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As the fog burned away into sunshine Saturday morning, campaign volunteers manned a table on the Lakeview Branch Library lawn and gathered signatures to officially put Rebecca Kaplan on the ballot for this fall’s mayoral election.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you could be taking dance lessons in Jack London Square or having a drink. But no, we’ve had too important a week, haven’t we?” With that, Aimee Alison, host of the KPFA Morning Show and founder of OaklandSeen.com, opened the Oakland mayoral forum on public safety held Thursday evening, July 15th at the Lakeshore Baptist Church.
As the Oakland Police Department works to identify the people involved in the property damage and looting during the protest following the Johannes Mehserle verdict, one anarchist, who came from out of state and was arrested that night, speaks about anarchists’ role in the Oakland riot and the “grassroots global civil war.”
The Oakland Police Department has released photos of people allegedly looting and destroying property during the protests following last week’s verdict in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant. They published 15 photos on the department website in the hopes that citizens will come forward to identify those in the photos.
Johannes Mehserle won’t be sentenced until later this year, but his involuntary manslaughter conviction could mean he faces up to 14 years in a state prison. Because the notoriety of his crime, the ex-BART police officer could be gravely at risk among other prisoners, but the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has a system to protect high-profile inmates like Mehserle.
As Oakland awaits next month’s sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer convicted last Thursday of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant, authorities, community groups and onlookers congratulated each other on the mostly non-violent protests that followed the verdict last Thursday. Joint planning among city, police and community groups helped keep the peace, they say.
As the sun set behind City Hall and the City of Oakland’s official rally came to an end on Thursday night, a few people in black hoodies began weaving throughout the crowd, pulling bandanas up over their faces. What had been a peaceful afternoon demonstration was about to become a chaotic night during which a few violent protesters, mostly people from other cities, vandalized the downtown.
After hearing that former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday afternoon for the 2009 killing of Oakland resident Oscar Grant, Bay Area residents at the Rockridge BART station said they hoped the Oakland community would react to the verdict peacefully.
Updated 11:40 pm: After a day of peaceful protests, on Thursday night a small group of protesters turned violent in downtown Oakland, looting and damaging downtown businesses in the wake of the Johannes Mehserle verdict. Earlier that day, a Los Angeles jury found the former BART police officer guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the January, 2009, death of Oscar Grant.