone's possession sadly represents how that person is valued in society. She said that there isn't really a lack of resources, which is true, in San Francisco alone there are thousands of empty units that could be used to shelter and provide a home for those out in the streets, just as district 5 supervisor Deann Preston said “tens of thousands of units tonight in San Francisco will sit empty while people sleep in the street.” Once again, homelessness is not a choice, it is a result of greed and desire for more and more money. It is the product of high rent prices that make it very difficult for many to afford. It is inhumane to have people in the streets to begin with but it’s more inhumane and cruel to sweep them off the streets, to arrest them simply because they cant afford a place to sleep, to treat them like trash. As a person who once lived in the streets I understand the fear and struggle of being homeless, and because of the help of my aunt Tiny, Poor Magazine and everyone else who helped my mother I to get back on our feet, I can now stand and help my fellow brothers and sisters fight back the evil of capitalism.

By Jay Paulino         I Realized as I was listening to the ceremony of a sister that died from Police terror, that you better cherish the good memories you have with your family or friends. Life goes on no matter what happens, that's why you shouldn’t take life for granted. Enjoy what you have in the future and for what you have lost, make it a strength for you to change in any positive way.  I've learned from my experiences and challenges.Things could get really deep and serious when our brothers, sisters and ancestors can relate in a direct way. The day I realized I should’ve opened up a little bit more is when I showed up to an action on Sonya Massey. The grief was in the air and all around, I  knew I wasn't the only one hurting because I literally felt the energy there.       Sonya Massey was a Black African young thirty-six year old female who was also a Mother,sister,niece, cousin and Aunt. She was very loved by her family and friends. This Tragic incident happened on July 6th 2024. Massey called the police because there was a prowler at her house so, she called the police because that's what they there for apparently to “Serve and protect.” I don’t think that’s what happened with this devastating killing. To also mention Massey  had an illness of schizophrenia. As the call goes through, Two officers respond to the call and at least a minute later things escalate quickly. Officer Sean Grayson was one of the officers that responded to the call and made a huge impact on the world. This is where he used foul language to Sonya and threatened her life and took her life away from her and her beautiful family. Massey was talking to the officers and had a pot of  water in her hand, boiling water . Than Massey said “ I will rebuke you in the name of Jesus Officer Sean Grayson replying with a yell “ You better fucking not or I will shoot you in the fucking face.!” Yelled Officer Grayson. The second police officer draws his weapon also why is he not fired as well? This is  why Police Brutality should be more of a topic because  the Police System just doesn’t stop with the violence on innocent families.         These Police Struggles should have a brighter Voice in general, because me being a bystander of these situations happening right in front of me is beyond me.I lost my Pops to Police Brutality I can relate as much as others do. My pops name was Jose Enrique Paulino Jr and trust me “He was somebody.” An unarmed Black  African-American dominican Man tazed to death in front of a gas station because he was arguing with a female on the phone and had a big  argument. My dad pretty much knew Spanish more than English and had a serious heart condition. Somebody called the Police on him because he was yelling and was really angry so what normal people do is show emotion and the police just took it a whole different way. They made my dad look like a criminal the way they made the story sound  and mind you I would say at least eight officers showed up for a little noise complaint. So just wrapping this all up, I could tell you that I feel for my relatives. Bringing it back to the ceremony this shows and tells you  that this Police Act on Violence is not the answer and it happens all around the world, where there should be a tremendous amount of Difference  in this Violent Act. I cried because when I spoke at that ceremony , I felt the grief connected with my own personal life and I couldn’t hold it in either  way, because I was thinking of my mom also. I wouldn’t know what to do if I also lost both of my parents .So be happy for what you have now.