Posted on 01/08/2009 11:16:11 PM PST by Baladas
Reporting from San Francisco -- The family of a 22-year-old man shot to death by a transit police officer on New Year's Day urged Oakland residents Thursday to remain calm and deplored the violence that erupted during a protest over the shooting a day earlier.
The city bristled with anger and sorrow as store owners cleaned up the debris from the vandalism during Wednesday night's protest and officials announced that the Oakland Police Department would join in the investigation of Oscar J. Grant III's death.
Photos: Shooting by Oakland, Calif....Demonstrators disrupted a Bay Area Rapid Transit district board meeting to demand justice. After several hours of anguished testimony, board members apologized Thursday to the family for the shooting death and agreed to consider creating a board subcommittee to oversee BART police procedures.
But it was Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, who spoke in the strongest terms about the aftermath of her son's death and that protest that resulted in more than 100 arrests, scores of damaged buildings and a number of torched cars.
"I am begging the citizens to not use violent tactics, not to be angry," Johnson said during a news conference a day after burying her son. "Oscar would not want to see all the violence going on."
"You're hurting people who have nothing to do with the situation. You're vandalizing their cars, their properties, you're breaking their windows," said the Hayward woman, who was flanked by family members and their attorney. "Please stop it. . . . Just, please."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Oakland Yoots who felt it was too cold to play Midnight Basketball in honor of the next president, B. Hussein “hoops” Obama. The horror.
Has anyone told them that rioting was so last year?
Revolution Books. A front for the psychopaths of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Bob Avakian. Wherever there is trouble, you will find them pouring gasoline on the fire.
The cop did appear to shoot the guy in the back, while handcuffed, on the ground. If thats not cause for a riot, nothing is. Although the police station would be a better target for burning.
I see it like you do; people around here are enthralled.
These kids should not be rioting but the cop that did the shooting needs to be charged with murder.
In a civil society it is not a reason to riot. You are suggesting they burn the police station? There is no reason for these hoodlums to riot other than they are looking for any excuse to do so. They are no more concerned with justice than they are getting an education.
The cop did shoot him in the back. I do not think the cop intended to shoot him in the back but this young man is dead and the life of the police officer is ruined as well. I would venture there was a Glock involved here and a very inexperienced officer. Regardless, it is no license for hoodlums to riot and destroy the hard work of others.
The guy was shot in cold blood by a representative of the state. I see no difference when cops unjustly kill minorities than when cops kill people like the Weavers or those dingbats in Waco.
...La Vida DemoGenerate...
I’m not saying this cop shouldn’t be on trial for murder, but from what i’ve read, the dead man wasn’t an :innocent child” either. And rioting before the Law has even run it’s course, is not the act of civilized humans.
>>We’d still be British subjects following your reasoning.
Comparing punks finding an excuse to riot to the Founders of this nation, as you implicitly do, is simply absurd. There is little-to-no principal involved in ransacking a McDonalds, among other “fun” these rioters have had.
Try again.
What was throwing the tea in the harbor? I say it was a little bit of rioting.
While it does appear the cop screwed up, don’t forget these fine Oakland residents kill each other several times a week, including kids and innocent bystanders all without rioting and usually with no fanfare at all.
A direct protest of the tea tax. How does this compare to ransacking a McDonalds, and what did this activity have to do with a BART cop negligently killing a punk?
This isn’t apples and oranges, this is apples and manhole covers.
No comparison. None.
“In a civil society it is not a reason to riot.”
Boston was a civil society in the 1770’s — they still threw a Tea Party, not to mention riots in the wake of the Boston Massacre.
When a civil society conducts itself according to law, there is no reason to riot. When the people are denied justice because the government acts illegally, or some citizens benefit from favoritism for whatever reason, people riot.
This guy is a BART cop. The only ones with jurisdiction to arrest him would be his fellow BART cops. Figure the odds.
Ths was manslaughter, at best — the cop was in no danger, and it’s hard to see from the video how anyone who should even have a firearm, much less a badge, could have thought otherwise. And he’s likely going to walk away with nothing worse than losing his job (with the details likely sealed by his union, so he could come get a badge in your town).
I could imagine a protest, if that happened in my neighborhood. And that’s how this riot started off — neither you nor I know what the police response was like — not hard to see how that could escalate the situation.
“These kids should not be rioting “
Buzz cop. C’mon. Fight the Power!!
You are comparing an individual (cop) commiting a crime (homicide) that was not sanctioned by any group or entity of the government or department to citizens protesting unfair and outrageous taxation without representation. If you are saying a group that wants to destroy other individuals private property to make a point to people that agree with them is an appropriate way to protest you need to be hospitalized to have a cranial analectomy or a sterilization procedure done so that no like minded progeny is created.
I am a native of northern California, but had been away for a long time when a few years ago I was in Oakland with a friend who knew the city. He drove me past the central postal sorting facility. It looked like a medieval fortress. “This is a violent town,” he said.
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