March 24, 2009
Police 2, Oakland residents 4
by POCC Minister of Information JR
Fast forward nearly three months later - after the first of a series of Oakland rebellions made the police arrest BART police triggerman Johannes Mehserle in Nevada and after the bailing out of Mehserle for $300,000*: On March 21, 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon was murdered by Oakland police after allegedly killing four of them on MacArthur Boulevard off of 73rd Avenue in East Oakland.
Ironically, thousands of people at the same time Lovelle lost his life were protesting the war in Iraq, when San Francisco police attacked the crowd. But only dozens gathered to see what happened to Lovelle Mixon, who let his actions speak about what he thought of the racial profiling in our community.
This time, instead of the Gaza Strip in the Middle East, we’re talking about the MacArthur Strip in East Oakland. Instead of the occupation force of the Israelis in Palestine or the Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan, the low income Black communities in America are dealing with the police, FBI, ATF and DEA, to name a few. Instead of a suicide bomber or a sniper holed up in a building, Lovelle turned out to be a suicide sniper who used a gun instead of a bomb to take out enemies of the community.
Now that the rabbit has the gun, the police and the media want us to forget the despair that they now feel is the same way we repeatedly feel when we are indiscriminately killed in the streets by police, as in the cases of Oscar Grant, Terrance Mearis, Donte Story, Amadou Diallo, Annette Garcia, Adolph Grimes, Casper Banjo, Anita Gaye, Aaron Harrison, Kathryn Johnston, Sean Bell and Gary King, except in our cases we know that no police officer is going to serve any real time for murdering members of our community.
Now in the days following what some in the Black community see as a day of heroic resistance against the police, the mainstream news is working overtime to show Black toddlers putting flowers on the police-created “street memorials” of the four officers, as well as an old Black woman crying at one of the scenes, talking about how dangerous this East Oakland community has become.
On the Monday following the latest round in Black males versus the police in the “Game of Death” that put the stats for ‘09 at Police 2, Oakland residents 4, BART officer Mehserle’s trial was given a two-month continuance. John Burris, the civil lawyer for Oscar Grant’s family, pointed out how this is another case of Johannes Mehserle, who is on trial for the murder of Oscar Grant, being given preferential treatment.
Mehserle’s legal strategy seems to be to use the continuance so that all the pro-police sentiment that is drummed up by the mainstream media over the next two months can be used to prejudice a jury in Mehserle’s case to show “how dangerous these Black males are.” If these two cases are unrelated, as people in the San Francisco Chronicle have been saying, then why has Mehserle’s trial been put off for so long?
If you look at the issue of Time Magazine that features Obama on the cover and reports on him being sworn in, you will see that the rising tension between the residents of Oakland and the Oakland police has been a national story since the beginning of the year. Yet from America’s first Black president you have heard nothing specifically about Oakland. But you have heard about his stimulus bill, which has $1 billion slated for putting 100,000 more police on America’s streets.
If the city of Oakland is scared now, they should be scared when that money is disbursed, because that is 100,000 more chances that a Black male who is politically and economically disenfranchised will commit “revolutionary suicide,” to quote one of the revolutionary icons from Oakland, Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party.
To all the Three Strikes supporters, police sympathizers and prison industry businessmen, how does it feel when the rabbit has the gun? Welcome to East Oakland.
Email POCC Minister of Information JR at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.
*Mehserle’s bail was set at $3 million; $300,000 is the 10 percent that had to be paid for his release.
This East Oakland resident is glad to see Mixon off the streets. Tonight’s East Oakland vigil shows you are in the minority with your support for a child rapist and a five-time murderer. And when someone like Mixon turns his gun on you, I hope you are man enough to face him without the help of the police.
Shooting someone on the ground is not heroic. Look to the example of MLK if you want to know what heroics look like–walking into the storm with no gun and an agreement with each of your supporters that no violence will be used for the cause under any circumstances, no matter how much violence is heaped upon you.
These police are just lower-middle-class folks trying to make ends meet with a thankless job. Trying to make them out to be agents of a state bent on destruction of the black community just makes you look foolish.
Is this “police sympathizer” afraid of a rabbit with a gun? No, because with a gun a rabbit is still a rabbit, hiding afraid in his hole. Afraid to try to do something productive with his life because he know he might fail. Afraid to face the real problems his community faces (hint, the police are neither the problem nor the solution). And unlike the rabbit with a gun, I’m military trained and know how to use mine.
You’re one sick mofo.
Wow, what a terrible article defending a rapist and murderer. This web site brings shame on the black community.
“Lovelle Mixon was linked by DNA to the February rape of a 12-year-old negro girl who was dragged off the street at gunpoint in the East Oakland neighborhood where Mixon’s sister lived, police said today.”
You Negroes prey on each other…. what if that was your sister?? would you be writing this crap?..This only enforces what the majority of decent law abiding think of you racist,ignorant..Black folk of Oakland…you just keep lowering your standards in society as a whole..you think you got shot at now??? what to you see what happens when you get pulled over now!!!they have uzi’s pointed at your hooded heads…yeah the rabbit might have the gun…but guess what..the mofo wolf…Po-Po will have an Uzi on you…you asked for it and will get it back in spades…
While you bring attention to the torment of everyday living brings while residing in East Oakland, give thanks that you don’t live in the Gaza strip or Iraq. Its the enablers of Mixon who want to use him for martyr fodder, as well as the writer of this hit piece. Your selling a story of the black community in east Oakland with wrong results. Your calling attention to your community in the negative to be sure. Your community defined by your piece should be a martyr for the world to see. Look at how we’ve been screwed by the man (white)for years. Well, look in the mirror, and you and your pen do nothing but incite negativity towards your plight and hatred of attitudes not color.
You take pride in calling each other nigger, and you don’t understand its a black thing. Well, you don’t understand us either, its a repulsed by a militant attitude thing, its a do the right thing thing. Its a get your ass in church and pray to God thing!
The gangsta pose and dress statement glorifies why you have the problem you do yesterday, today and 5 years from now. You glorify as a right of passage if you do time in jail and score your first gun on the street for protection. Protection from black on black crimes? Jockeying to knock off an intruder dealing on there street corner? Blame the white establishment when black families perpetuate babies having babies and then have no clue but to yell and scream, mistreat the child at a very young age with no understanding that his father was a passing fancy and a gleam in your mothers eyes?
Take the fight to not only the streets, but to the families in teaching them to love not dispose of the child when they get too unruly and give them CHRIST not a gun!
24 March 2009
How does it feel when the rabbit has the gun?
I would imagine that it feels like the hunter who chased the lion - until it caught him.
It has been noted in the past that the pig does not like the ‘trial in the streets.’ Tactically speaking, he doesn’t like to be out fought, out maneuvered, out manned, nor out gunned.
This is why they generally fight the way they do - thousand to 1 odds, heavily weighted - they think - in their own favor.
But even as they’ve made the tactics and strategies of every guerrilla fighter from the Apache Indigenous Peoples to Harriet Tubman to Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevarra to Carlos Marighela to Sun Tzu required reading by everyone from the FBI to the NSA, they have forgotten what El Hajj Malik El Shabazz once said about odds, when describing the guerrilla fighters of Africa and of Vietnam:
We don’t care nothing about odds…Guerrilla fighting takes heart, it takes nerve, it takes someone who doesn’t need a whole lot of company in battle: all s/he needs/needed was a blade…
To me, two of the more interesting things to surface about this situation, aside from those mentioned in the article ‘Police 2, Oakland Residents 4,’ are that :
1.
