‘We are Oscar Grant’

Protests hit racist verdict

By Judy Greenspan
Oakland, Calif.

When the jury returned its verdict in the late afternoon on July 8, protesters in several cities across this state and in other parts of the U.S. expressed their anger and dismay over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit cop who shot and killed Oscar Grant.

People take to streets of Oakland after Mehserle verdict. WW photo: Judy Greenspan

Family members and friends at impromptu press conferences in Los Angeles and Oakland said that a conviction on any charge less than murder was a racist insult to the memory of Grant, a 22-year-old unarmed Black man who was shot dead by Mehserle on Oakland’s Fruitvale BART platform on New Year’s Day 2009.

Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of two to four years in prison. The jury also added a “gun enhancement” charge that carries a maximum of 10 additional years. The sentencing, set originally for Aug. 6, has been postponed at the request of Mehserle’s attorney.

John Burris, a longtime Bay Area progressive attorney, stated unequivocally that Mehserle should have received a murder conviction. At a press conference in Los Angeles following the verdict, Grant’s mother and uncle both expressed their outrage over the involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Post-verdict protest in Los angeles. WW photo: John Parker

Protests demand justice

Demonstrations were held in several cities throughout the state. A vigil was held in Fresno and a protest in Santa Cruz. Over 100 people gathered for a speak-out against police brutality and racism in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. Speakers included members of the L.A. Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant and the Unión del Barrio.

WW photo: John Parker

Solidarity actions were also held in New York City and Baltimore on July 9.

Demonstrators who gathered in downtown Oakland on the day of the verdict had to overcome a three-week-long barrage of scare tactics by the local media, the state and federal governments, and law enforcement agencies.

At the beginning of June, in anticipation of the verdict, tremendous pressure was put on community organizations, student groups and local organizers to do what they could to prevent a rebellion like the one that took place after Grant’s killing by Mehserle. After the New Year’s Day killing in 2009, hundreds of people in Oakland took to the streets in anger and protested the racist slaying.

For weeks before the Mehserle verdict, state and local agencies threatened to lock down government offices and send workers home when the jury returned. Local shop owners were advised to board up their businesses and go home in anticipation of the verdict.

Downtown Oakland was a boarded-up ghost town the afternoon of July 8. The stores were closed. There were no cars on the streets. The usually hectic corner of 14th and Broadway was eerily quiet. An armed phalanx of Oakland police stood menacingly on the side streets and in the BART station. But even this microcosm of a police state could not stop the outpouring of anger over the Mehserle verdict.

The protest in downtown Oakland started with a street rally around 5 p.m. and quickly grew to about 1,000 people. This open-mike event was planned and organized by local community organizations and city leaders. Rally organizers opened with the chant, “We are Oscar Grant,” which was quickly picked up by the crowd.

Many of the speakers were young Black and Latino/a activists who demanded justice for the memory of Grant and for the people of Oakland. A student from Oakland’s Laney College said, “I’m so proud of Oakland. When Oscar Grant was shot, people took to the streets. We have to continue this resistance,” the young woman stated.

Violence of the cops, system

At the main rally it was said that people should be calm and “nonviolent” in the face of this unjust verdict. Oscar Grant Sr., the grandfather of the young man killed by the BART police, said he was too upset to go Los Angeles for the trial. He urged the crowd not to tear up Oakland.

One young man who spoke near the end of the rally said that he was asked by the rally organizers to warn about the “outside agitators” who might try to cause trouble. He pointed to the lines of armed police and stated, “Those are the only outside agitators that I see here today and yes, they will cause trouble!”

When the official rally ended at 8 p.m., several hundred protesters — a large multinational crowd of predominantly young people — stayed in the streets in downtown Oakland. A group of about 100 youth started to march down Broadway only to be stopped by a line of police at 11th Street.

As darkness set in, a small group of protesters smashed the windows of a Foot Locker store and liberated much of the merchandise inside. Some rocks and bottles were tossed at the police from the other end of Broadway.

Within a short period of time, the police declared the protest an unlawful assembly and swept down Broadway, indiscriminately knocking down demonstrators with batons and arresting people. Later into the night, concussion grenades (flash/bang) were heard and tear gas was fired at the remaining crowds.

By the end of the night, some 78 people had been arrested.

Most demonstrators were cited and released. However, a group of protesters are being held on felony charges. Several businesses, including Sears and local banks, were trashed.

The very next day, July 9, the local big-business-owned media carried banner headlines claiming that 75 percent of the demonstrators were anarchists and “outside agitators.” Progressive organizations and individuals including the National Lawyers Guild spoke out against that charge.

Oakland attorney and Haiti Action Committee activist Walter Riley issued a public statement that read in part: “The murder of Oscar Grant is a universal issue of justice and civil rights. I do not like this divisive campaign to divide our community by calling people outsiders. Calling people outsiders in this instance is a political attack on the movement.”

In a July 9 article in California Beat by Tashina Manyak, Jevon Cochran, a 19-year-old student and member of the Black Student Union at Laney College, said he thought that what took place were “appropriate responses to the verdict.” Cochran was there and participated in the march that was stopped by the Oakland police. He noted that the businesses that were trashed were all part of major corporations and included several banks. He said that everyone at the protest in their own way was fighting for justice for Oscar Grant. He added that he hoped that Mehserle’s judge got the message, too. “When we say ‘no justice, no peace’ we meant it,” Cochran said.

---