It’s stunning to read that in San Francisco, gay men are open targets for hate:
A video made by three cousins from Hayward charged with an alleged anti-gay shooting with a BB rifle last month in San Francisco shows 11 other attacks in a single night, authorities said Friday.
The men have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle Feb. 26 at the face of a man they believed was gay. The man, who was walking on 16th Street near Guerrero Street, was not badly hurt and later identified the three suspects.
The three were freed on $50,000 bail soon after their arrest. But on Friday, Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, appeared in court and were immediately rearrested. They were all being held late Friday on $450,000 bail.
They were returned to custody after prosecutors viewed a video that police found in the three men’s car when they were arrested.
Brian Buckelew, spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said the video showed the 16th Street attack and BB rifle shootings aimed at 11 other men. Police say the video depicts the suspects laughing as they fire.
Investigators say they have been unable to find any of the additional alleged victims. Still, Buckelew said prosecutors may file additional charges against each of the three defendants.
The defendants’ attorneys would not comment outside court Friday. The defendants, who have not entered pleas, are scheduled to return to court April 8.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the start of a seminal event in US labor history. Beginning on May 9, 1934, 10,000 longshoremen went on strike in America’s West coast ports to protest low wages, dangerous working conditions and above all a employee practice known as ‘the shapeup’ where workers were forced to lineup daily on the Embarcadero and a foreman would then picked the lucky wage earners for that day. The longshoremen’s strike would shut down West coast ports and by the end of May over 40,000 workers would walk off the job to support the longshoremen’s demand.
Not surprisingly, employers, with support from city officials, would attempt to break the strike through the use of strike-breakers bussed in from other parts of the country and through police repression. On July 5th, the tense situation exploded into violence that left three day outside Steuart Hall, the longshoremen’s union hall on Rincon Hill. The day came to be known as ‘Bloody Thursday’ and events as the ‘Battle of Rincon Hill.”
Governor Merriam ordered out the National Guard to preserve order and “protect state property” while Mayor Angelo Rossi reacted by backing the Industrial Association, made up of employers and business interests who wished to break the strike, and the power of San Francisco unions and allowing them to hire thugs to beat up on striking workers.
By the middle of July, the situation had grown worse leading to the call for a general strike on July 16, 1934. The main grievance was the “attack of certain employer groups upon labor’s rights to organize in their own unions and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.” Seventy-five years we are still fighting for this right. It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and allow American workers the right to organize. It is hard to believe but the major impediment to union formation in the United States remains legal obstacles.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that he is indeed a candidate for Governor of California in 2010. He faces a stiff primary challenge from California Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown among others.
Come, home America. Instead of trying to run the world, let us tend our wounded society. Let go inflated claims of global dominance. Instead, redeem the fundamental values and sacred principles of the national inheritance. Do not resign from the world. Rejoin it on more practical and promising terms.
San Francisco Progressive Prespectives presents William Greider, the National Affairs Correspondent of The Nation and formerly for Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. Mr. Greider will speak on the themes addressed in his new book Come Home, America.
Time: Tuesday, March 31st at 7:00PM
Place: First Unitarian Universalist Society, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary) in San Francisco.
The economic downturn came late to San Francisco, but the West Coast city is now experiencing a slowdown in financial services, tourism, construction, and even the high tech sector. As VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports, the city is braced for the downturn.
On the evening before the California Supreme Court holds oral arguments on the validity of Proposition 8 and whether the California Initiative process can be used to take away fundamental freedoms, the California Marriage Equality campaign is sponsoring a candlelight vigil on March 4th, 2009.
At 5PM, there will be a pre-march rally at Harvey Milk Plaza (Market at Castro). The march down Market Street commences at 6PM and will terminate at the California Supreme Court at 6:45 PM.
Hearst Publications said on Tuesday that it may sell or close The San Francisco Chronicle if it cannot wring enough savings from the money-losing newspaper.
The announcement is the latest in a string of bad news for the newspaper industry, as several large papers and their publishers contemplate filing for bankruptcy amid plummeting advertising and circulation numbers.
Hearst said in its statement that The Chronicle, which it bought in 2000, lost $50 million last year and has lost money every year since 2001. Among the changes the company said it wants to see is “a significant reduction” in its union and nonunion employees.
“Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve,” Frank A. Bennack Jr., Hearst’s chief executive officer, and Steven R. Swartz, the president of its newspaper division, said in a statement. “But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down.”
Frank J. Vega, The Chronicle’s chairman and publisher, told the newspaper: “It’s just a fact of life that we need to live within our means as a newspaper – and we have not for years.”
Times are tough for newspapers in general, as revenue continues to fall in the wake of the recession. Media experts have said that the San Francisco market in particular is a rough one for newspaper: as The Chronicle points out, 21 newspapers serve 11 counties in the area.
Hearst warned last month that it may sell or shut down another of its papers, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, if no buyer can be found.
Former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and current State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill in the California Legislature to legalize marijuana. Mr. Ammiano argues “billions of dollars in the illicit marijuana trade goes up in smoke every year, billions that the state could get by taxing the drug.” He adds that “treating pot just like alcohol and cigarettes could help balance California’s budget.”
Ammiano says marijuana is California’s largest cash crop.
“The marijuana industry probably nets in California alone $14 billion,” Ammiano said.
The bill is also supported by state Board of Equalization chair Betty Yee. She says the taxes would be a windfall for the state.
“The revenue impact of this proposal we believe will generate over $1.3 billion,” Yee said.
Part of that money would come from a $50 per ounce state excise tax on the drug – roughly $1 per joint, according to Ammiano. Sales tax revenue would make up the rest.
Advocates say the bill would take the profits away from drug dealers.
“They are willing to kill for and rob California taxpayers of billions of dollars in potential revenue,” Steve Gutwillig said.
San Francisco Progressive Perspectives presents Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, February 17th at 7:30 PM. Senator Sanders will speak on “Why We Need to Unite around a Progressive Agenda” in conversation with Norman Solomon.
The event will take place at the First Unitarian Univeralist Church located at 1187 Franklin Street at Geary in the Cathedral Hill district of San Francisco. Suggested donation is $10.00.
San Francisco is considering banning new smoke shops from opening in the city. Officials say it’s part of an effort to promote a better balance of business in the historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.