News & Commentary

This piece originally appeared at The Huffington Post. 

The slum housing crisis in Fresno is a crisis of poverty and racism. Yet today, the Fresno City Council will vote on an overly broad and vague "nuisance" ordinance that will only open the door to more discrimination.

Did you know that in 2014 police took more property from people in the U.S. than burglars did? Frightening, but absolutely legal. A new ACLU of California report finds that, although this tactic of policing for profit can impact all types of innocent people, folks of color and poor people bear the heaviest burden.

Dear Governor Brown:

Imagine you’re on your way to buy a used car and a police officer pulls you over. After asking you a few questions, the officer asks to search your car. Knowing you’ve done nothing wrong, you agree. The next thing you know, the officer is telling you that he’s suspicious that you have $2,500 in cash – and he takes it. You explain that you’re on your way to buy a car. He doesn’t believe you and tells you that if you want your cash back, you’ll have to fight for it in court.

Sandra Bland had a constitutional right to give her arresting officer the middle finger. She could have even told him to f*** off. Nothing in the law prevented her from being rude.

We need to break the cycle of poverty created by our history of discrimination. We've got to be serious about ending the residential segregation that puts success out of reach for too many of our children.