Oakland Erupts Again!

Oakland Erupts Again!

. . . BART officer Johannes Mehserle, alone on his job at that crowded station, shot and killed Oscar Grant and was virtually exonerated on Friday by a jury of his peers. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison for “an accidental shooting” and could be out in a matter of months.

Grant’s family strongly disagreed, alleging racism for a sentence they considered too lenient: “Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, shouted, ‘Oh my!’ when Superior Court Judge Robert Perry issued the two-year sentence. She burst out of the courtroom saying, ‘He got nothing! He got nothing!’ “ Grant’s uncle, Bobby Cephus Johnson, seconded that sentiment, saying, “I do believe it’s a racist criminal justice system.”

Neither he nor Grant’s mother explained the basis for their feelings but Grant’s uncle added that the family remained calm even as others cranked up the riot machine. “I have no power over what people feel their matter of expression should be,” he said. (http://tiny.cc/1hyfr)

When word of the sentence, passed down in Los Angeles, reached Oakland, protestors took to the streets, smashing windows and windshields and destroying fences, repeating the pillaging that had occurred back in 2009 when the shooting happened and again last July after the verdict was announced. In the latter riots, 800 protestors participated including some the police called known “anarchists” from outside the Oakland area.

As of now, the third upheaval . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2526)