[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

the fucking pigz got away with it again y'all....

where's the freedom!!!
its an unfortunate statement about the situation in Los Angeles that they moved the trial of that BART officer to LA..

while they said its was cuz of the media that is not entirely true, if you ask me its simple, Los Angeles is a town that is completely desensitized to police brutality, specifically police related fatalities...

In LA county there are well over 100 police related fatalities a year, that averages to 2-3 a week!!!! It seems like a few times a year we have our own Oscar Grant, our own unarmed young men shot dead in the streets by trigger happy 5-ohs...

it is a shame. In Oakland they rioted, and rightfully so, and I hope they riot for three weeks like they did in Athens, Greece, but here in LA, people would hardly even raise an eyebrow anymore about this kinda shit.

When the Oscar Grant crowd was passing out flyers and posting posters and speaking on street corners here in LA, the reaction of Angelinos was typically cynical, they would say, "Shit, my homie got smoked by the pigz too.." but instead of being sympathetic and active about this issue with Oscar Grant, instead we in LA have grown to accept police murdering us as common place, ordinary..

that is why they moved the trial to Los Angeles courts, because they knew LA wouldn't riot over this, they knew that LA would even be indifferent, because we are used to the police killing us left and right..

its a damn shame. That pig from Oakland should get 10 years at least, we'd be lucky if he serves 10 months..

They shot that dude in the back, after they already had him detained, we all saw it on the TV screen, on the YouTube, and the pigz got away with it again y'all..
thats it for hoodnews y'all...

 

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

(07-09) 09:59 PDT OAKLAND -- Law-enforcement officers arrested 83 people during Thursday night's protests in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant, police said today.
The rallies began peacefully but soon degenerated into lawlessness, during which protesters looted businesses, sprayed anti-police graffiti on storefronts, set trash bins on fire and clashed with police wearing gas masks and riot helmets and carrying batons, authorities said.
Police from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. Those arrested were booked on suspicion of a variety of crimes, including failure to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assaulting a police officer, said Officer Jeff Thomason, an Oakland police spokesman.
Many of those arrested were "anarchist" agitators who were not from Oakland and wore bandannas, hoods or black face paint, police said.
Those who were arrested were taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin or to a second Alameda County sheriff's jail in downtown Oakland.
Police were still compiling information on the number of businesses that were vandalized, Thomason said.
The bulk of the damage took place after 8:30 p.m. within a six-block area near City Hall. Protesters sprayed phrases such as "Kill all cops!" "Riot for Oscar" and "Say no to work, yes to looting" on buildings.
Protesters tore the metal gate protecting a Foot Locker shoe store at 1430 Broadway and looted the shelves. The group moved across the street and smashed a window at the Far East National Bank and rampaged inside.
A jewelry store, an ink-cartridge recycling store, a beauty-supply shop, the Sears store and several other banks were among the other businesses where protesters broke windows and stole merchandise.
The Whole Foods Market on Bay Place near Harrison Street, some 15 blocks from City Hall, had a glass door smashed.
Protesters also set fire to two trash bins outside Oaksterdam University, which trains students on how to grow marijuana.
City crews spent the early-morning hours helping to clean up the mess.
Beeline Glass of Hayward sent all four of its trucks for glass-replacement duty, with crews making repairs at five downtown stores.
"I love business, but not this way," said employee Rusty Jamison, 24, of Hayward as he worked to replace glass at the Foot Locker store. "I don't think this should have gone down like this."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0tD0Rs4qs

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Oakland riots after verdict in police shooting of Oscar Grant

Officer who shot dead unarmed African American cleared of murder but found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

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• Ewen MacAskill in Washington
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 July 2010 17.35 BST
• Article history

 

