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Oakland Police Turn on #OWS With Tear Gas, Flash-Bang Grenades

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Gavin Aronsen, James West - Oct. 26 (News Report) - The Occupy Oakland protests turned violent Tuesday evening when police officers cracked down with rubber bullets (which the Oakland Police Department denies, but it says it cannot speak for 15 other law enforcement agencies on scene), tear gas, and flash-bang grenades on protesters marching through downtown Oakland. Around 75 people were arrested Tuesday morning when police dismantled the Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. What follows is a Storify roundup of news and eyewitness accounts, including from our own Gavin Aronsen (@garonsen) and James West (@jameswest2010), who are on the scene.

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Outrage in Oakland

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Jul. 09 (News Report) - Scores of people were arrested in Oakland, California Thursday night in protests over the verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting. Grant was the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man who was shot dead by Johannes Mehserle, a white transit officer, on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day, 2009. A jury in Los Angeles convicted Merserle of involuntary manslaughter but he was acquitted on the more serious charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

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In Oakland, unrest after dark

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Oakland Tribune - By Cecily Burt, Kristin Bender - Jul. 09 (News Report) - The agitators have struck again. After about three hours of passionate but largely peaceful protests by hundreds of people who converged on downtown Oakland late Thursday afternoon, a splinter group of protesters, many wearing masks, egged on the crowd and ran through the streets breaking store windows, looting and setting fires before police moved in with flash-bang grenades. People started pouring into the intersection at 14th Street and Broadway after the surprisingly quick verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial. The former BART police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant III on Jan. 1, 2009. Police officers, while visible and prepared, allowed the crowd of about 1,000 to block the street and set up a podium. One after the other, speakers grabbed a bullhorn to express grief and anger. Many urged the crowd to keep the protest peaceful, and by 8 p.m. there were only a few arrests for fighting with police and instances of rocks being thrown by a smaller group that tried unsuccessfully to march down Broadway toward police headquarters.

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Being schooled by (in)justice

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Oakland Local - By Susan Mernit - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - The jury deliberated less than seven hours to reach the verdict in the trial of former BART officer Johannes Mehserle for murdering Oscar Grant: involuntary manslaughter. In other words, although the former officer was found guilty of pulling a gun on Grant and shooting him in the back as he lay face down, hand-cuffed, on a platform, the jury did not find that Mehserle had any intent to end Grant's life when he pulled his gun and shot him in the back as he lay handcuffed on the platform, face down, with another officer's knee pushing into in his back. With this verdict, the jury essentially affirmed their belief that Mehserle, while guilty, had made a "mistake". As someone who has observed juries deliberate, the idea this jury could reach a concensus so quickly in such a complicated case makes me wonder how many of the people sitting in the jury box actually listened to what they heard. Did they hear the witnesses describe how helpless Grant was as he lay on the platform, and how unlikely, even impossible, it would have been to reach for a gun?

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Oakland damage extensive from unrest; at least 80 arrested

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Maria L. La Ganga - Jul. 09 (News Report) - Oakland officials on Friday morning were trying to sort out the damage after serious looting in the downtown area following the BART verdict in which an ex-officer who killed an unarmed man was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Crowds of people roamed the streets following Thursday’s verdict into early Friday, smashing storefront windows, stealing merchandise, setting trash fires and tagging walls.

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Oakland riots after verdict in police shooting of Oscar Grant

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ewen MacAskill - Jul. 09 (News Report) - Officer who shot dead unarmed African American cleared of murder but found guilty of involuntary manslaughterRioters trashed parts of Oakland, California, today in protest against the verdict in a controversial court case in which a white policeman shot dead an unarmed African American.At least 100 people were arrested after looting and confrontations with police in Oakland last night and early today. The protesters ignored a plea for calm by the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.The policeman, Johannes Mehserle, 28, was found guilty yesterdayof involuntary manslaughter. The jury rejected the prosecution case that it was murder.YouTube showed footage of Mehserle's shooting of Oscar Grant, 22, who had been lying on the platform in a railway station on 1 January 2009, surrounded by police after a fight. Mehserle claimed he had thought he had reached for an electric Taser rather than his gun.The case became a cause celebre in the US, with its echoes of the treatment of Rodney King, a black man whose severe beating by police in LA in 1991 was captured on video. The subsequent acquittals of four LAPD officers sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.Police deployed in Oakland in riot gear yesterdayand shops boarded up their windows in anticipation of a repeat of the rioting that took place in the immediate aftermath of Grant's shooting. Up to a thousand protesters took to the streets last nightand early today, some wearing masks with images of Grant's face. A banner was unfurled proclaiming "Oakland Says Guilty'.Rioters, some dressed in black and wearing black masks, smashed shop and car windows, helped themselves to goods ranging from jewellery to groceries and trainers, and attacked police lines. Journalists were also attacked.The Oakland police chief, Anthony Batts, told a press conference: "This city is not the wild, wild west. This city will not tolerate this activity." He blamed anarchists coming from outside Oakland. "We started taking a number of rocks and bottles. We then made a dispersal order."Grant's family expressed disappointment with the verdict and said he should have been found guilty of murder. The verdict means the jury thought Mehserle had been criminally negligent but had not intended to kill Grant. "My son was murdered, and the law hasn't held the officer accountable the way he should be," Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, said.Mehserle, who is to be sentenced next month, could face anything from five to 14 years in jail. John Burris, a lawyer representing the family, described it as a "compromise verdict". Burris said: "The system is rarely fair when a police officer shoots an African American male. No true justice has been given." The trial was held in Los Angeles because of the tension in Oakland and neighbouring San Francisco.Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, told Reuters: "We are outraged that the jury did not find guilty of murder in a case that is so egregiously excessive and mishandled."

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Cops arrest 83 in raucous Oakland protests

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Henry K. Lee - Jul. 09 (News Report) - Law-enforcement officers arrested 83 people during Thursday night's protests in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant, police said today. The rallies began peacefully but soon degenerated into lawlessness, during which protesters looted businesses, sprayed anti-police graffiti on storefronts, set trash bins on fire and clashed with police wearing gas masks and riot helmets and carrying batons, authorities said.

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Oakland Foot Locker Store Looted During Protest of Mehserle Verdict

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

YouTube - By Anna - Jul. 09 (News) - Videos posted to YouTube show looters breaking into a Foot Locker store in Oakland, Calif., after a verdict was announced in the trial of a former police officer who shot and killed an unarmed BART passenger, Oscar Grant. On Thursday, a jury in Los Angeles found ex-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Protesters who gathered in Oakland's streets complained Mehserle should have been found guilty of murder.

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Young Women Need to Protect Themselves

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Valerie Klinker - Nov. 01 (Opinion) - Rape is a big issue in our society because it has occurred for thousands of years. Rape dates back to the early American days, when Native Americans, Blacks, and Mexicans all got raped by white men, who also stole their land. I know plenty of women who have been raped. To protect themselves, now they're much more careful. They stay strapped up and watch their surroundings. It's like safe drinking or having a small child; the way you would watch others is the way you're watch out for yourself. Young women shouldn't be naïve and assume rape wouldn't ever happen to them. Don't be the only girl in a crowd full of boys who are drinking. It's just not safe.

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