Breaking News from the Protest Against the Murder of Oscar Grant!

The BART Officer’s name is: Johannes Mehserle.

Please Please Please Please Please tell us how you know his name! Or some way of knowing it's real.

whoa. I think that campus police and BART police have no training. Oakland police, on the other hand, are a bit erratic. I hope nobody gets hurt, if you remember the docks protest of a few years ago that used rubber bullets before any illegal activity occurred.

By the way, the officer's name was released, and it's on CNN and the chronicle. They say the officer isn't at his house due to threats and keeps getting moved.

The normalcy of daily life is becoming prevalent and there is a break in the fabric. Let this not be one day of chanting 'we are oscar grant' but an everyday occurrence. Because his life has become part of us and our rage is him. This is a time to call everything into question. School, Work and Police. The institutions and this entire apparatus that dominates our lives everyday.

intentionally triggered events..........common knowledge among "intelligence circles" for the purpose to incite "lower class" workers and residents to act out so that our now clearly "militarized "code enforcement" agents can practice and demonstrate their ability to "PROVOKE"...."STAMPEDE"..."CORRAL" and/or kill(or otherwise subdue) an abused and frustrated public

consider reviewing......UBUNTU....Tazers....on...blog.myspace.com/peterpeace1

google Ted Gunderson Files....see tazers....2-3 other appropriate topics

google....American Concentration Camps 2oo8

google.....Officer Jack McLamb......

the Columbine High School incident...so too Virginie Tech....Oklahoma City bombing...and quite more indeed are all puppeteered........ever heard of military mindcontrol expert Michael Aquino(google) one of the CIA/Military Intel's Psyops National Security players....seems to be "Untouchable"....right here in the Bay Area......

watching remotely. KPIX has a live helicopter feed that is presently showing a variety of types of people moving around downtown. They're presently showing young people throwing trash cans at the McDonald's video, then jumping on cars in the parking lot, then everyone quickly running out of the parking lot, then more returning. Then a worker gets the trash can as they move on. http://cbs5.com/

Walter Benjamin asked himself how in 1830 the Paris rioters shot at town clocks, in different parts of the city and without coordinating the action; for our part we cannot fail to reflect on why wild youths of today are burning cars. In fact, what does the car represent in contemporary society? We leave the question unanswered.

it's 8:39 pm and after the helicopter spent 15 minutes not focusing on any particular groups, and scanning around the downtown streets, it is now showing a small private car parked on a side street which is on fire. The engine compartment rather than the underside gas tank is what is burning. Maybe they were able to spread fuel on the hood? I can't name the street, but it looks like a 5 storey white downtown building with a parking garage.

Why Did Protesters Smash the Windowos of Creative African Braids and Yoon's Pharmacy?

Now, the helicopter is showing about 15 kids throwing rocks (or whatever is on the grass) at cars on the 3-lane lakeside drive from the corner of Lake Merritt, near where the junction with 14th is by the courthouse . A red cab stopped when kids were thumping on it as it went by, even though no one was in front of it. It was hard to tell if the driver was going to get out to confront them, (or get hurt), but then he sped off. This looks out of control. Some other people were shown getting into cars at either a hotel or tall apartment house there and driving off.

Now some people are making a wall across the street with large orange plastic pieces used to divert cars around construction sites.

apparently a lot of people or businesses have been inappropriately targeted. TV is showing that many people are standing around in an unagitated fashion, and couples are walking by, clusters of people are in discussion, and some cars are driving by without problem. At the same time, small groups south of lake Merritt by Laney seem to be trying to find something they can do - so they're doing things like lighting newspapers in trash cans on fire, moving traffic cones etc. Nobody is being attacked now. Yet if there are 250 officers on duty, they clearly aren't chasing the teens around at this side yet. Some drivers are moving the cones.

Why were the small businesses and cars of ordinary people targeted? This is some fucked up bullshit. I was at the protest all the way up to when we first got downtown then the crowd splintered off and I got confused and left. I can understand targeting police or corporate stuff, but why ordinary people? You will not get any support from people by doing these inane things. It's counterproductive.

