Oakland Post, week of June 21 - 27, 2023

Oakland Post

there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18 postnewsgroup.com

Weekly Edition. June 21 - 27, 2023

Growing

Number

of California Groups Express Support for Black Reparations

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media

In California, an increasing number of Japanese, Jewish and other non-Black groups are expressing their support for reparations to Black American residents of the state who are descendants of enslaved people.

Around 100 grassroot organizations, motivated in part by the efforts of the Japanese American Bar Association and John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles, have endorsed the work of the task

Rally Calls for Removal of Two Oakland Police Commissioners

By Ken Epstein

Donald Tamaki, an attorney, and the only non-Black member of the nine-member state reparations task force panel, stated that the groups supporting the task force are mostly Asian, Latino and Jewish.

“They didn’t need a whole lot of persuasion,” Tamaki said. “Why? Because they know the healing power of reparations. I think that, in itself, is a news story: that there’s a multi-racial group of both big and small organizations representing different constituencies.”

The United States government

Several current police commissioners and police accountability activists held a rally this week calling for removal or resignation of two members of the Oakland’s appointed Police Commission, accusing them of attacking fellow commissioners and members of the public, and creating chaos that has kept the commission from fulfilling its duties to the community.

“We are calling for a new leadership on the Police Commission…In the last year, we have seen disunity, disrespectful proceedings, and a lack of attention to pressing police oversight matters,” said Mariano Contreras of the Oakland Latino Taskforce and the Coalition for Police Accountability.

According to speakers at the rally Tuesday at noon on the steps of Oakland City Hall, Commission Chair Tyfahra Milele and Commissioner Brenda HarbinForte should be removed because they have created dysfunction on the commission that for months stalled the search for a new police chief.

Speakers also charged that the

commission was unable to weigh in on a crucial issue, the firing of Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong, because Milele failed to subpoena records related to the handling and mishandling of an internal OPD case against Sgt. Michael Chung, which was connected to the chief’s firing.

Speakers said they are calling for the removal of the commissioners after internal attempts to settle the conflicts were ignored or attacked.

Milele was appointed to the commission by the official selection panel, and Harbin-Forte was appointed by former Mayor Libby Schaaf. Milele’s term expires on Oct. 16, while Harbin-Forte’s expired several months ago; she is serving until Mayor Sheng Thao names a replacement.

Contreras, who chaired the rally, said that rather than investigating the case that resulted in the firing of the police chief, the two commissioners have spent their time “looking for dirt” on community members, Oakland City Council members and the commission’s inspector general.

Continued on page 8

Barbara Lee, 2 Other Lawmakers Maneuver to Force Vote on Legislation to Restore Roe

ameda County Probate Court and responded with recommendations that will have absolutely no affect on families who say attorneys and conservators are unjustly enriching themselves at their expense.

Despite Grand Jury recommendations, egregious actions of probate court appointed attorneys and conservators continue. The most egregious is court officials ignoring California probate Code 1800.3 (a), the Zealous Advocacy

vocates, the courts still use divide and conquer tactics, that don’t have to occur between family members.

If a person’s neighbor or bookkeeper requests appointment as conservator over the estate, the court will use that disagreement to not award the family care of their loved one, even when clearly stated in the Conservatee’s trust the desire to be home with family.

Conservatee James Larkin’s sis-

U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Judy Chu (D-CA) filed a “discharge petition” on Wednesday that could force Speaker Kevin McCarthy to hold a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act – a landmark piece of legislation that would restore the protections that were in place under Roe v. Wade.

As the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and with the

By Post Staff

Characterized as a roaring lion of 20th century progressive politics, the former Berkeley Mayor Eugene ‘Gus’ Newport worked without pause on humanitarian and international concerns until days before his death on June 17, 2023. He was 88.

“We witnessed a peaceful transition fit for the man that he

was,” Kyle Newport, his son, shared on Facebook. “A single tear gently rolled down his cheek and I couldn’t help but think that it was for the multitude of friends, coworkers, projects, and events that he was leaving behind. But then again it could be for the family and friends that he will (soon) reunite with in the next chapter.”

A Father’s Day to Remember

Peace between rivals on De Fremery Park’s basketball court

By Richard Johnson

Father’s Day proved to be

Father’s Day was a day of mutual understanding for the fathers and young men to put their differences to the side and play competitive basketball against one another, even though these various street formations aka

Protesters calling for the removal of Oakland Police Commission Chari Commission Tyfahra Milele and Commissioner Brenda HarbinForte.

Richard Johnson interviews Shan Hirsch.

by JonathanFitnessJones.

Blues Artist Gladys Bently

Shown left to right Ron Wakabayashi, Miya Iwataki, Mitch Maki, and attorney Donald Tamaki at the California Reparations Task Force’s meeting at the Wallis Annenberg Building at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Wakabayashi, Iwataki, and Maki provided their insight into the Japanese American Redress Movement, showing reparations and support for descendants of chattel slavery. CBM file photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

A discharge petition filed Wednesday could force the GOP-led House to hold a vote on a landmark abortionrights bill

Families feel protected and secure when they create a trust. The Larkin family trust, clearly stated the purpose of the trust was to avoid probate and conservatorship. See Item 2 of the Larkin Trust.

