Oakland Reacts to Verdict in Oscar Grant Murder Trial
OAKLAND-- Crowds gathering in downtown Oakland to protest the Oscar Grant murder trial verdict are expressing anger at a justice system they say continues to fail communities of color.
One group involved in the protest is the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, and a post-verdict email from them outlines what they're calling on Oaklanders to demand, including "The maximum sentence for killer cop Johannes Mehserle", jail for Officers Pirone and Domenici, and "massive funding to Oakland for education and jobs for Oakland's black, Latina/o, Asian, and poor and working-class white youth."
Reginald James, a teacher at the Oakland Freedom School, said of the scene after the verdict, "It's a media circus -- they're trying to capitalize off others' pain. See someone crying, go take their photo." He said when the verdict came down, "People were paralyzed. Some people didn't know what to expect, some were surprised, for some people it kinda confirmed what's already been implied in the mainstream press. I cant even get a sandwich downtown right now because people expected acquittal or involuntary manslaughter, which would lead people to revert to property damage or violence."
Mayor Ron Dellums emphasized the attention that the case has drawn. "The tragic reality... is that this is not the first young African American male that's lost his life in this kind of tragedy....Many people have died here and around the country, but they end up being... a statistic in a newspaper." He said what's different in this case is that modern technology helped to document and transmit the incident to mass audiences.
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