To know one’s surprise:
Mehserle convicted of involuntary manslaughter
“A jury found former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty Thursday of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that he did not intend to kill train rider Oscar Grant when he shot him in the back on New Year’s Day 2009 but acted so recklessly that he showed a disregard for Grant’s life.”
Firing a bullet into the back of a prone, restrained subject is reckless – AND it is also murder.
afrospear.wordpress.com 
Right now, the city is calm. I hope it stays that way. As our mayor said, this is not the first time a young black man has lost his life at the hands of Oakland police.
I don’t know what to think or say beyond that the Oakland police are brutes who get away with brutality.
My son told me he feels like an outcast in this here America.
He and all the other people of color in this city at least.
I work nights from 10pm to 5am. When I left for work, I thought the city was calm. All day they reported on the news how they were trying to maintain calm, and the people were cooperating.
When I get to work and later went online and looked on the Pan African News Wire, I found out that my city was not calm. Looting and mayhem happened after all.
I was asleep during the newscasts but I’m trying to find out if the looters were “anarchists” or “gangsters and thugs”. This will tell me what I want to know.
Please keep us posted Anna Renee. I am originally from Souther Cal and I understand how the atmosphere is a lot hotter in Cali than in many other places.
Well, I’ve watched some of the reports. What they were saying is that out of 78 to 84 arrests, only 12 were Oakland residents, and 12 were actually out of state residents! The anarchists came, broke windows, damaged buildings in the downtown area, and the media focused on the one Foot Locker that was looted–I say because for sure you would see black people.
One business owner who was there trying to protect his business said he tried to get the attention of police who were there, but he was essentially ignored. The anarchists got away with quite a bit of damage. I expected that they would be put down forcefully and immediately.
Mesherle has recently written an apology letter, dated July 4, supposedly to the Oscar Grant family, but it’s believed that he wrote the letter to garner support for his case with the judge–to show his “remorse” so as to lessen his sentence.
The city is trying to get back to normal–or at least that’s the spin that the local news media is giving us. Musicians are playing their saxes in the streets, partyers are going to the clubs that barely escaped being damaged, people are coming out in support of the businesses that were damaged giving donations.
The news team went to the city of Palo Alto which is 50 miles south of Oakland, to do a little poll: In wealthy Palo Alto, the white ladies feel that the verdict was a “good” one–Mesherle looked like he accidentally pulled his gun thinking it was his taser.
In poor/working class EAST Palo Alto, the black man and hispanic man both say it was 1st degree murder and that he knew he was pulling his gun.
The Old white man said “It’s a class thing–it depends on how one sees him/herself in this. The POC will see things from the position of victim. I as a white person will see it from my privilege position” paraphrase.
ONWARD to normalcy! Forget about Oscar and his family and their pain and agony with insult upon injury, move on to the business of life!!
Last night my husband got a call from his friends–they had a ticket waiting for him for a Nigerian concert in downtown Oakland somewhere.
I asked him if he felt that things would be calm. He said yes. I didn’t want to go, and there was only one ticket.
So he went, and I went to bed. This morning I asked him about it–not knowing who was playing.
He dramatically told me: “If you could have seen the CROWD!”
“Who was playing?”
“One of those groups whose music you played before”
“Who?”
“One Young Nigerian group”
“Like PSquare?”
“Yes that’s them”
Me: “What? – PSquare?”
Him: “Yes that’s the name”
me: “P-SQUARE???!!!”
Him: “Yes that’s them that’s the name I read on the ticket”
me: “PSQUARE????!!!!”
Him: “That’s who it was”
me: “And you didn’t TELL me?”
Him: “I don’t know those boys or their music like that, I’m old I don’t know those young boys!”
OK if they play another city in the area, I’ll take you!
So P Square played in our city last night, a day after this madness happened. It’s just as well that I didn’t know because I don’t have the stamina nor desire to fight the crowds of adoring girls that would be there. My husband was standing outside as the boys drove up in their limo. I asked him why he didn’t get an autograph? He said what Nigerian man is trying to get an autograph from small-small boys? He was just happy that some positivity came Oakland’s way.
AH, my beloved city of Oakland.
An update today on the Oscar Grant looting situation:
John Russo, the Oakland City Attorney, wants to file charges against those white outsiders who came to Oakland and instigated the destruction in the downtown area. He sees them as racist opportunists hiding behind the Oscar Grant tragedy to promote their stupid agenda.
John Russo, who himself is white, said this:
“These guys are just people who want to take an opportunity to act out some type of personal psychodrama and who knows what they’re about. Because I can’t figure out how some white guy comes into Oakland, a city that’s more than two-thirds people of color, and just start smashing up the town to prove he’s against racism? I can’t follow that. There’s no logic to that. That’s not anarchism, that’s racism.” continue reading here
It’s been reported that some of these white “anarchists” even painted their faces black. I guess so that they could blend in with the black folks.
Again, certain white folks who even use such a tragedy to promote their white privilege, the right to come into the black community and cause mayhem, without much happening against them by the police.
I’m feeling John Russo right about now!
isn’t it their right to come in and engage in some destruction if they so desire?