Oscar Grant: Remonitions on Loss, Rage, Love, and The Bay Area’s Emotional Outpouring.

People with Cell Phones made this National News.

Controversial Police Shooting is what Wolf Blitzer on CNN is calling it. “New Developments: RAGE IN THE STREETS.”

Oscar Grant III. Anita Gay. Gary King Jr. These are the names that I know of, I know there are more. They must’ve not been in broad daylight when they were murdered, or gunned down on a main street during rush hour, or shot in the back on New Year’s on a BART platform with a train full of passengers whom had in their possesion camera phones.

I was at the protest at the Fruitvale BART station, where Oscar Grant III was killed by FORMER police officer, Johannes Mehserle (who apparently no longer has to give a statement since he resigned).

“Mehserle’s resignation takes away BART’s ability to leverage a statement out of him, since he can no longer be fired for remaining silent,” Orloff said. (Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff)

For what it’s worth, it was probably one of the most diverse protests I’ve ever been to. It’s always wild to see so many different kinds of people from hella different backgrounds who are affected and reeling from tragedies such as Oscar Grant’s murder. The media can’t just be like, “Blacks are outraged over this,” or use some language that isolates the grief and anger, everyone is hurt to some degree. Well, the media can, does, and will say whatever they damn well please, but at least we can take away from the pictures the range of the people gathered.

After listening to the devastatingly hopeful words spoken by demonstators, participating in one sustained ‘make as much noise as you can’ moment, reflecting in our collective and individual moment(s) of silence, taking in all of the visuals and people, and talking to plenty of loved ones at the protest I left feeling all the rage, calmness, confusion, love, pain, admiration, and fear that I came into the protest with. While we were driving back home my homie got a text from his sister saying that ‘we left just in time’ because people had started rioting.

For me, protests and riots are very complicated. I love and hate them. (My mama told me to never use the word ‘hate’ because it is a very strong word, thanks mama, but i feel very strongly about protests and riots so i chose to use the word this time).

I hate protests because like so many others i’m tired of going to protests where nothing but talk and yelling happens, and hella often it feels like the speakers are yelling angrily at me like it was me who did something wrong. Adrizzle of ILL-Literacy captured my thoughts and feelings about protests exactly when he wrote, “i stopped going to protests for the same reason i stopped going to church–the speakers always talk like they’re better than you, and i hate when people tell me to stand up when i’m already standing. but this was a good one.”

I hate protests because I’m tired of people with their communist manifestos and newspapers and all that shit, because that shit always feels hella idealistic and arrogant to me. I’m not saying don’t be idealistic, but damn, in some ways they feel like the religious right to me, always trying to beat you over the head with their ideas, when most of them just seem lost in the clouds, sorry i just have to write what i feel.

I hate protests because we all know that gathering is not enough. Gathering didn’t prevent our government from waging an ongoing War on Terror, gathering will not bring back Oscar Grant or anyone else lost to senseless acts of violence. But we already know that, and still we gather, which leads me into why i love protests.

I love protests because they remind me that i am not alone in my thoughts and emotions and understandings surrounding injustice. While we all grieve individually, we come together to let each other as well as the families of the victims know that they are not alone in their grief, fear, and confusion. We all cannot feel or understand the depths of the pain, but we can show that we care and do not want a family’s loss to go unseen, unacknowledged, and forgotten.

I hate riots because i hate that violence begets more violence, and loss begets even more loss, and the cycle remains continuous.

I hate riots because people who are not involved are forced to become involved because they now suffer and are victims from the chaos that is ‘the mob.’ People, businesses, cars, etc, of people who had nothing to do with the killing of Oscar Grant,  were injured, destroyed, and defaced last night. Ingorance begets further ignorance, and dumb shit begets more dumb shit. Of course losing a loved one is worse than losing a business, but that is the lamest fuckin’ excuse as to why local businesses windows are being smashed and defaced, especially the businesses of other people of color (fuck McDonalds).

I hate riots because the holice get to squad up in their cowboy riot gear and cause even more havoc, when it’s their violent murderous actions that are the reason that people are rioting in the first place.

I hate riots because they usually wind up, in the everyday course of things, making shit worse on the day to day. Riots usually happen in neighborhoods and areas that are heavily populated with poor people of color. When shit gets fucked up it is almost always their shit that gets fucked up. Those already victimized by oppression simply become more burdened. Also, new laws get created to allow the police more freedoms to hurt and subject people.