According to reports from Lovelle Mixon’s family, he had decided that he wasn’t going back to jail. People need to really think about this in terms of the mental acuity it really represents: the surfacing of the thought and the action that says, ‘no mas,’ the refusal to ever be an enslaved, victim of the state, ever again, even unto death.
This didn’t occur as the result of a town hall meeting, an organizational decision, nor a public debate. There was no public fanfare, no announcement on TV or radio or You Tube. There were no last minute notes.
It was a statement of fact, acknowledged within the self, and acted upon thereafter, by any means necessary.
This reminds me forcefully of ex-middleweight boxer Reuben ‘Hurricane’ Carter’s refusal to wear prison clothes in defiance of the 3 murder convictions in 1966 of which he was acquitted 22 years later.
He didn’t announce it. He didn’t look for supporters. He just fought his battle - and won.
2.
Lovelle Mixon is now being demonized in the corporate press as a rapist, ‘matched’ allegedly by way of comparing DNA tests from prison records of Mixon’s from 2002 and evidence from the 5 February 2009 rape of a 12 year old child.
The police, however, have no real idea of whether or not Mixon was the rapist; nor do they know if he was the rapist of several prostitutes in the same area.
Nor, do I believe that they suddenly care.
As an AFRIKAN Woman, I have absolutely no sympathy whatever for rapists, of any size, shape, color, or form.
However, I’m nearly certain that (true or not) splashing this story boldly across hard copy, digital, and televised news in the aftermath of 4 police deaths at the hands of 1 lone AFRIKAN is no accidental ‘exclusive.’
Rather, it is a coldly calculated effort on the part of the press and the police to create the same type of lynch mob mentality and feeding frenzy hysteria against AFRIKAN people, young AFRIKAN Men particularly, that Ida B. Wells Barnett fought against relentlessly from the late 1800’s until her death in 1931.
So - while Barack Obama doesn’t talk like bu$h - he just acts like him (and those before him); Oakland, CA (and other cities across the U.S.) continue to be escalating war zones: the Police and the Powers that be vs. the People.
BARAK OBAMA is continuing the U.S. boycott of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerances (WCAR) begun by GWB in 2001 ‘to avoid confronting the systemic persistence of racism and xenophobia and eliminate initiatives to redress past crimes against humanity.’ (Preserving Inequality: Analyizing Obama’s Boycott of the Durban Review Conference) http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2009/03/preserving-inequality-analyzing-obama.html
OSCAR GRANT III was murdered execution style in public for being young, gifted, and Black, and his killers, quislings of that same U.S. Order of Systemic Racism and Imperial Expansion remain free and licensed to kill as repeatedly as they please.
Both situations are intimately related in that in both instances, the powers that be have instigated and then refused and continue to refuse to redress crimes against humanity committed against AFRIKAN people.
For 517 years this has been so - since one Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) first stumbled, lost, ignorant, and greedy, onto AYISIEN (Haitian) shores, and began slaughtering the Taino peoples and then spent the next 23 years aiding Portugal in the enslavement of AFRIKANS from AFRIKA’s western shores.
The resulting peoples’ rebellions and continuing revolutions in thought and action are speaking for themselves.
One is forcefully reminded of those chickens Malcolm X spoke of coming home to roost.
War Without Terms,
m
Ummm maalaka…Your OWN people sold YOUR ancestors as slaves to the ships…Your “victim” of society B.S. has come to an end..we have a black president which i proudly voted for..stop playing the victim…that sh$t was 200 years ago..What has got your East Oakland thugland mentality in force is your own violence against yourselves…how many blacks were shot by cops compared to how many homicides in total??? what 128 black on black homicides in your hood. You need to stop youre NO SNITCH mentality and gets these monsters out of your life..This bastard raped a 12 YR. old black girl…Where is the outrage????? You were Oscar Grant three weeks ago destroying buisneses that had nothing to do with BART…where is the outrage??? you see… the real world looks at your self made hell and wonder why you exists like this. STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!! Lovelle was an absolute demonic monster…if that was your daughter/mother raped by this piece of East Oakland by-product..you might develop a conscience and start respecting life and start snitching….you deserve better.
BTW…its African…not Afrikan…use your spell check.
” But only dozens gathered to see what happened to Lovelle Mixon, who let his actions speak about what he thought of the racial profiling in our community. . . ”
I was born and raised in Oakland, and lived there for 28 years. I grew up in Sobrante Park, and subsequently moved to Sacramento in 1996. I honestly can not believe this article.
Lovell Mixon DID NOT open fire on the police because he was frustrated about being “racially profiled”, or because he couldn’t find a job. He shot the police because he was a lowlife coward who did not want to return to prison (where he should have been, anyway). There are a lot of problems within the poorer parts of the Black community, however, writing such a ludicrous and inflamatory article in a ham-fisted attempt to elevate Mixon to the level of a modern day “freedom fighter” is outrageous, and only serves to further alienate our most vulnerable communities. As a so-called “newspaper”, you really need to work on the integrity of your journalists. The reason that “only dozens gathered to see what happened to Lovell Mixon” is because that sociopath HAD AN AK-47!! Most people were probalby too terrified to even look out of their window.
Mixon was no hero, at least not to me. Perhaps when you kids are a little bit older, you’ll realize that, too.
Malaika,
Where does this “AFRIKAN” thing come from? It’s spelled AFRICAN, or in your case should be spelled AFRIKKKAN, because you’re just as ignorant and racist as those dumb hicks from the south were, but you think it’s alright to be racist if you’re black.
Mixon is not a hero, he’s a murderer and a rapist and he deserved to get shot.
YES, LOVELLE MIXON DUN B A HERO TO US IN DE COMMMUNEEETAY! HE REPRESENT WHAT WE’S ALL BOUT: KILL DE WHITEY CRACKAS! N IF HE SUPPOSEDLY DUN RAPE SOMEONE, YOU’S CAN B’ SURE SHE DUN ASK FO IT: WE’S GONNA GET IT ANYWAYS WE CAN!
KILL WHITEY! POWERS 2 DE PEEPILS!
I’ve been reading all of these comments about the Oakland Police Officers being shot. Most of the articles have been in support of the Officers and their families and for this I am very greatful. For those of you who oppose the support there are several factors you’re failing to observe.
1. The issue of Profiling: Most people complain of Racial Profiling and picking on individuals who fit a certain criteria. Cops in big cities don’t sit around all day looking for a certain type of individual to stop or “Harass” at is so blatantly put. Cops in big cities are just too busy, I know this for a fact.
The fact is that Cops look for subjects or individuals who draw attention to themselves. Everyone has that sixth sense that we all possess and used more keenly when we use to have to hunt for our food and fight off marauding tribes to survive. Officers develop a keen sense or sixth sense when it comes to seeking out individuals who just don’t seem to click right, not to mention probable cause. Hence the stop was made on a subject, “Mixon” who was a wanted individual on more than one occasion, validating my statement above regarding a sixth sense. Had Mixon not been in possession of a fictitious license, in violation of parole, in possession of a handgun, etc… He would have been released with a citation, at worst. “NOBODY WOULD HAVE HAD TO DIE.”
