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Police Terrorize Black KPFA Programmer in the station

by Minister of Information JR

On August 20th 2008, between 1-2pm Nadra Foster, a Black female 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 station and the Pacifica Foundation, had called the police on her, falsely accusing her of being "banned" from the station.


The incident started when Nadra Foster entered the radio station to work on some radio with the KPFA jazz radio show "Transitions on Traditions".
She was let into the Ujima studio, by Michael Yoshida, KPFA's chief engineer and member of KPFA's management team, who was not aware of "the ban" on her.
Vini Beecham, another member of management, 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 Resource Director of the Pacifica Foundation, to see 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 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 had 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 eye witness to this act of management initiated police terrorism, and did nothing in defense of Nadra's human rights. After 2 days in jail, now Nadra is facing 5 misdemeanors, including trespassing, 2 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, September 7th, at the Black New World (836 Pine St, West Oakland at 3pm) 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, as well as can get 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 the organizing to get the charges against Nadra Foster dropped, get KPFA to pay for 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 is reinstated and that there is a transparent grievance process, 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 on the airwaves of KPFA, which talks about the domestic affairs of Black people in the country considering 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 have thought that KPFA would have done this decades ago after the Civil Right Movement, today this still does not exist.


After the Block Report broke the story on KPFA airwaves Thursday, and followed it up with Block Report coverage on Friday August 22, Interim Program Director Sasha Lilley and Vini Beecham recently went on vacation for 2 weeks.
On August 22, Lem Lem Rijio, the interim General Manager of KPFA issued a statement on the incident.
In part it reads "It is important for you to know that the Berkeley Police acted independent of direction from KPFA". Considering that she is African, what Black person that is connected to the community calls the police, and thinks that after the police come they have control over the police's actions? This incident and the writing of the press release, exemplifies the incompetence of this current KPFA administration led by Lem Lem Rijio, as well as the current Pacifica administration led by Nicole Sawaya.


Aileen Alfandary, the white news director of KPFA told me personally that this was not newsworthy, and that is why the news did not cover the issue on Thursday.
Also the handicapped white executive producer of the Morning Show at KPFA, Mitch Jeserich, also told me that this incident was not newsworthy on Thursday, a day after the tragic incident.
And Andrea Ali, the manager of Guerrilla Cafe, told me, when asked if we could have a community meeting 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 that support you and don't support people that don't support you.


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



The Minister of Information JR
POCC Block Report Radio
www. blockreportradio. com