Thinking Outside the Official Ballot Box
Republicans dropping fake ballot boxes, Fresno schools approved to reopen and Police Chief Andy Hall really said "actually, FUND the police?"
☀️Good morning, Fresno! It is Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020.
Hello, hello, everyone! Welcome back to your regularly scheduled Fresno newsletter. I hope everyone has had a chance to look over our Fresno County Voter Guide. I l hope it helped you make some very informed decisions about the election this year. If you haven’t voted, please do that soon. If you are not even registered to vote, tomorrow is the last day to register!
And remember to use Official Ballot Boxes and not some nondescript box in a gun store with “AUTHORIZED BOX” written across it.
Register here if you haven’t.
Fresno County Voter Guide
Fresno County Voter Guide (Spanish)
-Ram 🧡
Fresno By Five
🗳️ Speaking of Voting…
90,269 vote-by-mail ballots have already been counted in Fresno County. That is 18.8% of the 481,337 ballots sent out to registered voters. For perspective, around this time in 2016, Fresno County had only counted 19,779.
You probably already heard that republicans have been placing sus looking ““Official”” drop boxes for mail-in ballots around Fresno County. But they also placed them in Los Angeles and Orange County. California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla, has ordered a cease-and-desist order to remove them. The California Republicans claim that they are legally allowed to provide the boxes. Our very own Devin Nunes said “Screw you! You created the law, we’re going to ballot harvest.”
To find the closest official ballot dropbox or polling place, use theState of California’s official Voting Information Tool.
🚒 Creek Fire Updates
As of Oct. 17, the fire is now 60% contained, missing the estimated date of containment of Oct. 15.
It has burned 346,477 acres and has destroyed 983 structures.
The fire continues to affect our air quality and will be Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups for the next few days.
After initially denying wildfire relief,President Donald Trump reversed his denial of a wildfire disaster relief package. A true Gemini move.
🏥 Coronavirus Updates
As of Oct. 17, the most recent data available at the time of writing, there have been a total of 29,796 total confirmed (+941) cases and 429 (+30) deaths in Fresno County. Currently, there are 92 (-5) hospitalized. A total of 19,612 people have recovered.
We remain in the Red tier and restaurants and movie theaters can continue indoor operations at 25% capacity.
Testing is available around Fresno. Visit lhi.care to set up an appointment. It’s free even without insurance. If you have insurance, you can also try these other testing sites here.
📚 Schools Reopening
Since Fresno County has remained in the Red tier for 2 weeks, Fresno Unified School District has been cleared to reopen. No dates have been set.
Central Unified School District will keep campus closed and students on distance learning until January. The Central Unified School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday on that decision. Elementary schools will return January and middle school and high school students could possibly return in spring 2021.
Clovis Unified was approved for a waiver to allow in-person instruction. They sent a questionnaire to parents offering two options: a hybrid model, with students spending part of their time in school, and the other part at home, or an online model where it would be online full time. No date has been set but they predict either after winter break or early spring. Clovis Unified did confirm a“small number” of people tested positive for COVID-19 sooooooo, that bodes well.
👮🏻♂️ This ain’t it, (police) Chief Andy Hall
Police Chief Andy Hall woke up Tuesday morning and thought to himself, “Yes, despite months of protesting and calls to defund the police, I will come before the Fresno City Council to ask for a $10 million increase to FPD’s budget.” And he did just that. The budget he is asking for is $210 million, a $40 million increase from its budget two years ago.
D’Aungillique Jackson, the president of the Fresno State NAACP, took issue with the police chief’s request as well as his taking credit for the May 31 protest and getting Advanced Peace passed. She cites statistics from the survey done for the Commission for Police Reform. Below are her comments in full.
✅ Fact-Checking Catch a Body Gang Rumors
We don’t really report crime stories at Fiveby. We think highlighting individual crime stories is fearmongering, and a detriment to criminal justice. However, we have chosen to examine any trends of patterns in Fresno crime. This week, people have noted that the recent shootings in Central Fresno have notable similarities, such as the victims being shot while they were sitting in their cars.
Several rumors have popped up around Twitter and TikTok claiming that this is because of a new gang in Fresno called “Catch A Body.” According to the rumor, the gang’s initiation is to just shoot random people in their cars. The earliest mentions of Catch A Body in Fresno is Oct. 12. Below is a link to a TikTok that popularized the rumor on the platform. The video has received 112,000 likes, helping spread the rumor.
The Fresno Police Department said the rumors are untrue, and no such new gang exists. Fresno Police Department Deputy Chief Mark Salazar said that the name “Catch A Body” might have originated from a rap song by a local gang member.
Shootings have increased since April. Police Chief Hall said in September that there has been an increase in shootings by 126%.
It is unfortunate that this will be used as a talking point to increase funding for the police instead of creating opportunities to create economic stability by funding other social programs to address the root of crime.Fresnans overwhelmingly call for police reform, not more funding.
😳Other Fresno City Council News
The Responsible Neighborhood Market Act was passed by the council and will limit the distance between stores that sell liquor and make acquiring a liquor license harder. The initiative was first presented by Roosevelt High students in 2012 and 8 years later, finally became a reality.
The Fresno Historic Preservation Commission will be created to reexamine the names of buildings or streets that might have racist links and set them for renaming. Esmeralda Soria presented this resolution Thursday after learning that John Euless, the person who Euless Park at Fresno City College is named after, was a member of the KKK. The Fresno City Council will make the final decisions on the names.
John Gliatta appeared in front of the Fresno City Council to speak about why he withheld the report about the use of excessive force on 17-year-old London Wallace. Nothing new was said. But our favorite councilmember, Garry Bredefeld, went out of his way to praise Gliatta and dunk on the Bee, specifically columnist Marek Warszawski.
🚴♂️ Help Fresno’s Future Roads
Danielle Bergstrom of Fresnoland is asking people to take this RTP Survey for suggestions on what a future Measure C will fund. It’s still a long ways away and not everything that people suggest will make it to the final measure. Read here for more on how Measure C will play out.
🤢 AND THERE’S ANOTHER TRUCKS FOR TRUMP EVENT
Think about the number of fossil fuels burned just driving all of these fucking trucks around…..
🎧 On the pod this week
The 2020 Voter Guide Pod Ep
In their longest pod to date, the fellas break down your entire ballot in the most chaotic/horny way possible: first they explain all 12 propositions, and then they touch on all the hottest local races. Plus, stay tuned till the end for the first official Fiveby Endorsements.
Listen to the episode on these other podcasting platforms:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts
Also pls give us 5 Stars on Apple Podcasts
This newsletter was written by Ram Reyes (@vibesradiator) and edited by Tommy Tribble (@tomiiwrites) | Follow Five By Five Nine on Instagram & Twitter