2. The issue of Oscar Grant: It was a sad thing that a handcuffed unarmed man had to die in the custody of police. This will set police and community relations back to the 60’s. I’m sure that Mehserle is regretting going to work that day and probably would change it all if he could. The sad thing is that he will not get convicted of Murder. This is sad because the community will react in an uproar and tear Oakland and every major city in the U.S. to shreds setting communities back to the Rodney King days and the Watts Riot days.
What people fail to realize in these cases is that in order to convict someone of Murder, you have to show that the suspect had the intent to kill the victim. In viewing the video of the incident, it is obvious that Mehserle did not have the intent. His reaction is evident. He looks up in disbelief, along with his fellow officers, looks down at Grant and looks up again with a shocked look on his face. A person with the intent to kill in cold blood does not appear shocked or in disbelief before, during, or after the incident.
People refer to Mehserle’s actions as “cold blooded.” The guy was scared and he screwed up big time. He should be tried because of his screw up but not for murder which is charged because of political. Maybe Manslaughter or Excessive Force Under Color of Authority. And for the record, Mesherle did not walk up to Grant after he shot him and put another round in the guy’s head to make sure he was dead like Mixon did.
3. The March for Justice or Money? If you notice that during the second protest, in support of Justice for Oscar Grant, there were not as many people who showed up for the protest. I speculate that the big turn off was the money issue. During the initial mention of the law suit the family was seeking 25 million in damages. The amount was then raised to 50 million. I would be willing to bet that the family found out that the attorney retained would be entitled to half of the settlement or more depending on costs.
The turn off was the “Money Issue.” This all of a sudden became about money. In Japan, a wrongful death suit is settled by the net worth of the individual who died and what he contributed to his family. The court then awards the family of the decedent what the decedent contributes monetarily to the family. This seems fair and equitable to me but based on Grant’s employment history, this would probably not be a significant amount. It just doesn’t seem like justice to prostitute the loss of a loved one because of money.
It’s very sad when anyone has to die, especially a tax paying civil servant. What’s even sadder is that people who are martyring Mixon, are going to set back the general sentiment that screwed up, already prejudiced people, have towards people of color; again, setting us back to a time of distrust and mutual hate between community and police.
I was corrected, Grant was not handcuffed. Sorry for the mis-information
Absolutely deplorable that this so called “pro-black” newspaper is run by a gaggle of ignorant porch monkeys. Fuck all you niggers; it’s open season on your recidivistic asses
I was born in and raised in East Oakland, and lived there for the first 28 of my 40 years. I was actually born at Highland Hospital, the hospital in which officer Hege died, and was raised very close to the neighborhood in which the shooting occurred. I have been following the news reports of the murder, and statements made by Mixon’s family.
The murders committed by Mixon were outrageous and disgusting, and it boggles my mind that a person with such a violent past could even be allowed to roam the streets. Regardless of the statements made by his family, in my opinion, he was a monster. Anyone capable of committing a rape, assault, and subsequently four murders in an effort to avoid arrest instead of facing the consequences of his own inept choices deserves the title of “Monster”.
However, I must say, some of the comments about Black people and the “black community” are ridiculous and juvenile, and I pray that they were written by a child. Contrary to the popular belief of some of the posters on this board, we “Blacks” are not one big monolithic group. I am a Black woman, and was raised in Sobrante Park (a neighborhood in the 105th Avenue/Edes Aveuen area). Although drugs and violence had permeated my old neighborhood, I have worked steadily since my teen years, went to college, am married, have a family, attend church, and work to make my now adopted community a better place. I have many friends in Oakland, and all live a very similar lifestyle to my own, and have “moved forward”. The “Black” community consists of all types of people, from criminals to white collar professionals, and Black police officers, a fact that you seem oblivious to. A few dozen people showed up to Mixon’s memorial (mostly to protest the police, not to honor him), and all of sudden they represent the Black community? How many Black people were at the memorial for the slain officer? How many black police officers are there in Oakland? And paramedics? And firefighters? And nurses? They are also a part of “our community”. A newspaper (that I’ve never heard of) writes an article about Mixon, and that represents the viewpoint of black people? What is the circulation of this “newspaper”? Is it greater than or less than the number of Blacks that read the Tribune or Chronicle? If you have a problem with The Bayview newspaper, then I suggest you write a letter to the editor instead. I have heard some ask the question “why aren’t they protesting like they did the BART shooting”? My question is “who is they”? The people who showed up to peacefully protest the BART shooting are probably at the police memorial and the looters and rioters are probably at Mixon’s memorial. Or maybe both groups are at home.
There are problems within the Black community, however, pathologies such as crime, illegitimacy, lack of education, the adoption of “thuglife” as a lifestyle, etc. are pretty much confined to those that live at the bottom of the economic latter, not the entirety of the Black community. If I have enough sense to distinguish between a white person who is poor, and uneducated, then I would assume that you would have enough sense to understand the concept of class levels. If you’d like to dscuss why there is more crime among the urban poor (which is were you find most poor blacks) versus crime amongst the rural poor (which is where you find most poor whites), then I’d certainly be open to that discussion.
I sincerely pray for the families of the four officers. These men were husbands and fathers and represented what is good and honorable in our country. Their lives and commitment to service should be celebrated. The citizens who offered assistance to the officers and the anonymous caller should be thanked for their deeds. Those who taunted the slain officers should crawl back under the rock from whence they slithered.
And Mr. Mixon should burn in hell. He was certainly no hero to me.
SUPPORT OAKLAND POLICE!!!
The Oakland PD is a criminal cesspool of thugs.
Euro-American media, especially the Gannett newspaper San Francisco Chronicle (and the New York Times), have been seeking answers as to why Lovelle Mixon, the Oakland resident who shot and killed four cops Saturday, would do such a terrible thing. Euro-American media coverage has mostly centered around Mixon being a “parolee,” him serving six years in prison, and now apparently being linked to a rape case in searching for a motive. They continue, writing that Mixon was a special education student who dropped out of school in 10th grade. Euro-American media have somehow gotten amnesia when it comes to the gross corruption and blatantly malicious treatment of Oakland residents by Oakland Police, which obviously was a contributing factor in Mixon killing the four cops.
The “Oakland Riders” - a group of police rogues who terrorized Oakland residents for at least three years earlier this decade - and the subsequent criminal probe, was covered extensively by that aforementioned SF Chronicle, but forgotten about now. Four Oakland Police thugs - Matthew Hornung, Clarence “Chuck” Mabanag, and Jude Siapno - all went on trial, on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, conspiracy, and filing false police reports, in connection with their terrorizing of Oakland residents. All of them allegedly said they carried out their malicious acts with the blessing of former Oakland Police chief Richard Word.
Click here to read the rest:
http://blog.operation-nation.com/2009/03/24/oakland-pd-the-criminal-cesspool-of-thugs.aspx
P.S. to the wannabe slavemasters questioning the “Afrakan” or “Afrikan” spelling of who we are, its because that is how WE decide to identify ourselves. Euro-nomenclature like “blacks” and “Africa” are slave names that Europeans want us to use. No mas.
