OAKLAND

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.

BART police are highly, highly undertrained. Also, they're supposed to wear their tasers in a wholly different kind of location than the sidearm.

tasers are fucked up too, I agree. I'm not looking for an excuse, obv there isn't an excuse here...I'm looking for an explanation.

But even if the dude meant to taser the guy he killed, that's STILL the wrong situation to use a taser!

ugh, sorry guys. I'm not going to watch the video, but your explanations and reactions, i think, tell me all I need to know. :(

It's been a while, but I've DJed once at the Uptown (in 2002?) while on a road trip. I've been on BART on those very stops too. (obv, a lot of bay area people here have)

A taser is supposed to be a non-lethal firearm replacement, to be used in situations where a firearm would perhaps otherwise be used. It's not supposed to be a means of neutralizing a suspect who is already under control.

the video isn't very graphic

just "shitty", right?

You have to define "under control" then. Guy didn't look under control to me anyway fwiw. Accidentally grabbing a gun while reaching for a taser is certainly nowhere near anything that could be considered an excuse for killing a guy, but I don't see what's fucked up about tasers. Obviously it's a lesser-of-two-evils thing, but wouldn't you agree that accidents involving immobilization and pain are infinitely preferable to ones involving death?

xxpost You are a weird guy.

tasers are fucked up because they're overused in places that aren't Oakland BART stations.

I'm not going to "define" under control, but let's just say that a dude on his stomach with his hands behind his back is pretty close.

Yup.

I dunno why it comes across like I'm defending the police here. Well, I mean, okay, I do know why. I have no sympathy for the BART police, Oakland PD, Berkeley PD, whoever.

I'm just of the mind that this is way too *weird* for it to be purely a normal fuck the police situation.

All instances of police brutality seem "weird" to me.

I mean do you think it's "rational" to shoot someone 40 someodd times??!