Welcome to the De-Bug the System Podcast!

This episode "The Discrimination Playbook: Hiding and Arresting Poverty in San Jose for the Super Bowl & World Cup" dives into what the Super Bowl and World Cup coming to the Bay Area means for the most vulnerable in San Jose in 2026. We reflect on San Jose's iteration of the common-used playbook that uses public resources and police to hide and arrest poverty locally for the up-scale appearance for our wealthy guests coming to town. We are in solidarity with all the local communities that experience the force and cruelty that is paired with international sporting events and reflect on how we, in San Jose, are going to protect our people.

On this episode of the De-Bug the System podcast, De-Bug organizer Ana sits down with participatory defense organizer Laila Aziz. Laila and her fellow organizers at Pillars of the Community, a San Diego based organization, held the San Diego County District Attorney accountable for racial disparities in sentencing. How did they do this? They held a People's Tribunal, inspired by movement leaders of the past.

With the People's Tribunal, they served their own subpoena to the District Attorney's Office and demanded their attendance to the Tribunal where they laid out the qualitative findings of racial disparity in sentencing in the county, the room filled with pictures of all the young men who were sentenced to die in a California prison.

In this conversation, hear where the idea came from, how it went down and what Laila and Pillars thinks is next.

Protect Your People!

Fighting for Racial Justice from Legislation to Law: A Webinar on the Implementation and Future of the California Racial Justice Act

Watch our webinar from Thursday, April 24th, a dialogue on the Racial Justice Act (RJA), featuring a discussion with practitioners from different vantage points who are all fighting for the promise of the Racial Justice Act to be realized. The discussion gives insight as to what is happening in courtrooms for pre-trial and post-conviction relief efforts, what challenges have arisen, and what communities, attorneys, and those incarcerated are doing to overcome these obstacles.

We also be launched our https://www.rjaction.org/ -- a landing page by participatory defense organizers, impacted families, and the incarcerated, chronicling how the Racial Justice Act is being implemented, and strategies and stories from across the state on how to fight for racial justice in the courts.

In the new presidential regime Author J.M. Valle calls out the lies that crime is rampant and urges the county of Santa Clara to investigate what is working to decrease the jail population we have been seeing - all the more reason to continue to resist a new jail!

"Part of the presidential campaign was the spread of algorithmic misinformation during the election race. It appeared as if the entire country became rampant with crime like something out of Gotham City. Ultimately, the message we were getting was that California has gone soft on crime. Prop 36 passed, California voted to retain slavery in prisons and San José Mayor Matt Mahan is now declaring war on the houseless."

The Mass Incarceration Mayor and his War Against the Poor read by author Raj Jayadev takes a look at San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and his policies that continue to criminalize poverty, targeting the most vulnerable, for political gain.

"In his logic, it is not the forces and factors that cause homelessness that need to be confronted, it is those who are suffering from it... After a few of years in office, he has zeroed in on the key antagonist of his administration, the reason that fueled his revolutionary charge to begin with, and it comes in the form of any poor person who is alive and visible in San Jose."

Read the article here.

De-Bug youth, Santos and Jules, attended their first Youth Leadership Conference in Sacramento, CA alongside other youth from around the state. With the focus on leadership development, they participated in workshops and event at the conference.

In today's episode, they reflect on their experience attending the conference as impacted youth and what they took away from their time in Sacramento. They also talked about their experience at De-Bug and what brought them here. We also get to hear Santos' story of traveling with an ankle monitor, evenutally getting the monitor off and his hopes for other youth impacted by incarceration.

Return to Sender: Slavery and the War on Drugs
A Forum on Why We Must Vote No on Prop 36 and Yes on Prop 6

More on Prop 36: Prop 36 expands on the misleading claim that California is experiencing an increase in crime and is funded by conservatives and corporations. It will lock up Black and Brown communities, criminalize unhoused loved ones, and divert millions of dollars from reentry, mental health, substance abuse, and victim reentry programs to build more prisons.

More on Prop 6: Prop 6 would ban forced prison labor, prohibit prisons from punishing incarcerated people who seek rehabilitation over forced labor, and amend the State Constitution to read "Slavery and Involuntary Servitude are Prohibited”.

This forum was co-sponsored by:

Silicon Valley De-Bug • Asian Law Alliance • Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet • Coalition for Justice and Accountability • Concrete Rose Coalition • Council on American-Islamic (CAIR) California • NAACP: San Jose / Silicon Valley Branch • Pangea Legal Services • San Jose State University Human Rights Institute • Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN) • Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) • Silicon Valley Rising Action • South Bay Community Land Trust • Ujima Adult and Family Services • Wage Theft Coalition Santa Clara County • Young Women’s Freedom Center

Today, we talk with De-Bug’s San Mateo Participatory Defense core who has been observing arraignment court for the past 3 years and just filed a Judicial Complaint based on people's rights not being protected under the Humphrey ruling.

On March 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court upheld the Humphrey decision, ruling that people cannot be held pre-trial due to their inability to pay. It declared the money bail system as unconstitutional and violated people’s rights. Instead, judges must consider someone’s ability to pay money bail as well as other least restrictive means that can ensure that balances public safety and the person coming back to court. In San Mateo County, judges will rarely ask or consider ability to pay on a case.

In today's discussion, San Mateo organizers talk about why they filed the Judicial Complaint, what they have witnessed while observing arraignment court and the impact the money bail system has on low-income people.