It is a SAD SAD day when people publish stories that not only decriminalize felons but make them into heroes. Lets presume half of the MURDERED police officers were black, would this pathetic piece have even been written? Because a man was accidentally killed on BART, some ignorant people want to claim its a race issue and then “praise” a crazy gunman murderer who would just as soon turned the gun on YOU or your CHILD HUSBAND or WIFE. Would it even matter if they were ALL black or ALL white? NO, and so it should not now. I would not use this story to start a campfire. Shame on you all who think that the MURDER of police officers is EVER a good thing. If you want to to talk racism talk racism, but DO NOT EVER claim racism as grounds for MURDER of anyone. The thoughts and ideas surrounding this whole story and that of BART are enough to make me sick. I am not a racist person nor do I propagate racism at all. I am a law abiding citizen that believes criminals should go to jail and if they get killed en route because of their own actions then its justifiable. Shooting to kill the police is NOT SELF FUCKING DEFENSE as I have heard throughout Oakland. Killing of police officers is NEVER justified and it is NOT self defense. Don’t break the fucking law and you won’t have to worry about getting killed, if you do kill, murder or rape, then you have it coming when they come for you. Lets stop with the racism and deal with the real issues at hand.
As an outsider, it still leaves me curious when I see people saying things like “slave names” etc. I’d like to meet a single person complaining about slavery in modern times that’s actually been a slave. You know what a slave from the old days would tell you? You have it good, shut the fuck up. It amazes me when people complain about slavery and reparations, etc., but turn a blind eye to slavery that actually exists today. You want to stick it to slavery? Stop complaining about a name and start donating to anti slavery foundations or actively participating to stop slavery that DOES EXIST TODAY. Stop whining.
:D
I am shocked by the base sickening racism in these comments.
When a black man kills white cops it is the whole of Oakland’s fault?!
But when a white cop executes a black man you ignorant morons don’t blame some white city. What is amazing to me is not that this killing happened, but if this is the attitude that African American people have to deal with, why it doesn’t happen more. You people are sick!
I have never in my life heard such sick racist crap.
Are you people all cops? I hope to never run into one of you people hired to “protect and to serve.” You are truly animals. Who are you? Do you have mothers?
I’m not a cop, and I’ll be shocked if it turns out Lovelle Mixon intended to make a political statement about racial profiling. Get real.
I’m not sure which is more disturbing, the lack of any real clear, substantive thought and rationale in the article or the racist, hateful comments that follow. Both, I feel, exemplify how many in our society are sadly misinformed, uneducated and lack a general sense of compassion. I agree with the posted comment that to even try and make Mr. Mixon a martyr is completey ignorant and without merit. This individual was a violent sociopath who preyed on a community and the people within it. Yes I think we can all agree there is room for a discussion on policing in the inner cities and the unfair treatment that many in those community endure, but to use this tragedy to try and legitimize Mr. Mixon’s action is deplorable and only further deepens the divide among socio-economic classes, black and white relations and the community at large.
As an African American male, I am saddened by the deaths of these police officers who were gunned down while doing a dangerous and often times thankless job. People like Mr. Mixon should not be allowed to roam the streets laying waste to an already fragile community and those in that community who praise him are through their praise part of the problem. I really feel for the many hard working people in East Oakland who are drawn into the stereotype and negative imagery that are fostered by Mr. Mixon and his supporters within the community as well as the uninformed generalists on the outside.
Let’s all become more aware, more responsible and more thoughtful on how our actions and behavior affects the society at large.
Let’s all put down the remote, turn off the talk shows, turn down the senseless music and take individual responsibilty and quit blaming others for our own failings.
I have no idea if he was making a political statement. It has been my belief from the beginning that he was not going back to prison for gun violations because he would be doing 25-life due to the Three Strikes law. If that is indeed the case, it is definitely a case of the chickens coming home to roost.
When Mesherle executed Oscar Grant, I didn’t see the pages of the media filling up with anti-white rhetoric. These comments show the real situation with white racism in the 21st century. Every time someone says we now live in a color blind society I will think of these comments, and I believe most of them are made by cops.
They’re animals anyway so let them lose their soul.
“To all the Three Strikes supporters, police sympathizers and prison industry businessmen, how does it feel when the rabbit has the gun? Welcome to East Oakland.”
This statement to me sums up the entire argument here. VERY powerful statement!!
All of these hateful comments make me so, so sad. Heroes don’t gun down cops and they don’t belittle people who are different from them.
Shame on all of you who think you have the answers. Things are never so easily explained. How can you claim to understand a community in which you do not participate and clearly have spent no time getting to know?
Furthermore, your racist finger pointing is useless.
This tragedy is all of ours. The problems in East Oakland are ALL of ours.
J.R I luv your articles but I have to say you missed the marked on this one sweetie. I came str8 here to c if da bayview covered this the first few & it didn’t. I exhaled & prayed to God that u wouldn’t and wud jus leave these folks be till we got the whole story. It’s only logical. Don’t get me wrong, I suspected racial profiling, etc to, but few youngsters looked at me like I was retarded & said that cat was doing to much. They explained that he should of jus said he didnt have his ID on him & taking the car to his sisters few more blks. They may have jus gav him his ticket & let him be on his way. Secondly he shouldn’t have been talking on his cell but most of all only a zip dahm fool would have done that much time than come out & miss seeing his po right from the jump. That verified he had no intentions on doing the right thing, feel me? I was surprised how sharp these youngsters were pointing all that out to me. I than remembered my nephew & my son’s friend drive on 24s. The police haven’t stopped them, yet. Matter of fact a few kids I know was stopped & popo jus took their guns away & told them to get outta here, other went to jail. I guess from dealing w/ so many youngsters OPD basically can tell the bad actors from ones that jus need the hell scared out of them. In other words JR, like a few rades in Pelican Bay told me, not all cops are bad cops. Now these rogue racist cops may think a man’s intelligence can be judged by his clothes, the color of his skin, etc. But that jus shows how ignorant they are. If someone is apparently that dahm IGNORANT why in God’s name would you, we want to bend to their level? It doesn’t make sense to judge a person’s character by the clothes or uniform he wears. Judge him by what he consist of. Never allow their mistakes to become yours. Always be the bigger person. That tit for tat shyt wasn’t Mixon intentions as much as some would like to believe it was. He was to self serving, why would any loving brother kill 2 cops than run str8 for his sister’s home? Also some of OPD is homegrown these days, unlike back in da days. Many of us have fam bam in the dept. Things have changed, so ppl that keep the cycle going & refuse to CATCH UP, leaves the struggle & deaths of everyone b4 us, in vain. Mixon would have killed another brother w/ that gun, or used it to rape another little sister.
I just want to point out that the rape stories circulating in corporate media about Mixon are ALLEGATIONS made by the OPD and have not been substantiated or corroborated.
Talking about Mixon as if he is a convicted rapist is wrong and irresponsible.
I am white,..And I DO have a Very negative attitude towards “NEGROS”,..My negative attitudes stem from certain things that I have observed pertaining to “NEGRO”, attitudes,..Speciffically,…{1} When in the service,..a very large, & powerfully built “NEGRO”, beat a much smaller whit guy’s face to a bloody pulp,..The reaction of the “NEGROS” was to gather around the beater,..saying,..”We got to all stick together,..” {2} A, “NEGRO”, jury would not convict, O.J. Simpson, although he was , clearly guity,..of a double MURDER,..indeed, as he was riding on th freeway, the overpasses were filled with mobs of “Negros”, chanting “GO O.J. GO”, & }3} Now we have this sorry spectical, of “MUCH”, of the “NEGRO”, community, viewing Lovelle Mixon as some sort of sort of combination of a martyr & freedom fighter,..when in fact, he was just a worthless, two bit NIGGER thug,..So IF the NEGRO community, ever gets it’s collective head on straight,.& quits wallowing in it’s thumb sucking, self pittying tribalism, then I will “reconsider”, my negative opinions about “NEGROS”,..& while I am on the subject,..What kind of “community is it that calls it’s women ,..”Hoes”,.?