U.S. Rep Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Gus Newport often met at the “vault” conference room at the offices of the Oakland Post to discuss community organizing strategies. This photo by Roohee Marshall also appears in”A Generation Found: The Journey Continues” visit rooheemarshall.com.

COMMENTARY: Juneteenth and the Asian American Hate Crime of Vincent Chin

neteenth.

What you need to know is that 14 House Republicans voted against the holiday in 2021. For the most part, it’s the same group mucking things up for current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who deserves to be mucked up, but for other reasons, not Juneteenth.

And so, for the record, this is the original Congressional Juneteenth Hall of Shame: the Republicans who voted against the federal holiday, which leaves them looking like pro-slavery Republicans

Grassroots Groups Push ‘Motor Voter’

By Emil Guillermo

On Juneteenth, there was a lesson for everyone in America when pro-slavery forces couldn’t prevent all of the U.S. from getting the truth. Never give up hope. The truth does win out.

That’s why Juneteenth is as close as Asian Americans get to a national holiday commemorating the fight against anti-Asian American violence.

I’m not taking anything away from Juneteenth.

I’m adding to it.

You’ve got to admit it’s a strange holiday.

To be true to the spirit of Juneteenth, maybe we should celebrate it not on June 19, but maybe on the 29th.

Or just put it off for three years.

That would adequately mock what actually happened. The Emancipation Proclamation, an-

nounced on Sept. 22, 1862, was the beginning of the end slavery when it went into effect 100 days later on Jan. 1, 1863.

But no one told the slaves in Texas until June 19, 1865— twoand-a-half years later.

Paperwork error? Slow wi-fi?

Whites were so reluctant to give up the immoral activity of slavery in Texas they gaslighted the Emancipation Proclamation.

I remember hearing about Juneteenth when I lived in the Lone Star state in the ’70s and ’80s. (Not the 1870s, the 1970s and 1980s.)

But isn’t it amazing how the push to make it a national holiday didn’t succeed until 2021? 156 years after 1865.

And even when the holiday was announced, most people still happily lived in ignorance. A Gallup survey found that more than 60% of Americans know “nothing at all” or only “a little bit” about Ju-

Mo Brooks (AL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Andrew Clyde (GA), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Paul Gosar (AZ), Ronny Jackson (TX), Doug LaMalfa (CA), Thomas Massie (KY), Tom McClintock (CA), Ralph Norman (NC), Mike Rogers (AL), Matt Rosendale (MT), Chip Roy (TX), Tom Tiffany (WI).

These are the same folks who want to stop the teaching of U.S. history claiming it’s “critical race theory.” Of course, It’s nothing of the sort. The holiday simply makes us appreciate that truth and justice eventually do win out.

The good forces have worked overtime to bend that arc of justice since Juneteenth.

That’s why it’s a federal holiday and a day off for many, a reminder to stay vigilant forever.

THE VINCENT CHIN COINCIDENCE

So, we respect Juneteenth, but one particular coincidence of justice delayed must be pointed out that took place on June 19, 1982.

That’s when Vincent Chin, attending his own bachelor party,

Continued on page 4

Bill Aimed at 100% Registration of California’s Electorate

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media

Last week, hundreds of community leaders, advocates, and organizers representing labor, faith-based, Black, AAPI, Latinos, women and youth rally and march were held at the State Capitol.

They were supporting Senate Bill (SB) 846, which aims to increase election turnout and remove barriers to voter registration for millions of Californians.

The California Grassroots Democracy Coalition, which is the largest voting rights coalition in California, has launched a campaign to enfranchise 4.7 million unregistered voters through SB 846.

This bill, also known as the Motor Voter bill, was authored by state Senators Caroline Menjivar (D-Chino) and Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).

The coalition, which represents millions of Californians, has embarked on a multi-year campaign

to expand the electorate to better reflect the state’s diversity.

SB 846 is co-sponsored by three members of the California Black Legislative Caucus (CLBC) — Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), and Mike Gipson (D-Carson).

“For decades, grassroots organizations like ours have worked year-round, mobilizing voters, organizing immigrant communities, providing legal services, running advocacy campaigns, and building multi-racial, multi-issue coalitions,” said Stanette Dixon, volunteer coordinator from Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement. “We are coming together to advance a new vision for California’s democracy and dismantle racist barriers to civic participation that marginalize BIPOC, naturalized citizens, young, low-income, and low English proficiency voters.”

SB 846 is being reviewed in the

Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to transmit specified information to Secretary of State Shirley Weber for each person submitting a driver’s license application. To be eligible for voter registration or preregistration, these individuals must be United States citizens and of an eligible age.

