More on Oscar Grant

More on Oscar Grant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JUNE 30TH, 2010

Contact: Tony Coleman, Rachel Jackson

(510) 225-4083 or info@oaklandforjustice.org

OAKLAND ORGANIZERS DEFEND RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AFTER MEHSERLE VERDICT

WHO: Oakland General Assembly for Justice forOscar Grant

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday, July 1st, 11:00 AM

WHERE: 14th & Broadway, Oakland (at the flag poles in Frank Ogawa Plaza )

As the Mehserle murder trial verdict draws near, Oakland community organizers fearthat the Mayor and OaklandPolice Department’s contradictory actions will hinder theexercise of FirstAmendment rights. Officials claim to support free speech, whilevideo of heavily armed officers – marching in military formation,swinging batons on peaceful mock-protesters, and preparing pepper spray, tear gas,and tanks – sends the opposite message: that protestors will bebrutalized, for the “crime” of protesting police brutality.

Despite this intimidation, the OaklandAssembly for Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police abuse,supports the call for a community gathering at the intersection of 14thStreet and Broadway in Oakland, 6pm, the day the verdict is announced.

Tony Coleman of OneFam raises keyquestions, “After years of cuts to youth services, now the City can pay forPSA’s and pay outreach workers to say that Oakland officials loveyoung people? Where was funding or action against police abuse lastyear, when Dellums told protesters he ‘was too busy,’ to comment on theshooting of Oscar Grant? And why are gang-prevention officers high onthe list of officers to be cut from the OPD? This is hypocrisy, and it’sway too little, way too late.”

“The police are out of control in California and beyond,from Seattle toDetroit to New York , and it’s past time for Obama to step up,” saysRachel Jackson of the New Years Movement for Justice. “Despite the hype,there are no ‘outside agitators’ when a problem is nationwide. The‘outsiders’ are officers who don’t live in cities they patrol, wouldnever send their children to Oakland schools, and believe the solutionto crime is to pack prisons with non-violent offenders.”

Hannibal Shakur from the Laney BlackStudent Union drives the point home: “I get targeted by the policeregularly, including for the ‘crime’ of documenting police abuse onvideo. It’s offensive and condescending to imply that young black menneed ‘outsiders’ to tell us how to respond to racism.”

Regardless of the Mehserle verdict, policeviolence must stop. At this historical moment, the Oakland Assemblyurges us to look to each other for healing and solutions to communityproblems. The Oakland Assembly for Justice will facilitate ayouth-focused program to express and process emotions our on the dayof the verdict, in a space where our voices will be heard.

RALLY * OPEN MIC * SPOKEN WORD * YOUTH SPEAK OUT!

Day of the Verdict – Community Gathering – 14th & Broadway, 6pm

The Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant is agrassroots coalition of concerned citizens working with statewidepartners to stop the epidemic of police abuse. For more information,see www.oaklandforjustice.org.



From: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Date: June 30, 2010 1:07:02 PM PDT
To: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Subject: Press Release from the Black Electeds and Clergyof the East Bay.

Contact: Desley Brooks (510) 238-7006

Keith Carson (510) 272-6695

For Immediate Release

BlackElected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay’s statement regardingUpcoming Oscar Grant Verdict

An Open Letter to the Community:

Within the next couple of days and/or weeks there will be a verdict in the OscarGrant case. This case has struck a nerve in Oakland and around theworld. In anticipation of the verdict the Black Elected Officials andClergy of the Eastbay wanted to share some information with ourcommunity.

Representatives of our organization have been monitoring this case since Oscar Grant wassenselessly murdered by Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009. Wedemanded that a reluctant District Attorney file criminal proceedingsagainst Mehserle; we helped to organize community pressure on BART tobring about organizational change and implementation of polices andprocedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again; wehave attended all of the court proceedings; and most importantly wehave demanded justice for Oscar Grant, his family and everyone thatOscar represents – because we all could be Oscar Grant.

A community needs to know that its leadership will stand to protect their interests. While we are hopeful that our Justice Systemwill be just; we are mindful of incidences where it has failed us. Whenthe system failed us in the Rodney King case, the Justice Departmentstepped in to ensure that the Community’s interests were protected. We,the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay, stand preparedto call upon all State and Federal agencies to seek any and allrecourse if an unjust verdict is rendered in this case.

We know that emotions may run high depending on the outcome of Johannes Mehserle’s criminal proceedings. The currentState Court proceedings are just one step on the road tojustice for Oscar Grant. As such, we are asking that you work with usto shut down anyone who would engage in destructive behavior in ourcommunity. We are also asking that you work with us as we continue todemand justice for Oscar. We have been assured that the JusticeDepartment is monitoring the Mehserle case.

Martin Luther King said that peace is not merely the absence of tension: it isthe presence of justice. In the same vein as MartinLuther King, Rosa Parks, RodneyKing, and many others we will receive JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT.