“Brown Girl from East Los”: I don’t know about other courts in Alameda county but the d.a’s office told me that Oakland’s courts ban the 3 strikes for only rare extreme cases. Possession of a firearm would not have striked him out. It would have been tossed & he would have just did his violation. No one knows what went thru Mixon’s mind or even if he was in the right state of mind. It’s no ones call to make but God. There is this to consider tho, sometimes he allows bad things to happen to bring forth his righteousness And sometimes he uses the good or the wicked as his tools. Like the CIA, I don’t believe in coincidences. Things happen for a reason.
“1968″: Rape allegations were made by SFPD which the media dug into & put it out there. And I caught myself just as I hit ’submit comment’. From experience, I blame the media for twisting shyt around. Don’t EVER trust KTVU ch 2. AS for “Rue Angel”, you’re the type of demonic homo sapien I don’t want JR or anybody else to behave as w/ this situation. We don’t have to. Everything that took place speaks for itself. Furthermore, labeling Mixon a martyr wasn’t what he said. His point was clearly stated in his LAST sentence. JR, Obama supposedly already contacted the mayor.
WOW! the sheer aloofness and “we’re better humans than you” attitude by the Euro-American posters in here is just astonishing and funny all at the same time. As you have no respect for the “black community” for “calling women hoes” and not succumbing to thug police, I have a problem with the Euro-American community (especially men) having sex with 8-year-old boys. Many of the preachers in your churches are having sex daily with young boys. Like I always say, you may not want to trust a “black” man with your wallet, but definitely don’t trust a “white” man with your 8-year-old son. Euro-Americans also need to address the tweekers in their community. Meth is like alcohol to Euro-Americans nowadays and maybe that is the reason for some of these comments in here and the reason for some of these thug cops’ behavior. I realize many Euro-Americans are feeling a little power deprived because of the economy and because our president is Kenyan, and the fact that the internet has cut into the Euro-American media monopoly in our country, now ALL views are heard on ALL subjects. Euro-American male confidence has always come from being able to legally “own,” legally murder, and be better educated than “blacks.” ALL of this is going away and subsequently, Euro-American males can’t handle it (just as they started brutalizing women more after the 19th amendment was passed). I know you’d rather me and everyone else just say “yes sir” to all the venom you spew and bend over and allow anything to be inserted, but those days have long been over. Either you come out of your hallucinogenic bubble and realize the world does not revolve you, or these divides will always be here. A russian professor predicted the USA will go to Civil War by 2010 and break up into 6 countries. Judging from all this Euro-American crying, and Afrakan Americans not putting up with the joke called the U.S. justice system and radical police, maybe he is correct? Love MY country…the USA.
http://blog.operation-nation.com/2009/03/24/oakland-pd-the-criminal-cesspool-of-thugs.aspx
http://blog.operation-nation.com/2009/03/11/chuck-norris-russian-professor-have-similar-ideas-about-us-collapse.aspx
what the hell is a “euro american” and reguarding the priest thing, are you kidding me? Just like with this article, the black community and white community arent represented by the radical imbecils who get on the news. And to say that “euro americans” just propogates stereotypes like saying all blacks are cop killer drug dealers. It’s just wrong and ignorant.
I am honestly curious though, what the hell is a “euro american”?
THE STORIES OF RAPE AGAINST MIXON ARE ALLEGATIONS. THERE HAS BEEN NO TRIAL, NO CONVICTIONS.
Jorge - not too smart. Don’t you know that IP addresses can be traced? Don’t you know that making threats on the internet is now considered “terrorism”?
But I guess you cops don’t care about all that….you’ve shown right here on this newspaper website that you are lawless criminals, I would say the worst of the worst. My high school aged niece and her friends read these comments and one of them was crying because she was so shocked that police could act this way. Yes, she probably comes from a sheltered environment, but still, it was an eye opener for a teenager to see cops use this type of racism and threats.
Of course, when you are used to murdering with impunity, all that means little to you.
I hope the webmaster finds that you are using a work computer to make threats, so you can be dealt with directly by your supervisors, if there are any supervisors.
Euro-American = European American….as in U.S. vernacular, Afro-American = African American; an abbreviation. “white” and “black” are denotatively wrong for Europeans and Africans respectively, as “white” means everything good in the English language (white lies) and “black” means everything bad in the English language (black market, black plague). Though I know Euro-Americans get upset by being grouped all in ONE classification (as AFRICAN Americans are), this is just how it is.
And THANK YOU for pointing out that the “black and white” communities are not represented by the U.S. media monopoly, which about 8 companies own 80 percent of everything we read, watch, and listen to. Your rationality is appreciated, even when we don’t completely agree on everything.
My last comment (at 1052 am) is addressed to “white guy.” and I’m glad someone (”1968″) pointed out all these alleged rape allegations are just that…ALLEGATIONS. no convictions. But in the Euro-American media’s quest to demonize Mixon, they’ve taken that and ran with it.
I’m just glad someone is RESPONDING to posts instead of spewing anti-whatever crap. I agree with many posters that the media is demonizing this guy, but I don’t think he should get off easy and be allowed to take the alibi of being a “product of the system”. There are too many minorities that have risen above the bar and made someting of themselves despite oppression.
That’s not saying that oppression is justified or right in any way, shape or form, only that violence is NOT the right answer no matter what. MLK is looked on by all races as a hero because of the way he rose above the discrimination and oppression by PROVING he was the better man and not reacting the way stereotypes would want him to. To let Mixon off the hook and say that it’s society’s oppression that caused him to do it is a nice cop out for those who don’t want to take the time to differentiate between the slag of black society and the average black.
It’s important to note that I grew up in mississippi, and believe me, racism is still around. Funny thing is though, it’s the stereotypes that racism is based on. I actually asked one of my black friends (who found it condecending to call blacks african americans I might add, because he considers himself as american and nothing else) about what he thought about the word “nigger” and this is the explanation he gave me, paraphrased:
“niggers are the blacks who adhere to the stereotypes, much like white people have rednecks or hillbilly’s.” he went on to say that he himself despised the underbelly of blacks because by adhering to the stereotype only proves that it exists, which in turn allows racism on the basis of stereotypes to exist.”
Growing up in mississippi I can see where some gather the stereotypes from. I lived quite close to a bad area of town that was mainly blacks, and it only reinforced the stereotype, however it’s ignorant to assume that because a stereotype exists that all blacks are that way. Just because a stereotype has a foundation in truth, i.e. yes, rednecks do exist, doesnt mean that the whole society should be judged for that small percentage. We could hardly say that all europeans are war mongers just because Hitler was a european, now could we?
I don’t know why Mixon killed cops, and I don’t know if the cops instigated it. I don’t think anyone will know but the dead cops and Mixon. I don’t think that either should get off lightly for any reason. If the cops didn’t instigate it, and Mixon was to blame, then he should be punished accordingly. If the cops instigated the incident, then Mixon would be within his rights to defend himself against injustice. It all stems around the crux of who got out of hand first, the cops or Mixon.
Until I see some evidence either way, I think the comments saying either party was right or wrong are ridiculous. My assumptions so far from reading up on it suggest that Mixon over-reacted when the police tried to apprehend him because he didn’t want to go to jail, which would put him in the wrong, but I’ll wait until the trial comes out to hear his testimony and the cops to make my decision.
White guy:
First of all, Mixon is dead, so there will be no trial. He’s being tried in Euro-American media posthumously, which tells you all you need to know about the SF Chronicle.
I disagree that MLK is a hero to all. He’s certainly no hero of mine and I actually made a video about it last MLK day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5A0elHr_BY (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDoHmOtO9j4&feature=related (part 2)
The fact that you are a European American from the Confederacy (Mississippi), and you don’t seem irrationally hateful, especially when confronting a sensitive subject like Mixon and the Oakland police, goes a long way in US dropping all the prefixes from our “names” (Euro, Afro, etc.) and just all being AMERICANS, understanding one another, being one nationality. But we are FAR from that, and that is our sad reality.
We agree on one thing: Mixon was no angel and probably not even a decent person. I think if you read up on the history of the Oakland PD (start with the blog entry I wrote), you’ll at least get a sense as to why many in the “black” community show zero remorse for the cops.
But the SF Chronicle and Gannett ought to be ashamed of themselves for convicting Mixon of rape without a trial. Disgraceful journalism.
What I don’t understand is the African Americans who become extremely agitated when there is a police shooting while there are 100X more black on black crimes that result in death? As an African American man, I find it much more disturbing when I pick up the paper and every other day I read where black young men are killing one another whether its in Oakland, San Francisco, EPA or Richmond. In this instance, I find it hard to have a lot of sympathy for a parolee who is allegedly raping women in his own community who jumps out of a car and shoots police officers for pulling him over just because he doesn’t want to go back to prison which he probably shouldn’t have ever been let out of in the first place.
I am more concerned with getting shot from my own people than from the police. As a resident who lives in Oakland, I fully support the police and I hope they rid Oakland of all the criminal element that terrorizes the communities and make it hard for the honest hard working people to live in peace. The young black kids who choose to select Mixon as a hero should really take a long look in the mirror and wonder what they’re doing to make the greater society suspicious of them. For example: I was at a laundrymat standing outside and this young black teenager walked towards me. His pants were almost to his knees, hood over his head and he says to me. “Whassup MF playah?” I’m thinking to myself, “I’m a 45 year old man, I’m not your playah, when I was your age there’s no way I would address a grown man that way.” At any rate, I’m cautiously trying to figure out what he wants since he keeps looking over his shoulder and then a police car drives by and the white officer looks our way and does a double take. He makes a U-turn drives up and asks me if everything is okay…which I am thankful mind you not knowing what this kid wants. When the officer leaves the kid, flips him off and says, “the MF police are always trying to sweat us.” I finally, tell him that “he wasn’t sweating you, he was trying to figure out what you were up to the way you’re acting and dressed the way you are I don’t blame him I felt the same way when you walked up.” Then the young man then calls me a sell out and leaves in a huff and I think to myself that MLK, Malcolm X and other Civil Rights leaders are probably rolling over in their graves thinking about all the work and sacrifice that they did to achieve a better life for black folks and this is the way a large percentage of our young people are chosing to behave…..what a shame……
Just wanted to point out the author made a factual mistake.
The article says Mehserle’s bail was set at $300,000.
Big mistake. It was set at $3 million.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Johannes+Mehserle+bail&btnG=Search
Mabel: Yes, it a $3,000,000 bond…of which the defendant must pay 10 percent of (or $300,000) to be released, while a bondsman pays the rest. So no, its not a “big mistake” as you imply.
This article and website brings shame to black people everywhere, and reinforces the view that the vast majority of black people are ignorant
And now it turns out your hero is the rapist of a 12 year old girl. Good job chief.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/MNPP16M2CH.DTL
There have been a number of other murders in Oakland so far this year. I’m sure that some of them have been young black men. Should I worry or mourn those, or do we just care about the ones that white cops shoot?
Any life cut short should be mourned, but if you are too stupid to know the difference between a murder committed by police officer -after the police officer has been sworn to protect us and uphold the law– and a murder by a street criminal, then you really need to do some reading.
Because a citizen is somehow less responsible for protecting and upholding the law? That’s just flawed logic. Not to diminish the oath that all officers take, but all citizens have that same responsibility, including the criminals. The only reason that the justice system exists is so that CITIZENS who make mistakes or do something wrong can REMAIN citizens and pay their debt to society, i.e. those who’ve been wronged. I’m not saying our justice system currently works well enought to affect that, but that’s not an excuse for criminals.
I’m not going to go into social contract theory, but if you think that cops are the only ones who should be protecting and upholding the law, then you should get the hell out of america, because you’re a piece of trash.
Yeah, I’ll leave America because you say I should. Ha! officers of the law are and should be held to a higher standard…that is what “under color of law” means.
Spare me your social contract theory. I took sociology 101 too.
I didn’t say to leave America because I said so, I said leave america if you don’t think citizens shouldn’t have to uphold the law as well. Just the way you think tells me you’re a democrat who’s in favor of big government taking care of all of their worries. No offense to democrats, I’m sure you all are just as ashamed to have her as I am to think that she’s an american.
Get your head on straight before you start typing and maybe this conversation will actually go somewhere, but until then, stop spouting useless crap. cops shouldn’t be held to a higher standard than anyone else, that’s exactly how racism got started. saying that one type of people should be held to a lower standard than others.
That’s how racism got started? By thinking that officers are and should be held to a higher standard? Wow, you are really nuts dude. This conversation is going nowhere because you are obviously a moron. Sorry, but it’s true.
That’s not what I said you idiot, so stop twisting my words around just so you can defend your argument. Racism was started by thinking that one set of people should be held to a lower standard than others. You, by saying police should be held to a higher standard, are placing everyone else lower than them. People who sold others into slavery placed less value on those they sold than those they didnt. In an argument, you back up what you say with facts or logic. You still havent done this.
I’m waiting for a logical well thought out reason for your opinions.
Yes, police ARE held to a higher standard. They are bequethed an unbelievable amount of power with very little education and training (generally 3-4 months in an academy)and only those men and women who can uphold the principles of “protect and serve” should be police officers. Teachers, who are VASTLY underpaid, are also held to a higher standard because they raise our children; just like police protect our children. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cop because I wanted to be a hero; wanted to be a crime fighter; wanted to protect, serve, and be loved by those I serve. Too many cops nowadays are power-drunken, insecure idiots who could care less about the community they serve. Personal responsibility by American citizens is VERY important and vastly neglected by too many Americans, but regular citizens’ “personal responsibility” doesn’t mandate them to “protect and serve” as it does police.
HATS OFF to Chief David Kunkle, of the Dallas (TX) Police Department, for holding his officers accountable for stupidity.
And I WOULD wait for you to give me a logical thought, but that will not happen, so I won’t wait.
By your so-called “logic” if my car is stalled at 3 a.m. I should not trust a cop any more than some wino standing on the corner because the cop should not be held to a higher standard. This is so absolutely basic that I can’t see how to even talk to someone who doesn’t get it. I hope you are either very young or off your meds for the moment.
Good point about teachers Operationnation.
Wait, so if cops are held by a higher standard, then what standard am I held to? Between me and a cop, let’s say we’re both tempted to run a red light. Is it okay for me to run it, but not okay for him, because he’s a cop and I’m not? No, we’re both held to the same standard, i.e. stealing is wrong, so we shouldnt do it. If you don’t hold everyone to the same standard, you’re lowering the bar, at least if your standard is 100%. And brown girl, before you say 100% is impossible, shut the hell up. Doing what’s right is the standard for us all, and anything less than that is …wrong!… shocking, I know.
I’m talking about the law, dumbass
so am I, dumbass. Obey the law…or you’re breaking the law…its a pretty easy standard to understand, and it’s pretty damn easy to adhere to. and FYI, running a red light IS against the law in case you couldn’t figure it out.
And if you run red lights repeatedly you will get tickets and your insurance will go up and you may lose your license, but if a cop runs red lights repeatedly he will lose his job…at least that is the way the law works in theory if not in practice.
I am not black, nor am I American. I am shocked though. You racist people with your one-sided attitudes need some serious help. This man did not act the way he did because of the color of his skin, he acted the way he did because thats what he wanted to do!
I’m sorry for al the families concerned. Everyone has a mother and I hope and pray that none of the victims mother’s in this incident has the misfortune to read this trash talk.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves!!!
and all this time I thought it was ok to run a red light! Thanks for enlightening me oh brilliant one.
oh, and because I don’t want to avoid what you said, that would be stupid to trust a habitual drunk who’s proven he cant hold a job over a cop. that’s trying to compare apples to oranges because they’re both round.
Y’all are Peckerwood retards.
How d’ya like them apples?
I find your logic hard to refute…
…“The Game of Death that put the stats for ‘09 at Police 2, Oakland residents 4”…. Only one who is not truly familiar with death and violence, or a grandstanding fool would call death a “game” when committed at the hands of another. Come walk a few miles in my boots, work a few weeks in my job, and see how funny death is “Minister of Information JR.”
Allow me to give the disclaimer right now, yes I am a cop.. No, I’m not African (Afrikan for those overly involved in labels)-American..
I’ve looked into the eyes of, and been there for the last breath of more “minority” citizens than some emergency room doctors. It’s sad, it sucks, and it’s not something to make light of in a headline. So, fuck you for making death your cheap joke of a byline. This entire incident was a holocaust on many fronts.
The fact of the matter is, the thankfully deceased Mr. Mixon is no longer. However his life came to be, he was a predator. The rape allegation is just that. Putting that aside, he was a parolee at large, with a gun, ultimately at least two by the time of his blessed demise. Don’t cloak yourself in racist revolutionary b.s. thinking he who was willing to take on a police officer, wouldn’t rob from you, steal from your home, maim or kill you in an instant. I am saddened for the four deceased officers; not because they are white, but because they were my brothers. I am also saddened for the family of Mr. Mixon. Whatever they did or did not do to help him, to enable his path to destruction, he was an adult, and accountable to himself for where his life took him. His family now bears the brunt of the media attention, hatred from the law enforcement community. And, o yea, they lost a son/brother/cousin/loved one. They, and survivors of the dead officers, are the victims in this tragic series of events. Your trumpeting their suffering to further your own agenda is repulsive.
Whatever banner you want to fly, if you’re here spouting off that anyone’s a nigger, negro, cracker, honkey, or some other racial epithet, you’re showing you’re as mature and understanding as those you condemn. So, F you, get off of my planet. Since I’m a lighter shade of pale, no, I’m not a klan member or member of any other white-trash gaggle. I have blue eyes, a shaved head, and work in a area of my jurisdiction where I am the “minority.” The few & far between times I run into a white person it repulses me when they attempt to establish rapport by talking about niggers, fried chicken and nappy hair, etc. Especially since those white folks tend to live in a trailer with their mom, are missing teeth, have a 15 year old pregnant girlfriend by their side, and couldn’t find a job application if it was sewn to their ass. I have contempt for people. Not because of their skin color, but if they are a non-contributing, leech on society? One who profits by the suffering of others? Then, yes, they don’t belong among us who retain our humanity, are not sociopaths, and do the best we can day by day.
I can’t claim I was raised in Oakland. Suffice to say, it’s a more violent version of where I work now. I will concede, once in a too frequent while, there are dirty cops, who pull atrocious bullshit. They have a place, it’s called Federal Prison. The odds the four dead cops, from separate details (motors and SWAT), were part of some great conspiracy to oppress minorities? Pretty frikkin slim. Odds they were four cops, doing their job the best they knew how, willing to die if it came to it? Pretty frikkin good. If and when some peaceful memorial for Mr. Mixon erupts into rioting, arson, looting, and violence, it will be those same racist-occupying-army cops you screech for the help of, should that day come. Everybody hates the cops, until they need one.
This is a poor article, there are some very disgraceful comments on this page from both “sides”. In my opinion, the officer who shot Oscar Grant needs to be tried for murder. However there is no excuse for shooting 4 officers who were just trying to enforce the law and had nothing to do with the Grant murder. If the African-American communities hate the police so much than one of 2 things should happen:
1. Join the ranks and infiltrate the department to lesson the racial discrimination.
2. Or, deal with the police (corrupt and law-abiding). Imagine if the police didn’t come to your neighborhood at all. Would you be safer?
Malaika H. Kambon, well said and great post
EXCELLENT COMMENTARY, JR.
I’ve got a little commentary here myself: let’s call it:
KARMIC JUSTICE.
Most people of color know that the cops, and the police department as an institution, *historically* represent the street enforcement arm of white American racism. Indeed, they were born out of the white slave patrols.
People of color and conscious white people have seen how the cops have abused, especially, many members of the Black and Brown community — just the latest in a longgg series of notorious cases in the Bay Area and all over the country being Oscar Grant — and sometimes (which doesn’t get as much notice) even members of the Asian community, and now (even just recently in San Francisco) peaceful protesters and members of the Arab community (specifically women and children). And just recently, in Oakland, 11 cops were fired for falsifying a whole series of search warrants, and the head of OPD Internal Affairs was put on leave, pending the investigation of his having beaten, in his custody, a Black suspect to death years ago. How soon we forget the Oakland Riders case, and the damage control performed there to politically limit the corruption investigation and exposure to those corrupt street cops, but not the department in whose culture and corruption they were spawned). I’ve heard that Oakland alone pays out (at least averaged over time) about 2 million dollars a year in police brutality cases.
U.S. Flags were flown at half-mast for these dead cops — tried, sentenced and executed in the streets just like they do with people of color — but no flags were flown at half-mast over city hall by the Black mayor of Oakland for Oscar Grant. Ron Dellums took a week to say anything about Grant, and then only spoked in carefully indirect and tepid terms, but he, of course, personally and vociferously condemned the killings of the cops right away. So, much for some of those docilized middle-class negroes (male and female above the intersection of race and class) who condemn the cop deaths (on TV, radio, even one Black female on Hard Knock Radio) by saying that “all life is equal”. Since when, right from its founding and upon who’s lives it was established (Red, Black, Yellow and Brown), has all life ever “been equal” in the history AmeriKKKa?
At least a couple of the TV local news stations have shown a servile Rev. Philip Ellinberg, some neegro (probably what we Blacks call “a jackleg / bootleg preacher”, since I tried to look him up online, and in the phone book, and with telephone directory assistance, and found nothing) who’s supposed to sing for Massa at the dead cops funeral, but he didn’t sing at Oscar Grant’s funeral and I haven’t seen him anywhere at the Oscar Grant Movement meetings almost every week in Oakland.
