Subject: Oscar Grant

• The People vs. BART police

  March 11, 2009

• BART Erases Graffiti About Oscar Grant's Killing

  By Lauren SmileyIt seems riders' camera phones are BART's second worst nightmare these days. Second, of course, to Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop involved in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day. BART officials bemoaned in the Chron that the footage captured by passengers of the killing now circulating on the web and replayed on TV would taint witnesses' independent recollections of the event. As we reported last week on the Snitch, the BART Facebook page was asking for peopl

  January 8, 2009

• Grave Robbery in San Francisco: Protesters Evoke Oscar Grant's Bloody Corpse to Flog their Causes in Gaza, Greece, and God Knows What Else

  Two protesters, nine photographers. This is a problem. The Prison-Industrial Complex or the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy or whatever form The Man is assuming these days can rest easy in his bed. That's because the rabble-rousing radical left (aka white kids from the East Bay wearing hankies over their faces) can't stay on point. Monday night's Civic Center protest was supposed to be about 22-year-old Oscar Grant, shot dead by a BART cop on New Year's Day. From there, it morphed into how we're all

  January 13, 2009

• Shoot First: Mehserle Likely Only Bay Area Cop Ever Charged With Murder for On-Duty Killing

  Just like Johannes Mehserle, we can't give you a straight answer -- but the former BART police officer appears to be the first Bay Area cop to ever find himself charged with murder following a job-related shooting. Jim Chanin, a veteran Berkeley attorney who has prosecuted more than 20 police shooting incidents and is currently handling two in Oakland, couldn't recall a similar instance. The closest he could come was a policeman last year convicted of murder in Ohio -- but that man killed his pr

  January 14, 2009

• S.F. Police Union President: 'I Would Bet My Kids' Lives' Oscar Grant Shooting an Accident

  If Gary Delagnes had been the cop working next to Johannes Mehserle when the now-infamous ex-BART policeman shot Oscar Grant, he knows what he would have said: "What the fuck did you just do?"The 30-year cop and president of the San Francisco Police Officer Association said that watching the much-traveled Internet videos of Grant's shooting death is especially cringe-worthy for those in the police community, who are baffled by their fellow officer's behavior. "You watch the chain of events and i

  January 14, 2009

• Disgraced BART Cop Hires Barry Bonds' Lawyer -- But Don't Expect a Legal Home Run

  It was only a matter of time before Johannes Mehserle, the ex-BART officer accused of murdering unarmed passenger Oscar Grant, hired Pleasant Hill-based attorney Mike Rains. While the general public probably recognizes Rains primarily for his work representing Barry Bonds, in local legal circles he's known as the go-to guy for cops accused of misconduct. Rains most (in)famously represented one of the Oakland officers nicknamed "The Riders," who'd been accused of brutalizing suspects and planting

  January 22, 2009

• UCSF Study Shows Huge Spike in Deaths Immedately After Cops Adopt Tasers

  Over the past several years, police departments across the country have adopted the Taser, a brand of electroshock weapon, as a "less-lethal" alternative for when things get hot. The stun guns have been touted for their ability to reduce fatalities in law enforcement, but today, a first-of-its-kind study published online in the American Journal of Cardiology suggested Tasers do nothing of the sort. In fact, collective data from police depar

  January 23, 2009

• Never Mind Oscar Grant: Cell Phone Cameras May Be TERRIBLE for Social Protest Movements

  The only aspect of Oscar Grant's death that inspired cheering was the fact that it was caught on a cellphone camera. Bay Area commentators generally heralded this as a new day for the wonders of technology -- which, we were assured, would be socially empowering. "I have to say, I love cell phone videos. Best thing that's ever happened to the BART police," said the Guardian's Tim Redmond. Brittney Gilbert, of Eye On Blogs, was similarly enthused. "Sure, the BART station has security camera

  January 28, 2009

• Oscar Grant's Buddies File $1.5M Worth of Charges Against BART

  Five pals of the man shot dead by BART police on New Year's Day have filed a claim accusing the rapid transit system of illegal search and seizure, excessive force, and false arrest and are demanding $1.5 million. The claim was filed by lawyer John Burris, who earlier sued BART for $25 million on behalf of the family of Oscar Grant, and was brought about at the behest of Nigel Bryson, Jackie Bryson, Michael Greer, Carlos Reyes, and Fernando Anicete.  In addition to watching the mortal wound

  February 4, 2009

• Bag the Gag: First Amendment Coalition Joins Defense Attorney in Requesting Nixing of Gag Order in Oscar Grant Case

  Now he wants to talk!The California First Amendment Coalition yesterday filed a motion in Oakland Superior Court aimed at rescinding the gag order that currently prevents attorneys in the Oscar Grant case -- People v. Mehserle -- from commenting publicly. In a handful of words, the CFAC feels the public needs to be well-informed about the ongoing case and cannot be if the gag order -- instututed by Judge Morris Jacobson on Jan. 30 when he granted former BART officer Johannes Mehserle bail -- is

  February 10, 2009

• On the Waterfront: S.F. Longshoremen To Protest Racism, Cops, Racist Cops

  Still itching for a fight.No matter what you make of the politics of the hard-bitten types who run the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, you've got to hand it to them for keeping the drum beating. Since the radical left-wing syndicate was born out of the violent San Francisco Maritime Strike in 1934, it's shown plenty of backbone standing up for those with a compelling claim to being screwed by the system. Cops -- against whom the ILWU has nursed a blood-feud since police killed strik