A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a police line in Oakland. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP Rioters trashed parts of Oakland, California, today in protest against the verdict in a controversial court case in which a white policeman shot dead an unarmed African American.
At least 100 people were arrested after looting and confrontations with police in Oakland last night and early today. The protesters ignored a plea for calm by the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The policeman, Johannes Mehserle, 28, was found guilty yesterdayof involuntary manslaughter. The jury rejected the prosecution case that it was murder.
YouTube showed footage of Mehserle's shooting of Oscar Grant, 22, who had been lying on the platform in a railway station on 1 January 2009, surrounded by police after a fight. Mehserle claimed he had thought he had reached for an electric Taser rather than his gun.
The case became a cause celebre in the US, with its echoes of the treatment of Rodney King, a black man whose severe beating by police in LA in 1991 was captured on video. The subsequent acquittals of four LAPD officers sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Police deployed in Oakland in riot gear yesterdayand shops boarded up their windows in anticipation of a repeat of the rioting that took place in the immediate aftermath of Grant's shooting. Up to a thousand protesters took to the streets last nightand early today, some wearing masks with images of Grant's face. A banner was unfurled proclaiming "Oakland Says Guilty'.
Rioters, some dressed in black and wearing black masks, smashed shop and car windows, helped themselves to goods ranging from jewellery to groceries and trainers, and attacked police lines. Journalists were also attacked.
The Oakland police chief, Anthony Batts, told a press conference: "This city is not the wild, wild west. This city will not tolerate this activity." He blamed anarchists coming from outside Oakland. "We started taking a number of rocks and bottles. We then made a dispersal order."
Grant's family expressed disappointment with the verdict and said he should have been found guilty of murder. The verdict means the jury thought Mehserle had been criminally negligent but had not intended to kill Grant. "My son was murdered, and the law hasn't held the officer accountable the way he should be," Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, said.
Mehserle, who is to be sentenced next month, could face anything from five to 14 years in jail. John Burris, a lawyer representing the family, described it as a "compromise verdict". Burris said: "The system is rarely fair when a police officer shoots an African American male. No true justice has been given." The trial was held in Los Angeles because of the tension in Oakland and neighbouring San Francisco.
Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, told Reuters: "We are outraged that the jury did not find guilty of murder in a case that is so egregiously excessive and mishandled."

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

"Protesters kick unmarked police car:"

 

Speaks for itself

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

 

 

 

[Keeping It Simple]

It's a good job for you that this guy isn't the law.

 

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Keeping It Simple

It's a good job for you that this guy isn't the law.

 

Keeping It Simple is the only one who noticed this thread?

did y'all miss the Uprising? Are y'all as cold and indifferent as the Angelinos here? I hardly think the SYG crowd is cynical against police brutality due to over exposure and desensitized apathy considering one of my largest threads was about Police Brutality.. what agwon folks?

this shit has had me pissed off since last year.. I still watch the MTA sheriff with necessary precaution and suspicion and I was riding the BART a few months after in 09 and I was honestly nervous.

folks like me who get harassed by the police on a weekly basis are very jumpy about issues like this, shit, that could have easily been me instead of poor Oscar Grant. wake up folks,

how long shall they kill our prophets why we stand aside and look?

speaking of which, an unarmed man was shot dead by the police in Santa Clarita early this morning around 3am, is LA pissed off? No. Did LA even notice? No, unfortunately its just another of the 100-150 people murdered by the police annually.. police brutality is a tradition in Los Angeles...

RIP Oscar Grant.

fuck the pigz..

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

"If you scared say you scared"

[Beautiful Plateau]

Let's hope the guy that shot him has come to his senses and feels remorse.

Well, from a public letter he wrote, it sounds like he does.
Johannes Mehserle apologizes for shooting in letter

If the verdict is correct, then I think the sentence is appropriate.

Pigs are people too.

[Beautiful Plateau]

I don't see the need for BART police to carry fire arms while on duty. But that goes for any public transport police, I feel.

