It has been 10 months since the Oscar Grant killing, but today is a big day for Officer Mehserle and the murder charges that are being brought against him. At noon there was a press conference a lot of local leaders and community members attended and at 2pm there is a hearing to determine whether the case should be held in another county.
Mehserle's attorney claims that the former Bart officer cannot receive a fair trial in Alameda County due to the outrage many Oaklanders feel about the situation. The main reason that Mehserle's camp wants the trial moved is because they believe the racial divide in the community is too big, and the relationship between the police and the locals too strained. I agree that a lot of people already have their mind made up, but you're telling me you can't find anyone in Alameda County without an anti-police bias? I don't believe that.
My biggest opposition to the location change is that the murder happened in Oakland, why should they move it some where else? This murder impacted our people and our community, not Contra Costa or any other county. He should have to answer to a group of peers in the location where he fatally shot Mr. Grant. Coinciding with this press conference and the potential venue change, Kev Choice has released a song called "Hopefully" that speaks directly to the Oscar Grant killing. I am glad to see that artists have not forgotten about the killing and the social problems that are going on in our city. After the killing on New Years Day, everybody and their mama wanted to release a tribute song, but as time passed, silence took over. Now with the trial quickly approaching, we must stand up together and let everyone know that we have not forgotten. Food for thought and a song for dessert.
Last month I had the pleasure of chopping it up with Dead Prez about their new mixtape and forthcoming album, but I also took the opportunity to ask them about some remarks they made regarding the Lovelle Mixon shootings at this years SXSW concert. As much as I have thought about the Grant/Mixon/Bart/OPD fiasco, I think Stic.Man connects them all in a pretty solid and logical progression. Check it out below, and read my full interview with them HERE.
GIANT: There was a recording of Dead Prez performing at SXSW at which yall announced the shootings of four police officers in Oakland, CA. Your announcement seemed somewhat celebratory and there were cheers in the crowd. In the “conscious” hip-hop scene there is plenty of revolutionary rhetoric, but not much action. Did you see the shooting of the Oakland Police officers as a revolutionary act?
Stic.Man: Rebellion happens in different ways and in different stages. The revolution is the process of people becoming conscious that we need power and then demanding it through organization. In instances where an unarmed brother (Oscar Grant) can get blasted for no reason laying down in hand cuffs in front of everyone, I think its progressive that people say “Hey Man our lives are not guaranteed and it’s the system that’s taking them.”
These events put people in a state of emergency and fear. They don’t know what’s gonna happen when they get stopped by the police. They could comply, lay down on their face in hand-cuffs and still get blown away. When you force people to live in those kinds of conditions, people are gonna react to survive. So I think the things you’ve seen in Oakland in the past, and the recent stuff, is evidence of that. People might not be politically developed enough to call themselves revolutionaries, but they are socially smart enough to say “God damnit Im gonna live. I’m not just gonna let someone take my life.” And I see that as a revolutionary development.
Zumbi of Zion I and The Are of The Trackmasters have teamed up to form The Burnerz. I don't know how permanent this arrangement is, but they have gone in hard on their debut. "Cops Hate Kidz" is addressing the recent cop killings in Oakland, and while it would never be misconstrued as pro-police, its more accusatory of the overall system that creates such contentious relationships and combustible situations. Zumbi writes on his blog:
To the youth, I implore you to seek greater understanding in these difficult times. “Fuck the Police” is an easy reaction to what’s going on. I feel that way sometimes too. But, every police officer is not bad, just like every person from the hood is not good. People are people, some are just messed up in the head. The system is what needs to be held accountable. Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated into becoming another statistic about murder rates in Oakland. If you’re going to fight, lets fight with our minds as a collective to change this rotting system. With love and respect…R.I.P. Oscar Grant and the countless other lives lost to senseless killings.
