BART SHOOTING: Ron Dellums, Mayor of Oakland Calls For Reform

In the aftermath of the late-night arrest of BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, a planned Oakland City Hall-based protest went ahead as scheduled Sunday but with a less-angry energy than existed last week, when over 100 people were arrested and many downtown Oakland buildings were damaged in a night of rampaging protests against both Officer Mehserle's actions and the overall response of BART and elected officials.


In today's event, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums took the microphone and really talked to the crowd about how their voice led to change.  Then I talked with Mayor Dellums about his call for change and if that would lead to reforms within the Oakland Police Department.


Here's the video:

The Grand Lake Guardian Is In A Coma - Founder Said To Have Given Up

The once popular news site "The Grand Lake Guardian" is in a coma and according to my source, it's not coming out of it anytime, soon.   "He's gone on to other things" my source said, "He's not done anything in a while."


That's for sure.  The topmost post is dated "2008-02-13" which was last year before Valentine's Day.  It's too bad for the area around Lake Merritt, which came to adopt the site in a way, if only because Jim Ratiff, the founder, had collected a group of some of Oakland's most involved Lake citizens.


But as happens with blogs from time to time, the people lose interest.  A blog must be updated each day just to keep fresh.  And that's the problem.   Jim's site was more of a website than a blog, which causes more work just to update.  I can see why he may have tired of the whole effort: he used the wrong kind of platform.


If you're going to do this you have to make it easy on yourself.  I think it's too bad that the online publication just sits there, but then it's a good foundation for an idea I have...

Oscar Grant was Avenged By The Alameda County DA

Where was Oscar Grant's Due Process?, originally uploaded by Focal Intent.

This photo asked the question, Where was Oscar Grant's due process, well, Tom Orloff the District Attorney of Alameda County seems to have avenged Grant's death with the arrest of Officer Johannes Mehserle.

Oakland Hills fire from 80/Powell, October 1991

Oakland Hills fire from 80/Powell, October 1991, originally uploaded by marymactavish.

I remember where I was when this happened: I was having coffee with Val Ostrom, my Skyline Classmate, at Lynn and Lou's Cafe on Grand when we looked up and saw smoke. I ended up helping her parents move out of their home on Proctor.

Police Violence in Oakland Over BART Shooting

Police Violence in Oakland, originally uploaded by Brooke Anderson.

I just saw this in the process of blogging. Here's what the poster wrote:

Two young folks being arrested a block from my house for doing nothing other than not moving as fast as police wanted them to. Protests shook Oakland several days after a BART cop executed a young African American man as he was pinned face-first on the floor, and last night more police violence ensued. What do you think about this?

I think it's an example of what's wrong with our law enforcement system -- police are at war more than enforcing the law.