Earth Day 2021 in San Francisco!
April 28, 2021
On this Earth Day, April 22, 2020, more than 120 fired up Hunters Point and Treasure Island residents and supporters gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall to call for real environmental and social change that comes from the people in the wake of complete disinvestment and neglect of our Black communities by city leaders. But we also came together to acknowledge, learn about and celebrate the amazing work of people and organizations like Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai, Greenaction, Hunters Point Mothers and Fathers Committee, Arieann Harrison, Elaine Brown, Dr. Aude Bouagnon, Ms. Margaret from West Oakland, investigative reporter Carol Harvey, Gloria Berry, attorneys Stanley Goff and Charles Bonner, Literacy for Environmental Justice and many more. – Photo: Griffin Jones
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Photo: Banner reads “We can’t breathe! Stop environmental racism.” Liberation photo
On April 22 a People’s Earth Day’ rally was held in front of San Francisco City Hall to demand health and environmental justice for residents of Bayview Hunters Point and Treasure Island.
The Hunters Point Shipyard in the Bayview district is a federal Superfund site; one of many polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai from the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Project explained to an attentive crowd how clusters of people have been identified with the same toxins in their urine including arsenic, magnesium, vanadium and gadolinium. The statistical likelihood that 16 people would have these same four toxins in their urine without environmental contamination being the cause, she explained, is impossible.
Mark Cuban lost his battle to ditch the national anthem, but our racial reckoning isn t over
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to lose the national anthem. He s been stopped for the moment. But you can t stop the modern world.
Arizona Republic
It was probably no accident that on the same day of the impeachment trial, when an ugly strain of white nationalism was played back on video to the U.S. Senate, Mark Cuban confirmed on Feb. 9 that his NBA Dallas Mavericks no longer opened games with the national anthem.
A day later, the NBA quickly reversed Cuban and said all league teams will play the anthem “in keeping with longstanding league policy.”
D.A. Chesa Boudin declines to file charges in two 2020 S.F. police shootings [San Francisco Chronicle]
Dec. 11 San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has declined to file charges against officers connected to two separate police shootings this year, including the one that killed 21-year-old Cesar Vargas in October.
Boudin, who announced the decisions on Thursday, said evidence in both incidents showed the officers’ use of force amounted to lawful self-defense.
“My office carefully reviews the specific facts in each case involving officer use-of-force so we can determine when charges are warranted as well as when officers acting under stressful situations behaved lawfully,” Boudin said in a statement.