9:30PM - A latino owned barber shop and a Muslim owned corner store on the corner of 14th and Harrison Streets had their windows smashed in the protest tonight. This does not do anything to help Oscar Grant and does not prove any point politically. I saw the owner of the barbershop and an employee of the corner store, and they both had the same questions. They wanted to know why they were targeted--what did they do?

These are locally owned mom and pop stores that serve downtown Oakland. Has the situation descended into random violence or were these just a few stupid kids from the suburbs?

not everyone there is a well informed activist


its shitty they were hit, i dont support that but there is general rage by people not in the activist circles, people who aren't indybay regulars.

if its true that this happened its shitty but we cant write off everyone because some people attacked inappropriate targets.

yes - the political people really lost control of what's happening here. KPIX helicopter was showing people going into Frank Ogawa (?) where Dellums was talking. These looked like 100-200 more traditionally political people who had been by the old police station with megaphones. They weren't showing students and teens running around the side streets during this time period.

But presently at 9:57pm, they are showing this really odd scene where kids found an unlocked car and have it rolling down the street with all the doors open. It was going at a pretty good clip with one guy steering it, and others jumping on the roof and helping push it. Another large car was clearly smashed. It's very difficult to judge whether the helicopter is showing a fraction of what is happening, or the only thing he can find happening. I think this stuff is northwest or north of downtown by San Pablo now.

It occurs to me and my friend that police in SF had an easier time during Iraq protests first because all the streets turn into Market - so they just needed to control that or drive people back to Market. You can disperse everywhere in Oakland. Also, political protesters stay together and didn't really fight back or run as fast as they could when they went into mass arrest scenarios.

well,- after quickly moving around over a lot of downtown, the helicopter is now showing a mass arrest somewhere a block or two north of the 12th street BART station, under the eaves of a tall building. They have about 30 people laying on their stomach, and I think it's interesting that they could get everyone to lie down and not flee. It suggests that the threat of weapons use was involved. Earlier, people knocked over a chain link temporary construction fence near city hall.
It is showing more police cars pull up and lead people away.

It was awesome watching a group of people attacking a cab driver or like when they smashed open the windows of the donut shop and hit the owner in the process and BTW the kids that were fucking with the driver and smashing the window fronts were the same ones that destroyed my car and they weren't from the burbs. Way to go assholes. I'm not the one against you and that cab driver (both of us are your people at that!) is not against you. Why is it when shit like this oscar grant thing goes down you hurt the people in your community?

This is all very strange: This is a freezing cold school and work night. Those of us who work were glad to go home right after work to be warm and rest, to get ready for the next work day. Students, of course, have to study as this is a school night. The temperature is in the 40s, too cold to be outside. There is no excuse for smashing windows, destroying taxpayer funded property such as BART stations, and all the rest of the hoodlum activity. As to solutions, jails need to be eliminated, jaling the stupid cop only puts him on our payroll, again. Obviously, the cop was trained to kill; we could and should just eliminate the BART police.

Time and again it's been discovered that undercover cops / feds are acting as provocateurs at protests, inciting violence, undermining the messages of the legitimate protesters and making the subsequent police brutality appear justified. Such has been reported by mainstream news media in Greece last month, at the DNC in Denver this year, at Montebello, Quebec in 2007, at the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, and many other times. It's almost becoming clique. These provocateurs typically dress as anarchists. See http://www.infowars.com/?p=6854 for some background on this phenomenon. I'd be willing to bet any senseless violence that occurred at this event tonight was either perpetrated by undercover cops posing as protesters, or inspired by the senseless violence perpetrated by undercover cops posing as protesters tonight in Oakland or at any one of these multiple documented instances.

Thanks for posting the breaking news play by play. It's the only way those of us who are watching in solidarity from afar can actually know what's happening there.

Lots of people were forced to leave their bikes behind when they got arrested. If anyone knows what happened to any bike they should post it. Thanks.

Regarding that comment about provocateurs - At first I would dismiss this outright, and I do strongly disagree that 99% of the protesters (including the lowminded ones who were doing damage to shop windows) could have been paid provocateurs. But the more I think about past Bay Area Iraq sanctions/escalation demos and economic protests that I've read about overseas, I think there may be something to the idea of influence of 'leaders' within crowds, that cause the dynamics of the protest to unfold.
There have been times when several hundred people, some in hooded sweatshirts, dozens of police, were all assembled in downtown San Francisco, and all that happened was an open-microphone session where people shared their poetry and commentary. At other times, unpredictable turns have taken place based on subtle factors - I'd say these include presence of music, a spat between a teenager and a police officer that drew a crowd, the particular geography of a street that people are on, or some louder voices influencing the group to go a certain way.

I'm sort of thinking about this line in the KRON story where they claimed that 'anarchists' sparked everything off yesterday by setting the dumpster on fire by Lake Merritt - even though the video clearly shows a bunch of neighborhood teens with no visible @ symbols. So I don't quite buy that. Yet I think that when the kids crossed the line and a few started kicking that car, that might have enabled the rest to happen.

Alex Jones frequently talks about provocateurs on his show, but I think he does it in an unsophisticated way. He brushes leftists together as provocateurs, even though his own presence at the DNC in Denver was very provocative and disruptive. There had been a nonviolence protest at the Denver Mint, and he showed up and started yelling at Michelle Malkin who he spotted in the crowd, and *all* the media coverage was sucked into this argument, and they didn't show the main message. The Montebello provocateurs were definitely paid police officers, and it's too blunt minded to call every subsequent case of violence an equivalent scenario.

In case anyone isn't aware, BART police have killed before.

Doesn't anyone remember Jerrold Hall? There've been more.

The Mercury link above has video of the cop shooting Oscar Grant. It has only a PARTIAL list of the people who've been killed by BART police. This does not include the many more who have been hurt, injured, disabled, falsely accused and imprisoned, etc. etc. Some of us just AVOID BART because we don't feel safe or welcome there.

What environmental and social justice advocates need to point the finger at, beyond the long glaring problems with BART police (highest paid, worst trained, least accountable in the state) is the ENDEMIC RACISM of BART.

As fares go up, the highest paid BART execs drive expensive cars to work from far away and have a total disconnection from the reality of people who are dependent on transit. Someone needs to shine a BRIGHT light on what's going on at the top and how they're spending OUR transportation dollars.

BART was conceived as an upper class express to the financial district for a white-only clientele. BART continues to gobble up the limited transportation dollars that would better help the ALL get around, to fund an overpriced system full of corruption and kickbacks.

Let us not forget how racist and violent the transportation system is. Air pollution: in the poor neighborhoods. Lack of access: in the poor neighborhoods. Disproportionate deaths for pedestrians in cities: in the poor neighborhoods. Who's in the poor neighborhoods: disproportionately people of color. It's an institution. Turn it on its head.

Why aren't people shutting down the freeways in protest of cancer, asthma? Those deaths are just as cold blooded as what happens again and again at BART.

FOCUS!

This is not meant to be reformist. It's strategic. Nobody should live in a traffic sewer.

The culture of BART that allows police to kill again and again comes from the same culture that refuses to serve the public and maintains major disparities which ALSO kill, in MUCH LARGER NUMBERS.

jesus christ people.

because people express unbridled rage does not instantly make them an agent provocateur.


this is getting so ridiculous.



someone was murdered, so people fought back.


fuck, not every anarchist has a circle a on their back and not everyone destroying shit is an anarchist.


get over this stupid provocateur bullshit, people hold real power and sometimes express it, whether you agree with it or not they had power.

To everyone who says the riot was counterproductive, look at the following reports in local newspapers about the mayor calling an investigation into Oscar Grant's murder:

The timing is not made clear in the article, but the context for this appears to be the "peaceful" demo at Fruitvale:

>>Dellums said the city of Oakland and its Police Department should not become involved in the shooting investigation at this point.

http://www.mercurynews.com/localnews/ci_11394377

This statement appears to have been made after the "violence":

>>Dellums told protesters that he had asked the Oakland Police Department to investigate the shooting. "I have asked Oakland police to engage in a fair, parallel investigation, the way you'd investigate any homicide in Oakland," he said. "If that leads to an arrest, that's what it would lead to."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/08/MN2N155CN1.DTL

And today, community members angry about Grant's murder went before the BART Board of Directors. You can be sure that whatever they said had the board's attention.

