Occupy Chicago Seeks to Represent the Black Unemployed

On Nov. 15, police began dismantling the #OccupyWallStreet camps in Zuccotti Park in New York. In Chicago, police were uprooting protesters from Grant Park  in October. Grant Park is Chicago’s largest city park and held nearly 3,000 people when the police arrested 130 protesters on October 26. Chicago citizens are familiar with police brutality, and they responded with legislation. With Occupy protesters promised to be removed from state to state, many people are asking, what’s next? … Continue Reading

Posted by:

Ife

5% of the World’s Population, 25% of its Prisoners

That’s America, alright, and the numbers come from an article on prison reform written by Mark Lange in the Christian Science Monitor. As yall know, we’re big supporters of the Youth PROMISE Act over here at 99p.  The statistics from the American Prison system are horrendous; recidivism is practically guaranteed for many people who serve time, because they leave these “crime schools” with complicated paroles and no preparation in life after jail.  As Mr. Lange writes:

Mass imprisonment of nonviolent offenders amounts to justice by lock-down – and lets government off the hook for results. The only stakeholders this system serves are elected officials, including judges, who are rewarded for posing as “tough” on crime without solving it – and the lobbyists and interests paid to build and run prisons.

… Continue Reading

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Learn in the Classroom or Learn in the Streets

California is first in prison spending and 41st in spending on education. Therein lies the the root cause of the problems we see in our communities. Let us silence the violence and invest in education.

Update 11:00am PACIFIC:

MK and Sandy Take on Prop 13

Two of our organizers from San Francisco, MK and Sandy, sent us a video they recorded last Friday about the need to repeal Prop 13, a piece of California legislation that was passed in 1978. Prop 13 created a cap on property tax rates in the state, reducing them by an average of 57% and totally bankrupting our funding for schools. We need to repeal Prop 13 so we can get funding back to our broken schools!

Posted by:

Heather Box