Several states, including Alaska, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Delaware and the District of Columbia, have already passed similar legislation with overwhelmingly positive results.

Members of the coalition and other supporters marched from the state capitol and circled the Secretary of State building twice at 10th and O streets in downtown Sacramento to rally support for the legislation.

SB 846 provides a path to 100% voter registration, supporters say.

“California is no stranger to making election improvements, from creating the first version of automatic voter registration, to making it possible for all registered voters to vote by mail. Now, we have the opportunity to take the next step in modernizing California’s elections,” Limón said in a statement. “SB 846 will broaden access to the ballot box for all eligible voters.”

Data shows that due to a lack of voter registration among traditionally hard-to-reach communities, California’s current voter population is unrepresentative of its demographic, Limón and Menjivar explain.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), 82% of California’s adults are eligible to vote, but only 64% are registered. As a result, younger, lower-income, less educated and state residents who are renters are underrepresented during elections.

Vincent Chin

Photo by JonathanFitnessJones

California Black Media Briefs

Arrest Drug Users

Mayor London Breed has been adamant in defense of her policy to arrest and detain drug users to get them into treatment programs.

Breed has directed the San Francisco Police Department to use public intoxication laws to make these arrests. So far, officers have cited or arrested 38 people under the “Intoxication Detention Program.”

Tensions flared over Breed’s policies during a Board of Supervisors’ meeting on June 13.

on her plans to open wellness hubs for overdose prevention, as well as the recent drug-related arrests.

Preston quoted from a Department of Public Health report that discouraged “punitive policies” and noted that Black, Brown and Indigenous communities have long been targeted by drug crackdowns.

“The fact is, it’s not just services; it’s also force,” Breed responded, using the example of a friend who had entered treatment after an arrest. “You can quote all these statistics all you want, but at the end of the day, you’ve never lived in it.”

Advocates Say Trailer Bill Language Will Weaken California’s Police Decertification Law

could counteract Senate Bill (SB) 2, a bill Newsom signed into law in 2021 that details harsh penalties for serious police misconduct including revoking their certifications.

This would prevent officers from being employed by another department in California.

“What is happening here is that the administration is moving forward endorsing a policy in the dark that actually puts records of police officer misconduct in the dark,” said Carmen-Nicole Cox, director of Government Affairs for ACLU California Action. “We cannot use a secret policy to remove police transparency.”

Grassroots Groups Push ‘Motor Voter’ Bill...

Continued from page 2

Leveraging its voter engagement expertise with communities traditionally ignored by mainstream political campaigns, the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition (CGDC) says it promotes legislation that expands the electorate, builds up civic education, voter registration, and turnout in underrepresented communities, according to the group’s website.

tice reform, immigrant rights, language access, low-income communities, environmental justice, religious rights, labor unions, etc.

Julius Thibodeaux, Executive Director for Movement 4 Life, spoke about his experience as a person who was formerly incarcerated and how it affected his access to voting. He also discussed the importance of investing in the development, health and wellbeing of youth in cities.

By Joe Bowers and Edward Henderson California Black Media

‘You’ve Never Lived It’: S.F. Mayor Breed Defends Decision to

“Here we go, another white man talking about Black and Brown people as if you’re the savior of these people,” Breed told Supervisor Dean Preston, a frequent critic of both the mayor and police.

Preston interrogated the mayor

Last week, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action held a press conference to speak out against new trailer bill language that could be passed along with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget.

Their fear is the new language

The press conference took place on the heels of a scandal within the Antioch Police Department involving 45 officers who were part of a text thread that included racist, misogynistic, and homophobic messages.

Read the full story on postnewsgroup.com

CGDC comprises 140-plus grassroots organizations that are committed to helping California’s most vulnerable communities become empowered through pro-democracy reforms. Organizations in the network have a range of priorities, including, criminal jus-

“In 2020, California voters restored voting rights for more than 50,000 people who are no longer incarcerated. But that’s only the first step,” Thibodeaux told California Black Media at the march and rally. “Now, the work begins to get folks informed, registered, and returning to the ballot box every fall and spring election.”

Your roundup of stories you might have missed last week

San Francisco Mayor London Breed

Gus Newport, Local and International Luminary for Civil and Human Rights, 88

Upon learning of his death, Damien Durr, president of the Gus Newport Project, a group dedicated to preserving his legacy, released a statement praising him as, among other things, a brother, coach, bridge builder and ‘Beloved Community’ architect.

“His commitment to seeing the humanity in all people challenged anyone who knew and loved him to do likewise,” the statement read. “He was truly a gift to us, and the world will never be the same because of his stellar example of living his outer life from the inner sanctuary.”

He was a seemingly unstoppable force for 60 years of service in almost countless places finding inspiration from his family and giving inspiration to leaders locally and globally.

Newport was among those who supported U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee when she was the lone congressperson to vote against authorizing the Afghanistan War after 9/11.

