So today the officer that shot Oscar Grant in his back as he was lying on the ground on his stomach was only convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter. The officer claimed that he mistakenly thought he was shooting Oscar with his taser instead of his gun.

The gun reportedly weighs 3x's as much as the taser. The taser is YELLOW...the gun BLACK. Oh well, another travesty of justice.

[Edited 7/8/10 19:25pm]

I'm hoping they don't riot. I was in the Bay when the incident went down and I remember how tense it was the days that followed. Oakland is starting to improve and the community doesn't need this

So far it's been quiet and peaceful...

however, the sun is still up and I'm worried that some fools will try to cause a ruckus after dark...

RenHoek said:

So far it's been quiet and peaceful...

however, the sun is still up and I'm worried that some fools will try to cause a ruckus after dark...

Yeah man, I'm in Sacramento now so I'm kinda far from it but they're PISSED out here so I can only imagine what's the tension like out there. I remember when it happened

My brother works across the street from Oakland Tech and so he's probably rushing home right now

Reel said:

So today the officer that shot Oscar Grant in his back as he was lying on the ground on his stomach was only convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter. The officer claimed that he mistakenly thought he was shooting Oscar with his taser instead of his gun.

The gun reportedly weighs 3x's as much as the taser. The taser is YELLOW...the gun BLACK. Oh well, another travesty of justice.

[Edited 7/8/10 19:25pm]

A true travesty.

bboy87 said:

RenHoek said:

So far it's been quiet and peaceful...

however, the sun is still up and I'm worried that some fools will try to cause a ruckus after dark...

Yeah man, I'm in Sacramento now so I'm kinda far from it but they're PISSED out here so I can only imagine what's the tension like out there. I remember when it happened

My brother works across the street from Oakland Tech and so he's probably rushing home right now

The twisted irony is that at the last riots it wasn't the locals that started stuff... the majority of instigators came from out of town...

They interviewed two dudes in SF wearing suits and ties who said they were waiting for shit to go down so they could loot the stores. When asked about the suits they answered "It's so we can stay under the radar..."

HELLA !!!

Thus far things have been relatively peaceful. However, there have been some sightings of "anarchists" in the crowd. Oscar's grandfather is calling for peace and calm. Hopefully this can go down with absolutely no BS kicking off.

After the verdict was read, I started to head to Oakland for support, and then I thought better of it and just drove on home. I don't have time to be hit by rocks and bottles. When crowds become agitated they turn into mobs and those mobs become angry and react on instincts instead of with thoughtfullness. Thankfully...there is no mob, just and organized crowd.

Now...what they really have to worry about is what is going to happen after the sentencing. The judge needs to "throw the book" at Johannes during sentencing - or else people will lose their minds and rioting WILL occur.

[Edited 7/8/10 19:37pm]

As the sun goes down, unfortunately things will jump off. Apparently a Foot Locker is being looted now. I figured the verdict wasn't coming for another day or two since one juror was dismissed for vacation, and another juror had a doctor's appointment. Crazy that those jurors were allowed to be on the case. I knew it was all bad when no black jurors were chosen. Just pray for peace in the midst of injustice.

Oh boy....the "anarchist" started looting a Foot Locker. Sad thing is that they are believed to not even be from Oakland...just some opportunist MF'rs.

Reel said:

Oh boy....the "anarchist" started looting a Foot Locker. Sad thing is that they are believed to not even be from Oakland...just some opportunist MF'rs.

I used to go to that Foot Locker

Oh Lord, now they are showing "sisters" kick in the window to a beauty supply store and loot the supplies. Damn, get a free perm, and free hair all in the name of Oscar huh? Dammit.

Then there was a fire elsewhere.

this is sad

NuPwr319 said:

Reel said:

So today the officer that shot Oscar Grant in his back as he was lying on the ground on his stomach was only convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter. The officer claimed that he mistakenly thought he was shooting Oscar with his taser instead of his gun.

The gun reportedly weighs 3x's as much as the taser. The taser is YELLOW...the gun BLACK. Oh well, another travesty of justice.

[Edited 7/8/10 19:25pm]

A true travesty.

What's new? SSDD

funkyslsistah said:

As the sun goes down, unfortunately things will jump off. Apparently a Foot Locker is being looted now. I figured the verdict wasn't coming for another day or two since one juror was dismissed for vacation, and another juror had a doctor's appointment. Crazy that those jurors were allowed to be on the case. I knew it was all bad when no black jurors were chosen. Just pray for peace in the midst of injustice.

They couldn't find any qualified black jurors in Oakland? IN OAKLAND??? SSDD

does this mean Cali will have to pay another $20 mil they don't have?

SCNDLS said:

funkyslsistah said:

As the sun goes down, unfortunately things will jump off. Apparently a Foot Locker is being looted now. I figured the verdict wasn't coming for another day or two since one juror was dismissed for vacation, and another juror had a doctor's appointment. Crazy that those jurors were allowed to be on the case. I knew it was all bad when no black jurors were chosen. Just pray for peace in the midst of injustice.

They couldn't find any qualified black jurors in Oakland? IN OAKLAND??? SSDD

The trial was moved out of the Bay Area and down to Los Angeles.

Sowhat said:

SCNDLS said:

They couldn't find any qualified black jurors in Oakland? IN OAKLAND??? SSDD

The trial was moved out of the Bay Area and down to Los Angeles.

I'm still surprised there wouldn't be a single black juror, but then again I'm not.

SCNDLS said:

Sowhat said:

The trial was moved out of the Bay Area and down to Los Angeles.

I'm still surprised there wouldn't be a single black juror, but then again I'm not.

