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There’s a pretty ridiculous propaganda piece in the Tribune today:

“City police on Wednesday began meeting with representatives of other law enforcement agencies to prepare for the response to the scheduled Nov. 5 sentencing of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.

Their goal: Prevent a repeat of the violence that followed Mehserle’s July 8 involuntary manslaughter conviction in the Jan. 1, 2009, shooting death of Hayward resident Oscar Grant III.”
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The only voices in the piece are those of cops and city officials, all of whom describe the actions of OPD after the Mehserle conviction as “successful” and “appropriate.” They also describe protesters as “violent” – you know cause they’re the one who showed up with the guns and batons and locked people in cages and shoot unarmed people routinely… – and repeat the MYTH that the protests were carried out by out-of-town white anarchists. Not to diminish the role of out-of-town white anarchists – many of whom I’m sure are great people and did play an important role in the protests – but to undermine the fact that this confrontation was part of a deeply felt rage on the part of community members and that it is the expression of a rift between poor black youth and their bourgeois “leaders” is stupid. Anyway, the cops are preparing for another showdown…

From NYT:

“The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The children whom Mr. Bell had with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, will receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode will also receive payments, with Joseph Guzman getting $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.”
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It certainly isn’t justice…

The Chronicle is reporting that Kenton Rainey is likely to become the next Head Cop at BART. Rainey comes to BART from San Antonio where he was head of the airport police. Prior to that he’s been involved in various controversies in departments around the country. He sued the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for racial discrimination – and won. He was also basically chased out of his post as Chief at Fairfield for siding with community members against white officers involved in a shooting.

Clearly, the people at BART are trying to respond to community pressure. Hopefully, however, the community will remain strong in their demands that the BART police be disbanded. Maybe there are compromises worth making, but this chief is not enough to change BART’s racism and culture of violence.

Indybay has an excellent account and some cool photos here and here.

All in all, this was a really fun action that, I think, served its purpose. Let’s hope that the actions continue to escalate as the trial approaches.

From the Chronicle:

“The San Francisco Police Commission heard a litany of expert testimony Wednesday to support the police chief’s proposal that the department’s officers be equipped with electronic stun guns.

Chief George Gascón has pushed for Tasers, stun guns that disrupt a target’s muscle control, and ordered a study of officer-involved shootings shortly after coming on the job in late July. That study, released earlier this year, concluded that one-third of 15 officer-involved shootings over a five-year period might have been avoided had officers had the devices.”

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Find previous reporting here.

We’ll hopefully be responding to this in print.  Stay tuned!