Bay Area News Roundup for January 11 – 18, 2018

Welcome to this week’s Bay Area News Roundup for January 11 – 18, 2018

Women will March across the globe

Woman’s Marches all across the world are scheduled for the weekend of January 20-21.  There are 8 major marches happening specifically in the Bay Area on January 20th.  A list of the events in San Francisco, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Sonoma, Napa Valley, Pacifica, Santa Cruz, & San Jose can be found here.

Some Orange County judges and others are worried about the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at local courthouses. ICE said they arrest undocumented immigrants at court as a matter of last resort. (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)

Oakland gives ICE the boot

Immigration and Customs Enforcement overplayed their hand in an August 16 raid that sparked public anger. Although the city’s policy already prohibited local authorities from working with federal agents during immigration investigations, a new initiative introduced by Councilwomen Rebecca Kaplan and Delsey Brooks and unanimously approved Tuesday, further defines the boundaries of ICE participation within Oakland.

The incident that inspired the decision occurred this past summer when ICE agents notified Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick of the raid just one day before it was carried out. It was explained at the time that the raid was due to suspicions of “longstanding criminal” human trafficking at the home, according to The Mercury News; however, neither men detained have since been charged with any crimes. One man is looking down the deportation barrel and the other has since died.

Feeling deceived by the agency, Oakland has cut all ties with ICE with a ban extending to the cooperation of any branch of city government.

Camping with the mayor

As part of the #96Hours of action over MLK weekend, the APTP organized a campout on Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s lawn. SF Chronicle reports that Brooks was on hand to help lead that group as well. Although Schaaf was not at her home during the protests, the media certainly was and the group’s demands for “housing as a human right” were echoed in extensive local coverage.

Reclaiming the dream

Both San Francisco and Oakland, among most other large cities across the country, held rallies and marches Monday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The San Francisco event began with thousands of participants near 4th and King streets and ended in a march to Yerba Buena Gardens. According to SFGate, acting Mayor London Breed took the opportunity to publicly challenge Trump’s immigration policies. “We are going to be a sanctuary city,” Breed said. “We are going to continue to be a place of tolerance. We are going to continue to be a place of inclusiveness.”

Oakland participants gathered at what many locals now refer to as Oscar Grant Plaza outside City Hall, as reported by this site. The crowd was smaller than that in San Francisco but the tone was decidedly more focused on resistance. Several speakers and activists representing a myriad of cultures and races took the mic to lead the charged crowd of hundreds in prayer and offer guidance in peaceful but unyielding action. Cat Brooks of the Anti Police-Terror Project served as a key speaker through the rally and following march in an effort to reclaim MLK’s radical history.

“They wouldn’t have killed him if he was a good Negro,” Brooks said. “They let the good Negros live. They let the good Negros go on and take political office. Right? They let the good Negros be up in the White House. He wasn’t a good Negro – he was a warrior and a revolutionary.”

Worth noting: In contrast to previous presidents who have honored the civil rights leader’s legacy with a day of service, Trump opted to go golfing at Mar-a-Lago.

Redwoods at Muir Woods

Federal government shutdown could shutter local gems

You like hiking in Muir Woods? Planning to finally tour that rock we call Alcatraz? Did you intend to drive up to Yosemite this weekend? If the federal government doesn’t get its shit together by Friday’s looming deadline, it’s no soup for you at any of the national parks. Visitors at Yosemite will be “asked to leave the park immediately” if the government actually halts operations for the first time since 2013, according to the SF Chronicle.

Trump has repeatedly tweeted (go figure) about the impact a shutdown would have on the military, which of course is true, but they aren’t the only federal employees that would suffer or be forced into furlough. The standoff at the Capitol goes back to core partisan values that have been argued since the dawn of Trump’s campaign. Issues of border security and DACA protection are at the center of heated debate, with neither side willing to throw support for a bill that doesn’t achieve their specific goals. While the president blames Democrats for this predicament, he neglects to acknowledge that it’s his own majority party coming up short on needed votes.

While the rest of the country waits to see what happens, we suggest you go visit a national park while you still can.

Shithole shitstorm

In case you hadn’t heard, the Commander-in-Chief seems to think that Haiti and other African nations are “shithole countries.” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin blew the lid off the offensive language the president used during a small meeting assembled to discuss a bipartisan path to immigration reform. Although Republican Lindsey Graham has not specifically confirmed the president’s statement, he has insinuated that Durbin’s account is accurate. All others who were present in the meeting have publicly denied Trump’s use of those specific words, recalling only “tough language”, according to a Washington Post report.

Understandably, the Haitian embassy has requested an explanation and the rest of the world has been bogged down in conversation about whether or not the president has finally proved that he is indeed a racist.

All the ways we can screw Haiti

News broke Thursday morning that the Department of Homeland Security removed Haiti, as well as Belize and Samoa, from the list of countries eligible for H2-A and H2-B temporary work visas. CNN reports that this decision comes amid heightened scrutiny over the “administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for nearly 60,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the US” since the fallout of the country’s 2010 earthquake.

California has its share of horrible people: here are two of the worst

The nightmarish news hit like a brick to the face Monday, as it was reported that 13 children had been held captive in a home near Riverside. NBC News reports that David Allen Turpin and Louisa Anna Turpin decided that childcare consisted of shackling and starving their 13 children, ages 2 to 29, inside a urine-filled four-bedroom home.

A 17-year-old daughter escaped the home and used a cell phone to call 911. The parents have since been arrested and are being held on $9 million bail for possible child endangerment and torture charges and the 13 children, some of which a legally adults, are now being treated for malnutrition. Further reports indicate that the kids were only fed once a day and allowed to shower twice a year.

If the allegations prove out, let’s just say there’s a special place in hell for these two.