SuchFriendsAreDangerous, maybe you could try to do something about that, instead of being disappointed people aren't rioting in LA. Riots are a risky affaire. Remember Ian Tomlinson, who died during G20 protests in London in 2009.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Beautiful Plateau

SuchFriendsAreDangerous, maybe you could try to do something about that, instead of being disappointed people aren't rioting in LA. Riots are a risky affaire. Remember Ian Tomlinson, who died during G20 protests in London in 2009.

its not that I am dissappointed in the lack of rioting and uprising in Los Angeles, its just that it was brutally obvious why the trial was moved to LA in the first place, as pigz get mad love in the LA courts in regards to shooting and police related homicides, and further, the immense and smothering sense of apathy to these crimes on the street is another frightening issue entirely..

I have massive respect for Athens and Oakland, not necessarily for rioting (after all in Oakland they didn't intend to riot at all rather the police pincered a crowd gathered to demonstrate and protest peacefully, and as often happens the pressure the police put on the crowd instigated violence) but simply for organizing and demonstrating solidarity against the system, where as my town seems to having whimpered in defeat..

Originally Posted by Beautiful Plateau

Let's hope the guy that shot him has come to his senses and feels remorse.

Well, from a public letter he wrote, it sounds like he does.
Johannes Mehserle apologizes for shooting in letter

If the verdict is correct, then I think the sentence is appropriate.

Pigs are people too.

His remorse is feigned attempt at exoneration, we all saw the tape, we all know what really happened on the platform. further, pigs forfeit the right to be considered people once they put on the faceless and nameless identity of the badge and gun. they become "police officers" void of individual heart and reason, they group-think and crony their way against the grain of society and perpetuate injustice, poverty and crime through violence, brutality and massive corruption. sorry, the truth hurts but it remains the truth nonetheless...

[Beautiful Plateau]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

pigs forfeit the right to be considered people once they put on the faceless and nameless identity of the badge and gun

Dehumanization. nice one...

SuchFriendsAreDangerous, did you protest the verdict on the streets?

[Beautiful Plateau]

Why has LA become so complacent, I wonder.

[Beautiful Plateau]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

...void of individual heart and reason, they group-think...

funny, herd behavior is a characteristic of a rioting group of people

On the whole I agree with you, don't get me wrong. Arguably, the LAPD has always done more harm to the community than it has served it...

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Family members of slain man weren't allowed to protest ex-BART officer's release, relative says

 

A former transit officer convicted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man at an Oakland train station was released from jail early Monday without relatives being allowed to lodge a protest, an uncle of the slain man said.
"They snuck him out," Cephus Johnson, 53, a systems engineer, said during a demonstration outside U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
Johannes Mehserle, 29, was released after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day 2009.
Grainy video footage of the shooting showed Mehserle, who is white, firing one round into the back of Grant, who was black.
Mehserle testified he meant to use his Taser but mistakenly grabbed his pistol. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry ruled Friday that Mehserle should be given credit for time served and good behavior.
Johnson said he was on the phone with a court clerk as the judge was issuing his decision. The clerk told him the hearing on the release would be held Monday morning, Johnson said.

"Nobody seemed to know the actual release date," Johnson said. "We are entitled under the Victim's Bill of Rights to speak, and we would have liked to have been heard." A court representative was not immediately available to comment on Johnson's allegations.
Johnson said he read in the Los Angeles Times that Mehserle would be released Monday and went to the jail early in the morning to await his departure. But the inmate never appeared.
Johnson said he received a recorded message notifying him of the release a half-hour after Mehserle left custody at 12:01 a.m.
"It was very sneaky," Johnson said. "Celebrities as well as others have to walk out that door. Why was he allowed to slip out the back door as if it never happened?"
Johnson said he had met with the Department of Justice's civil rights division, most recently 1 1/2 months ago, to ask that federal charges be brought against Mehserle.
Johnson said the division reported that it was investigating the case but "can't promise any charges at this time."
Protesters in front of the federal courthouse Monday also demanded that the Department of Justice bring charges against Mehserle.
A Los Angeles jury convicted Mehserle last July of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.
The racially charged case sparked riots and protests in Oakland, followed by more unrest when Mehserle was not convicted of a more serious charge and received a sentence of just two years.

not that its unexpected, really this is just more disheartening than surprising