Obviously, it is a tragedy that local business and community members got their stuff destroyed, but instead of calling the protesters "animals" or worse, perhaps we can give them a little bit of credit and agency and recognize the leverage they've suddenly provided the movement to get justice for Oscar Grant, leverage that all the speechifying, peaceful protesting, vigil holding, and symbolic blockading/boycotting would never have produced.

I'm sorry but I will not give them credit for shit. The particular group I saw did nothing to help. Instead of turning your anger on the african braid shop or other mom and pops who have nothing to do with the shooting of Oscar Grant how about you turn it towards the police. I mean they are the ones everyone is angry at, right? or did the muslim bakery and donut shop shoot Oscar in the back?

I do want to make one thing clear to the kids from the burbs (read into it what you will), no matter how much you scream "I AM OSCAR GRANT", you're not and you will never will be and I don't have to explain to you why.

Oscar Grant was from Hayward. And so are lots of working class folks getting pushed out of Oakland.

New CA legislation is in order: "It shall be a condition of the employment of any peace officer in this State that such officer shall waive his or her rights against self-incrimination under the California and U.S. Constitution in connection with any official investigation of the use of force by such officer, or by any other officer in his or her presence at the time such force was used, while on duty."

Are you fucking serious guy? You think that someone who live with their parents, works for themselves and their children, who has a whole lot of prejudice and economic barriers stacked against him, is a person who deserves to die?
You're a worst person than who you think you're describing.

Shove that comment back in your mouth where it came from. 'Cause it smells like shit and makes you look like the bigot you revealed yourself to be.

Antifa!Antifa!
Anti-Capitalista!

If you would have all stuck around after the arrests at 2am you would have seen them when they were released from the back of the squad cars. We tried to get their pictures and they quickly covered their faces with their hands. I was talking with the one girl earlier in the night she had blue jeans and a hoody on with a red bandana or a scarf. She was one of the people arrested with the group at the end of the night. After the bus drove off they let them out of the squad car she was apparently writing a report to use as evidence for the nights encounters and arrests. I do not think that they were there to provoke just to document. I know that they have used them for provoking and as I was not with the group that was arrested at the end i am not sure what rule they played. I did not notice the guy that got out of the other car from earlier in the evening but he was released from the back of the car both of them received hugs from the other cops and they got into the cars and drove off with the uniformed officers yelling something out as they drove off.....it sounded like he called someone trent reznor...I do not agree with the targets that were hit but these kids just see everything as evil and do not just see corps as being the problem...I can say It was a great night to be out and about and I think the Violence was what was needed to open some eyes

It's 6pm on Friday Night as of this post. I haven't read any updates here since 3pm, but helicopters can still be heard. Is anything happening downtown?

TALKING POINTS FOR MAN SHOT DEAD

Urgent Release For All Press

Talking Points for man mistakenly killed by police. The following
points should be emphasised in your reports:

* The dead man is to be referred to as the "suspect" and never the "victim". The
intent of these talking points is to cast suspicision onto the dead man and direct any
criticism away from the police.

* He was not Caucasian. Preferably he was of Asian or Arab appearance.

* Do not just mention that he was (mistakenly) taken for a criminal, but describe
crimes in detail. Especially the local crime. The intention should be to frighten the
reader.

* Remind the reader what would (never say "might") have happened if the suspect "had"
been a criminal and the police had "not" shot him. Exaggerate.

* Imply that he had the look and mannerisms of a criminal.

* Blame the criminals for his death and be sympathetic towards the police at all
times.

* When describing the man use imagery drawn only from the CCTV pictures of real
criminals. Conjour up the image of criminals

* Mention but do not discuss his innocence. Mention it only when necessary.

* Belittle the suspect. Describe him in negative terms as poorly dressed, unshaven,

and nervous, but also as a physically intimidating man, burly, agile, fit, dangerous.

* It should not be written that he "failed" to obey police as failure may be
construed as meaning that there was some other possible reason for his not stoping than
presumed guilt. Avoid passive associations by describing his actions only with action
words commonly associated with guilt such as "refused" or "resisted".

* Give conflicting eye-witness accounts of the actual moments of the shooting so as
to protect officers.

