- On New Years morning a 22-year old man, the father of
a four year old daughter, was shot and killed by Bart police in the Fruitvale
BART station.
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- He had two jobs and had turned his life around. He also
had many friends.
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- For any crime of this nature, committed by a civilian,
a "police report" would be mandatory within hours of the event;
especially when there were three videos of what happened. The officer's
gun is in police custody, the officer is a FEDERAL police officer, as
BART is a federal agency: So procedures should have been clearly followed
immediately. Yet, it is now a week later and the officer has still not
even been interviewed, according to the 'chief' of BART police. Yesterday
he quit the force, so that he would not have to give his version of events:
and this sparked the riots!
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- Numerous "investigations" (whitewashes one
and all, after all this time has passed) but still the public gets
no response from any of their so-called officials that were supposed to
be on top of this from the beginning: especially since the victim was
black.
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- The 'rumor' is that the officer thought he was going
to shoot the victim with his stun gun, instead of his police revolver
that "accident' is manslaughter which carries an automatic
prison sentence, if he is convicted. It took the BART police five days
to come up with that lame idea that the officer 'thought he was using
his stun gun' instead of his service revolver,
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- If this death was on purpose then it was murder plain
and simple as the man was face-down on the platform with his hands behind
his back, and he was not resisting the three pig-like individuals that
were surrounding him; one was directly on top of him and the other two
supporting whatever was going on.
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- The bullet went through the victim entering through his
lower back and ricocheting off the sidewalk back into his upper body and
that killed him instantly. The "police" apparently are treating
this as an accident and not as a death that needs to be dealt with, like
it does with all those other black men that commit crimes in Oakland
California. If a black man had shot an unresisting white man a police
report would have been written by the following day, if not sooner: and
the officer would have been grilled immediately.
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- In this case the officer has still not given a statement
as to what happened nor has he been arrested. Instead the BART Police
Chief said "his privacy is being respected because he has been devastated
by what happened." Wonderful what about the nightmare that
his actions caused for the man's loved ones and the community, nevermind
the fact that he killed a man. Justic might be blind but she cannot be
indifferent? The officer, Johannes Mehserle has been moved several times
because his life has been threatened. However If. Mehserle was in jail;
where he should be, he could be put under 24-hour guard and protected
from death threats. But this was not done either.
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- Here's what the San Francisco Chronicle had to say in
part.
- "The protest had started calmly shortly after 3
p.m. at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland, where BART police Officer Johannes
Mehserle shot 22-year-old Grant of Hayward a week ago. BART shut down
the station well into the evening commute, although the demonstration
there was peaceful.
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- However, shortly after nightfall, a group of roughly
200 protesters split off and headed toward downtown Oakland, prompting
the transit agency to close the Lake Merritt and 12th Street stations.
The group wreaked havoc through much of downtown, drawing hundreds of
police in riot gear. It wasn't until roughly 10:40 p.m that police clamped
down on the mob, arresting dozens who were cornered near the Paramount
Theatre, and bringing an end to the mayhem.
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- Earlier in the evening, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums met
the mob on 14th Street, urging calm and leading them on a walk to City
Hall, where he gave a speech. I sense your frustration," he told
the crowd. "I understand that you've lost confidence in a process
because you've seen what you believe is a homicide ... But listen to
me, we are a community of people. We are civilized people. We are a nation
of laws"".
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- Apparently the Oakland crowd found this blatant lie to
be just 'too much' to stomach once again and especially from the government
that has done everything it can to destroy Oakland and its citizens rather
than to even attempt anything to even remotely begin to save it or them!
(2)
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- Riots can be very dangerous things as they tend to develop
a life of their own. And as the participants 'know' that nothing gets
media coverage unless there is at least some destruction of property,
the future for those involved here appears to only be just beginning:
thanks entirely to the cavalier attitude of the police and the government
at all levels!
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- kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
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- 1) Protests over BART shooting turn violent
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- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/07/
MN2N155CN1.DTL
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- 2) News Videos of the Oakland BART shooting
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- http://www.google.com/search? sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GFRD_enUS225US225&q=News+Videos
+of+the+Oakland+BART+shooting
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