January 7, 2011
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.
November 5, 2010
Judge Robert Perry has sentenced former BART transit cop Johannes Mehserle to the minimum sentence of two years in state prison for the shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant. Judge Perry gave double credit – 292 days – for his time served. Tune in KPFA 94.1FM or kpfa.org 4-6 p.m. for a special report on the Mehserle sentencing hosted by Minister of Information JR with Davey D and Sabrina Jacobs. Their guests include Cephus Johnson (Oscar’s Uncle Bobby), Jack Bryson, John Burris and M1 of dead prez.
July 8, 2010
“They’ve made Johannes Mehserle into a victim in this case and he’s nothing but a brutal killer,” said Aidge Patterson, leader of the LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant. He believes a lack of media coverage of the first cop to be tried for murder in California was intended to quiet people down. “This is obviously one of the most historic cases in the entire country and it should be on every news station, but they’re good at keeping people ignorant.” Thank Minister of Information JR for convincing the Black press to cover the story.
May 15, 2010
We lost the great Lena Horne this month on Mother’s Day, May 9. She was 92, her birthday June 17, 1917 – her funeral Friday, May 14. I found out recently that Ms. Horne was at the March on Washington with sisters Mahalia Jackson and Dorothy Height.
May 7, 2010
At a community town hall on May 8, the discussion is expected to generate ideas for building community responses against violence that don’t involve police. The town hall will take place from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at Oakland City Council chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. No gang injunctions!
February 17, 2010
The U.S. Justice Dept. refuses to charge the NYPD officers who murdered Sean Bell on his wedding day in 2006. We can’t let this happen again; it’s ON US to get Oscar Grant’s killer cops convicted of murder! Minister of Information JR is hosting two events on two days, tonight in West Oakland and tomorrow in Los Angeles.
March 2, 2009
On Feb. 19, hundreds of people who have been attending town hall meetings in nine cities in and around the Bay Area – motivated by the BART police execution of Oscar Grant III and other critical threats to our communities – made the first of many Caravan for Justice trips to Sacramento.
January 19, 2009
Young people risked their freedom to rebel in the streets. Let me remind you that it was the rebellion and threat of another one that got the cop arrested.
December 13, 2008
At 12:35, Stanley Tookie Williams was dead. The state of California had murdered him. A man whose greeting was the Swahili term Amani, or peace, was gone. What a waste.