Youth Radio - Topic: Bart

Youth Radio's Mural Tribute to Oscar Grant by Miguel "Bounce" Perez

wilmer — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:38:23 -0500

OAKLAND-Turning a community's outpouring of emotion into art, Miguel "Bounce" Perez created a tribute to Oscar Grant and other victims of police brutality on a building in downtown Oakland the night before the two year sentence was delivered for the transit cop who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Grant's death.

The building at 1701 Broadway is the home of youth organization and production company Youth Radio, which has been covering the story for almost two years. In July, when the verdict was announced, many businesses in the downtown area boarded their windows. Youth Radio invited muralists from the group "Trust Your Struggle," to paint on its boards, and the group created an iconic picture of Grant's face that supporters of Grant's family replicated for Facebook avatars and tribute posters.

The new mural, created by Perez in just hours, also has a rendering of Grant's face. Check out the video to hear him describe how concepts from Youth Radio students contributed to the rest of the piece.

Chapter Closes on Oscar Grant Shooting Trial, 152 Arrested [SLIDESHOW]

wilmer — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:00:03 -0500

OAKLAND-Police corralled and arrested 152 protesters in the area east of Lake Merritt Friday, the evening after the sentencing of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle had been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in July for shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back when he was face down and in custody.

From the Los Angeles Court House, Judge Robert Perry issued the minimum sentence, two years in state prison for the officer, sparking anger from Grant's family and their allies around the country. Mehserle was given double credit for time served, so his actual sentence is one year, 2 months and 13 days or less.

About 300 people gathered in front of Oakland City Hall throughout the afternoon in a peaceful demonstration, listening to speeches. At dusk, more demonstrators joined the crowd and they headed out of the downtown area, marching towards Fruitvale BART, scene of the Grant's shooting death. Youth Radio's Haldun Morgan reports that police started to chase the crowd, and that "protesters played cat and mouse with the police," weaving through neighborhoods. At one point, protesters tore down a resident's fence near Lakeshore Boulevard to run from the police. Then police surrounded about protesters when they were on 6th Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets. Police circled the demonstrators and would not let them exit. Police proceeded with arrests.

Oakland Speaks

wilmer — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:58:56 -0500

Youth Radio is gathering reflections from people in downtown Oakland as the city awaits today's sentencing of former transit cop Johannes Mehserle in the shooting death of Oscar Grant. Below are the writings and impressions coming from the streets. These will be updated throughout the day, and some will appear in Youth Radio's Grant Station magazine.

Mehserle Sentencing and The Unanswered Question: Should Transit Cops Have Guns?

wilmer — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:53:34 -0500

By Charlie Foster

Just how long Johannes Mehserle goes to prison for fatally shooting an unarmed train passenger will likely come down to one thing: his gun. Because while the ex-transit cop’s involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a sentence of as much as four years in state prison, a gun enhancement could tack on an additional ten years, taking the potential sentence to 14 years total.

A judge will sentence Mehserle on Friday for killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant during an arrest on Jan. 1, 2009, on a station platform in Oakland. In July, after deliberating for less than seven hours, a jury decided the death was unintentional. But by adding the gun enhancement, they seemed to reject Mehserle’s claim that he had mistaken his gun for a Taser.

Meanwhile, the shooting has generated a much longer and sweeping deliberation in the Bay Area and around the state about the weapons BART police officers carry on the job.

“The whole case raises the question of why BART cops even carry guns,” former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown wrote this summer in his column in the Chronicle. Guns, he argued, dont fit the job description for police whose jurisdiction revolves around trains and their stations. “It's not like they are real police officers out on patrol. They are transit cops.”

As certified peace officers, BART police do in fact wield the same authority as their counterparts who work the streets of Oakland, Los Angeles and every other California municipality. But officers at the various police agencies don’t all wield the same equipment, and those varied arsenals can include nightsticks, pepper spray, Tasers, pistols and shotguns.

Critics of armed BART officers say they are about as likely to face violent crimes as mall cops. It’s a claim even Lynette Sweet on BART’s Board of Directors concedes. “Our big problem right now is at Dublin-Pleasanton garage where somebody is stealing wheels off cars and putting the cars up on crates -- I mean, that’s our big crime right now,” Sweet told Youth Radio in July. She also said that BART police have a bad record of using deadly force. Of the agency’s two other fatal shootings by officers, one involved an unarmed 19-year-old, shot in the back while running away, and the other happened when an officer gunned down a mentally ill man who had grabbed his nightstick.

