San Diego ‘Occupy’ reaches out to City Heights

This banner faced the local police station. Photo: Ben Stossell

Activists set up yet another Occupy camp in San Diego to expose this so-called tourist city’s long and bloody history of police brutality and to reach the city’s poorest people. They chose the City Heights Performance Annex because of its location: It sits across the street from the San Diego Police Department Mid-City Division.

OCH began the occupation April 21 with an afternoon of political speakers, signs and banners with messages like “Sí, se puede” (Yes, we can) and “Justice 4 Anastacio Rojas.” Rojas is a Mexican immigrant who was beaten and tasered to death while in handcuffs by the Border Patrol.

Political rap and hip-hop music kept the crowd energized, while organizers served food and sponsors interacted with community members attending the event. OCH joined several Occupy groups already existing within city limits.

Rally denounces repression

City Heights is a poor, predominantly Latinos/as community with a large population of Mexican immigrants. Latino/as make up 65 percent of its population, while African Americans are the second-largest group at 19 percent. City Heights is also home to a large community of African immigrants. Median household income in 2005 was $19,323, only one-third the median for all of San Diego.

One highlight of the afternoon was the return of Cherry Mason, the courageous fighter and mother of Sonserra Holloway, a pregnant Black woman slaughtered in 1999 by the Border Patrol in City Heights.

Another was this banner: “Si por que soy Mexicano dicen que soy ‘ilegal,’ revisa la historia real, pues estoy en mi tierra NATAL!” (If they say I’m illegal because I’m Mexican, they’re changing history, because I’m in my HOMELAND.)

Sponsors of the occupation and rally included Activist San Diego, Occupy San Diego, San Diego Committee Against Police Brutality, and other activists and community organizers.

Gloria Verdieu, from the Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, gave an update on the struggle for his freedom. Poet Sylvia Telafaro stunned and inspired the crowd with a fiery poem about political organizing.

Organizer Pat Herron read a message about the city of San Diego’s assault on the World Beat Center and the Centro Cultural de la Raza. The two centers are former water towers in Balboa Park that have been converted into cultural, political and social hubs for all San Diegans, but in particular for people of African and Latino/a descent.

Many within Occupy San Diego, including some who are residents of City Heights, took this action to bring the Occupy movement to a Latino/a, Black, poor, working-class community. They plan to continue the occupation, holding regular general assembly meetings at the Annex and political events to address social justice issues relevant to the community.

Muhammad spoke at the April 21 rally for the Committee Against Police Brutality and raised the need for a community-elected and controlled police review board in San Diego.