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News & ArtsThursday, January 8, 2009
News Rioting in Oakland
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 9:35 AM
This:
...last night led to this:
Here's a good SF Gate report, full of details the videos can't capture.
(Thanks for the curatorial work, MetaFilter.)
2
You will not see Roy Wilkins
Pushing a shopping cart
In red, green and black Liberation jumpsuit
That he has been saving, for just such an occasion.
The Revolution Brother...will not be Youtubized.
Pushing a shopping cart
In red, green and black Liberation jumpsuit
That he has been saving, for just such an occasion.
The Revolution Brother...will not be Youtubized.
3
If this somehow involved the disappearance/death of young, white blond girls or women, CNN would be talking about it 24 hours a day.
9
Once again, Chris Rock's "How Not to Get Your Ass Beat (shot, in this case) by the Police" applies. Rule number one: obey the law. Rule number two: if the police have to chase you (or if you resist), they're gonna bring a can of whoopass with them.
10
Sigh. 1000+ peaceful protestors made to look like idiots by a handful of RCP whackjobs. Way to go, Avakianoids. Viva la masturbacion.
11
So the officer can just "resign" and not answer anybody's questions? Why the fuck hasn't he been arrested? And this happened a week ago and I'm just hearing about it now? Jesus fucking Christ, this is horrible.
12
So it seems the cop who shot the kid thought he had grabbed his tazer. That explains a lot. I mean a cop can be a supreme fuckhead, but who shoots someone in cold blood in front of a hundred witnesses? But then again, how do you explain to the family that it was an accident?
I feel bad for everyone involved.
I feel bad for everyone involved.
13
Apparently, the cop who fired the shot may have mistaken it for his tazer gun. I sort of believe it by his reaction in the video and the way he did not step back before he fired and the close proximity of his fellow officer. What an idiot.
14
Also reminds me of the Sarah Silverman show episode in which she is pulled over while driving:
Cop: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
Sarah: "Because you got all C's in high school?"
Cop: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
Sarah: "Because you got all C's in high school?"
15
BAN TASERS. Police kill almost 100 people a year in this country with tasers anyway, this man could have died even if the guy grabbed his taser and not his gun.
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/ (not mine)
I'm so glad people are videoing police arrests (especially of minorities). If we didn't have that video, this would just be another police shooting of a black man and would have been deemed justifiable for some ridiculous reason.
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/ (not mine)
I'm so glad people are videoing police arrests (especially of minorities). If we didn't have that video, this would just be another police shooting of a black man and would have been deemed justifiable for some ridiculous reason.
16
The "thought it was a tazer" argument falls flat when you realize he's holding his supposed tazer like a gun and not with an angled wide-handed grip like a tazer.
Oh, but ya almost had something there!
Oh, but ya almost had something there!
17
@12, 13... that's a completely bullshit excuse you know... They are nothing alike. One is much bigger, metal, heavy, and should be on safety. The other is smaller, plastic, lighter, and should also be on safety. There's no mistaking the two.
18
@11: THIS! What the fuck? A helpless man is shot and killed by police in cold blood in front of dozens of witnesses, and it doesn't make Slog for a fucking week?
No, we've got to discuss fucking Rock-Paper-Scissors, and barbecued squirrel.
No, we've got to discuss fucking Rock-Paper-Scissors, and barbecued squirrel.
19
Ben @18
RE: "It doesn't make Slog for a fucking week?"
Dude what? The SLOG is your primary news source?
Yeah, that's The Strangers fault.
RE: "It doesn't make Slog for a fucking week?"
Dude what? The SLOG is your primary news source?
Yeah, that's The Strangers fault.
20
@17 Maybe so....Not to defend the cop, but who the fuck shoots someone when there is a camera on them and plenty of witnesses? If there was no on around, sure, I call it cold blooded murder. But this?
21
The officer resigned before an investigation was conducted and completed. Hmm...why do that if you've done nothing wrong? Oh wait, we all saw the video - he murdered a man in cold blood. Guess it makes sense.
I agree with the comments @16 and @17. The "I thought it was my taser" excuse is complete and utter bullshit. The officer panicked in a stressful situation and deliberately murdered a defenseless man.
I agree with the comments @16 and @17. The "I thought it was my taser" excuse is complete and utter bullshit. The officer panicked in a stressful situation and deliberately murdered a defenseless man.
22
@20 "who the fuck shoots someone when there is a camera on them and plenty of witnesses?"
