Landlessness/Houselessness

This year, 5^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When I was a kid, my father would make me sit with him and watch old western movies on TV.  Those movies would be aired in the afternoon—cowboys on horses shooting at things—cowboys, stagecoaches, whiskey bottles—and, of course, Indians.  I looked more like an Indian than a cowboy and my dad would sit, his attention, his mind, his spirit inhabiting each scene, as if he’d been on horseback with a six shooter firing into the expanse of sky as the wild prickly cacti bore witness.  I’d see horses, badges, tumbleweed and gamblers on our little TV set

Gripping the steering wheel so tightly my hands hurt, I saw my mama so many years before, looking straight ahead to the road, trying to not let the mountain of tears crush her soft face. Now it was me and my sun alone on the highway, 30 years later, trying  to drive away from my torn and  crumbled  heart..

Patrick Wetter, brother, son, mechanic, long-time friend to many, and loving uncle, was just 25 years old, and living with his father, when he was brutally killed by Stockton police on January 6, 2015.  Patrick's death, unlike his life, was extremely violent.  A police dog was sicked on him, he endured six gunshots to his trunk, he was struck with a tazer.  In life, Patrick stood 6 foot 5 inches tall, and his friends and family refer to him as a “gentle giant” and he had the nickname of Tiny.

STATEMENT: For Mario Woods and all crimes of displacement and police terror against our poor, Black, Brown and disabled bodies we, the most impacted, are calling for the resignations of the San Francisco Mayor and Police Chief

There have been at least two "frets" in San Francisco in the past few months. A fret is where police go out in the poor neighborhoods – SOMA, the Tenderloin – and stop anyone who looks poor and/or houseless. 

“The planning commission has the power to make decisions,”said Juana, an organizer at a huge protest held in September against more Monsters in the Mission and Beasts on Bryant streets

It was a hot day and me and Deecolonize Academy went to a rally at City Hall. It was about the Beast on Bryant st.,RAD,Super-sizing SOMA and the Monster in the Mission. My class mates were all interviewing different leaders in all of these struggles.

I and my Deecolonize Academy and POOR Magazine family went to a protest at City Hall, the protest was about gentrification, housing, and displacement.

An example of housing displacement is the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD). RAD is impacting low income families who live in public housing in San Francisco and all over the nation, because RAD is a move to privatize all the public housing buildings in the United States.

The RAD program was created by the San Francisco Housing Authority and non profit organizations.