This commentary aside, Zumbi speaks on a very real give-and-take dynamic between youth and police on "Cops Hate Kidz." If cops kill kids, then kids will kill cops right back. I'm not saying that Lovelle Mixon was channeling the memory of Oscar Grant or that he was justified in his actions, but we shouldn't be so surprised that this happened. OPD has been a volatile force in Oakland for years, and with young people of color being a regular target for them, it is fairly logical that at some point this situation would reach a retaliatory breaking point.
That point has come, and it's on us to address it before we sink into civil war, martial-like law or plain hopelessness. This is our city and I will no longer tolerate this genocide no matter who is killed. I feel bad for the officers who died, but worse for all the other faceless names that have passed through the Tribune's headlines over the years with zero fanfare. This one is for yall.
David Banner and East Palo Alto's Hoodstarz team up to pay tribute to the slain Oscar Grant and demand that the Bay Area community stand up. This is particularly important since Officer Mehserle was just released from Santa Rita on bail.
I think these sentiments are real and should be heeded, but we also must be smart regarding how we go about standing up. Protests are important to rally people, but spectacle is not enough. I think too many of us have these romanticized images of us being modern day Panthers in the face of gross injustice. The Panthers did rally, most famously to Free Huey, but they also had survival programs which included the Breakfast for School Children Program, Free Health Clinics, Liberation Schools, Community Control of the Police and Street Patrols of Oakland Police.
Watch to the end to see Huey P Newton speaking. He speaks on the party, the police and white people's place in the struggle, something very relevant for the white folks out rallying for Oscar Grant. If we are so worried about police brutality, why are we not following police around town and monitoring them as the Panthers did. Or filming police activity with video cameras as Tupac used to do? Why are we all big talk down at City Hall but not focusing more energy on helping Oscar Grant's family? Remember that one of the Panther's mottos was "Survival Pending Revolution." We can't forget about the survival part amidst our activist fervor. This is not to bad mouth any one who is down protesting, but more of a challenge for us to act more strategically. We must care more about the cause and the people truly affected by it, than we do the allure of public action.
Mikkey Halsted isn't from Oakland, but he seems to have a pretty firm grasp on what Oakland has and can represent. I often get frustrated thinking that Oakland is merely hyphy minstrel central in the national consciousness, but thankfully even out in Chicago, some understand The Town on a different level. I don't want to beat Oscar Grant to death, but this really is an amazing opportunity to mobilize. Oakland has led the way before.
Hip hop artist Deuce Eclipse is the self-described first rapper to rep Nicaragua, but his home is the Bay Area. His politically charged lyrics help bring a focus to both Deuce's personal struggles as well as those faced by the whole Latino community. One struggle that the entire Bay Area youth community is especially galvanized behind right now is police brutality, given the Oscar Grant shooting. Leon Sykes talks to Deuce Eclipse about his participation in protests organized by the Coalition Against Police Execution (C.A.P.E.)-- an organization formed to "insure that Oscar Grant is the last citizen executed by police in this country."- YR's Nate Hadden
Check out this mezcla of sound and soul courtesy of Jon Reyes & iLL-Lit's Drizz. He addresses Oakland and the Oscar Grant injustice and upheaval. Definitely worth the download (Click link below. Then on the pg that opens, right click link and click "Save link as" on the menu to DL)
Also Peep Drizz's montage of the protest at City Hall yesterday. Props to all the folks who made it peaceful and successful. Womps to all you knuckleheads who think you can masquerade as opportunistic wannabe revolutionaries and idiots in my Town. Now sip on that molotov for me young squire.
Also, check out Too $hort's speech at the rally, in which he implores the crowd to be peaceful out of respect for The Town we love so much. That's real. If you rep it, respect it!
Ron Dellums can pour the the salves of oratorical grandeur in our ears all day, but until he actually does something substantive to serve the people and justice, I remain skeptical at best. In the clip above, from yesterday's rally, he asks us to join him. But to join him at this juncture is to remain dormant. He must serve us before he asks of us, end of story. I do not support senseless violence by anyone, BUT Dellums keeps demanding peace of demonstrators without demanding it of the system that took Grant's life. I know that Dellums has a history in the field of civil rights, but I just don't feel genuine compassion or anger coming from him. Show us that you are on our side Mr. Mayor, before you ask us to join you. Name recognition and past achievments mean nothing to Oakland now. Lead as you have been charged to.