I hate the word riot. Often the word riot is used in place of the word uprising, because riots are representative of uncontrolled chaos and are easily criminalized and racialized by government officials, the holice, and the media. The word uprising elludes that there has been a wrongdoing or injustice inflicted upon a person or people to which people are now justifiably reacting in response to.

I love riots, or rather, uprisings because they are a natural outlet of rage in opposition to authority inflicting injustice. If you are going to fuck up my people and my community i should have the right to fuck up your shit too. Which why it is almost theraputic to watch a police car be stomped on by some hyphy ass dudes, light things on fire, and watch unarmed people confront a line of police in full riot gear. It’s a false sense of power and control and it feeds into unhealthy thoughts of vengence, but it remains empowering nonetheless, even if it is somewhat ephemeral and short lived.

It’s not that i hate more than i love. It’s because of love that i can have the relationships that i have with people, and it’s why i can express myself in the ways that i do. All of the progressive social change that i have seen over the years have always occured do to the use of love as a guiding principle. If i think about my favorite people and favorite aritsts i can easily see how it is their own love of people and life that makes me admire and love them reciprocally. I simply hate because there is some reprehensible shit that i hella dont want to see in our collective and individual reactions to oppression and tragedy.

All in All, there is really no reason for me to believe that justice will be served in the killing of Oscar Grant. Can anyone tell me of a case in which an officer has been sentenced to time in prison over the killing of an innocent person? If so, please let me know, because there is no prior conviction that i can think of that would suggest to me that this will not play out like all the similar cases before this one. This is not nihilism, because I do have hope, and i do want this case to be different, but i also recognize that there are no past occurances that would give me reason to believe that somehow this time actually WILL be different. Even IF Obama is our new president.

As i was driving home last night at around 2 a.m. i took a left turn past a cop car and the thought rolled through my head that if he shot me right then and there it would most likely go unnoticed. it was the middle of the night and there was nobody around and i was scared at the thought, and then i was hella mad that this has to be something that scares me as im driving home to go to sleep. Not a camera phone in sight. Sweet dreams, huh.

Peace,

G-Mitch.

Happy Belated Brother Shabazz

I was playing tetris when i should have been studying and was listening to these in the background. These gotta be sampled and put into an album, hopefully mine, ASAP. Wow how bout the one way back when talking about black people living in a police state and how police are allowed to kill black people…hmmm. way back when is way right now too.

They’ve had their professional liars for so damn long! A whole history of Bill O’Reilly’s!

The criminalization of the black person:

Who Are You? Slavename?

Worldwide Revolution Going On:

Brotha Malcolm got mad funnies man.

Sometimes I forget to think about how got-damn important he was and still is. I never really forget, but then listening to all these clips just reminds me why his life has affected mine so much. These clips are so relevant 45, 50 years later. wow. that’s a long ass time, but then again it’s short in terms of his/her/ourstory. Thanks to whoever put these on youtube.

Slavename.

Police State Status.

Gescard Isnora, Marc Cooper, and Michael Oliver at a press conference last week, some time after hearing their “not guilty” verdict.

So it’s been about a week since the not-guilty verdict came down from the judge in the case of Sean Bell’s murder.

3 police go free for killing an African- American male and seriously wounding two others. Wednesday hundreds of people in New York blocked rush-hour traffic in protest of the police aquittals. There were at least 216 arrests.

Even Al got arrested.

Meanwhile, here is footage of what’s happening in Philly right now. (No wonder these Philly rappers are so heated right now). I’m sure this ain’t the only reason of course. Fuck.

These men have already been characterized as “murderers” by the Philadelphia police Commissioner. So they are made to be guilty already. No proof. Stereotypes, racism, criminalizing the victim(s), this is always how it happens. Police departments and the media have been doing this for centuries now. It’s a science. Making the victim the perpetrator and the perpetrator the victim and you have a spun story…

Not to mention the wrongful police killings of Gary King Jr. and Anita Gay by Oakland and Berkeley Police officers in the past 8 months. Nor does it include the beating of Michael Fykes by Cleveland police. No matter where you look it’s happening. Police beating, detaining, killing, unjustifiably justified. Sometimes they have video which makes people appalled so they gasp and say that shouldn’t happen, but it does. And it never stops really. Whether it’s 1 shot or 51 shots. Whether it’s 1 cop or 14 beating three people.

We also currently have over 2 million people incarcerated in the US right now, that figure does not include those under house arrest, on papers, etc. ICE is going crazy arresting, detaining, and deporting (peep the post right before this one). Amerika is a POLICE STATE, don’t get it twisted.

