Dear readers, let’s reach out to Colin Kaepernick about supporting the SF Bay View newspaper

by Allen Jones

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has vowed to donate “$1 million” to community groups who are dedicated to the fight against Black oppression and police brutality.

As a follow-up to his refusal to stand and recite the national anthem “until” progress is made in the fight against police brutality in America, the 49ers QB is demonstrating a firm commitment to ending police oppression with a well thought-out plan of action.

I hope Kaepernick will consider financial support for the work of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and its commitment to keeping the Black community – as well as prisoners and oppressed people throughout the world – informed in print and online.

I hope Kaepernick will consider financial support for the work of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and its commitment to keeping the Black community – as well as prisoners and oppressed people throughout the world – informed in print and online.

The SF Bay View, founded in 1976, informs the Black community of San Francisco on local, statewide and national issues as well as covering events and movements, past and present, that shape our world. It is most proud of the 2,500 copies of the Bay View mailed to prisoners around the country, where they foment the progress in ending mass incarceration that has been making headlines around the world.

However, in the tireless reporting, which sadly includes more and more stories of police brutality against people of color, the Bay View has been unfairly attacked by the FBI and local station ABC7 News.

At the beginning of August, investigative reporter Dan Noyes aired a special report based on what he described as a “leaked” FBI bulletin provided by one of his “law enforcement sources,” which implicated the Bay View in what turned out to be an erroneous plot.

According to the FBI, the Black Guerrilla Family, a well-known prison-based political organization, was calling for “Black August,” a time for commemorating important moments in Black history, to be used to attack law enforcement – police and prison guards – throughout the country. No such event was carried out, much less planned.

Noyes warned viewers in his special I-Team report, if police or prison guards were attacked or killed in the month of August 2016, “You’ll know why.” Laying equal blame on this Black prison organization and the Bay View newspaper for what the FBI and Dan Noyes saw as a plot was a joke to all who know what Black August is really about.

Instead of investigating the history and meaning of Black August, Noyes jumped to conclusions and ran a hollow piece of untruths in a law enforcement-led smear campaign against a Black newspaper popular with prisoners.

This FBI-ABC7 incident shows that law enforcement will use anyone, including a gullible reporter, to try and shut down a newspaper dedicated to keeping the Black community informed.

This incident shows that law enforcement will use anyone, including a gullible reporter, to try and shut down a newspaper dedicated to keeping the Black community informed. This is police brutality against a 40-year-old pillar of Black media, and it needs to be exposed.

Ironically, in the face of Colin Kaepernick’s courage, police themselves are hard at work exposing their own brutal racism. The head of the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association, Martin Halloran, sent a letter to the NFL and the San Francisco 49ers demanding that Kaepernick apologize for criticizing police.

Then, after getting wind of Kaepernick wearing socks during practice on Aug. 10 that depicted a pig wearing a police hat, the Santa Clara police union sent a threatening letter to the team on Sept. 2. In the letter, the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Association threatened to boycott volunteer security for all 49er home games if the team did not discipline Kaepernick for his actions.

To be fair, I should mention the commendable response issued today to his officers’ letter by Santa Clara Police Chief Michael J. Sellers: “As distasteful as (Kaepernick’s) actions are, these actions are protected by the Constitution. Police officers are here to protect the rights of every person, even if we disagree with their position. Police officers have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution.” The San Diego police who protected Kaepernick at Thursday’s game are also praiseworthy.

Nevertheless, these two reprehensible badges-for-brains POA letters are clear evidence of police brutality by intimidation. And since the main local press will not call out police for the arrogant tactic it is – intimidation – the Black community needs a newspaper like the SF Bay View.

I am not the only one whose heart drops when I receive an email from the Bay View for financial support in order to get out the next month’s print edition. For me, it always comes when I am also short on funds. But thank God there are many readers of the community who come through when called on to help in a financial crisis.

The current events surrounding Kaepernick and his refusal to ignore police brutality, the issue he called “bigger than football,” we are presented with an opportunity to help him be more aware of the fact that there is a newspaper in San Francisco that has been fighting against Black oppression and police brutality since 1976.

The current events surrounding Kaepernick and his refusal to ignore police brutality, the issue he called “bigger than football,” we are presented with an opportunity to help him be more aware of the fact that there is a newspaper in San Francisco that has been fighting against Black oppression and police brutality since 1976.

Though it is easy to go online to read the Bay View, updated daily at sfbayview.com, a monthly print edition of the San Francisco Bay View should be in the San Francisco 49er team headquarters and locker room for all players to stay informed on issues concerning the Black Bay Area and the Black world.

And I am confident that Colin Kaepernick, a thoughtful “angelic troublemaker,” a term coined by Bayard Rustin, would offer his financial support to the SF Bay View, if only he knew.

Allen Jones is San Francisco’s racism sniffing dog. To follow him or report racism in the city, contact him at [email protected] or 415-756-7733. He chronicles SF racism on this website: http://sf49erfanrevolt.squarespace.com/.