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PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO 585 SAN DIEGO, CA
“People Without a Voice Vol. Vol.58 57No. No.50 35 | | Thursday, Thursday December August 31, 13,2017 2018
WOMEN, INC “HARVEST HIGH TEA” – see page 8
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Serving San Serving DiegoSan County’s DiegoAfrican County’s & African African American & African Communities American 57 Communities Years 58 Years
NEVER LEAVE ONE BEHIND –
LEMON GROVE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BONFIRE – see page 13
SDCE FARM TO FAMILY FAIR – see page 10
Councilwoman
New City Council members L to R: District 2, Dr. Jennifer Campbell, District 8, Vivian Moreno, District 4, Atty. Monica Montgomery
Monica Montgomery Takes Office By Staff Writer Voice & Viewpoint
On Monday, December 10th the San Diego Fourth City Council District was again a part of history as Councilmember Monica Montgomery, as three of the new council members who are women, joined the two existing women councilmembers creating a five women majority for the first time. This marked the first time for the five women, who are Democrats, and three of whom are LGBTQ. The installation was held at Golden Hall to accomodate the full house community presence. Monica gave a passionate speech about working together and was warmly received. See MONTGOMERY page 2
San Diego Mental Healthcare Workers Strike Against Kaiser that Kaiser stop what they call underfunding medical services to prevent patients from dropping out of treatment due to month long wait times. Kaiser, on the other hand, says that the strike is about more money; that they have added mental healthcare workers. By Staff Writer Voice & Viewpoint
Over 300 San Diego Mental Healthcare workers are on a 5 day strike at Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center. They say they are protesting Kaiser’s refusal to prioritize quality of care for its patients and providing workers with a living wage. They are demanding
Cannot be Heard”
Kaiser is the nation’s largest nonprofit HMO, earning $3.8 billion in profits last year. California’s Department of Managed Health Care (DHMC) fined Kaiser $4 million in 2013 for violating the state’s Mental Health Parity Act and Timely Access to Care. Two subsequent reports found further violations, and last year the agency required Kaiser to accept outside monitoring of its mental health services,hundreds of Kaiser psychologists, ther-
see page 9
The Growing and Disproportionate
Indictments and Trials Finally
Imprisonment
of Black Women in America While Black women overall are twice as likely to be imprisoned as their white counterparts, Black women ages 18 to 19 are three times more likely to be imprisoned than their white counterparts, the CAP report noted.
The imprisonment rate for African American women is twice that of white women. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent
Missy Venable (not her real name) said she has trouble sleeping at night. It’s not the typical case of insomnia. It’s the after effects of spending more than 7 years in prison – which, incidentally, is where her fellow inmates began calling her “Missy,” and the name just stuck. She made up her last name for this article, choosing to hide her identity because her children are both of school age and Venable said she doesn’t want their classmates teasing them. It’s a similar story to that shared by her friend, Tina Blackman – also a fictious name. Blackman, who said she’s in her mid-40s, spent nearly 9 years in prison. “When I went in, I left behind two teenagers and one child that was 8 years-old and autistic and another child that was 2,” Blackman told NNPA Newswire. While Venable was imprisoned for insurance fraud, Blackman was sentenced on drug charges.
See STRIKE page 2
See IMPRISONMENT page 2
SLAVERY PART VII:
From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has launched a global news feature series on the history, contemporary realities and implications of the transatlantic slave trade. This is the first installment of Part 7 in the series.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent
Slavery was abolished in 1865 with the end of the Civil War and passing of the 13th amendment, but America found what many see as a disingenuous way of continuing its slave master ways – mass incarceration. “The genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes, and that’s why they are locked up or locked out, we are told. This feature makes the politics of responsibility particularly tempting, as it appears the system can be avoided with good behavior. But herein lies the trap. The United States has just five percent of the world population yet holds approximately 25 percent of its prisoners.
Come in Police Shootings of Blacks, Minorities
See SLAVERY page 6
…in Dallas, Amber Guyger told fellow officers that she opened fire when Botham Jean appeared in the darkness. Jean, a 26-year-old native of the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, attended college in Arkansas and had been working in Dallas for accounting and consulting firm PwC. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent
Recent indictments and convictions suggest a swinging pendulum, and at least some cracks in the “Blue Wall” that all too often conspires to hide details and protect officers guilty of unjust shootings of African Americans and others. Prosecutors in Chicago have won an indictment, alleging that three Windy City police officers conspired to protect a fellow officer after he fatally shot a Black teenager, Laquand McDonald, in 2014. The officers did so in spite of available videotaped evidence of the shooting, prosecutors said. McDonald, who was 17, was armed with a knife See TRIALS page 2