On Tuesday, she tweeted that she was saddened by Newport’s death, finding in him “a dear friend and a courageous fighter for world peace. “I have known Gus for many years as a brilliant and compassionate human being,” Lee tweeted. “He has spent his life fighting for justice and liberation, and the world is a better place because of him. He is a true friend and an inspiration to us all. May he rest in peace and power.”

Gus was of the generation of activists galvanized by both the practicalities of self-determination espoused by the Black Muslims and the ideals of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The eldest of five children, Newport was born in Rochester, New York, on April 5, 1935, and raised by his mother, an elevator operator, and his father, a foreman at a meat-packing plant where Gus would also work periodically.

They and his maternal grandmother, who lived with the family, had great influence on the young Gus. Poor in material but rich in faith, the family put great store in the importance of family, community and church, where his mother learned and honed organizing skills that Gus absorbed at her knee.

Big for his age, Gus, at 13, was already being harassed by the police, experience that would make the issue of police brutality and wrongfulness by authorities in general a theme of his life.

He had a football scholarship to Syracuse University, but couldn’t go because of an injury so he went to Heidelberg College instead. He was drafted in the army in 1958 but was honorably discharged a couple of years later after standing up for the German workers at a base near Heidelberg who were being cheated out of their pay.

He had married his high school sweetheart and together they had a son, Kyle. He took a test that led him to a job with IBM where he was transferred to work on mainframe computers in White Plains, N.Y. He had been there for three years when the Rochester riots of 1964 broke out.

The city manager, aware of

Newport’s talent to work with youth, asked him to help negotiate with the protesters, which he did successfully, setting up a food stamp program and landing a promise to provide 250 college scholarships to needy youth.

His employers at IBM were not happy about his intervention and Gus quit, returning to Rochester in 1966, eventually taking on a job as consultant for the Department of Labor for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Newport was in his late 20s when he led his hometown’s largest civil rights group, the Monroe County Nonpartisan League, to victory taking a police brutality case to the Supreme Court, a first.

The NAACP organizer who led the Little Rock 9 in integrating Central High School, Daisy Bates, was in Rochester and introduced Newport to Malcolm X by phone.

Newport then assisted Malcolm in defending a group of Black Muslims in Rochester who had been assaulted and arrested by police at a worship service.

He also helped Malcolm found his Organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU) and went to Harlem at Malcolm’s request when Malcolm wanted to give a speech about his house being firebombed in February 1965. Four days later Malcolm X was slain.

As reported in the newsletter ‘Common Dream,’ Malcolm, Gus would later say, was “the greatest person I think I ever knew,” a “great teacher” and “one of the dearest friends I ever had.”

Among the luminaries he would befriend over the course of his life were Adam Clayton Powell, New York’s first Black congressman; U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, actor Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, the entertainer and fellow activist who passed away just a few weeks ago. The latter two helped with his campaigns for mayor of Berkeley where he edged out his opponent by nearly 900 votes.

At the invitation from a distant cousin, he headed to the West Coast and settled in Berkeley where he got a job developing youth employment programs.

“I never aspired to run for mayor,” he would relate. “I was talked into it by John George, the first African American elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and Congressman Ron Dellums. Danny Glover (who met Gus while interning with the city of Berkeley) and Harry Belafonte (who he had known in New York) helped with my campaigns,” Common Dream reported.

As its second Black mayor, Newport would keep the city in the national and international spotlight: it became the first city to divest from apartheid-run South Africa and he became an honorary member of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress and served on the advisory board of the U.N. Commission Against Apartheid.

“By the time Gus was running for his second [mayoral] term, we were both aligned with the anti-

apartheid movement,” Glover told The Progressive. “I loved what he was trying to do with community development, so I joined Gus’s army.”

Refugees from war-torn Central

Growing Number of Groups Express Support for Black Reparations...

Continued from page 1

dress historical injustices.

For instance, Native Americans have been given billions of dollars in compensation for land that was unlawfully taken from them. Japanese Americans received billions in compensation and some of their property was returned for being placed in internment camps during World War II.

Many of the injustices experienced by Japanese Americans occurred after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issued Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, responding to Japan’s aerial bombing of U.S. Military installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec.7, 1941.

tion from the activism of Black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Brown Berets, among others.

She explained that it was Black leaders such as Dymally and former Oakland mayor and U.S. Congress member Ron Dellums who supported the passage of the Civil Liberties Act.

Maki, Iwataki, Wakabayashi and other Nisei (second-generations Japanese Americans) and Sansei (third generation) are urging the state to compensate Black descendants of chattel slavery and provide a formal apology for harms suffered in California.

managed to greet him with the sign “Welcome to the Mayor of Berkeley.”

He served on The National Council of Elders, a group of peo-

In the months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, approximately 122,000 men, women, and children of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to “assembly centers.”

Nearly 70,000 of these evacuees were American citizens. They were then evacuated to and confined in 75 isolated, fenced, and guarded “relocation centers,” known as “incarceration camps.”

