SFist Photo: Jesse Jackson "Keeps Hope Alive"

The Rev. Jackson at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center on McAllister in the Fillmore, shown here flanked by former and current San Francisco Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi, Carole Migden, and Rev. Amos Brown

Today, as promised, Baptist minister Rev. Jesse Jackson came to the Western Addition to speak against the recent violence in San Francisco. The RainbowPUSH Coalition founder was greeted warmly by the crowd of over 200. His address would sound familiar to those who only have heard him on a Crystal Method track. Today, part of it went:

"Jobs/ and schools/ not drugs/ and guns." Repeat x2 "Hope/ alive/ keep hope/ alive. Let me hear your scream!"

CLAER Project representative and SFSU student Kevin Bard was on hand to remind people that during one recent weekend there were more people killed in the Bay Area than coalition servicemembers killed in all of Iraq. The stepped up SFPD patrols called for by District 5 Supervisor Mirkarimi seem to have cooled things down for now. How long will this relative calm last?