Simple: someone who lets a stressful situation get the best of them and gives in to the resulting combination of adrenaline and panic. Thing is, the guy is a police officer, and because we let them carry around deadly weapons, we have to hold them to a higher standard. We can't afford to have cops who can't deal with the stress of being a law enforcement professional. When a cop does murder a helpless victim like this, we need to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, to send the message that if we're going to allow them to carry guns around, they have a responsibility to deploy those firearms only as a last resort. The fact that they let this officer resign is both a travesty and a tacit admission of guilt.
Simple: someone who lets a stressful situation get the best of them and gives in to the resulting combination of adrenaline and panic. Thing is, the guy is a police officer, and because we let them carry around deadly weapons, we have to hold them to a higher standard. We can't afford to have cops who can't deal with the stress of being a law enforcement professional. When a cop does murder a helpless victim like this, we need to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, to send the message that if we're going to allow them to carry guns around, they have a responsibility to deploy those firearms only as a last resort. The fact that they let this officer resign is both a travesty and a tacit admission of guilt.
23
"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life" -- nice, attacking your own community like that. But then, "This whole damn system is guilty!", including small black-owned businesses, apparently. The disintegration of the march into violence was deliberate by the RCP shitheads. I guess it gets them on the news. I'm sure revolution is right around the corner now, huh?
That officer is fucked. That was an execution right on the BART train. I'd be pissed too. But I wouldn't destroy my neighbors' livelihoods.
That officer is fucked. That was an execution right on the BART train. I'd be pissed too. But I wouldn't destroy my neighbors' livelihoods.
24
@23, The worst part about that woman's quote is that neither the loss of life nor the destruction of property is an inevitable outcome in any circumstance. People like that woman deserve to be shot just for the complete lack of critical thinking.
25
Best of all are the privileged white kids who came over from San Francisco (on BART, naturally) to smash up minority-owned businesses in Oakland. These same SF hipsters like to bitch and moan about "bridge and tunnel trash."
BTW, the shooting didn't occur inside a BART train; it happened on the platform.
BTW, the shooting didn't occur inside a BART train; it happened on the platform.
26
@19: I'm sorry, I thought the Stranger was a newspaper that printed things like news.
Some of us have jobs that don't afford us the time to read sixteen news blogs a day.
Some of us have jobs that don't afford us the time to read sixteen news blogs a day.
27
@ Fnarf
Exactly! I was out there last night and decided to leave because someone had thrown garbage cans through a donut shop window next door and hit the owner inside. My car was fucked up but they didn't know who the owner of the car was, but the same people that did that to my car are the same ones that attacked a black cab driver. What is the sense in that? They hit the muslim bakery, the african braid shop. You;re not helping our community by hurting us
Exactly! I was out there last night and decided to leave because someone had thrown garbage cans through a donut shop window next door and hit the owner inside. My car was fucked up but they didn't know who the owner of the car was, but the same people that did that to my car are the same ones that attacked a black cab driver. What is the sense in that? They hit the muslim bakery, the african braid shop. You;re not helping our community by hurting us
28
BTW I read that articule last night and i'd like to extend a big FUCK YOU to that IGNORANT BITCH NIA SYKES. You are so lucky I didn't lay eyes on you when you let the BS fall out your piehole because I would have knocked your ass out, go back to SF dumb bitch
30
I, too, am surprised not to have seen this on Slog or wider coverage of it in the national news.
The thing that struck me about the BART video (other than, you know, that the cop shot a restrained man, in the back, in front of dozens of witnesses), was that the guy who was shot didn't even seem to be struggled that violently in the video. He was on the ground, and was pinned by another officer. Of course, it's just a small clip and may not show the whole story, but still. It didn't even look like he needed to be tased (if that's in fact what the cop was trying to do).
I think there should be some sort of initiative where people start videotaping any interaction between the police and the public. Think about all the videos that you have seen on YouTube that show abuse of power or misconduct (the one the other day of Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright comes to mind). If the police know that they are being videotaped, maybe there will be less of that sort of thing going on.... I wonder if there's a website that collects and posts videos of police brutality or misconduct....
The thing that struck me about the BART video (other than, you know, that the cop shot a restrained man, in the back, in front of dozens of witnesses), was that the guy who was shot didn't even seem to be struggled that violently in the video. He was on the ground, and was pinned by another officer. Of course, it's just a small clip and may not show the whole story, but still. It didn't even look like he needed to be tased (if that's in fact what the cop was trying to do).