* One witness thought he saw a "gun" on the suspect. Quote this witness extensively
and as often as possible. Offer no speculation or implication that he may have been
mistaken (which of course he was). Use his observation as if it was the sworn testimony
of an expert on criminals requiring no further comment.

* Avoid mention of the suspect's family (especially if it turns out he had a wife and
kids) but report in depth on how sorry the police are. Use words like "regret" and
"tragic".

* Assert that the way in which the suspect "dived or fell to ground" was cause for
suspicion in itself. Never connect this to the simultaneous shouting by armed police for
every one to "get down" as this may contradict prior assertions that he refused to obey
the police.

* Report it as if "the regulations" required the police to shoot him.

* Report that there will be an internal enquiry as if this is a magnanimous police
gesture as opposed to mere routine. Report on the process but not the substance of the
enquiry, and phrase process descriptions in terms of thoroughness, accountability, and
above all sufficiency. Avoid mention of previous police-shootings that
have resulted in public enquiries.

* Generate debate on the circumstances in which the police *should* shoot to kill,
and avoid moral or legal issues. Frame the debate in terms of terrorism only and dismiss
mistaken-identity arguments as left-wing or liberal.

* Use the tiniest flaw in the suspect's character (drugs, fare-dodging, infidelity,
etc) as ultimate justification. For example, "If he hadn't have been deaf, he would have
heard the police and still be alive today..."

* Utterly groundless speculation is allowed to be presented as fact only when it
results in a positive image for the police.

All other topics, speculation, criticisms of the police, or discussions, are forbidden.

What do we think about another march starting from the fruitvale bart station again next thursday? We should keep the momentum going! And the last one was a little short notice, but totally necessary.So, maybe this time if its next thursday theres enough time to get people from all parts of the bay area and its still soon enough to keep the issue alive! I think its really important to keep this alive!
What does everyone think about that?

im sure people will come, make the call out, cal lpalces

i think i would be bale to make it

Hey Kid from/in the 'burbs

Yea, every kid from the 'burbs is just like Oscar. Every kid in the 'burbs is a young black male. I'm sorry, but unless you fit a certain criteria, you'll never even get close to having a bullet in the back. You read indybay obviously, so I know I don't have to explain to you what that criteria is. I saw alotta young white males down there that don't know what it's like to be hassled for no damn reason. They'll never get contacted by police for just being white. All those fools will get is rubber bullets and paper spray (it's funny when I hear white people crying about pepper spray & rubber bullets). We get real bullets.

This debate is important but becoming unproductive. At this point, we need to sustain the pressure on BART, BART police, the City of Oakland, the Alameda County DA, and the whole damn system. We need to hold firm and not budge an inch from our demands. We need to make it clear that police murder and police violence is unacceptable in our community and will be met by uncompromising explosions of rage and protest.

To those who condemn the rioting, we need you to do more than debate (though this is always important and useful), we need you to take action as well. For example:

*Why is there business as usual at BART headquarters, City Hall, the Alameda County DA while Oscar's killer remains free? We need blockades and civil disobedience to shut these offices down.

*We need more people and more cameras watching the police. Everyone in Oakland should know and exercise their rights when they are hassled by police.

*We need a complete accounting of BART police's murders and abuses.

I'm sure folks here can think of other ideas.

As of today, BART police completed their part of the investigation and now it is turned over to the Alameda County DA.

According to a recent article,

"BART police Chief Gary Gee said his department did not make a recommendation on whether charges should be filed against Mehserle."

Outrageous. A man shot in the back while he's face down and BART police can't come to a fucking conclusion. Nevermind the fact that BART lied and tried to cover the murder up in the first place. They denied that there was video of the incident. They had CONFISCATED video from at least two people. They TRIED unsuccessfully to confiscate cell phones and cameras from others on the trains.

But I can't say I'm shocked with the news. The police continue to get away with brutality and murder of people of color.

Rodney King. Amadou Diallo. Anita Gay. Asa Sullivan. Jerrold Hall. Gary King Jr..

And on and on and on. And now we can likely add Oscar Grant's name to the list.

"Orloff had said he would not decide until the end of next week whether to file charges against Mehserle, but after BART's announcement Monday, he said that time-frame could change. The transit agency's submission of its police report "may help me speed it up," he said."