[Marxism] SF protests cop killing of unarmed man

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, January 9, 2009
In California, Protests After Man Dies at Hands of Transit Police
By JESSE McKINLEY

OAKLAND, Calif. — Protesters angry over a deadly shooting of a young 
unarmed black man on New Year’s Day stampeded through city streets on 
Wednesday night, burning cars and smashing storefronts and leading to 
pleas from city officials on Thursday for patience and calm.

About 120 people were arrested during the violent outburst on Wednesday, 
which came after a day of demonstrations over the shooting of Oscar 
Grant III, a 22-year-old butcher’s apprentice who was shot in the back 
by a transit system police officer while he lay on the platform at the 
Fruitvale Station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

“My message is, cool it out there, folks,” Mayor Ron V. Dellums said. 
“This is not a game.”

On Wednesday night, police officers in riot gear responded with tear gas 
and nightsticks, and arrested protesters on charges of vandalism, 
unlawful assembly, rioting and assault on a police officer. Two people 
were arrested in possession of handguns. Dozens others were cited and 
released, said Wayne Tucker, the city’s chief of police.

The police chief for BART, Gary Gee, said that transit police detectives 
were still compiling clues in the shooting, which occurred after Mr. 
Grant and a group of friends were removed from an eastbound train in the 
wake of a fight among two groups leaving a New Year’s Eve celebration in 
San Francisco.

At least four cell phone cameras held by passengers on the train idling 
next to the platform captured images of Mr. Grant lying face down when 
Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, pulls his gun and fires a single 
shot. Mr. Mehserle looks up at another officer, and then handcuffs Mr. 
Grant. The images have been repeatedly broadcast on local television and 
streamed online.

Christopher Miller, a lawyer for Officer Mehserle, said in a brief 
statement on Wednesday that the officer’s resignation, which took place 
on Wednesday, would allow BART to “get back to the business of managing 
regional transportation,” adding that the officer had the full support 
of his union, the BART Police Officers Association. But it made no 
reference to the circumstances of the shooting.

Mr. Mehserle has not been charged with a crime. Investigators said their 
efforts to interview him about the circumstances of the shooting had 
been rebuffed by his lawyers, something that has fed complaints that the 
transit agency and the Alameda County district attorney, Tom Orloff, 
have each been sluggish in their investigations.

“If you can’t file charges in a case like this,” said John Burris, a 
lawyer for Mr. Grant’s mother and his live-in girlfriend. “I don’t know 
what kind of case you can file in.”

At an occasionally unruly press conference at Oakland City Hall on 
Thursday, just down the block from where a small clutch of protesters 
set trash cans and cars afire on Wednesday night, Mr. Dellums said that 
the Oakland Police Department would start a third investigation of the 
shooting event, which he referred to as a homicide.

Mr. Orloff was more measured in his statements, saying only that such 
investigations take time and that he hoped to be finished in two weeks.

“I think it’s important that when we move forward we will move forward 
with a case that is court-ready,” said Mr. Orloff, who was interrupted 
by demonstrators several times as he tried to speak.

But the district attorney’s timetable seemed unlikely to please 
residents of Oakland, an ethnically mixed city of 400,000 across the bay 
from San Francisco. At a public meeting of the transit system’s board, 
Desley Brooks, an Oakland City Council member, said, “The community does 
not have confidence in BART investigating itself.”

But a BART spokesman, Linton Johnson, said Thursday that “the worst 
thing that we could do, the thing that would cause absolute chaos, is if 
we screwed up this investigation.”

The shooting is just the latest incident in a historically tense 
relationship between Oakland’s black community and law enforcement, 
including a corruption case known as the Riders case in which a group of 
Oakland police officers were accused of abusing and falsely accusing 
suspects. Three of the officers were acquitted but the incident 
nevertheless damaged the department’s reputation.

On Thursday morning, several downtown merchants were shoveling shards of 
glass outside their damaged storefronts and juggling mixed emotions. 
Thuyen Tran, 24, whose family runs a small nail salon whose front window 
had been shattered, said he was upset that his family’s business had 
been damaged but also understood the anger of the protesters.

“It doesn’t make sense, using brutal force,” said Mr. Tran, who is of 
Vietnamese descent. “It doesn’t feel good, because No. 1, I’m a 
minority, and No. 2, I’m a young kid.”

Several civic leaders said on Thursday that the violence reflected anger 
among young people — and particularly young black men — who feel that 
they are unfair targets of the police.

“The murder of Oscar Grant III was a tragedy and not the first tragedy 
suffered on the streets of Oakland,” said Jakada Imani, executive 
director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who called the 
protests a tipping point “for a community that has been struggling and 
suffering for decades.”

On Wednesday, several protesters lay prone in front of police, hands 
behind their backs, saying, “I am Oscar Grant.” Mr. Grant’s name has 
already begun to be graffitied along highways.

On Thursday, Mr. Grant’s family and friends spoke publicly to condemn 
the violence.

“I am begging the citizens not to use violent tactics, not to be angry,” 
said Wanda Johnson, Mr. Grant’s mother. “You’re hurting people that have 
nothing to do with the situation. Please stop it, just please stop.”

Malia Wollan contributed reporting from Oakland, and Liz Robbins from 
New York.

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu