News & Commentary

A growing chorus of elected officials, law enforcement, and community leaders settled on an answer to the senseless deaths of unarmed people of color at the hands of law enforcement: body cameras. And one in four police agencies have already started using them.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1978, taxpayers have spent over $4 billion to prop up the defunct system. There are currently 750 men and women on death row. Most die of old age, not execution. We hope that California’s leaders will finally tackle this monstrous problem and replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Across California, traffic courts are withholding the right to contest a traffic citation until the fines and fees for the citation are paid in full. This unfair practice violates constitutional guarantees of due process and unfairly impacts low-income people. But now there’s been an exciting development that could put an end to this practice once and for all. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye has directed the California Judicial Council to immediately take emergency action to make it clear that Californians do not have to pay for a traffic infraction before being able to appear in court.

Today, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy will host a public forum in Oakland, on the need to protect the health and well-being of youth if marijuana is legalized, taxed, and regulated in California.

Building security at the San Francisco Immigration Court was forbidding pastors, who participated in the peaceful vigils outside the court, from accompanying families to their immigration court hearings in what we saw as blatant retaliation, even though both activities are strongly protected by the First Amendment. This carried with it serious constitutional implications and took an emotional toll on families fighting for their right to refuge in this country.

Earlier this year, I shared my experiences and that of my client, Malaika Singleton, Ph.D. In my case, a TSA agent suddenly grabbed by hair without any warning and squeezed it from top to bottom after I had passed through the advanced imaging technology (AIT) body scanner at the airport. But this did not happen to me just once. In fact, I was selected for hair pat-downs during three out of four trips I took over just one year.

Another unarmed black person will soon be killed by the police. Take a stand for police reform in CA. Every mother deserves safety for her children - no matter their skin color.

We just learned that Santa Clara County will not be moving forward to purchase an invasive Stingray mobile tracking system.

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.