tagged w/ Oakland Police
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The Bay area has a long history of protest. At 1960s UC Berkeley, Vietnam war opponents started as idealistic, flowers in your hair protestors who morphed into building grabbers. Next door, the hard-scrabble neighborhoods of East Oakland are the perfect breeding ground for discontent. It's the right place for the Occupy movement to set up tents. Plenty of people with grievances and lots of rich people to snub. But, Occupy Oakland has a dark side.The Bay area has a long history of protest. At 1960s UC Berkeley, Vietnam war... more
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OAKLAND -- The exasperated Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan, threatened Monday to call the parents of those rowdy Occupy Oakland kids. Quan was upset with Saturday's demonstration which left City Hall vandalized, and resulted in 400 arrests by the Oakland PD.
"I plan to call the parents of those in Occupy Oakland and say their kids are acting rowdy and not being nonviolent," Quan said in an interview. "That is, if they even have parents." She stomped her foot and said, "I've had it with them."
She then went on a tirade: "Even when the police shot tear gas and rubber bullets and bean bags at peaceful protesters last October, and then prevented Occupiers from helping that Marine when he got blasted in the head point blank by a rubber bullet or bean bag or something, and anyway, his life was on the line, and the police still threw flashbangs at those trying to carry him to safety, and then I didn't condemn the heavy-handed and violent police force, well, anyway these kids still have no right to get angry and show their disapproval."
Severe economic hardship in the Bay Area, a history of rampant police violence and abuse, and an unemployment rate of around 8.7 percent in Oakland isn't easy to forget about for these protesters.
Quan went on to talk about Occupy Oakland's protests every Saturday, which is also the day the Mayor said she usually needs the most police officers to do other things, like terrorize the black community. "Our police are busy stopping and searching black motorists on Saturdays. That takes a lot of time and energy out of our Oakland PD. Yet we have to worry about people demonstrating over wealth disparity and crap."
Mayor Quan is also planning to tell Occupy Oakland protesters' parents that she wants the movement to leave town. "Go protest in Richmond or something," she said. "Otherwise we're going to get our 'Rough Riders' police gang back to do some real damage."
Quan alluded to OPD's botched investigation into journalist Chauncey Bailey's murder. "We're going to have more of that, as long as these not nonviolent Occupy folks keep reminding us about not having enough money."
The mayor bemoaned the fact that she had to stop using Facebook for a time to adequately install new filters to block out Occupy Oakland / Wall Street protesters and their incorrect "version of what happened."
http://deardirtyamerica.blogspot.com/2012/01/oakland-mayor-quan-threatens-to-call.htmlOAKLAND -- The exasperated Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan, threatened Monday to call the... more
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The first act by demonstrators was to take down the steel fence the city had erected around the park. To make a statement about their continued peaceful intentions, and to show how uniquely creative this grassroots movement really is, this is what Occupy Oakland did with the city's fence...
http://veracitystew.com/2011/10/29/tear-down-the-fence-occupy-oakland-gets-creative-photo/The first act by demonstrators was to take down the steel fence the city had erected... more
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After a growing public and media outcry against the brutal excessive force by Oakland police, Mayor Jean Quan, who authorized the use of force, has backed down and promises "minimal police presence" in dealing with protesters. The Mayor's announcement came while friends were celebrating that injured Iraqi veteran Scott Olsen's condition had been upgraded to "fair."
http://veracitystew.com/2011/10/27/occupy-oakland-mayor-quan-backs-down-iraqi-vet-in-fair-condition/After a growing public and media outcry against the brutal excessive force by Oakland... more
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A white former transit police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man that triggered riots in Oakland, California last year.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined civic leaders in Oakland and elsewhere in appealing for public restraint as police braced for the possibility of renewed violence sparked by the Los Angeles jury's verdict.
The panel of four men and eight women deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their decision, which indicated they essentially believed defense arguments that the shooting was a tragic accident rather than the intentional act of a rogue cop.
The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his electric Taser and shot Oscar Grant, 22, while trying to subdue him during a New Year's Day 2009 confrontation.
But prosecutors, who sought a conviction for second-degree murder, said Mehserle had "lost all control" and shot Grant on purpose because he thought Grant was resisting arrest.
Jurors can render an involuntary manslaughter conviction if they believe the defendant lacked an intent to kill but engaged in conduct so grossly negligent that it amounts to a crime.
It generally carries a sentence of two to four years in prison, but the jury also accepted a sentencing "enhancement" for Mehserle's use of a handgun in the commission of a crime.
Mehserle, who had been free on $3 million bond, showed no reaction as the verdict was read and was immediately taken into custody. Sentencing was set for August 6.
FAMILY FURY
Relatives of Grant, a young father who worked as a grocery store butcher, reacted with outrage.
"My son was murdered, and the law hasn't held the officer accountable the way he should be held accountable," his mother, Wanda Johnson shouted outside the Los Angeles courthouse.
The family's lawyer, John Burris, said that while "we do not accept the verdict," he called for a nonviolent response.
"One life lost is enough," Burris said.
Police in Oakland, across the Bay to the east of San Francisco, moved to a tactical alert status in preparation for potential civil disturbances.
"I encourage Californians to remain calm in light of the verdict and not to resort to violence," Schwarzenegger said, adding he had assured Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums that "we are well prepared to assist in maintaining order."
Demonstrations were planned in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, where many commuters left work early.
"I'm concerned about riots. I don't want to be hit by a bottle," said accountant Francisco Raygoza, 30, as he headed home. "Our office manager said leave as soon as you can."
In the first hours after the verdict, Oakland's streets were quiet, though some 200 people gathered at an intersection where a rally was planned.
"Its atrocious that a cop documented on video for killing a young man was not sentenced to murder. Justice was not done," said Naina Kanna, a 33-year-old community activist Oakland.
Anger over the slaying flared after video footage shot by onlookers and shown widely over the Internet and television appeared to show Grant lying face down on the train platform when he was shot in the back.
Mehserle was seen holstering his gun immediately afterward and putting his hands on his head as in disbelief.
The killing unleashed charges of police brutality and a night of civil unrest in Oakland, where demonstrators smashed store windows and set cars on fire. Police arrested over 100 people on charges of vandalism, unlawful assembly and assault.
The Alameda County Superior Court judge in the case, which was moved to Los Angeles because of heavy pretrial publicity in Oakland, ruled that the jury could not consider a first-degree murder charge. Judge Robert Perry held there was too little evidence to show the killing was premeditated.
Had he been convicted of second-degree murder, Mehserle faced a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. The jury could alternatively have found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter or acquitted him entirely.
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Carolina Madrid in Los Angeles, Peter Henderson in Oakland and Alexandria Sage in San Francisco;A white former transit police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on... more
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A new police chief and a fatal crash last weekend has led to a major crackdown on dangerous "sideshows" in the city.A new police chief and a fatal crash last weekend has led to a major crackdown on... more
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