They were mentioning last night on local TV that there is an effort going on to try and get more black people involved in the judicial process.....to show up for jury duty when called. I do not know if this had anything to do with the lack of black jurors or not.

.

[Edited 7/9/10 10:26am]

SCNDLS said:

funkyslsistah said:

As the sun goes down, unfortunately things will jump off. Apparently a Foot Locker is being looted now. I figured the verdict wasn't coming for another day or two since one juror was dismissed for vacation, and another juror had a doctor's appointment. Crazy that those jurors were allowed to be on the case. I knew it was all bad when no black jurors were chosen. Just pray for peace in the midst of injustice.

They couldn't find any qualified black jurors in Oakland? IN OAKLAND??? SSDD

The changed the venue from Oakland to Los Angeles because they felt that the cop could not get a fair trial. So they were dealing with an L.A. jury. Knowing them, they probably went to the Whitest district so that they could avoid having a whole lot of black jurors show up for questioning. They aint clever, and they aint slick.

SCNDLS said:

funkyslsistah said:

As the sun goes down, unfortunately things will jump off. Apparently a Foot Locker is being looted now. I figured the verdict wasn't coming for another day or two since one juror was dismissed for vacation, and another juror had a doctor's appointment. Crazy that those jurors were allowed to be on the case. I knew it was all bad when no black jurors were chosen. Just pray for peace in the midst of injustice.

They couldn't find any qualified black jurors in Oakland? IN OAKLAND??? SSDD

The trial wasn't held in Oakland, it was held in Los Angeles due to the publicity surrounding the case from the onset. . . .

The news is reporting that approx 70 people were arrested last night. Out of those 70 people they said only a small percentage were actually from Oakland. A significant number of the arested were NOT EVEN FROM CALIFORNIA. People are miserable opportunists, and they really take away from the purity of the Movement. Plus they shame the Grant family. They looted community resources (ie a Bank) and even black businesses.

Those suckers.

Reel said:

The news is reporting that approx 70 people were arrested last night. Out of those 70 people they said only a small percentage were actually from Oakland. A significant number of the arested were NOT EVEN FROM CALIFORNIA. People are miserable opportunists, and they really take away from the purity of the Movement. Plus they shame the Grant family. They looted community resources (ie a Bank) and even black businesses.

Those suckers.

It was just reported it was 83

They were in Downtown (where I used to catch the BART to school or to hang out in Berkeley) fuckin shit up

[img:$uid]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3331/3471563795_b9d63a4bd7.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/united-states/california/downtown-oakland.JPG[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://sf.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/6_28_2010/4740793153_d4abe987d6.jpg[/img:$uid]

Oakland already gets a bad rap when it doesn't really deserve it and now this happens

whenever I think of Oakland I think of Tony Toni Tone....

BklynBabe said:

whenever I think of Oakland I think of Tony Toni Tone....

You've got to think better of Oakland.

SUPRMAN said:

BklynBabe said:

whenever I think of Oakland I think of Tony Toni Tone....

You've got to think better of Oakland.

LOL @ TOO SHORT ^^^^^

RenHoek said:

SUPRMAN said:

You've got to think better of Oakland.

Wait a damn minute..

TOO SHORT WAS IN THE TOWN AND NOBODY TOLD ME?!!

If I find out he performed "Blow The Whistle" at the rally, somebody's gettin' punched in the throat

[Edited 7/9/10 22:18pm]

Mehserle wrote a letter to The Grant Family and the public a couple of days before the verdict. It was published yesterday on sfgate.

Mehserle's letter of apology

The full text of Johannes Mehserle's letter, dated Sunday and released Friday by defense attorney Michael Rains follows:

Mike -

Please try to get this message to the public:

I don't know what the jury in this case is going to decide, but I hope those who hate me and those who understand that I never intended to shoot Oscar Grant will listen to this message.

I have and will continue to live everyday of my life knowing that Mr. Grant should not have been shot. I know a daughter has lost a father and a mother has lost a son. It saddens me knowing that my actions cost Mr. Grant his life, no words can express how truly sorry I am.

I hoped to talk to Ms. Johnson (Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother) and Ms. Mesa (Sophina Mesa, Grant's girlfriend and the mother of his daughter) in the days following this terrible event, but death threats toward my newly-born son, my friends and family resulted in no communication occurring. I hope the day will come when anger will give way to a dialogue.

For now, and forever I will live, breathe, sleep, and not sleep with the memory of Mr. Grant screaming "You shot me" and putting my hands on the bullet wound thinking the pressure would help while I kept telling him "You'll be okay." I tried to tell myself that maybe this shot would not be so serious, but I recall how sick I felt when Mr. Grant stopped talking, closed his eyes and seemed to change his breathing.

I don't expect that I can ever convince some individuals how sorry I am for the death of Mr. Grant, but I would not feel right if I didn't explain my thoughts as I wait for a decision of the jury.

Johannes Mehserle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...z0tJpPrKdO

Yeah, I saw that on the news. Dude want's the judg to consider the letter prior to sentencing him. I hope the judge gives him the maximum term limit allowed. Even if he did mistakenly use his gun instead of his taser. There was no reason for him to use the taser to begin with. The man was subdued on the ground on his stomach.

He needs to serve the entire 14 years.

SUPRMAN said:

BklynBabe said:

whenever I think of Oakland I think of Tony Toni Tone....

You've got to think better of Oakland.

With a few idiots taking the opportunity to get free shoes as a way of making a political statement, and that being what the media focuses on all night long, I'm glad someone thinks of Tony Toni Tone when they think of this place.

In the early phase of the protests, I saw people dancing, and I so hoped that that would continue, but the positive emotions can't compete with a few fools who just want to break stuff.