According to the National Park Service (NPS), 92,785 Californians of Japanese descent were put in temporary detention camps called “Assembly Centers.” The cities of Sacramento, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, were metropolitan cities with the largest Japanese contingents, who were incarcerated without legal recourse.

Japanese Americans were imprisoned based on ancestry alone. There was no evidence that they had committed any crimes against the U.S. or presented any danger, NPS explained in its “A History of Japanese Americans in California: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II.”

“First, I want to acknowledge the difference in our fight for reparations for the injustice of the (incarceration) camps and the 400 years history of enslaved people,” Iwataki testified. “We’re not here to make recommendations or to prescribe lessons learned. I am here to share the experiences of NCRR and all volunteer grassroot organizations that fought for reparations and to express our continued solidarity for Black reparations.”

In September 2022, the San Francisco Black and Jewish Unity Coalition held reparations teachins at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who authored the legislation, Assembly Bill 3121, that created the task force when she was an Assemblymember, was one of the speakers.

Congregation B’nai Israel hosted a 90-minute reparations information session in Sacramento on June 11. Presented by Sacramento Jewish opera singer Lynn Berkeley-Baskin, over 20 people – Jewish and Japanese — attended the event to hear Chris Lodgson from the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California share his experiences as one of the grassroots leaders driving California’s movement for reparations.

America were protected from police under his orders, innovative childcare help for working women, domestic partnership benefits for LGBTQ+ families and rent control were just some of the policies enacted under his leadership of Berkeley from 1979-1986. He also served on their Police Review Commission and Planning Commission.

Newport had considerable impact on several other U.S. cities, most notable being Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood where the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a nonprofit that allowed residents to buy languishing properties for the benefit of its residents.

Besides similar work in New Hampshire, Seattle and Palm Beach, Florida., he sat on the advisory board to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Though he never formally graduated from college, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from his alma mater, Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio, in 2009, and he taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

His involvement with inter-

ple over the age of 65 who were dedicated to the rights of women, environmentalists, farmworkers and LGBTQ+ communities as well as Oakland’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, formed in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police.

Newport was also serving as vice-chair of the Urban Strategies Council in Oakland.

“The beauty of Gus,” said Glover in an interview with The Progressive, “is that I trust him to elevate our story. When you spend time with someone with Gus’s history and character and listen to his stories, you are changed. I hope that a little of my story could resonate with others the way Gus’s stories have resonated with me and so many around the world.”

Newport is survived by his wife, Kathryn Kasch of Oakland; son Kyle Newport of Oakland; daughter Maria Newport and granddaughter Maasai DavsonNewport of Atlanta; brother John of Attleboro, MA; brother Robert

Three Japanese Americans who were involved in and knowledgeable about the Japanese American Redress Movement (JARM) testified at the California reparations task force’s public meeting held in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 2022. They educated attendees about efforts Japanese Americans made to obtain restitution for their forced removal and confinement during World War II.

Mitchell Maki (president and CEO of the Go for Broke National Education Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy and lessons of the Nisei World War II veterans) and Ron Wakabayashi (former executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League) provided historical context on how Japanese Americans achieved a rare accomplishment in U.S. history by passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

They received an official apology letter from the President of the United States and 82,000 surviving Japanese Americans were compensated with $20,000 payments, which totaled $1.6 billion. Executive Order 9066 was officially rescinded by U.S. President Gerald Ford on Feb. 16, 1976.

Miya Iwataki – a special assistant to former California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) member and U.S. Congressmember Mervyn Dymally who represented the state’s 31st District in Congress during the 1980s – was a member of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations for Japanese Americans.

Iwataki says she drew inspira-

Germany has openly acknowledged past aggressions committed during the Holocaust. According to a June 2021 report by Steven J. Ross in the Jewish publication the Forward, the German government has paid out $92 billion to Holocaust survivors over seven decades.

In the United States, the country has “failed to reckon with the consequences of centuries of slavery,” Ross writes.

“As laws advancing revisionist history sweep our nation’s state legislatures, Americans who favor a national reckoning with our own complicated past would do well to take a lesson from Germany,” writes Steven J. Ross, a history professor at the University of Southern California (USC).

“If we want to truly heal as a nation, we must first acknowledge both the long history of slavery and the pain its legacy still causes – and take tangible steps to right our collective wrongs,” Ross stated.

The task force will hold its final meeting and submit its final report to the California Legislature on June 29.

The meeting will start at 9 a.m., in the First Floor Auditorium of the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building, located at 1500 11th Street, downtown Sacramento.

“If there are helpful takeaways from our experience, I hope that they will contribute,” Wakabayashi said of Japanese Americans’ fight for reparations. “It would help repay a great debt. The Black civil rights movement generated the Japanese American Redress Campaign and led the struggle for human rights in this country.

VETERANS OF OAKLAND CALIFORNIA

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2727, located in Oakland, CA is seeking new members to join its Post.