Fed the fuck up.

Signing out From the land of the free to be killed by the Police State and State Institutions,

Slavename.

ICE ICE BABY.

I got a text message last night warning about how there have recently (like the past couple days at least) been Migra sweeps at public schools around the East Bay! “ICE sweeps, public schools, Berkeley High, East Oakland, West Oakland…” The message continued, but i just peeped the Oakland “conservative” Tribune today and there was an article in there today about a few homes in Berkeley and Oakland where ICE came and snatched up families so WATCH OUT for federal agents, cuz they are on a mission right now! So not just schools but errywhere!

This is damn damn troubling, i can only imagine the fear and confusion of the people trying to avoid these raids. ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement formerly known as Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)) is an incredibly destructive and problematic agency of the government. They perform raids all over the country tearing apart thousands of families and deporting and detaining (with an without charges) working people. Here’s just one example in Dallas. This problem is waaay too frequent and waaaay too silent in non-immigrant households and needs to be PUT ON BLAST as loud as possible.

Here’s a mini but potent article you NEED to know about:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/06/18497395.php

Sfgate reporting:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/07/BA8B10HRUS.DTL&feed=rss.news

Know Your Rights! Go to immigrantrights.org:

http://immigrantrights.org/knowrights.asp#toolkit

Peace Duckin’ the Feds,

Slavename.

Allen Jackson Takes Stand Against Berkeley Police!…and then is condemned for it.

Allen Jackson, the president of the Berkeley branch of  the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, took a stand and decided to make a statement condemning the BPD two days after Anita Gay was killed February 16 by Berkeley police officer Rashawn Cummings.  

Granted, even though it wasn’t until this morning that I even knew that Berkeley had a branch of the NAACP, this is still some bullshit to hear about how they, along with Henry Wellington, president of the Berkeley Police Association and Shira Warren, president of the Berkeley Black Police Officers Association are dumbing down Allen Jackson’s attempts to speak out against police brutality. 

In the paraphrased version of Allen Jackson’s said statement written in an article by Kristen Bender of the Oakland Tribune– (a destructive news reporter, as she is responsible for most of the Tribune’s coverage of Meleia Willis-Starbuck’s death and the subsequent cases, in one of the East Bay’s notoriously conservative newspapers)– Jackson is being criticized for criticizing the Berkeley police department for not using a “nonlethal method of apprehension” and also that it is “apparent that the only thing in the mind of a Berkeley police officer is to kill any African American that they can.”

Now, I cannot personally recall a time when I’ve ever been glad to hear what the NAACP has to say, but that is not to say that they do not or have not played an important role in the history of Civil Rights in Amerika. They unfortunately have been pretty conservative in their politics for decades now, and do not have anywhere close to the level of credibility within “the black community” –(i don’t like using this term, because i do not believe that their is a black community nor do i like to generalize and use blanket statements as if there is one all encompassing black consciousness and view of things, but for lack of a better term)– that they once had… decades ago.

Despite this, it was nice to hear these words from Allen Jackson particularly because while living through times when it seems like every police officer- white, black, brown, purple, whatever- has immunity when it comes to killing black people, and in times when people of color, especially black people, are continuously fucked over over by this criminal (in)justice system we have in Amerikkka, it is nice to hear words that re-affirm your right to EXIST and have a voice, especially a voice that emits words of truth and go against the mainstream media coverage and dominant power structures.

I’d like to say thank you to Allen Jackson for his courageous words, and I’d like to say fuck you to the Oakland Tribune, Berkeley Police Association, and the Berkeley Black Police Officers Association for defending police brutality (no surprises there) even when fatal. And I would also like to say “Come on now… get it together…” to the NAACP nationally and locally.

Signing off from the city that they love to call liberal, even with racist cops killing black folks out here- Berkeley, Ca.

G-Mitch.

Peace.

Gary King Jr., Anita Gay, Sean Bell Murdered By Oakland/Berkeley/New York Police

This post is dedicated to Anita Gay, Gary King Jr., all of their families and friends, and all of the countless other victims of police killings and brutality that go unnoticed, unannounced, and are given some form of justification by racist police departments across the country.

Gary King Jr. was wrongfully shot and killed by the notoriously corrupt Oakland Police Department on September 20, 2007. Immediately action was taken by his family, friends, and concerned community members to fight for justice in this case of fatal police brutality. 

