Oakland protests the Mehserle Verdict

100 Arrested After CA Ex-Officer Gets 2 Years In Fatal Shooting
More than 100 protesters angered by the two-year prison sentence handed down to former Bay Area Rapid Transit police Officer Johannes Mehserle were arrested Friday night after marching from downtown Oakland into a residential area, where mobs smashed about a dozen car windshields and a police officer’s gun was snatched, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The marchers headed out of downtown after a peaceful rally outside City Hall, where as many as 500 people sang songs and heard speeches denouncing the sentence Mehserle received that day for the fatal shooting of unarmed transit rider Oscar Grant.

             Photo by Thomas Hawk

About 200 demonstrators surged into the streets as darkness fell. Several in the crowd said they had been headed to the transit station where Mehserle shot Grant early on Jan. 1, 2009. As word of the destination spread, officials closed the station, allowing trains to go through but not to stop. Police penned in the marchers about a mile from the station.

Oscar Grant was murdered and Oakland is not happy with the Mehserle Verdict.




A CHANGE YOU SAY?
Listen to the mother of slain Black Panther "Little Bobby Hutton"
decide for yourself just how much has changed.

Mehserle - Involuntary Manslaughter

If someone had snatched Mehserle's gun shot him in the back and
claimed they meant to snatch the taser,
I wonder what the verdict would be?

Anaheim Police Officer Exonerated of Murdering Julian Alexander

I found this on story uprisingradio.org.
I'll add an excerpt and if you're interested in the on going story of
young Black men that are being gunned down by police without any consequence do go read the whole article or you may alternately listen to the podcast available on the site.Read more at..

In the early morning hours of October 28th 2008, a 20 year old named Julian Alexander was fatally shot by an Anaheim police officer. Alexander’s crime: he was standing in his own front yard, attempting to protect himself and his pregnant wife with a stick in hand. Oh, and he happened to be black. The white officer, Kevin Flanagan had been chasing a group of juveniles who allegedly broke into a department store when he encountered Alexander. The newly married Anaheim resident had come out of his house to investigate the ruckus. After shooting him twice in the chest, Flanagan handcuffed him to the ground. Julian Alexander, who had just gotten married 9 days earlier, died after being taken to UCI Medical Center - his family claims he was delayed medical treatment as a result of being handcuffed. Within hours of the shooting, the Anaheim Police department issued an apology for the shooting, calling it a “tragic situation,” and clearing the victim of any wrong doing. Now, the Orange County District Attorney’s office has decided not to press charges against the police officer. Kevin Flanagan has been back on routine patrol duty since mid-December. There are currently two federal civil-rights lawsuits, filed by separate family members set to begin next month.

Bernard Monroe a 73-year-old black man killed by police in Homer, LA

I read about this incident while scanning the news groups and
I thought why is it still open season on Black Men by police?
The powers that be don't seem to be overly concerned over the wave of police killings of unarmed or defenseless Black folks. They (the police) don't appear to generally suffer any severe consequences for their actions. It seems to me that the attitude is that it's all in the line of duty. While these shootings and killings ans tasings are getting some publicity, what about the beatings and wrongful detainments and verbal abuse that never gets reported. IMO this is where it all begins. For each time one of these abuses are carried out with impunity, the police will be emboldened to simply escalate to the next more violent step, to the point that they feel it's their right to gun down any Black person they feel like. Sadly this is where we find ourselves today.

If the authorities won't take action because it's the right thing to do, then we will have to come up with a way to bring about REAL CHANGES ourselves. For this we're going to have to start with internal changes. Apparently everyone is talking YES WE CAN but not many are getting in on the action. I don't doubt that there are folks out there who are actively taking on the role of bring justice to the Black Man, it's time we find them and help out with the program, the life of someone you love may depend on it.

"If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names," said Mills, who is white. "I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested."

Source: Russell Mills, Police Chief, Homer, LA.

link: African American Political Pundit: 73-year-old black man shot by police in Homer, La.

AAPP has covered the story of the shooting of Bernard Monroe in more detail see the above link.

Roland Martin interviews witnesses, press and officials-

Unarmed, young, innocent and Black -Robbie Tolan, shot by police in his own driveway New Years Eve.

 It doesn't look like the year is off to a good start for us,

Oscar Grant was not the only casualty of a police bullet.

Are these cops trying to deliver a message?

It really is high time we got off our asses and

started demanding full accountability

by any means necessary.

According to family members, Robbie Tolan and 

his cousin were returning to Tolan's home in the 

mostly white Houston suburb of Bellaire in the early

 hours of December 31, when they were approached 

by officers who suspected the SUV they had just gotten 

out of was stolen.

Tolan's parents, who own the SUV, came out of the 

house to explain the situation. An altercation ensued 

and Tolan's mother was thrown against the garage 

door by an officer. According to Tolan's uncle, 

"Her son was on his back at the time, and he raised up and asked, 

'What are you doing to my mom?' and the officer shot him 

-- while he was on the ground."

see the complete article

see related post