Dellum’s Meets with Non-Profits to “Prevent Violence”
From IndyBay:
“Back to the meeting that took place this past Mon. June 21st. Several non-profit organizations met with Mayor Dellum’s office to discuss strategies in which more “violence” can be prevented should the verdict of the trial be in favor of Mehserle and his defense team. The meeting was attended by representatives from the following orgs: Ella Baker Center, Causa Justa, Oakland Rising, Urban Peace Movement, Youth Uprising – and there may have been others. Ideas and possible outcomes of the meeting include: Holding Community Meetings in different areas across Oakland both before and after the verdict of the trial, creating public service announcements, and warning youth that there will be outsiders advocating “violence”.
A few things to keep in mind
- For those that have fully participated in this Justice movement from the beginning until now, we have heard over and over again that the rebellion in downtown Oakland on Jan. 7th and 14th was lead and carried out by “outsider anarchists” Bullshit! Completely untrue! CAPE was the first to voice these lies. And ironically, the latest reactionary to repeat this nonsense is allegedly from Youth Uprising. (However not surprising considering the recent visit from U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder to Youth Uprising).
- To a certain extent, yes it is true that there were outsiders carrying out violent acts on the 7th and 14th, they are commonly referred to as the police(over 90% of OPD lives outside of Oakland), and rest assured they will always play this role when the righteous anger of the community leads to destruction of property/vandalism, but in no way shape or form did the people of Oakland participate in any violent acts on the 7th and 14th.
- Although the Mayor’s office and the non-profits will never admit it – it was the united contingent of Oakland Youth and Radicals that made sure city officials got off their reactionary arses and put that cop in jail on Jan. 13th – one day before another rally and demonstration was planned for downtown Oakland.
- Lastly, it was the sustained effort of the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement that organized to make sure that for the first time in the history of California a police officer is being tried for murder while in the line of duty, and CAPE as a coalition of non-profits did not participate in this sustained movement for justice. There are still individuals from that coalition who participate and do integral work in the pursuit of justice.
- But the non-profits are seemingly looking to pick up right where they left off and play the same role in the end as they did in the beginning. But whatever role any of us play, if this former police officer is not sentenced to spend a considerable amount of time in jail for murdering an unarmed man as he lay face down with another officer’s knee on his neck, there is no series of community meetings and no PSA that will prevent the people of Oakland from expressing their anger about another young life taken far too soon by a cop whose salary is paid with public funds.”
*****
Yep.