Gary King Jr. was 20 years old when he was killed by Sgt. Pat Gonzalez of the Oakland Police Department. A myspace page with a brief profile has since been set up in his memory. Also the city of Oakland allowed family and friends to erect a mural on the pillars of the BART tracks at the place he was slain.

The incidents around King’s murder remain extremely suspect. Police claimed he was reaching for a weapon as he ran away, but witnesses (even “neutral” witnesses) say that he was pulling his pants up as he ran. He was suspected of being a suspect, and ultimately killed for being a young black male in the vicinity of a police officer who was willing to shoot and kill King in the back as he ran away from being accused of a murder that he did not commit and was not even a suspect in! According to an article written by George Ciccariello-Maher:

…Gary King and a group of friends were walking out of East Bay Liquors. A patrol officer, Sgt. Pat Gonzales, was headed southbound on the other side of MLK, near the 55th Street light. The officer claims to have identified King as a potential suspect in a murder that had occurred nearby a month prior – note here the words “potential” and “suspect.”

For anyone who knows the geography of the incident, this “identification” was quite a feat: A full block away, looking diagonally across six lanes and between the thick pillars supporting the BART tracks, Gonzales was allegedly capable of identifying King.

The officer crossed under the tracks, tires squealing, to confront the group of teens in front of the liquor store. According to witnesses, Gonzales grabbed King by his dreads, while it remains unclear if the officer was attempting to carry out an arrest. After King pulled away from Gonzales, the officer used his Taser to try to incapacitate this “potential suspect.”

You should read this article (again, if you’ve already read it).

Anita Gay –(I could not find a picture of her)– was killed 11 days ago by officer Rashawn Cummings of the Berkeley Police Department. Gay, a 51-year old mother and grandmother. Witnesses to this shooting were not allowed to get help for Gay after she was shot by police and lay bleeding on her porch. Witnesses also dispute the police’s report of her being a danger to her daughters.

http://www.nbc11.com/news/15332459/detail.html

It is terribly disturbing that in damn near every case where police officers murder people, the media is quick to justify it through somehow placing a weapon on the victim. It is just as disturbing that so many people are quick to believe these stories that are often so far fabricated and one-sided (MOST OFTEN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S SIDE) that they choose not to even interview witnesses with disputing accounts of what happened. Even when they do they tell the public the story from the perspective of the police who OF COURSE are going to say that it was justified. Why would they do the right thing and claim that they have officers who patrol our streets and murder people for no good reasons.

I hope that we all recall Sean Bell, and his story of being murdered by undercover police November 25, 2006 in Queens New York at the age of 23, hours before he was to be married. He was shot and killed as 50 bullets were fired in he and his friends direction. Two of his friends were seriously wounded. Luckily for them the shots were not fatal. Sean Bell was not this lucky.

Sean Bell’s father testified this morning about the final night he spent with his son.

These murders committed by police of black people across the country have all somehow been justified. But all of these cases, plus all of the cases that do not receive national or even local attention continue to represent unprovoked violence to the point of being fatal upon black bodies across the nation. These racist, ignorant, and rash tactics take lives that could have been spared, and continue to remind us as black people that we are ALWAYS under the constant threat of fatal violence especially by those who they try to convince us are here to “protect and serve.” That’s all bullshit to me. I don’t trust police, and I never will trust police.

These killings also demonstrate something that far too many people do not understand and that is that the race of the officer who shoots and kills these victims is irrelevant in terms of the racism involved. Let me make that make sense. A black or latino officer that kills another black person is committing a racist crime. While the officer may not be outwardly racist or even believe himself to have made an incredibly rash decision based on race, we live in a country that teaches us to fear black and brown bodies, and this teaching is embedded into ALL OF US despite the color of our skin. These killings illuminate how our fears of dark bodies and our subconscious racism becomes externalized in the most disturbing and fatalistic ways. 

These murders HAVE NOT remain unnoticed. Much activism and progressive media has gone into fighting for the rights of Sean Bell and Gary King Jr., and others.

March for Justice in the Murder of Gary King Jr. and in solidarity with the Jena 6.

Michael Moore on police brutality, racism, and the murder of Amadou Diallo. (Moore turns it into satirical humor, which none of what i just wrote is like, but he makes some good points in it. It seems like white folks need to be spoonfed shit in a humorous way or else they ain’t tryin to hear it, ex. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert).

Democracy Now! on the Murder of Sean Bell.

Peace,

G-Mitch