I think there should be some sort of initiative where people start videotaping any interaction between the police and the public. Think about all the videos that you have seen on YouTube that show abuse of power or misconduct (the one the other day of Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright comes to mind). If the police know that they are being videotaped, maybe there will be less of that sort of thing going on.... I wonder if there's a website that collects and posts videos of police brutality or misconduct....
31
Amateur protesters REAL amateurs. As the news reporter said, the protesters gave NO THOUGHT as to where to go or what to do. Bored people with nothing better to do and no idea how to challenge power.
32
Someone (a passenger, not a cop) pulled a gun on some other guy on my BART train that same night. I love Oakland!
33
BZ, I used to live in Oakland, and still miss it, for all its problems. I hate seeing it always get the short end like this.
34
whether the shooting was on purpose or on "accident" doesn't matter, the only thing the officer should do is resign. the fact that he resigned doesn't mean anything about his intent to shoot. he had to resign because his actions resulted in an unnecessary death. he is unfit to serve, whether or not he "meant" to shoot the guy.
35
@30: I was thinking exactly that. I think it's about time we just started taping any police we see, any time we see them. I'm gonna look for a cheap, cell-phone-camera-quality video recorder that can quickly power up and start recording, for just that purpose. I don't want to have to fiddle through a bunch of menus on a cell phone if I see something happening.
36
Once again, Chris Rock's "How Not to Get Your Ass Beat (shot, in this case) by the Police" applies. Rule number one: obey the law. Rule number two: if the police have to chase you (or if you resist), they're gonna bring a can of whoopass with them.
A police officer executed a man by shooting him in the back while he lay on the ground under restraint. Whoopass? What is wrong with you?
A police officer executed a man by shooting him in the back while he lay on the ground under restraint. Whoopass? What is wrong with you?
37
Re: HE THOUGHT IT WAS A TAZER.
Okay, so he's got a guy helplessly pinned to the ground, and he decides to give him a little electroshock torture but accidentally shoots him to death instead. That's a lovely excuse. You know what's lovely about it? You can charge him with civil rights violations along with the murder charges.
Okay, so he's got a guy helplessly pinned to the ground, and he decides to give him a little electroshock torture but accidentally shoots him to death instead. That's a lovely excuse. You know what's lovely about it? You can charge him with civil rights violations along with the murder charges.
38
I've been following this since it happened, and after watching the murder video I figured the people would do the right thing and kill that motherfucking cop in the street. I still have hopes.
39
My roommate and I have watched that video a few times trying to figure out if it's the same BART cop that roughed up a friend of ours pretty bad at the 12th st stop. Our friend was acting like a jackass, but the response was way over the top. It's hard to see in the vid, but it looks a lot like him.
None of this should have happened.
None of this should have happened.
40
In homage to the old campaign slogan "a chicken in every pot," let's make this inaugural-year slogan "a digital video cam in every hand"
41
I wonder how long this cop has been on the force? I can't remember where I read this, but I heard that cities short on police officers where recruiting veterans. When I heard this I thought, "People, who're trained to shoot first & ask questions later, who have untreated for PTSD, roaming neighborhoods with gang activity. The same people who'd been given carte blanche by the Bush administration to stop the "insurgency" in Iraq. This is going to be a recipe for disaster."
42
Nia Sykes is apparently a staff person for the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (http://www.womenprisoners.org/fire/00073…). People who have an opinion about Sykes's comments about the destruction of black-owned businesses might want to e-mail a note to info@womenprisoners.org.
43
Dad poisoned the minds of his children with his irresponsible television viewing choices.
Among other things.
Dad is liked, so expect the intent was not there. However, I suspect the same cannot be said for his wife.
Case in point:::Neighbor's driveway sidewalk chalk art consisted of a girl's name, a smiley face, other innocent, child-like offerings.
In our driveway our kids drew body outlines, like those one would find at a murder scene.
And all his son spoke of was guns, hunting and killing.
The father's irresponsibility was manifested in how the son spoke when he was younger. Just ask his former teachers.
Among other things.
Dad is liked, so expect the intent was not there. However, I suspect the same cannot be said for his wife.
Case in point:::Neighbor's driveway sidewalk chalk art consisted of a girl's name, a smiley face, other innocent, child-like offerings.
In our driveway our kids drew body outlines, like those one would find at a murder scene.
And all his son spoke of was guns, hunting and killing.
The father's irresponsibility was manifested in how the son spoke when he was younger. Just ask his former teachers.
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