Oakland Police Shooting Debate Rages on Internet

Following the shooting death of four Oakland police officers and the suspected shooter, Lovelle Mixon, this past weekend, the community of Oakland and beyond tried to come to terms with the horrific news and somehow make sense of the tragedy both on the streets and on social networking sites.

The initial reaction for many was fear.

Jessamyn Sabbag, a member of the organization Coalition Against Police Executions (CAPE), said, People are scared to go out of their houses. The reality is of the police being really angry, scared and targeting people who they perceive to be a threat. You know theyre going to want a sense of retribution or justice.

The communitys sadness and anger was evident on social networks such as MySpace and FaceBook.

On FaceBook, groups sprung up with the names, Lovelle Mixon deserved to die and Lovelle Mixon is a hero, cataloguing the wide range of opinions.

Both forums hosted a war of words between users.

One user from the East Bay said, I'm only sorry his death wasn't drawn out. Sure, he deserved to die. In fact, he should have been aborted. I just wish that his death would have been more slow, more painful... just to give him an idea of what the pain must have been like for the officers who were shot (multiple times, of course) and who, unfortunately, didn't die right away.

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