Oakland native Davey D makes some excellent points regarding Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' lack of leadership. Why can't he or any other public officials, police or BART representatives just come forward and apologize? Telling us to "cool out" as Dellums said today doesn't help. Don't patronize us, help the situation. We have seen the video, so the bullshit limbo act isn't going to work this time. Man up and stop treating us like we're children who aren't smart enough to understand "the process." Where was any sort of "process" when Oscar Grant was executed?
Dellums has done nothing since he was sworn in, but his latest inaction is just insulting. He has tried to substitute rhetoric for action for too long. This time he better get a clue and some balls and do something.
Above: Davey D's radio show offers insights into past incidents of Oakland Police murder and features Bay Area rapper D Labrie and Grant family attorney John Burris.
I have an article to finish and a bunch of songs to post and ramble about, but at present I can't focus my attention on anything other than the events surrounding the death of Oscar Grant. I am outraged by Grant's execution at the hands of the police and am upset about the riotous turn the subsequent protest took. If you don't know the particulars, google it, it's everywhere. As noted, by the Grant family's attorney, John Burris, this is a crazy case in that there is so much video evidence that has surfaced showing a BART officer killing Grant execution style by standing over him and shooting him in the back.
I don't want to delve too much into the legitimacy of Officer Johannes Mehserle's actions or any events that preceded the shooting, because nothing excuses such actions. NOTHING. Yesterday a protest took place that shut down the Fruitvale BART Station where the shooting occurred. From what I've heard, from friends and family in attendance, the protest was peaceful and effective.
Unfortunately, a group of protesters spilled down East 14th St towards downtown after the rally. The live coverage was saying that the crowd had turned "rowdy," based on the video below. The crowd sets a dumpster on fire and rocks a cop car, but nothing outrageous. In true police fashion, they fire tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bags into the crowd and hit the on-scene reporter at the end of this clip.
Things would get uglier however as we have all seen and heard. I understand the frustration and anger that we all feel, but I'm frustrated about our lack of discipline last night. We have a sound and righteous cause, and yet we are allowing ourselves to be led astray. We aren't stupid for lashing out, but our energies must be unified and thought out. Many took to the streets informed and with the best intentions and so we need to be careful about being accusatory. It is not my intention to make blanket indictments, I'm only trying to say that we need to control ourselves so that the police won't. Disproving the media myth of indiscriminate mayhem, four Oakland teens express their frustration in an informed manner in the video below. Clearly the police are in the wrong and created this climate and continued to be unpopular by arresting over 100 people last night, but much of the crowd's behavior was out of line and unproductive. Have we not learned from Watts, DC, Crown Heights, Cleveland and the numerous other cities to experience riots, that destroying random property in your city and neighborhoods does no one any good?
I want justice for Oscar Grant, his family and Oakland, but this is not the way to go about it. I don't want us to shrug and go on about our lives, I DO want us to maintain that anger and energy, but I want us to channel it constructively. This is a great tragedy, but with tragedy comes opportunity. We have the ears and eyes of the nation on us, but we are abusing that opportunity by making ourselves look like roaming idiots. I know a lot of you went to the protest and took part in the demonstration and march, so I want to know how you feel. I am not in town and so can only cling to second hand news and slanted reporting, but from what I hear and see, it was not a good showing of us as Oaklanders. Riots have seldom led to progress. I understand the concept behind "No Justice, No Peace," but random acts of violence don't help anyone. We messed up a police car or two, but we caused more damage to private property that has nothing to do with the City or the Police. I think visiting the DA's office was a good move on behalf of local preachers and residents, but I think we need to do that to Mayor Dellums and the city counsel as well. We need to clog the jails and sit outside the police station. We need to make the city function at our command. We are protesting excessive force so hopefully the police will not use it in shutting down our activities. That is, unless we give them every excuse in the book to like we did last night.