  February 13, 2009

• Oscar Grant Protesters Hope to Shut Down Fruitvale BART Station Next Week

  More on the wayA group of East Bay residents protesting BART officials' handling of the shooting death of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day say they plan to shut down the Fruitvale station on Thursday, March 5, during evening rush hour. The effort will mark the first organized attempt by protesters to disrupt the commuter train's operations -- though, last month, BART service was disrupted by riots in response to Grant's death. George Ciccariello-Maher, an Oakland resident and spokesman for the pr

  February 26, 2009

• Oscar Grant B-Day Party at Black Dot Cafe

  EKAphotographyBeeda Weeda and friendThe national media attention has pretty much moved elsewhere, yet the tragic shooting death of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day remains a sore spot for many in the community. In death, Grant has become a poster boy (literally) for the case against police misconduct, as well as a hip-hop generation martyr. Let it be said that we'd much rather see people's frustrations and anger being channeled into positive channels than the alternative. Artists like Too Short

  February 27, 2009

• BART Vigilantes: Protesters Launch 'Tribunal' on Oscar Grant Killing

  anyjazz65Justice (or something) is a-comin'Activists upset over authorities' handling of the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle on New Year's Day plan to convene an "independent public tribunal" this week to investigate the incident. Handling the tribunal is the ponderously titled Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights By Any Means Necessary. (BAMN for short.) Yvette Felarca, Northern California director for BAMN, says the i

  March 2, 2009

• Hey, FOX News: San Francisco Has Enough Problems. Don't Pin Oscar Grant's Killing on Us.

  They 'report,' we decideConspiracy theories are not our thing. But considering the vitriol directed against San Francisco by FOX news' talking heads, it's a bit harder to shake off the above headline as a mere copy editor's boo-boo. To wit: Oscar Grant, who hailed from Hayward, was shot to death at an Oakland BART station by a cop from through the tunnel in Lafayette who was working for an inter-regional transit agency. And yet, what city gets the rap for this in FOX's world? The FOX news story

  March 3, 2009

• Comparing Public's Anguish -- and Reaction -- Regarding Police Murders, Oscar Grant Killing Is Natural, Justified -- and Wrong

  As the Bay Area's mood shifts from shock and horror over the senseless weekend murders of four Oakland police officers into a desire for the community to rise up and repudiate this sickening act, we can only measure the moments until some well-meaning soul utters the phrase "a teachable moment." This repudiation is all the more necessary, some elements within the community and media claim, because of the popular fervor surrounding the call for "justice" surrounding the Jan. 1 death of unarmed BA

  March 23, 2009

• S.F. park rangers want more power, guns

  February 11, 2009

• Here's a Shock: Cop Sues Taser Over Stun-Gun Safety

  Apparently, Taser training's not as fun as it looksThere are times when real-world events conspire overwhelmingly to defeat arguments for a policy or theory. Think about the fate of Soviet-style collective farming, say, or -- to pull an example from the past year's headlines -- the idea that unregulated financial markets are inherently self-correcting. A similar cosmic alignment seems to be taking place in response to paid consultants' suggestion that the San Francisco Police Department begin us

  May 1, 2009

• Green Day Featured in New York Times

  Jim Wilson/New York TimesIn the(ir) DNA: Green Day We've still got a few days to go before Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown, drops (on May 15, if you're wondering). And Bay Area audiences might be sick of the pop-punk superstars already, after a recent frenzy of live shows at mostly smaller venues previewing the new record. But while we've been lucky enough to take Green Day for granted, the national press is just warming up to the notion of the multiplatinum band's return. Take y

  May 4, 2009

• Chela Simone Tonight at Levende

  Back to Burn: Chela SimoneLevende Lounge's weekly emerging talent showcase "We All We Got" heats up tonight with an appearance by Chela Simone, one of the Bay Area's rawest female emcees. Imagine the lyrical finesse of MC Lyte with the revolutionary intellectualism of Sister Souljah--but coming from the Bay--and you might have an inkling of how dope Simone really is. Her fire is well-evident on "Shut 'Em Down" (featuring frequent collaborator Azeem), a song inspired by the Oscar Grant incident

  May 20, 2009

• Mission Protests for the Return of President Zelaya to Honduras (And Justice For Oscar Grant)

  Mission progressives descended on the 24th Street BART plaza this evening to protest for the return of President Manuel Zelaya to Honduras after the military coup on Sunday. Eric Quezada of Dolores Street Community Services and former District 9 supervisor candidate led the crowd of about 200 in a chant of "Se ve, se siente, el pueblo esta presente!" ("You can see it, and feel it, that the people are here!") and of course the old protest standby: "El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!" ("The peop

  July 1, 2009

• *You* Again? BART Vigilantes' Latest Scheme to Storm Board Meeting Fizzles.

  Goodbye vigilantism, hello public comment​Few causes have had the momentum of the outcry for justice that followed the killing of Oscar Grant. The unarmed, 22-year-old black man was shot to death by then-BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle (who is white) on a station platform on New Year's Day of this year. Riots in the streets of Oakland followed Grant's death, and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office took the unusual step of charging Mehserle with first-degree murder.Nevertheless,

  August 27, 2009

• It's Your Friday Morning News Quiz!

  He's frightfully busy...​Resignations! Condemnations! Tribulations! It's your Friday morning news quiz! 1. SF Weekly broke the story this week that former Supervisor and State Senator Carole Migden did what? A. Ran over more peopleB. Cursed a former staffer out on live televisionC. Opted not to run for supervisor againD. Failed to pay taxes between 1991 and 20062. Just how many SEIU workers are facing pending layoffs anyway? A. 546B. 500C. 45 to 100 D. Any of these3. What was found hidden bene

  November 20, 2009