Oakland : émeute contre la clémence du verdict – juillet 2010

>> rappel : Emeute de janvier 2009<<

Rioting in Oakland: Transit Officer Guilty of Manslaughter

worldnewsvine.com

July 9, 2010

Oakland, CA (Jul 9) – Just hours after, a jury found a white transit police officer guilty of manslaughter involving an accidental shooting of a young black man on January 1, 2009, mobs of protesters began destroying downtown Oakland. The shooting occurred following an incident on the BART.

Apparently, the citizens of Oakland are taking out revenge on innocent store-owners, and public property as they are unhappy with the verdict handed down yesterday regarding the shooting. Dozens of arrests have been reported on both Thursday and Friday related to this verdict.

Police in riot gear and out in force, dispersed the angry intercity mobs as they ransacked stores, and tore through the city in heated revenge.

Oakland city officials were preparing for anticipated riots as Oakland citizens took to the streets following the shooting death of Oscar Grant III, in the days following the incident burning and looting only to stop breaking the law after the Transit police officer was arrested. Civil disobedience seems to work hand-in-hand against authority in these larger communities once a violent minority of the population becomes disgruntled.

Reports indicate some sort of a homemade bomb was used during last night’s gathering of the friendly citizens of Oakland to express their unhappiness regarding the verdict of former transit police officer, Mr. Mehserle.

A cell phone video of the shooting, minus the audio was used as evidence during the trial, and released all over the internet giving justification to mobs of Oakland citizens to destroy innocent shopkeepers, and public properties both before the trial, and after the verdict.

Prior to the verdict, and in anticipated violent response following the verdict, Oakland City officials sent city workers home early, to avoid being caught-up in the mayhem known to precede these types of verdicts in California. The city police department had been practicing anti-riot procedures, and coordinating with local agencies to deal with civil unrest.

In defense of the cities residence, Oakland City officials had stated that early violence was the result of outside influence in which hundreds of people had been arrested.

Angry protesters ignored a plea for calm from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and immediately began looting stores.

The victim’s family expressed disappointment in the verdict, reduced to manslaughter by an all white jury in Los Angeles. The trial was moved to Los Angeles after the riots that broke out following the shooting knowing the alleged would be incapable of finding an unbiased jury in Alameda County.

During a press conference, Oakland Police Chief, Anthony Batts stated, “This city is not the wild, wild west. This city will not tolerate this activity,” adding “We started taking a number of rocks and bottles. We then made a dispersal order.” Batts also referenced outside influence stating anarchists had a hand in all of this.

The defendant, Mehserle is to be sentenced next month and could receive up to 14 years in prison. Rest assured, if the former Transit Police Officer does not get the maximum, the friendly citizens of Oakland would once again be out on the streets breaking every law in the books to express their dissatisfaction.

Riots break out in US city after police shooting verdict

AFP

9 04 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — Police clashed with protesters who looted businesses and smashed windows in Oakland, California after a white policeman was convicted on a lesser charge of killing an unarmed black man.

Several hundred people initially gathered peacefully Thursday in downtown Oakland, a city east of San Francisco, to protest the involuntary manslaughter ruling against Johannes Mehserle, the lesser charge that fueled concerns of unrest over the racially polarizing case.

Prosecutors had sought more severe murder charges against Mehserle, 28, for shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back as he lay face-down at a transit station on New Year’s Day in 2009 — a killing bystanders caught on tape.

After night fell, brief riots broke out between police and a small group of protesters, who were quickly subdued by police. Following a short lull, some protesters broke into a Foot Locker sportswear store and took items under applause from participants.

Looters were seen distributing shoes and t-shirts to the crowd before police stopped several dozen people.

A jewelry store was ransacked and several other businesses were damaged, while trash cans were set on fire and protesters threw rocks at a police car.

By 11:00 pm (0600 GMT), the crowd had not yet fully dispersed and police reinforcements arrived from San Francisco and other nearby cities, according to the Oakland Tribune, as the Grant family’s lawyer, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged calm.

Mehserle, who was a police officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) association, has said he had meant to draw and fire his Taser electroshock gun, not his gun.

Grant’s death had prompted unrest immediately following the incident, with some 100 people arrested in the wake of one of the riots.

Mehserle’s is due for sentencing on August 6.

Rioters storm streets after verdict in killing of unarmed black man

CNN

July 9, 2010 —

Rioters hit the streets of Oakland after verdict
A former officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting of an unarmed man
Police chief says there were two to four arrests but that figure could rise

Oakland, California (CNN) — Hundreds of rioters furious about the verdict in the trial of a white former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man stormed the streets of downtown Oakland on Thursday night, police said.

Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Thursday, a conviction that carries a maximum four-year-sentence.

But some in Oakland expected a tougher penalty for the former police officer and took to the streets after the verdict.

Rioters broke the glass of a Footlocker and other stores. Others threw sneakers out of the store as police wearing gas masks stormed the area.

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said there were between two and four arrests, but he expected that figure to rise.

The riots seemed to be contained to about a two-block area in the city’s downtown, a CNN camera crew observed.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums downplayed the demonstrations.

« People were preparing for everything am extremely happy that so far it has not, and I hope that it doesn’t, » Dellums said. « We’re not going to tear our own community apart, because we’ve got issues that we’ve got to deal with. »