Local News & Views

Huey P. Newton's name and, more importantly, his history of resistance and struggle is little more than a mystery for many younger people in their 20s. Huey P. Newton was a rebel - and more, a Black Revolutionary.

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.

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, the California Supreme Court rejected our appeal, ruling against the 33,000 San Franciscans who signed our referendum and against the right of the 33,000 residents of Bayview Hunters Point - 91 percent of us people of color - to determine our own destiny.

Grading and construction activities by the Florida-based megadeveloper Lennar enter a third year ... with asbestos and particulate levels at air monitor HV9 - located adjacent to a residential complex - skyrocketing to over 296,000 structures per cubic meter Dec. 28-30.

In the first month of 2009, we put a Black man in the White House with our votes and convinced a DA to charge a white cop with the murder of a Black man with our rebellion. Don't miss MOI JR's next Town Bizness Townhall Wed., Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine, West Oakland, featuring Ch. Fred Hampton Jr., Martina Davis, Min. Keith Muhammad and more, and come with me to the BART board meeting Feb. 12, 9 a.m., 344 20th St., Oakland.

Jan. 23 the movement for justice for Oscar Grant III kicked into high gear at the Prisoners of Conscience Committee's Town Bizness Town Hall Meeting. Follow up by packing the courtroom at Johannes Mehserle's bail hearing Friday, Jan. 30, 2 p.m., at 1225 Fallon St., Oakland. Don't let the cops outnumber us.

"This historic occasion is merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet unseen but soon to surface is the debunking of a global culture of supremacy that assumes or guarantees the authority of European principles, practices, preferences and privilege," said Dr. Tascoe.

Mayor Dellums decided to look to law enforcement as a model for healing the community in 2007. Today, we are still at war, our youth the casualties of this war.

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.

The execution of Oscar Grant was a painful reminder of the "legal lynchings" that have been taking place for centuries.

Rev. Al Sharpton's Keepin' it Real show today had JR of the Block Report on talking about the murder of Oscar Grant by Oakland's Bay Area Rapid Transit police and the rebellious aftermath.

The report that went around the world was that over 300 businesses were destroyed; the actual damage was 40-45 windows smashed and a couple of dozen garbage cans thrown into the streets.

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.

Political remedies to hold police more accountable for outrageous acts such as the shooting death of an African-American youth here on New Year's Day have been blocked by even supposedly "sympathetic" Democratic Party politicians.

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.

In the early hours of this year of ostensible hope, the reality of the persistence of racism in Oakland became devastatingly clear, sparking a powerful response the likes of which this city hasn't seen in years.

The only journalist arrested while covering the Jan. 7 rebellion and one of only three protesters charged with a felony was POCC Minister of Information JR. Charged with arson (of a trash can), he is totally innocent. Tell Mayor Dellums, DA Orloff and Rep. Lee to drop all charges against all protesters.

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."

Ahmed Alkhatib is a long way from Gaza, where he lived for 15 of his 18 years. On Saturday, he stood among the hundreds of protesters in downtown San Francisco, the day Israeli ground troops invaded Gaza.

We cannot expect to receive any reports except those that justify, excuse or minimize the killing of Oscar Grant by BART police at 2 a.m. New Year's Day.