The struggle continues,

Hon. Desley Brooks

Hon. Keith Carson

Minister Keith Muhammad

Rev. Dr. Harold R. Mayberry

Rev. Zachary Carey

Hon. Darleen Brooks

Hon.Kathy Neal

Hon. Marlon McWilson

Bishop Keith Clark

Rev. Dr. Kevin Barnes

Hon. Darryl Moore

Hon. Alice Spearman

Partial listing

Desley Brooks
Oakland City Council Member, District 6
City Hall
1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 238-7006 (office)
(510) 986-2650(facsimile)
Keep Making A Difference -- Pay It Forward!

Parableof Oakland Police Riot


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Parableof Oakland Police Riot


The Oakland Police are planning to riot. This is the communityconsensus based on conversations at the crossroads. They shall bewaiting for the crowd to gather in front of City Hall after the verdictis announced in the Oscar Grant murder trial. The consensus among thepeople is that the BART police officer shall not be found guilty ofmurder. The prosecution has been weak as water, with no real effort toconvince the jury Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood last New Year'sday.

Oakland police have been planning for weeks how they will handle theexpected protests. They have been training in riot control, the oldcondemned North County jail has been prepared to handle protesters. Eventhe jail above City Hall has been made ready. All downtown businesseshave been told to close early on Thursday and don't leave cars parked inthe downtown area.

OPD Chief Bates says he wants peace but is prepared for war. MayorDellums concurs. The religious leaders, aka Pharaoh's magicians, are inleague with the police to keeps the masses calm.

Yet the consensus among the people is that, if anything, it shall bea police inspired riot, instigated by agent provocateurs, Cointelproagents and undercover police. The police want a riot so they can justifynot getting laid off, having their budget cut and forced to contributeto their retirement fund. A good riot will make them eligible forFederal funds such as gang abatement monies and other grants fromcriminal justice and Homeland security.

So the OPD is ready to whup heads and slaughter demonstrators afterthey are instigated by agent provocateurs.

As far as we're concerned, justice for Oscar Grant was granted byLouvelle Mixon. Dr. Fritz Pointer said Mixon's shootout with the OPDallowed the Oakland masses to enjoy an "obscene pride" after years ofpolice abuse under the color of law.

We are against all violence except in self defense. When the policestop acting like an occupying army and understand they work for thepeople and not the reverse, perhaps then, and only then, shall there bereal peace in the hood.

The Supreme Court's decision to allow Americans to defend themselveswith guns must be understood by reading the subtext: let them niggerskeep killing each other, so long as they don't cross the line into thewhite community. If they cross the line, we're ready for them.

We know who sells guns to the brothers and sisters in the hood, andwe know who allows the dope in. We cannot disassociate guns and drugsfrom politicians and developers who are eager to gentrify ghettoneighborhoods with buppies , yuppies and puppies. They will employ suchtactics as gang abatement and eminent domain to ethnically cleanse thehood for the pseudo liberal black and white bourgeoisie.

A friend attended a gang abatement meeting full of whites. Hewondered aloud where are the guys who are targets of gang abatement?Four of them were in jail and two others are home owners who must nowstay one hundred blocks from their homes.

We cannot view this problem solely in a local context, but it mustbe seen within the wider context of the global wars against the poor inIraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. Through thetribal chiefs, America paid insurgents in Iraq to lay down theirarms--that was the real surge, not the phony surge of General Patraeus,that was essentially the ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods in Baghdad,separating the Sunnia from the Shia by in numerous checkpoints, alongwith forcing four million internally and externally displaced refugees.In the most restive Anbar Province, Sunni insurgents were paid to laydown their arms and join the security patrols in their neighborhoods.This is the reason for the dramatic decrease in violence.

They are employing the same tactic in Afghanistan. The plan is topay the Taliban billions to lay down their arms and pledge allegiance tothe corrupt Karzai who is hardly the president of a nation but theMayor of Kabul, the Capital. The Taliban shall be given jobs, housingand education.

Isn't this fantastic! Jobs, housing and education! Why not try thistactic in the hoods of America, specifically in Oakland, Mayor RonDellums, OPD Chief Bates, Attorney General Holder, President BarackHussein Obama. But oh, no, you rather pay the Taliban because they are athreat to your national security, although there is more violence inthe hoods of America annually than the combined violence in Iraq,Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Is not the violence in the hoods of America a threat to nationalsecurity? Children can't go to school, men and women can't go to workand come home safely, worshippers can't attend church, the elderly areprisoners in their homes in the day and night. Where is the nationalsecurity?

It is costing you one million dollars per soldier per year to occupyAfghanistan, yet you have not reported the killing of one Al Quedasoldier on the soil of Afghanistan. And then you say you must stay inAfghanistant until you improve the army who is so illiterate they aretoo retarded to defend themselves, yet these are the people who ran outAlexander the Great, the Monguls, the British, the Russians, and soonthey will run your asses out. Yet you tell us you must occupy their landuntil they are literate enough to defend themselves?

I rest my case. Let us pray for peace in the streets of Oakland, avaliant city, home of the Western Pullman Porters, home of the BlackPanthers. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
--Marvin X
Academy of Da Corner
14th and Broadway
6/29/10
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
www.parablesandfablesofmarvinx.blogspot.com

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables
Black Bird Press, 2010
311 pages
$100.00

Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley Ca 94702
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