But Sweet disagreed that BART police should lose their guns.

“In a post-9/11 world, we want to have some means to defend ourselves if need be,” she said. “Instead they should be relieved of their Tasers to avoid confusing them with their guns. I know that sounds silly because guns are deadly, but more thought goes into pulling a gun than a Taser,” she said.

Many police say the debate is not about choosing weapons, but rather how much officers are trained to use them. While all police in the state receive the same basic, police academy training, including firing handguns, law enforcement agencies have varying levels of on-the-job training. Oakland Police Department, for instance, provides officers much more continuous gun training than BART cops receive.

In a brief to Judge Perry seeking a lowest possible sentence, Mehserle’s defense lawyer cited that the former officer was not trained well by BART.

At Napa Valley College Police Academy, where Mehserle graduated in 2006, he is now used as an example of what happens if a officers skills get rusty.

“Especially when we go down to the firing range and were practicing our shooting and drawing drills,” said Brent Hardy, a 24-year-old cadet. “They say, Hey muscle memory, muscle memory know what your gun feels like without looking at it.”

Hardy said the academy teaches how to use pepper spray, but not Tasers.

“It’s my personal belief that he wasn’t training enough,” said Hardy. “He simply grabbed the wrong weapon. I understand why that happened, but if he was training more outside of his work, on the weekends or whatever, he might not have made that mistake.”

Anticipating The Mehserle Sentence: 5 - 14 Years

rgee — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:08:14 -0500

The trial for Johannes Mehserle, former Oakland BART Police Officer, had California buzzing over the controversy. Mehserle shot 22 year-old train rider Oscar Grant in the back on New Year’s Day 2009 after pinning him to the ground on the Fruitvale BART platform. Mehserle was convicted in early July of involuntary manslaughter. The sentencing for Mehserle takes place on Friday, Nov. 5, at 8:30 a.m. in Los Angeles, CA.

The verdict of involuntary manslaughter had Oscar Grant supporters up in arms. Mehserle's main defense presented to the jury was that he mistakenly pulled his gun instead of his taser, but the prosecution argued otherwise. In the pending civil case, John Burris, the Oakland attorney representing the Mehserle family, claims that pulling the gun was not an accident, and that Mehserle should have been convicted of murder. (View Youth Radio's extensive coverage of the Oscar Grant / Mehserle case including an original photo magazine of the event.)

Mehserle could face between five and 14 years in prison. However, there are several complicating factors for Judge Robert Perry to consider. SF Gate reported, “Although one state law requires an increased prison term for using a gun during a felony, another law allows a judge to grant probation for involuntary manslaughter... In ordinary circumstances, state law says anyone found to have used a gun during a felony must serve extra time in prison. If Perry decides that the law applies to Mehserle, the ex-police officer could get as much as 14 years and would have to serve at least 85 percent of his term.”

Other factors that Judge Perry will take into account include the fact that Mehserle has no prior legal record, as well as the opportunity to send a message to the community in such a high-profile case.

In the days following the 2009 shooting, Oakland streets erupted in multiple violent protests. Angry citizens overturned cars, broke store windows, and lit fires in dumpsters. Tensions were high throughout the Mehserle trial with many comparing the case to the Rodney King case, and while thousands took to the streets on July 8th when the verdict was announced, violence and looting wasn't as widespread as had been projected.

With Friday's sentencing just days away, some downtown Oakland businesses are again boarding up windows in anticipation of possible rioting. Most residents we've spoken to, say they aren't sure quite what to expect.

Part Time Protestors

wilmer — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:56:22 -0500

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Kavon Jones

Many people in the east bay took to the streets protesting Oscar Grant’s death, but when but when black on black crime happens in our own neighborhoods, what do we do about it?

I’m Kavon Jones with a commentary from Youth Radio.

Black people need to stop being part-time protestors, and start addressing the problems inside our own communities. There are thousands of Oscar Grants, except too often the killings are black on black violence, but it’s no different. Picking and choosing which murders to protest won’t heal Oakland or our neighborhoods.

Even worse, some people used Oscar Grant’s death as an excuse to run around downtown Oakland and be like "imma take this cuz they killed Oscar Grant,” which is absolutely the wrong way to get justice.

And justice is often not so hard to imagine. Too often we know the troublemakers in our community, but the stigma of snitching and the fear of death, keeps people from coming forward.

Oscar Grant became a symbol of police brutality. We need to recognize that every black on black murder is also a symbol for a community in crisis, and then have the courage to seek justice for our friends, family, and neighbors.