Must meet eligibility as follows:

1. Proof of Service by providing a copy of your DD Fm 214

2. Must have been awarded a recognized campaign medal or badge

3. Served in Korea between 30 June 1949 until present, or earned Hostile Fire or Imminent Danger Pay as evidenced by your DD Form 214.

national organizations and campaigns was extensive. He was an outspoken supporter of the rights of Palestinians and worked in solidarity movements in the Middle East, Africa and Central America, making a visit to El Salvador in 1985 to a village that was all but destroyed but whose residents

of Rochester and other extended family.

This report is sourced from reporting from the Bay Area News Group, The Common Dream, The Progressive newsletter, EmbracingElSalavdor.org and the Gus Newport Project.

4. Overseas service in hostile areas.

If eligible, Post 2727 will pay the membership fee for the pt 2 years of your membership.

For more eligibility details and to apply, please contact one of the following individuals: Arthur Butler, 253-343-8554 Aumont Phipps 510-677-4843

With actor Danny Glover at his side, Gus Newport pumps his fist in the air at a May 2016 rally for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in front of Oakland’s City Hall.

Gus Newport with longtime friend Harry Belafonte. Facebook photo.

Gus Newport, left, with Alameda County’s first Black Supervisor, John George, former San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, and activist Angela Davis.

Gus Newport listens as former Congressman and former Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums speaks. Twitter via Barbara Lee.

Lee Forces Vote to Restore Roe..

Continued from page 1

support of Democratic leadership in the House, this trio of House lawmakers are seeking to employ a seldom-used legislative tactic that could force the GOP-led House to hold a vote on a key piece of legislation that would restore every American’s right to abortion care.

“In every election or poll since the Dobbs decision, the American people have made their support for reproductive rights clear,” said Lee, the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.

“My colleagues in Congress now have a choice: either trust your constituents to make the best decisions for themselves about their bodies, health, and lives, or go against the will of the people and continue to restrict a fundamental personal freedom.

“The decision to have an abortion should be between a person and their doctor—NOT politicians. The Pro-Choice Caucus is sending a message to the American people that we will not stop fighting to defend your right to make your own decisions over your bodies.”

“If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle aren’t willing to stand up for the people they represent, then we must,” DeGette, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said on the House floor Wednesday to announce the trio’s decision to file the petition.

“We may not have the majority in this chamber, but there is no doubt that we have the majority of Americans on our side in this fight. Now is the time to end the devastation that too many Americans have already experienced. Now is the time to let the American public know exactly where every member of this chamber stands.”

“With House Republicans beholden to their extreme MAGA members, they refuse to restore and strengthen Americans’ reproductive rights,” said Chu, the prime sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act. “I am beyond proud to work with House

Grand Jury Probate Court

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ter requested conservatorship over his estate despite Larkin’s trust clearly leaving all property and assets to his son Jim Larkin. The sister’s request was denied, and the court-appointed conservator Leo Bautista to set up care for Larkin in his home, a job his son Jim had been doing for free, with love.

To cover costs Bautista sold the Larkins’ rental property, and when that money dwindled, informed the son he was taking his father to a doctor’s appointment, but instead put him in a nursing care facility without notice.

Jim did not know where his father was for five days until he received a letter. The day after the letter, he received an email from Bautista of his intent to sell the house.

Jim Larkin Jr says, “I feel drained and defeated trying to work with a well-oiled, openly corrupt system that no one has ever beat. By design they put up a wall that blocks my love and time with my father. The ridiculous thing is their care is nothing specialized, something that I did for free.”

Bautista’s decision to sell the house will assure the nursing facility and his fees are paid but will leave Jim homeless. If the trust had been honored, Jim would have inherited two properties valued at over $3.7 million.

Bautista, reached for comment replied, “Due to client confidentiality, I am prohibited ethically and legally from giving you personal

Democratic leadership and the Pro-Choice Caucus to offer the Women’s Health Protection Act in a discharge petition to force accountability for their inaction.

“House Members who do not add their signature are telling Americans that they shouldn’t have the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions,” Chu concluded.

Under House rules, if a discharge petition to force a vote on a particular piece of legislation is signed by 218 members of the House, it must immediately be brought before the full House for a vote, regardless of any objections or attempts by GOP leadership to block the legislation from being considered.

In this case, if the petition Lee, DeGette, and Chu filed Wednesday is signed by 218 members of the House, Speaker McCarthy and his allies would be required to immediately hold a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which the House approved twice last year.

The move comes as more than one dozen states across the country have enacted laws banning or extremely limiting women’s right to access abortion services in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last June.

If approved, the Women’s Health Protection Act would restore the protections that were in place under Roe and nullify any state or local government’s restrictions that have been put in place to limit, or outright prohibit, patients’ access to abortion care.

Now that it’s been filed, the discharge petition introduced by Lee, DeGette, and Chu will remain open for members to sign.

At any time, if the discharge petition filed Wednesday garners 218 signatures, the Women’s Health Protection Act will be called up for a vote – despite the GOP’s intent on preventing it from being considered.

