oh, yeah, the relationship with the OPD isn't complicated at all.

Community wasn't told of Oakland girl's rape
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 26, 2009

East Oakland parents and a school principal said Wednesday they didn't know a 12-year-old girl was raped in their neighborhood until they heard about it on the nightly news six weeks later when the suspected rapist shot and killed four police officers.

They want to know why.

The girl was assaulted at gunpoint before school on Feb. 5 after being dragged off the street in the 2600 block of 74th Avenue, investigators said. It is the same neighborhood where five other rapes have been reported in recent months.

According to police, parolee Lovelle Mixon was linked to the 12-year-old girl's rape through DNA on Friday, the day before he killed the four Oakland police officers and was himself killed by responding officers. The DNA match was announced Monday as investigators tried to sort out causes for the violence....

read the rest here

but i heard there are racist, culture-vulturing, mindless, essentializing, and re-defining idiots who run benefits for burning man (and sometimes *cough* attend *cough* the festival as well).

i'll be out front handing out blankets with small pox.

http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/event/GO-NATIVE-Fundraiser-for-Evolutionary-TempleVisionary-Village-Burning-Man-and-Native-American-Church/oakland-ca/c9aa2876-0b5e-40dc-aefd-7297df487618?tribeid=2a015c8a-8c2f-4657-8716-9395874aa780&nextpage=%24thispage

i am so sick to death of reading or hearing other people's comments about the shootout here over the weekend who don't know shit about oakland and couldn't put that corner on a map, who don't know shit about the sorry state of affairs of the city council and that we have an absentee mayor (before being ruled by a space cadet), who don't know shit about trying to make it through the penal system in california, who don't know shit about being harassed by cops because you're either driving or walking while brown, who don't know shit about the neighborhoods, who don't know shit about the decrepit and dysfunctional oakland unified school district, who don't shit about the unemployment rate in oakland, who don't shit about what the eastmont transit center is, who don't know shit about the concentrated poverty in oakland, and let alone don't even live here.

seriously?

s.t.f.u.*











*not to be confused with 99% of my friendslist, and yes, is a lashing out against my mistake of reading some of the more popular comments on the various articles related to the travesty on the san francisco chronicle's website. if i read "ghetto black" one more time, i'm bust out my ay kay.

last night, i went to the historic last movie playing at the parkway -- which ended up being the best idea a friend's given me in ages. local band, carne cruda, opened the documentary on la lucha libre in tijuana, que viva la lucha. i have a new hero: extreme tiger y los exoticos. i got a pint glass and took pictures. *sigh*

i've lived in the grand lake district of oakland for seven years -- always within walking distance of the parkway. i just went on a date with my b.f. to see "the wrestler" there last week. this makes me really really sad. i watched the 2004 debates that they showed for free; i've even actually paid money once to watch the rocky horror picture show that was hosted there every saturday night.

san francisco has nothing -- NOTHING -- on the parkway, the paramount or the grand lake.

why is when shit is good in the bay area, it is mind-bogglingly phenomenal? but, then, when shit is bad, it quietly shuts its doors before you get to say goodbye. curse the bay area's economic bubble.

let there be couches, pizza, and beer. *sniff*

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Parkway Speakeasy Theater R.I.P.

one of my good friends is working on a story of the tragic nightmare of an organization known as the oakland unified school district (o.u.s.d.). anyone who lives in oakland knows that the school district is in near shambles and has been targeted by the state for its low test scores on standardized educational tests administered by the state of california. the school district is directly being overseen by the state, as we speak.

anyway, i'm super proud of jen. thanks to her efforts as a solo flyer in journalism on this massive story, new america media named her one of ten statewide winners of the 2009 new america media education fellowship.

the story will be published in the oakland post soon. dates tba.

- - - - -

in her own words:

"...The jaw dropping dysfunction of Oakland Unified Schools administration, next to the school campuses that are lovingly neglected, stand in stark contrast to the whip smart appeal of many of the students and the dogged determination of many teachers, school alumni and grass roots organizations. Everyday, kids are getting it done. They know the score and they plow on. I’m very proud..."

- - - - -

PITCH: Oakland Schools Get "Phased" Out
by Jennifer Inez Ward

For almost a decade, Oakland public schools have been using a gradual phase out to close under performing or low population schools, resulting in a negative impact on local communities and students.

Oakland Unified School District is shutting many of its schools one grade at a time. For more than six years, OUSD has implemented a practice of closing down "small" or "underperforming" schools via a phase out system that slowly shuts down a school grade by grade. Although not unique, many parents, teachers and school officials see the phase out system as providing further trauma connected to the school closing issue. It's also unclear whether the program saves any money for taxpayers.


Jennifer Ward Speaks about Oakland Schools Getting Phased Out from spotus on Vimeo.

okay, i was really effing riled up on saturday, while preparing for my bout, i had to listen to the ENDLESS fucking honking coming from a major intersection near my house.

when i wandered down to hop on a bus to meet up with my teammates to head to the bout in san jose, i passed, much to my complete horror, a raucous group of teenagers holding up YES ON 8 signs screaming out stupid shit like, "HONK IF YOU LIKE GIRLS" etc. i was livid, but i didn't have time and i was frighteningly outnumbered (would you believe i actually felt unsafe?? queers in the house can i get an amen?) and didn't tell them to take their fucked up hate outta my goddam neighborhood.

and now this? oh, i am so taking my butt down there with the NO-team.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenandtara/sets/72157608473465699/

ain't no room in my goddam neighborhood for this stupid shit.