Grant Station: A Killing And The Aftermath (in images)

nishat — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:08:53 -0500

Youth Radio has created an online magazine (scroll down and click on the cover to flip through) documenting the 19 months following the shooting death of Oscar Grant at the hands of former Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Johannes Mehserle.

In the following days, we'll be filling the magazine's final pages with our reporting on Mehserle's sentencing -- and with reflections gathered from the blank pages posted in downtown Oakland. Or you can add your comments, below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More shooting

Click here for more multimedia stories about the Oscar Grant case.

Pro-Mehserle Rally Overtaken by Grant Supporters

caitlin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:21:23 -0500

After all of the drama, riots, and protests surrounding the verdict of ‘involuntary manslaughter’ for Johannes Mehserle, those in support of Mehserle decided that they needed to be heard. Monday from two p.m. to five p.m. in Walnut Creek, in front of the local courthouse downtown, people gathered to support Mehserle and his family and to reinforce that ‘justice was served, 'as some of their signs said.

The protest was organized anonymously on a Facebook event page for a Monday afternoon, but the turnout was surprising. About 300 people gathered in front of the courthouse, about two-thirds of whom were Oscar Grant supporters who outnumbered the Mehserle supporters and seemed to steal the show.

The rally was divided into two sides, with the Mehserle supporters (mostly older Caucasians) standing on an elevated curb above the street and the Grant supporters (people of all ages and races) standing on the curb. At times the opposing sides got into each other’s faces, screaming and fighting. There was high tension between the two sides, and an overwhelming feeling of a racial divide between the two groups.

The street was shut down, along with a few surrounding blocks, because protesters began pouring into the streets. There was a dense police presence, including county sheriff's officers and officers in riot gear.

The protests seemed like a continuation of anger that was not fully expressed at the riots the day the verdict was announced -- except this time, the Grant supporters were in the faces of those supporting their enemy.

The protest did not turn violent, but tensions were high, and Walnut Creek seemed to take it seriously.

Mixed Feelings After BART trial Verdict

wilmer — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:39:07 -0500

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Leon Sykes.

For the past few weeks, talking to my friends about the Oscar Grant shooting trial, the long conversations were always the same.

They all wanted a second-degree murder verdict for former BART officer Johannes Mehserle. But everyone assumed acquittal was coming.

It didn't seem like jurors in LA felt the gravity that we felt. We were worrying about the verdict, and the response.

Fast-forward to 4:05 p.m. Thursday, July 8. I was in West Oakland, listening on the radio. I heard "guilty" and I clapped. Part of me was happy he was at least convicted. But another side of me was upset at the sentence. Two to four years doesn't seem enough. And even with the gun enhancement charge, five to 14 years doesn't seem enough.

While I do know some decent officers of the law, there are too many who are nowhere near decent, and those officers stick out. That's why so many Oaklanders were disappointed with the verdict. So when sentencing rolls around, I'm hoping the judge will take us into consideration.

Previously:

The Night The Verdict Came Out: A Chaotic Night

denise — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:06:22 -0500

OAKLAND-Youth Radio reporters and essayists were out in force the night the verdict was read. A week later, we present their reflections on the events of that night, as observers and chroniclers of this community.

Youth Radio reporter Denise Tejada has been covering this story since the protests after Oscar Grant was killed more than a year and a half ago.

After the verdict was announced, I hit the streets. Protesters had already blocked off intersections. There were people walking around with megaphones and others holding Oscar Grant picture cut –outs. The protest started peacefully. City council members, community leaders, local musicians were amongst the peaceful crowd. A lot of people showed up, but as soon as the sun went down the crowd become rowdy.

Looters made their presence felt by breaking into Foot Locker, smashing its windows and stealing shoes. Police officers in riot gear lined up en mass to push looters away from downtown Oakland. As people were forced out of downtown, looters left behind broken windows, doors, and set trash cans on fire.

I felt the anger that night towards authorities.

As I watched people break into stores and stealing merchandise in front of police officers, I asked myself, why aren’t police doing anything? But as the night progressed and people become more violent, it was clear that if police intervened it would only make things worse. I was amongst an angry crowd of people. I saw various people taunting officers just to see how much cops could handle. And honestly, I felt cops held their own that night.

The level of violence and anger of that night didn’t compare to last year’s violent demonstrations. In last year’s protests, people were demanding Mehserle’s arrest and suspension. Over a year later, Mehserle was found guilty for involuntary manslaughter, a lesser degree from what protesters wanted, but one that indeed it brought some comfort to the streets.