Tag: BART

“If, at 50,000 volts a zap, five officers shoot their tasers at the same time, the subject gets a 250,000-volt output – equal to the electrical charge inside the death penalty chamber,” Mesha Monge-Irizarry, a leading advocate for police accountability, explained.

In honor of African History Month, the Bay Area Aerosol Heritage Society is proud to present AeroSoul 2011, which will kick off on Feb. 4 at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Downtown Oakland and be followed by a month-long series of events showcasing some of the most cutting-edge, dynamic Black urban calligraphers in the world. Refa 1 is the event curator.

AC Transit routes are back on the cutting table, and once again, it will be the youth, seniors, disabled riders, and low-income families whose opportunities for work and education will feel the impact. AC Transit driver Lorenzo Jacobs said, “When you start cutting service, you’re cutting opportunities. When you cut lines, you’re affecting people’s lives.”

Over 100 family members, religious leaders and community supporters held a prayer vigil and speak-out on New Year’s Day in front of the Fruitvale BART station to commemorate the second anniversary of the BART police killing of Oscar Grant, a young Black man.

In the Bay Area, the veneer of police impunity seems to be thinning even as high-profile cases of police shooting unarmed Black men – in Oakland and nearby Vallejo – continue to occur. Guy Jarreau Jr. was shot and killed by Vallejo police Saturday, Dec. 11. Facing the officer with his hands up, “Guy didn’t have a gun,” said witnesses.

In the wake of the senseless acts of violence that have taken away the lives of Oscar Grant, Derrick Jones and countless other Black men, I’ve grown to feel numb.

Angry and grieving family members rallied at the Fruitvale BART station to mark the 15th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. One speaker, Norman Curry, spoke of how his mother was shot point blank by an officer who called her by name, “Anita (Gay).”

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had a chance to shine last Thursday, after the verdict was announced in the murder trial of transit cop Johannes Mehserle for the Jan. 1, 2009, killing of 22-year-old unarmed Black man Oscar Grant. But instead of standing with the people, Dellums stood with his police chief, and together they proceeded to criminalize the entire community.

At 14th and Broadway, the community was invited to share what was on their hearts. No one was censored and all views were respected. People surrounded the speakers. No one needed to be alone on a day like today. In African traditional healing, the health of an individual is tied to the well-being of community. Oscar Grant’s relatives and friends called for love and respect for life and each other, as they named the enemy: this corrupt judicial system that allows killers to go free. I noticed another rally in front of City Hall. Just a handful of people were there.

Phyllis Jackson thought “it was a chilling day” for Los Angeles. “Jury selection here banishes all Black people like the recent Equal Justice Initiative report found that Southern courts do, while allowing the jury to be stacked with people who have friends, family and businesses involved with law enforcement,” she said. Everybody out for the Mass Protest for Justice for Oscar Grant Monday, June 14, 8 a.m., at the LA courthouse.

A victory in the campaign for justice for Oscar Grant III was celebrated today after the presiding judge, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay, concluded the preliminary hearing in the trial of Johannes Mehserle by ruling that the former BART police officer will stand trial for murder. June 18 is the date Mehserle is scheduled to appear back in court and declare his plea of guilt or innocence before the full trial begins.

The female BART officer that was on that platform even stated in her testimony that she supposedly feared for her life, and she just knew that she was going to have to shoot somebody or kill somebody that night. Those were her words in court. The judge said: "Hold up. Wait a minute, who were you going to shoot first?"

On New Year's morning BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fired his gun at point blank range into Oscar Grant's back, killing him as he lay face down on the train platform, hands behind him. A preliminary hearing is now underway to determine whether Mehserle will be charged with murder or whether the charges against him will be lowered.

On March 21, Lovelle Mixon, 26, was murdered by Oakland police after allegedly killing four of them on MacArthur Blvd off of 73rd Avenue in East Oakland. Listen to JR's Block Report interview with his family - his mother, Athena, his wife, Amara, and her sister, Alicia - broadcast March 30 on KPFA's Flashpoints at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/49609.

The place was the historic Black Dot Café in West Oakland; the event, a "Town Bizness" town hall meeting hosted by the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) with the presence of Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.

RIP Oscar Grant III. You, unarmed, pleading for your life as a young father, at the tender age of 22, while a rogue Bay Area Rapid Transit cop Tony Pirone punches you, then crushes your neck with his knee, shortly followed in his enthusiastic, racist, vicious rage by Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shoots you in the back, murdering you.

Moments before he was killed, Oscar Grant was punched in the face - but not by the BART officer who shot him. A cellphone...

The National Lawyers Guild calls upon BART, Oakland and Alameda County officials to recognize that their shameful response to Oscar Grant's murder fueled the street protests.

Minister of Information JR, now out of jail, tells how and why Oakland was rocked by rebellion Jan. 7 after nearly a week of official silence following the New Year's police execution of Oscar Grant. Look for a report - both here and in the February paper that will hit the streets Jan.30 - on the Town Bizness Townhall Meeting Against Police Terrorism that had people spilling out the door Friday.

Grant pleaded with officers not to harm him: "Oscar yelled, 'You shot me. I got a 4-year-old daughter,'" said Fernando Anicete. "Oscar was telling us to calm down, and we did. We weren't looking for any trouble."