I know for a fact that things were peaceful up until the police had put a blocks distance between themselves and any potential witnesses because I saw it happen – I was one of those people who was cut off from the protest and trapped on the other side of the police line. The last thing I saw was a nonviolent crowd totally surrounded by cops in full storm trooper gear with gasmasks on and weapons drawn as the cops forced them down a dark side street away from supporters and potential witnesses. That’s suspicious to say the least. From there all I’ve got as far as evidence is a phone call from my friend who was in that crowd and said the cops charged the crowd and started beating and grabbing people and then the group exploded. Remember at that point the folks in that group had been surrounded by armed stormtroopers for over an hour, unable to disperse even if they’d wanted too, and their options were to stay passive and get their asses kicked or fight back.

It’s my belief, based on my experience over the years in Bay Area activism, that the police were intentionally provoking the crowd in an effort to get a reaction in order to discredit the protests. There’s no other explanation for their behavior. If their intention had been to arrest everyone they could have done so easily, they outnumbered the crowd by upwards of 50%. If their intention was to disperse the crowd they wouldn’t have surrounded them and prevented them from leaving.

In any case, the good news is that today the Mayor finally issued a statement and the members of the BART Board of Directors all personally apologized. Not that that will bring Oscar (or any of the other victims of police shootings in Oakland) back to life, but at least city officials have admitted it was wrong and that’s a step towards the family being able to bring charges against their sons murderer.

The thing is, this isn’t just about Oscar, unarmed people get killed by cops all the time in America, and the perpetrators are virtually never held accountable. In this case you’ve got 2 videos of the actual shooting clearly showing his innocence and an enraged local community that’s not going to let this slide so it’s possible something will happen (though by no means certain) but if this had taken place someplace out of the public eye with no witnesses or cameras the reaction would be totally different. For starters, the murder wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much coverage and without those videos there would have been no public apologies. He would have been just another faceless victim of police brutality and his family would have no hope for justice. That’s the bigger issue here. this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a pattern of violence stretching back decades.

“I ain’t never held my head down because of where I’m from. I’ve always had pride in being from East Oakland CA. But this shit niggas is doing is fucking shameful. I personally knew Oscar Grant, and I know for a fact that he wouldn’t want this shit to have escalated this far. People don’t care about Oscar, their using this tragedy as an excuse to act a damn fool…Oscar’s death is sadly being exploited by people that ain’t got shit to do but act like they aint got no fucking sense.”

http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2009/01/08/20783563.aspx

If I’m name-calling, it’s because I’m pissed that some people took a legitimate cause that nearly everyone in the Bay supported and fucked it up with their juvenile behavior.

Now maybe there were some non-violent protesters and some violent ones that broke off from the group. But regardless, Oakland looks stupid once again.

way to go with the name calling. very mature.

Yeah, I know he was killed by the BART cops. And I know it was the OPD that attacked a nonviolent protest without provocation turning it into a low-scale riot. It wasn’t my choice or the choice of the people in the main crowd to end up on a residential side street, they were herded there by police attempting to isolate them from any potential witnesses.

Personally, I didn’t trash anything (it’s my city too, ya know) and it sucks that some of our neighbors had their cars damaged. It’s not their fault that a police riot ended up on their block or that people reacted the way they did when the cops charged in. Scared and angry people do dumb things, that doesn’t excuse it, but it’s a fact. It’s also a fact that if the cops hadn’t gone storm trooper on the crowd for no good reason people would have had a peaceful march and then gone home. So if you’re unhappy with what happened I suggest you take it up with the boys in blue.

Oh, and thanks to you and all your buddies for trashing my city and neighbors’ cars and storefronts. You really showed The Man who’s in charge now.