My city is angry, and I understand why. A young man, who was held down on the ground and handcuffed, was then shot by a police officer. (Fucking cops!)
Compounding the issue is that there hasn’t seemed to be any real action on holding any of the officers involved accountable for the death of the young man, 22 year old Oscar Grant who was laid to rest yesterday.
So, people took to the streets. They met in protest at the BART (subway or tube to the rest of you) station where he was killed. They gathered to speak about the young man, and to express their anger towards the bullshit that went down on New Years Day at that location. And some folks then marched that location to downtown Oakland.
And some of those people, well, I don’t know what the fuck their problem was. Some shitty shit happened, yes, but does that justify burning cars, dumpsters, garbage cans and breaking windows in stores? Hell no!
I saw none of it. I was not in downtown. When I got off work yesterday, I got on my bike and rode home.
Some folks were there – Richard and Becks wrote great blogs about being there.
I love this city, and I hope we can find a way to work it out and express our anger without burning the whole city down.
Just sayin’.
Peggy Lu Who's Just Sayin' 
Tell it Peggy Lu! And thanks for the links and love 🙂
No, thank you for being a sane voice in the crowd, and also for being a man who’s not afraid of the word ‘feminist’. That’s . . . refreshing.
(i thought i had commented on this earlier, but i must have gotten distracted…)
i was really really sorry to hear about oscar grant situation. as cincinnati has gone through almost the exact same situation, i know how angry and frustrated you feel at both the injustice, as well as the turbulent reaction to the injustice (2 wrongs definitely do not make a right).
keep us updated on the goings-on. i’d be interested to see what happens from a residents view.
I’ll certainly post about anything I see or hear about.
I know some people are planning a “Night Out” on Friday to visit the area affected and spend some cash with the local businesses.
I also heard there’s another protest scheduled for tomorrow, which hopefully won’t be a problem. I think the security will probably much tighter this time around. Let’s just hope that both sides mind their Ps and Qs.
OSCAR GRANT’S KILLER COP ARRESTED IN NEVADA!!
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