From U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s media relations office.

financial or medical information about any of my clients. As I am sure you are aware, conservatorships are overseen by the court.

“Probate Code section 2651 allows any relative or friend of the Conservatee to file a petition on behalf of the Conservatee if they believe the conservator has breached their fiduciary duty. In such a case, they are allowed to present evidence of the breach, and I am allowed to present evidence in my defense. I am barred from discussing any details of a case past or present that would either confirm or refute any allegations made against me.”

Advocates say the Grand Jury missed the major problem with Probate court, which is the lack of third-party oversight.

The Grand Jury cited a system of review yet failed to see how attorneys reviewing each other is simply another version of the fox guarding the henhouse. The Zealous Advocacy law that protects Conservatee’s wishes and estate of the Conservatee is ignored.

The County does not have a contract with the Public Defender’s office because the Public Defender’s office is a department of the County, and the County cannot enter into a contract with itself, and there lies the problem.

The result is there is no outside oversight, no checks and balances and families continue to leave probate court destitute and separated from loved ones.

Oakland Mayor Thao and Councilmember Kaplan Announce Resolution in Support of Reps Lee and DeSaulnier’s “Moneyball Act” Legislation

Athletics (A’s), which was supported and encouraged by MLB, there are deep and inequitable impacts on the local community, especially the East Oakland community where the A’s have called their home for 50 years.

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Police Commissioner Marsha Peterson, an attorney and Oakland native, said, “What we are up against (is) a lack of leadership,” adding that she has not been able to have conversations with Milele that don’t result in “threats, complaints, and chaos.”

said Welch, have been Regina Jackson, currently a police commissioner and three-time past police commission chair; Police Commissioner Peterson; District 6 Oakland Councilmember Kevin Jenkins; and Cathy Leonard, a longtime police accountability activist, Oakland native, and president of the Coalition for Police Accountability.

Oakland, CA - Mayor Sheng

Thao and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan announce their resolution in support of Congressmembers Barbara Lee And Mark Desaulnier’s “Moneyball Act” legislation that would require any professional baseball club that relocates more than twenty-five miles from its previous location to compensate the state and local authorities they relocate from; and subject Major League Baseball (MLB) to AntiTrust Laws if professional baseball clubs do not comply. Today, the Rules and Legislation Committee approved the resolution to be scheduled for a vote at the June 28, 2023, City Council meeting.

The current antitrust exemption granted to MLB is a direct result of the unique value that individual sports teams bring to their communities. However, the incentivization of professional baseball clubs to leave their home cities and relocate to other markets has raised questions about the continued validity of the legal and public policy bases for MLB’s antitrust exemption.

The relocation of clubs to new cities can sever the bonds established between franchises and their communities, leading to adverse economic effects and a loss of revenue, jobs, and commerce for the former host communities. As demonstrated in the relocation of the Oakland

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan states: “I commend Congressmen Barbara Lee and Mark DeSaulnier for defending the rights of communities like Oakland, along with many others across the nation, that are struggling to fight corporate greed in sports. The Moneyball Act will rectify Oakland’s current situation by ensuring fair compensation as a result of losing revenue, jobs, and commerce should the A’s relocate.

As the Councilmember who represents the entire city of Oakland and Chair of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, we have worked diligently to bring about a thriving future, including sports, entertainment, job opportunities, and more. This includes providing substantial opportunities for the A’s. Communities, taxpayers, workers, and fans all deserve to be treated with respect.”

Mayor Sheng Thao states: “The A’s have been a treasured part of the Oakland community for more than a half century, and the City and fans have repeatedly shown our commitment to keeping the A’s “rooted in Oakland”. That history and deep commitment shouldn’t be thrown aside lightly. Once again, Congressmembers Lee and DeSaulnier are bringing plain common sense to the table, and we appreciate their steadfast support.

—From the media relations offices of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and City Councilmember at-Large Rebecca Kaplan.

Hayward Sues Alameda County Over Failure to Protect Foster Children at Transitional Center

At deadline, the Oakland Post has not received comments from Milele. However, in a press statement on June 7, Milele denounced the KTVU Channel 2 coverage of complaints against her and characterized the disputes as “an attempted power grab by a small band of political extremists with a personal agenda.”

“The extremist attack by an unelected, unaccountable, small group of politically ambitious zealots counters the will of the Oakland electorate and makes flagrantly false allegations,” she wrote.

In an email, Harbin-Forte told the Post:

“Yesterday’s pathetic rally totally vindicated Chair Tyfahra Milele and me. The Coalition for Police Accountability and Commissioners Regina Jackson and Marsha Peterson invited more than 2,000 people to their party and ended up with more picturetakers than participants.”

She added: “Regina and Marsha suffered an embarrassing loss in January when Regina’s candidate, Marsha, who was then vice chair, ran to become chair of the commission. We not only overwhelmingly voted in Dr. Milele for a second term, but we also voted out Marsha as vice chair.”

