"I am Prop 47 Sacramento" is on their second leg of their multi-neighborhood tour, educating people about the new law and what it can do for ex-cons.
The group was joined by several non-profit organizations at the Roberts Family Development Center in Rio Linda. They admit they're not perfect, and they've made their mistakes.
"My son was 7 years old when I told him I was going to the store. And when I came back, he was 16. And that's because I was living a life of crime," Jacqueline Lester said.
Danielle Williams, one of Sacramento’s leading civil rights activists, expects to be among the thousands of Sacramentans marching together on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday Monday. But the 30-year-old warned against what Sacramento native Cornel West has called the “Santa Clausification” of King, a sanitizing and whitewashing of his message focused on the feel-good aspects of his “I Have a Dream” speech rather than King’s call to action against war, poverty, segregation and violence against people of color.
A UC Berkeley graduate and community organizer for Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Williams has protested mass incarceration and street violence, demonstrated for immigration reform and spoken against police shootings and abuse of African Americans nationwide.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The signs they carried said “Sacramento-United Against Hate-United For Peace,” as close to 800 people from many ethnic and religious backgrounds gathered at the steps of the California State Capitol building here Dec. 19 to both condemn the recent terror attacks in San Bernardino (and Paris), and to also unite against all kinds of intolerance, especially targeting the Muslim community.
The list of sponsors of the rally included the Interfaith Council of Greater Sacramento, Area Congregations Together, MLK365, the NAACP, the Coalition of Tolerance, the Florin Japanese American Citizens League, the Sikh community, Jewish Voice for Peace, OCA, APAPA, HIP, COSVIO, CAIR-Sacramento Valley, American Muslim Voice, Pakistani American Association and PASCO.
The news that a car filled with teenagers on its way to a high school football game was riddled with bullets last week, leaving one dead, both gutted and galvanized a Sacramento community already weary of violence.
Grant High School senior Jaulon Clavo, 17, was behind the wheel of a compact sedan last Friday afternoon, driving his teammates to a division playoff game they would not play. Gunfire flooded the console, critically wounding him and front passenger Malik Johnson. Both youths were transported to local hospitals, but only Johnson survived.
Community activists in Sacramento's Del Paso Heights neighborhood are urging city leaders to put more funding into violence-intervention programs in the wake of Friday's shooting death of a Grant High School student.
"In Del Paso Heights there are more shootings. And not necessarily gangs, it's just gun violence - husbands killing wives and vice a versa. We've got to do something," says Sistah Pat Roundtree Rivers, co-pastor of For His Glory Church.
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Community leaders in Del Paso Heights are calling for a march for healing and peace in the wake of the murder of a high-school football player and the wounding of his teammate.
After Friday’s deadly shooting, leaders in Del Paso Heights say it’s still a huge emotional toll on the students and community.
A coalition of community and church groups called the 'I Am Prop. 47 Coalition' celebrated the passage of Prop 47, the measure that reduces certain property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
The group plans to begin a campaign to have ex-felons get their past records reduced if they fall within the Prop 47 guidelines of crimes of less than $950. It also hopes to bring job services and counseling to them, as well as education opportunities.
Martell Koster is typical of many of the people at the ceremony who have benefited from the law.
The Sacramento City Council has unanimously approved a fee for developers that could raise $110 million for low-income housing over the next 20 years.
The fee of $2.58 per square-foot will be assessed on any new residential development unless it's designed with low-income housing.
Greg Sandlund is with the City of Sacramento Community Development Department.
He says the city can not legally require low-income housing as part of a development, but it can offer incentives.
