Cop Watch LA

Police terrorize Black KPFA programmer in the station

by anonymous Monday September 1, 2008

Editor's note: The Aug. 20 brutalizing of longtime KPFA programmer
Nadra Foster by police who were called to KPFA by station and network
management has the Black community and all justice seekers seething.
How could managers, including two Black women, of the radio station
that proudly considers itself the most progressive in Northern
California not know the dangers of calling the police on a young Black
person? As KPFA programmer Weyland Southon exclaimed on the Block
Report that broke the story on Flashpoints the next day, "Situations
like this get us killed.
"

The first priority now is for all charges against Nadra to be dropped
and for KPFA to make her whole. The cost of justice isn't cheap and
should inspire some deep soul searching by KPFA and Pacifica management.

Rumors that Nadra had been "banned" because a white programmer said
she felt "threatened" by this young Black woman who'd been trained at
KPFA and has worked there as unpaid staff for over a decade are not
unprecedented. Other young Blacks in recent years have been banned and
locked out of KPFA merely because white programmers complained they
felt threatened by the young people's presence. Racism runs deep at KPFA.

Reparations must include revising KPFA's program schedule to include a
prime time public affairs show covering African American news and
views. The one hour a week allocated to the esteemed show Africa Today
is nowhere near enough time to cover the far flung African Diaspora.

News from the Black community inevitably features police terrorism
because it is perpetrated every day in every hood in the U.S. That's
the "War at Home" – hidden in plain sight because powerful media,
including KPFA with its 59,000 watts reaching a third of California,
refuse to recognize and report on it.

The fact that the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper,
which does report the news from Black communities across the country,
is not currently in print makes coverage of that news by KPFA
imperative. KPFA's signal reaches most of the 100,000 people who used
to read the printed Bay View every week – the majority unable to read
it on the web because they can't afford internet access or are locked
behind enemy lines.

Be sure to attend and speak out at the town hall meeting Sunday, Sept.
7, 3 p.m., at the Black New World, 836 Pine St., West Oakland. Demand
as reparations a prime time program on KPFA that's of, for and by the
Black community – a show that covers police terrorism unflinchingly so
that listeners and KPFA and Pacifica management know the terrible
consequences of calling the police on a young Black person.
KPFA, where the memory of the Black Panther Party is revered, must
remember that the purpose of the party was to defend the Black
community against police terrorism!

The journalist best known for his coverage of police terrorism and
other life and death Black news is POCC Minister of Information and
Bay View Associate Editor JR, who wrote the story that follows and
broke the story of the attack on his colleague at KPFA, Nadra Foster.
He asked that word of another tragedy suffered by the Black community
be included in this message to emphasize the unbreakable ties that
bind KPFA to the Black community:

A member of the Sideshow collective whose program is broadcast on KPFA
every last Friday at midnight, August "Fef Mitti" McCoy, was murdered
in Vallejo on Saturday night. His funeral will be Friday, Sept. 5, 11
a.m., at Wilson & Kratzer Mortuary, 455 24th St. in Richmond. Please
pay your respects by attending or by sending your condolences to the
family via MOI JR at blockreportradio@ gmail.com.

Meanwhile, watch for the impending relaunch of a redesigned website
for the Bay View newspaper at www. sfbayview. com.
Your support of the Bay View by advertising or contributing (tax
deductibly if you wish) is badly needed and greatly appreciated, and
your stories and comments sent to editor@sfbayview. com are always welcome.

Police terrorize Black KPFA programmer in the station

Speak out at the town hall meeting Sunday, Sept. 7, 3 p.m., at the
Black New World, 836 Pine St.
, West Oakland

by Minister of Information JR

On Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008, between 1 and 2 p.m., Nadra Foster, a
young Black woman programmer and single mother, was beaten to the
ground by the Berkeley police, arrested, hog-tied and taken to jail,
after the management of KPFA radio and the Pacifica Foundation had
called the police on her, falsely accusing her of being "banned" from
the station.

The incident started when Nadra, a graduate of the KPFA apprenticeship
program who hosted the program Elemental Roots for several years at
KPFA and often works with other programmers, came to the radio station
to work on the KPFA jazz radio show Transitions on Traditions. She was
working in the studio called Ujima, which means collective work and
responsibility in Swahili – a studio that signifies racial justice.
Michael Yoshida, KPFA's chief engineer and a member of KPFA's
management team, had personally let her into that studio the previous
Friday.

Vini Beecham, a member of the paid staff, contacted Lois Withers, the
KPFA business manager, aka accountant, telling her that Nadra was in
the building using station resources for her personal benefit. Lois,
another member of KPFA's management team, contacted Michael Yoshida to
escort her while she kicked Nadra out of the station.

