AC Transit Bus Fight - YouTuber iyannaw08 talks about video

YouTuber iyannaw08, who filmed the AC Transit Bus Fight video, makes a new video blog to time to clear up some misconceptions in the wake of the video's viral status.

First, she says that she did not take the bag that belonged to the Old White Man. iyannaw08 says that she took the bag to the front of the bus and left it for the authorities when they arrived.

Second, she says was not dating or related to the black man in the video "I've never seen these two gentlemen in my life."

She ends the video by apologizing to anyone who was offended. But what's offensive are some of the comments left on her video page. They call her terrible names and racial slurs, and present the very racist, crazy people I complained about. YouTube should step up efforts to have settings that erase those words all together if the channel manager so desires.

It reenforces a statement I've made that if you want to see just how sick, just how screwed up some people really are, take up the occupation of online community management.

Something else, many, including myself, called the black man in the video "young" - he's 50-years-old.

Stay tuned.

President Clinton coming to UC Berkeley, February 24th

According to the Daily Cal, and the The Blum Center for Developing Economies, Former President Bill Clinton will visit U.C. Berkeley. February 24th at 3:30 PM at Zellerbach Auditorium. Tickets for President Clinton's speech are available only online and one has to be either a student at Cal, or a faculty or staff member to obtain them.

So if you're not any of the three, and know someone who is and haven't been nice to them you might consider getting on the phone to apologize to them first (no texting). Then ask for help with the Clinton tickets.

Seriously, their are 2,000 tickets available, 1,200 free for students.

You can get them here: berkeley.edu/clinton.

The title of President Clinton's speech is "Global Citizenship: Turning Good Intentions into Positive Action"

If you're reading the name "Blum Center for Developing Economies" and wondering who "Blum" is, it's Richard Blum, who's married to U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein and is also a person who's a San Francisco developer, financier, and political activist with close ties in the Tibetan community.

I think President Clinton had Blum in mind when he created the speech he's going to give on February 24th.

Here, on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Torch Run and during the San Francisco Protest of it, Richard Blum talks about his work in trying to get the Chinese Government to engage with The Dalai Lama:



Stay tuned.

AC Transit Bus Fight near Lake Merritt, Oakland, on YouTube video

A AC Transit Bus Fight near Lake Merritt, in Oakland, California was captured on video and from two different perspectives. The AC Transit Bus Fight, which this blogger recognizes as starting on the AC Transit "N" route that serves the heart of Oakland into downtown Oakland, caused the bus to stop at the corner of Harrison and Webster Street, just one long block away from Lake Merritt and at the Kaiser Center's shopping mall area.

The first AC Transit Bus Fight video below shows an at first, seemingly harmless and rather misguided and silly conversation apparently about what someone would do based on their race. One young man, black, said the older man white, should get "yo ass back up in there", meaning the front of the bus. Apparently the older white man came to the back of the bus to confront the younger black man. "Why you being so hostile man", was what the older white man said to him.

Then the older white man went back to the front of the bus as the young black man was on his way to his seat at the back of the bus.

Here's the first video:



Then words were exchanged and after the young black man was on his way to the back of the bus. But when the older white man said "I can kick your ass", the young black man turned and went back to the front of the bus where the older white man was.

In the AC Transit Bus Fight, it's hard to tell exactly what happened for the first two seconds, but then it was obvious the two traded slap-punches. The older white man did get in one good left hook, and that was enough to drop the young black man.

The older white man said "See, you mess with me" as the younger black man was on the floor. (And the back of his shirt reads "I AM..a motherfucker")

 Then, as the young black man was collecting himself at the back of the bus, and the camcorder operator was talking to him, the older white man had started to just "go off" on a weird rant at the corner of Harrison and Webster.

This is that video:



What does this AC Transit Bus Fight prove? Well, it proves why cars and taxi cabs are a more desirable form of transportation than AC Transit buses in Oakland.

This is why Oaklanders rail against those who support higher parking fees, heavy-handed parking enforcement tactics, and tow-happy city administrators. It's also why some Oaklanders, like this blogger, support a BART Airport Connector rather than being forced on to AC Transit. For all of its woes, BART at least has an active police force.

Sorry, but you've seen the one reason why this blogger avoids AC Transit whenever possible. Both men were wrong and both should be charged with assault. But the overarching issue is that good working citizens of Oakland should not have their time wasted or their safety threatened by people who act like that. It's better to be able to avoid them.

The discussion about the AC Transit Bus Fight will break down to "Old White Rambo Dude versus Young N-word kid" and few will see the bigger picture. The kid should always respect his elders, regardless of color or behavior of the elder (within reason, of course), and the older man should know better than to go and pick fights because he's unhappy with his own life. And none of us should have to be subjected to their issues.

With that, the YouTune video takes on this are really worth watching:

Video: explaining the AC Transit Bus Fight:



Video: Another take on the AC Transit Bus Fight:



NOTE: In the first video, the young women who filmed the event noted that the older white man left his bag. I hope she returned it to him.

Stay tuned.