I understand that much of the destruction was the work of random knuckleheads and opportunistic, out-of-town anarchists, but we allowed it to happen. It showed that without leadership, it's hard to rally around a common vision and strategy. And I don't mean we need a figure head, but we need a unified thesis so that we can stand and act in solidarity. The city's "leadership" have clearly proved themselves unworthy once again, but we shouldn't be surprised. To quote William Wallace from Braveheart, "Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." We need to stop looking to their long official sounding titles for guidance, where is our courage? Smashing the windows of small businesses does not take courage. Stomping on random cars does not take courage. I am glad that folks are upset enough to mobilize but WE ALSO NEED TO BE DISCIPLINED. Last night too many of us insulted the memory of Oscar Grant by using his wrongful death as an excuse to indiscriminately fuck shit up. As much as city officials decry the violence and destruction of these skirmishes, you better believe that they are relieved too. Why? Because riots tend to lose focus and momentum and burn out. Folks have taken out their aggression, but not done anything to resolve the original source of their frustration. We are kidding ourselves if we think smashing some windows will bring Oscar back or make BART, the police or the city act any quicker. Oakland expects riots just like every other major city. That's why they have SWAT teams. That response has been played out and doesn't work. It doesn't harm those who are ignoring our calls for justice, it only harms our fellow citizens and business owners who we need on our side. We need to be more creative and comprehensive. To quote Braveheart again, "I know you can fight, but it our wits that make us men." If we choose to utilize violence as part of our strategy then that is fine. But it must fit into a broader framework that makes sense. 30 protesters will not beat a SWAT team toe-to-toe, they will merely contradict the more peaceful message sent earlier at the protest. And that contradiction will allow authorities to identify all of us as lawless because we are all holding the same banners. If 10,000 protesters decide to stand up in unity to carry out some large scale acts of strategic violence, then that can be different, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking that's what last night was.We are angry. But blinded by our anger we act out rather than act right. The moment we lash out randomly, we cede our just cause and give authorities and police the power we held. If we can't control ourselves, each other, or our causes then idiots will control us. And idiots come in the form of car stomping teens, pseudo-revolutionary mercenaries, inept transit cops, abusive police officers and graying city officials.
WE NEED TO CONTROL THE MESSAGE AND OUR CAUSE. Don't let this become about the riots, make it about Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo and all the others killed and harassed by the police. Let it be about us as citizens taking back control of our streets by enacting real oversight in police matters. Hold the police, the city and us accountable. Let's go back to the drawing board, refine our message and strategies and come out unified. Yes splinter groups will always exist, but if we can dominate the message and THE ACTION, then we will be in a much better position to demand change. For starters, please go down town to assist and patronize the small business owners who had their shops damaged in the rioting. It's what a good neighbor, friend and Oaklander would do. Let our giving spirits be one of the qualities that define us and our response to this tragedy.
Coinciding with this press conference and the potential venue change, Kev Choice has released a song called "Hopefully" that speaks directly to the Oscar Grant killing. I am glad to see that artists have not forgotten about the killing and the social problems that are going on in our city. After the killing on New Years Day, everybody and their mama wanted to release a tribute song, but as time passed, silence took over. Now with the trial quickly approaching, we must stand up together and let everyone know that we have not forgotten. Food for thought and a song for dessert.
Coinciding with this press conference and the potential venue change, Kev Choice has released a song called "Hopefully" that speaks directly to the Oscar Grant killing. I am glad to see that artists have not forgotten about the killing and the social problems that are going on in our city. After the killing on New Years Day, everybody and their mama wanted to release a tribute song, but as time passed, silence took over. Now with the trial quickly approaching, we must stand up together and let everyone know that we have not forgotten. Food for thought and a song for dessert.
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