When the two arrived at the door of Ujima, Nadra stated that she
refused to leave because Lois does not have the power to kick her out.
According to Yoshida, Lois called Dominga Estrada, the human resources
director of the Pacifica Foundation – which is in charge of the
Pacifica network of five major radio stations and dozens of affiliate
stations around the country – to ask how to deal with the situation.
Dominga authorized Lois to call the police.

According to what Nadra told me, Lois told the police that she was the
general manager of the station and that Nadra was a fired employee who
refused to leave. In reality, Lois is the business manager and Nadra
is a volunteer at the station and a member of the Unpaid Staff
Organization.

Two male police officers slammed Nadra to the ground, kneeing her in
the groin in the process, as well as severely spraining her arm. A
number of KPFA broadcasters saw what happened, including Anita Johnson
of Hard Knock Radio, who was in tears pleading with the management and
other people at the station to get involved and help Nadra, to no avail.

Weyland Southon of Hard Knock Radio taped Nadra's chilling screams as
the police were slamming her to the ground and twisting her arm. He
also taped Nicole Sawaya, the executive director of the Pacifica
Foundation, slapping his camera out of his hand on the scene.

Interim Program Director Sasha Lilley was also an eyewitness to this
act of management initiated police terrorism, yet did nothing in
defense of Nadra's human rights. Initially charged with several
felonies, her bail set at $81,500, Nadra spent two days in jail and is
now facing five misdemeanors, including trespassing, two assault on a
police officer charges and two charges of resisting arrest.

The Prisoners of Conscience Committee, along with the Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement, the Black New World and producers from the Voices
of the Middle East radio show are organizing in the Black and Brown
communities of the Bay Area and throughout the media to expose this
grave injustice.

A town hall meeting is planned for Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Black New
World – at 836 Pine St., West Oakland, at 3 p.m. – so that the
community can have an opportunity to get the facts about what happened
to Nadra Foster and the current status of her case and a glimpse into
the shady workings of the corrupt administration running KPFA currently.

We invite everyone to express themselves about this outrageous act of
police terrorism in our community and get involved in organizing to
get the charges against Nadra Foster dropped, get KPFA to pay all
medical and legal bills, demand that they acknowledge that they didn't
follow any due process or protocol as laid out in the handbook in
relation to "banning" somebody, demand that the Unpaid Staff
Organization be reinstated and a transparent grievance process be
established, among other things.

People should also start to think about organizing to get this interim
administration at KPFA removed from power and a Black public affairs
show broadcast during prime time on the airwaves of KPFA that talks
about the domestic affairs of Black people in this country. Consider
that KPFA and the broader Pacifica network of radio stations uses
Black voices like James Baldwin, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Martin
Luther King and the Black Panthers to raise money, but the reality is
if these people were alive today they would not have a show on the
KPFA airwaves that is dedicated to the people they were organizing.
Although most people would expect KPFA to have done this decades ago
during the Civil Rights Movement, still today no such program exists
on the KPFA schedule.

After the Block Report broke this story on KPFA airwaves Thursday,
Aug. 21, and followed it up with Block Report coverage on Friday, Aug.
22 – listen at www. kpfa. org/archives/ index. php?show=9 – Interim
Program Director Sasha Lilley, Lois Withers and Vini Beecham went on
vacation for two weeks. On Aug. 22, KPFA Interim General Manager
Lemlem Rijio issued a statement on the incident. It reads in part, "It
is important for you to know that the Berkeley Police acted
independent of direction from KPFA.
"

Considering that Rijio is an African woman, can you believe that she
or any Black person who is connected to the Black community would call
the police thinking that after the police arrive she can control their
actions? This incident and the writing of the press release
exemplifies the incompetence of this current KPFA administration led
by Lemlem Rijio, as well as that of the current Pacifica
administration led by Nicole Sawaya.

Aileen Alfandary, the white news director of KPFA, told me personally
that what happened to Nadra was not newsworthy, and that is why KPFA
News did not cover the issue on Thursday. The disabled white executive
producer of the KPFA Morning Show, Mitch Jeserich, also told me on
Thursday, a day after the tragic incident, that it was not newsworthy.
And Andrea Ali, the manager of Guerrilla Cafe, told me, when asked if
we could have a community meeting there regarding the incident, that
she was on a spiritual quest and did not want to deal with KPFA's
negativity at Guerrilla Cafe.

Community, support those who support you and don't support people who
don't support you!

If you did not get a chance to hear the audio accounts from people who
eyewitnessed the police terrorism inflicted on Nadra Foster, you could
go to www. blockreportradio. com and stay updated on the community
organizing surrounding this topic.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at blockreportradio@ gmail.com
and visit www. blockreportradio. com.

*****

To reach the Bay View, email editor@sfbayview. com.

To subscribe to this list, email sfbayview-subscribe @lists.riseup. net.

To unsubscribe, email sfbayview-unsubscri be@lists. riseup.net.

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