The Coalition for Police Accountability was instrumental in putting Measure LL on the ballot, which created the police commission in 2016 with the support of 83% of voters.

In her remarks Leonard said, “We are raising a critical issue with the police commission,” only deciding to ask for the removal of the two commissioners after numerous attempts to meet with them failed to resolve the issues.

“We want the commission to work as a commission of all of the commissioners, not a police commission of two people,” she said. “(But) it’s been attack after attack after attack.”

Jackson has served for six years on the Police Commission – its longest serving member – and for 30 years as a community leader. She said of Harbin-Forte, a retired judge, “We have seen ridiculous harassment and bullying, not just of community members, not just of city employees … but also of fellow commissioners.”

Jackson said Harbin-Forte has attacked those who are willing to stand up to her. “She called for three resignations in 72 hours: Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, myself, and Commissioner Marsha Peterson.”

The City of Hayward filed a lawsuit Thursday asking a judge to intervene to protect children at an Alameda County transitional center where foster children frequently go missing and are knowingly being exposed to and/or coerced into drug use, assaults and other forms of violence, sex trafficking and prostitution.

The suit was filed after multiple attempts by city officials to convince Alameda County and its Social Service Agency to take steps to restore a measure of control at its Assessment Center in Hayward, which receives children pending placement in the foster care system after being removed from their homes for a variety of reasons.

“As a consequence of the County’s deliberate indifference and failure to act or intervene, the City has deployed officers from the Hayward Police Department (HPD) on hundreds of occasions since mid-February to investigate complaints of missing children, drug overdoses, assaults, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children within the Center and in the surrounding neighborhood,”

City Attorney Michael Lawson wrote in a June 14 letter putting the County on notice of the pending lawsuit.

Lawson reminded the County of the death of Sophia Mason, the 8-year-old child whose homicide last year highlighted the mishandling of at-risk children by social service administrators.

Conditions at the Assessment

Center spiraled following the inexplicable withdrawal on February 15 of Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies who had provided security for the Center.

Since the deputies’ departure, calls to Hayward police and firefighter-paramedics related to the Center skyrocketed—including for AWOL children as young as 10 years of age, drug overdoses, assaults on staff, and sex trafficking of children by older youth in the Center—and have resulted in more than 750 police-officer-hours spent responding to, following up on and investigating Center-related calls and incidents.

Since mid-February, Hayward police and city administrative and elected leaders have made multiple contacts and pleas for Sheriff’s deputy staffing to be restored and for the County to implement other changes—including offers to partner with the County to find a new location and operating model for the Center elsewhere in Hayward.

These contacts and pleas included a May 26 letter from Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez that recounted harrowing details shared with Hayward police by overwhelmed and alarmed personnel for a private security company eventually brought in to work at the Center after Sheriff’s deputies were removed.

“The security company representative expressed frustration

Defending those criticized by Milele, Vice Mayor of Emeryville Courtney Welch, a former Oakland resident, said she stood in solidarity with “great leaders … who have been on the receiving end of vicious attacks, retaliation and character assassination” and that “it has to stop.”

Among those under attack,

Father’s Day to Remember...

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“gangs,” or rivals, generally don’t get along.

In other words, basketball brought peace on this special occasion for so many coming from different sectors of the city. These “peaceful” basketball games surprised the Oakland Police Department officers who attended for a while, but when it became apparent that peace would abound on this day at the West Oakland DeFremery Park, they left the scene.

At the end of the basketball game, there was a Fallen Fathers’ balloon released for all the deceased fathers.

Shan Hirsch, the founder and CEO of the non-profit Pennies for Peace (PFP), put this event together. She has been a stellar advocate and community organizer for over 20 years and has earned the love and respect of the communities with her work and devotion to helping bridge the gaps between warring factions.

PFP raises funds through small donations from individuals who share her vision of bringing peace

She said she has requested five times but still has not seen an accounting of how the commission is spending its money. “We have received no budget updates,” she said.

Jackson ended the rally with a chant, joined by other rally participants: “Remove, remove, remove!”

to our streets. Even though she receives no government or foundation grants, she manages to stay afloat with sheer determination.

Hirsch’s next goal is to bring a boxing gym to the Bay Area. She has a son and a grandson who have taken up boxing as a sport.

Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB) is also working with the African American Sports Entertainment Group (AASEG) to utilize youth-oriented sports activities as a healthy, constructive diversion from the lure of gangs.

As our city debates ways to stop violence, they should study PFP’s has an approach which emphasizes action over talk. If there’s to be peace you must go to the trenches and put the work in.

It’s not going to happen sitting back behind a desk in a comfort zone engaging in wishful thinking. The time for “politickring” is over, peace can only be gained when you go out and make it happen in a real way.

We can’t legislate peace; we must put in the work.

Commission Chair Tyfahra Milele

Commission member Brenda Harbin-Forte

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Hayward City Hall