OAKLAND

scary things last night, i had to walk quite near the mini riot scene on my way home from work.

expect more of that if dude doesn't get put away.

I'm moving (back) to the Bay Area in a few weeks. I'm curious as to how widespread the protest/riots are? Anything in Berkeley?

see above. i think it is conditional on whether justice is served.

Mostly poor minorities destroying the autos of other poor minorities.

um.... African-Americans are the majority ethnic group in Oakland.

wat

expect more of that if dude doesn't get put away.

― (*ﾟーﾟ)θ L(。･＿･)　　　°~ヾ(･ε･ *) (Steve Shasta)

this is exactly what my bf has said, too. we live near lake merritt, and i have to walk through downtown oakland everyday to catch the BART to work. last night i was probably coming home just early enough to not be walking directly through the scene (i always walk down 14th), but i could see a bunch of cop cars a few blocks up madison.

The racial makeup of the city was 35.66% African American, 23.52% White, 0.66% Native American, 15.23% Asian American, 0.50% Pacific Islander, 11.66% from other races, and 4.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.19 percent of the population.[60]

SF Gate said something about there never having been a BEAST cop prosecuted for this kinda thing. So, good luck?

Steve, you are totally thick. There, I said it.

Awesome, keep up the not-so-thinly-veiled racist language.

WTF you moron.

That riot was complete bullshit. Good job beating the hell out of Creative African Braids.

The mob smashed the windows at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, and a woman walked out of the shop holding a baby in her arms.

"This is our business," shouted Leemu Topka, the black owner of the salon she started four years ago. "This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?"

Wednesday night's vandalism victims had nothing to do with the shooting death by a BART police officer of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day - but that did little to sway the mob.

"I feel like the night is going great," said Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, one of the demonstrators. "I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back. It's for the murder of a black male."

Sykes, who is black, had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.

"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life," Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: "I just hope nobody gets shot or killed."

Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco

A class act.

They also pitched rocks & bricks through windows at the Fox Theater and the Uptown. Nice work.

god the shooting is just sickening, unbelievable

on an entirely different subject- I feel like we should play a show in Oakland but venues seem real hit and miss over there. I do not wanna play the Stork Club or any other bar no one will come to. Any suggestions?

also nia sykes is obv a retard

but it always bums me out when there's more moral outrage over the bad stuff that happens in reaction to a police shooting than the actual shooting itself

"god the shooting is just sickening, unbelievable"

It is sickening. It would be more unbelievable but for the fact that it's the third incident of BART police shooting an unarmed rider in the past decade and a half, I think.

Believe me, people are pretty outraged about the shooting here.

as they should be.

wow i didn't know the history of the BART police, as an outsider i guess i never knew that oakland cops had a rep for that kind of stuff.

This covers some of the history:

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=7813&catid=4&volume_id=398&issue_id=413&volume_num=43&issue_num=15

as far as Oakland cops rep goes, there's a reason the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland

I dunno if I'd call it sickening, it's just sorta...unexplainable?

Is this even police brutality? The cops were pretty calm and don't appear to be roughing anybody up. And then he takes a gun out and shoots a guy in front of dozens of witnesses. It seems like a total absent minded event - more a "police shouldn't have guns because guns can be dangerous when you're not careful" than a "police being bad people." (And as anti-gun as I am, I'm not sure if police shouldn't have guns in Oakland...)

1) These are the BART police which is separate from the Oakland PD.

2) This is pretty much the definition of police brutality. In fact I'm not sure it is possible to be more brutal than this.

shooting and killing a naked guy is like the apex of shitty policing

And even more bewildering than the shooter's conduct is the BART police response to the events which is basically "look we fired him, what more do you want?"

Or rather "look he resigned, what more do you want?"

He's not shitty policing though, he's shitty-being a normal human being.

I dunno, I mean if the facts come out and it turns out the cop purposely shot the guy, then yeah, I'm with you guys. But it's just so *weird* a situation, esp. because there really didn't appear to be much struggle, that I'm not yet at the 'fuck the police' perspective.

most shitty normal human beings do not have guns and badges that allow them to kill random people with impunity

the whole thing is pretty weird. has it been determined yet if that officer's wife had just had a baby? because he could have been out of his mind sleep deprived and confused (in which case he should, under no circumstances, have been on the job with a weapon).

this is the first time I ever actually considered BART cops actual cops. I mean I was under the impression they were like, glorified security guards. i don't know that I even realized they had weapons.

(BART police are distinct from Oakland PD).

Shakey, you could play the Uptown. I think you'd have to do a fair amount of promotion yourself for that though. But they seem to be doing better than people expected. Also, 21 Grand will book shows, but they officially aren't supposed to be having shows, because they got in trouble with (ta da) Oakland PD.

(also plz note that re: the naked guy I was referring to a PREVIOUS BART police killing)

and then he takes a gun out and shoots a guy in front of dozens of witnesses. It seems like a total absent minded event - more a "police shouldn't have guns because guns can be dangerous when you're not careful" than a "police being bad people."

CNN says there have been unconfirmed reports that the officer mistook his gun for a taser, which would explain the matter-of-fact manner of the shooting.

"He's not shitty policing though, he's shitty-being a normal human being."

Um no he's shitting policing. There was absolutely no reason to pull out your gun in that situation.

CNN says there have been unconfirmed reports that the officer mistook his gun for a taser, which would explain the matter-of-fact manner of the shooting.

hahaha waht

hmm the Uptown... would have to consider requisite Prince cover

i don't undestand how you could really confuse your gun with a taser, aren't they shaped completely differently? tasers don't even have triggers, I don't think.

"CNN says there have been unconfirmed reports that the officer mistook his gun for a taser, which would explain the matter-of-fact manner of the shooting."

Laughable.

shitty policing = roughing up people for no reason.
shitty human being = shooting someone execution style in a very public space for no reason. police don't do this for fun.

and if the unconfirmed reports are right, then the guy is more stupid than he is evil

and the first thing that came to my head was also wtf guns have triggers. but seriously, what the hell other explanation is there? it wasn't a situation where he needed to pull his gun anyway.

well yeah on one hand tasers and pistols are very different, but on the other hand, he sure was awful tired

1) Shitty policing is pulling out your sidearm if your two partners have already subdued a cooperating suspect.

2) Those unconfirmed reports are complete bullshit.

3) I don't give a shit if the guy is evil.

look, if there was a struggle and somebody pulled a knife or something, and the police instantly pulled out his gun and shot him, that's def shitty policing. Amadou Diallo = definitely police brutality. but that situation has twisted shitty police logic behind it. this one doesn't.

1) was he really a "cooperating" suspect? the footage I saw showed him struggling. I mean I could understand pulling out a taser at that point.

2) most unconfirmed reports are

3) cool

or, alternatively, this guy decided to kill a man for no particular reason, because that's just what police do.

I think our definitions of shitty police logic are so vastly different that they will not meet.

the whole taser thing is so fucked up, too, so that's no excuse in my book.