Where were the flags at half-mast and the state and mass media coverage funeral for Oscar Grant and other unarmed, innocent victims of killer cops vigilantism? All the Bay Area cities have to do is to look at the names on the boards of the Stolen Lives project and portable mural. Do you think that any of the Bay Area cities would even just fly their flags at half-mast just one day, collectively for all of those victims of the *police*.
And we forget (or don’t know) that one of the cops who was wounded and should have been killed was Sgt. Pat Gonzales, who shot a Black Gary King Jr. in the back and killed him. Cops up in (or north of) Napa/Sonoma valley even went and gratuitously killed the Black adopted son of an affluent white married couple who made the mistake of calling the cops to help calm down their emotionally distraught son.
You know the old saying, “When The White Man is hurt *evvveryone* must cry.” But LOTS of people AREN’T CRYING over 4 killed cops — including even a lot of politically conscious white people — and AREN’T MOURNING in this state mass propaganda funeral. While the cops and the media even come up with suspiciously last-minute stories to try to tell us just “how bad” Lovelle Mixon was (how about research into those dead cops background to see how abusive and dirty they were?), many of us realize that _IT’S KARMIC JUSTICE_ *whoever* killed the 4 cops all in an afternoon’s work. And it’s KARMIC JUSTICE that, just as many Blacks in America have been murdered by cops during a “routine” traffic stop, these cops were killed during a “routine” traffic stop. Ha-Ha.
The cops called Lovelle Mixon, “A cold-hearted individual who doesn’t have any regard for human life.” Well, the cops should know: they behave exactly the same way.
Cops 2; Oakland residents 4.
————————–
Joseph Anderson
Berkeley, California
————————–
To hear the audio version of JR’s commentary,
please go to KPFA’s Flashpoints, March 25, 2009
http://kpfa.org/archive/id/49472 ,
and go to 35:35-40:80 into the program.
It struck me while reading the comments submitted above on the killing of the four police officers that those who “support” the shooter believe violence can solve social problems.
This is the thinking that motivated the Klan to commit their numerous lynchings. Did the Klan solve the “Negro Problem”? No, but they certainly gave it their best effort.
And what stopped the Klan? Killing them in revenge? No. The slow pace of social change and the very effective legal work of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Giving ideological cover to a murderer isn’t even a shadow of a solution to the obvious problems in Oakland.
Joseph Anderson - your commentary is excellent. Thank you.
To StrongBlackFemale and others; I, too, would like to have a discussion about the differences in crime rates between Black poor and White poor. Most white poor are now in cities and suburbs, and I think the difference has to do with family social structure.
As the White illegitimacy rate rises, we are starting to see more poor White violent criminality.
I also think that we need to all sit down and talk about media imagery, including the entertainment industry. When I watch TV, except for shows like “Everybody Hates Chris”, “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne”, and rerun of the late Bernie Mac’s show, there just isn’t much on TV in the way of respectable Black families.
We also need to talk about education. I’m related to people who were born rural poor. My uncle went to a high school that taught trades and became a machinist and later operated his own machine shop and auto repair. His sons also studied trades in high school: one became a machinist and later foreman at Dakota Aircraft; the other became an award winning industrial arts teacher. My own father was so malnourished and sickly as a child he was found 4-F for WWII - he worked his way through university in the fishing fleet on trollers, as a hotel night auditor, as a watchman, and worked at anything he could get.
Vocational education has disappeared from the high school curriculum because it had been used as a dumping ground. This is no reason not to bring it back. Auto shop, systems administration, secretarial science, bookkeeping, beautician and barber training, cabinet making, LVN, EKG technician, web designer - all of these are career programs that should be available to students while they are in high school. In my sophomore year, our high school valedictorian was also the President of our FFA chapter. He took both college preparatory studies and four years of vocational agriculture. He went to Oregon State University and later became head forester for a timber growing concern. My best friend studied office administration and graduated and immediately found a very good secretarial position; she used the money her excellent skill set earned to go on to University where she eventually received her M.P.H. and became the manager of a medical practice. There are many students who aren’t interested in college or know that they cannot afford to attend college right after high school; our schools are failing to provide them with the tools to live a decent life.
BTW, what stopped the Klan was in large part fighting back against them - if you were going to live to give a deposition to Morris Dees and have your day in court, you had to be prepared to defend yourself. I should know; my father’s family had to fight a shooting war against the KKK in Eastern Colorado in the late 1910s - early 1920s. That said, the Klan behaved just like a street gang - no snitching, no witnesses to atrocities, and on and on and on.
It’s about identifying the problem and finding a solution. If you’re not part of the solution then maybe you’re part of the problem. Opinions don’t equal facts. For those who don’t “live it” just can’t understand. The “system” is not designed for all, many cases to prove it. By the way, don’t ever let someone make you believe your history isn’t important. Much Love and Respect.
Clark & JoAnne thought it would be cool to add the “k”…Afrikan!
It must be tough to explain how a NJ Trooper shot himself in the head TWICE with his own weapon…if it wasn’t for those pesky facts that seem to always get in the way of the good “Dr.”m.
Clark rots in jail and JoAnne rots in Cuba…fitting.
The 12 year old girl’s rape was NEVER reported to her school principal. the school officials never knew there was a rapist loose in the community until it came out in the paper yesterday.
The police do not care about little black girls who get raped.
we need to control all the information regarding the harm happening in our communities.
Lovelle Mixon may not have been much of a hero, but I can’t help but sympathize with his decision not to submit to the brutal “justice” system, especially having already sampled its tender mercies. I said “sympathize,” not “admire.” Mohandas Gandhi also refused to submit to the occupier, but not by making matters worse. However, that’s an awfully high standard to expect of Mixon, and we shouldn’t.
By the way, it’s a high standard to expect of cops, too, although in their case I think we should expect it, because they’re supposed to be selected and trained that way. Of course, we’re all more realistic than that (some more than others). The unfortunate reality is that when white male corporate executives - living in in an exclusive club where the rest of us pay the membership dues - call the shots and send our kids off to die in their wars, the cops are going to reflect their values, not ours.
The cops are no better than the society in which we live, and probably not much worse, either, which is a sad commentary, indeed. The posts on JR’s article are also full of the racism that infect our society and serve the purpose of our oppressors.
Lovelle Mixon was our brother and so were the cops who died at his hands. They are also all criminals and so are we. So what are we going to do about it? Treat each other as criminals or as brothers and sisters? On the last census I listed my race as Antarctican. You have to go a long way back, but around 200 million years ago, the penguins and I are part of the same family.
HERE’S THE VERY LATEST NEWS (as of this writing) IN HOW COPS BEHAVE AGAINST BLACK MEN:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#29921738
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
Friday, March 27, 2009
“Police chief expresses regret over traffic stop gone wrong”
A traffic stop that detained NFL player Ryan Moats of the Houston Texans in a hospital parking lot that, despite his pleas that his mother-in-law was imminently dying, has touched off a firestorn in Texas.
NBC’s Pete Williams reports.
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The Black guy was lucky he wasn’t shot and killed trying to rush into the hospital.
Had it been a white man, the cop would have been like, “Oh you just go ahead, Mr. Throckmorton!! Here, let me get the door for you! Jeesh, I hope you make it in time! Everyone get out the way!! His mother-in-law is dying!!”
Pathetic. Mixon was a lowlife scumbag who chose to do nothing with his life. To celebrate this event as a “win” for the black community is as ignorant as it gets. Maybe someone will do you a favor and put you out of your misery.