Friday January 30th, Downtown Oakland

The shittiest part about biking across downtown Oakland is there are about one million red lights that are never in sync with one another. Right now I am following a huge tank-like black police vehicle across city streets as fast as I can. Four helicopters hover overhead like a dark cloud in the distance brings a storm. It seems like throngs of angry people are as natural and unrelenting piece of this Oakland urban ecosystem as the sky and the rain. I crawl through an artery of pulsating cars and watch as the tank arrives at its destination. Riot cops fan out and draw a line down the street between me and a group of maybe two hundred people. These people are pissed.
Police quickly block off the intersection, forming a diagonal line across 14th and Harrison streets. The throng starts to gather on the other side of the line. Some middle school girls are asking police “hey, why cant I go over there? I want to go over to the other side of you. Why can’t I cross the line? I would really like to cross the police line.”
It has been announced just one hour ago in a hearing that Johannes Mehserle may be released from prison if he pays ten percent of a three million dollars bail. In case you have been living under a rock in some Alemeda cul-de-sac, Mehserle is the BART cop who publicaly shot Oscar Grant in a subway station this new year’s day. Needless to say, people are not happy with the Judge's decision. Three million dollars is a very steep bail--Mehserle is considered a flight risk. However, for many people, the fact bail is even an option for Mehserle is a disturbing foreshadowing of how the judge will handle this case. A point that has been consistently brought up during all mass-gatherings concerning the murder of Oscar Grant is those assembled believe not only one police officer is at fault, but also a larger system of economic and racial opression.
I watch as a young black dude tries to break out of the crowd and through the police line.
“OK; arrest that guy” one of the cops say. About 6 people jump on him.
“What is your name?” a girl is shouting at the kid.
For his age, it really is impressive six cops are having trouble putting him in handcuffs.
“Don’t resist them, man. Be calm. Do not resist.” says an onlooker.
“What is your name?”
“Get off his fucking neck. Get off his fucking neck you dirty pig piece of shit cop. Get off his neck you worthless fucking shit bag,” someone else is screaming. The kid continues to struggle. Finally, they get the handcuffs on.
“What is your name?” says the girl again. The kid on the ground tells her, defeated. They put the kid in the paddy wagon.
“Man, I have never seen anything like this before. It is pretty clear in this situation the police are not on our side.” an impeccably dressed black man from Texas is telling me. “I wonder, though. If not us, who’s side are they on?”
A guy drives up into the middle of the fray in a black SUV. He opens the door and starts telling everyone to get out of the street or they will be arrested. Judging by his dress, he must be some sort of important guy. Maybe even the chief. However, everyone around is trying to stifle laughter because, really, the guy sounds pretty silly. If I had to describe it, I would describe it as if Pee Wee Herman, instead of starting a kids’ show, fell into an evil oozing vat of sludge that makes you embark on an endless self-loathing masculine power quest video game. “arrest that one.” he says, extending phalanges at some kid. “the one with the white T-shirt.” Tons of cops jump on him. Another black kid. “get that one with the backpack, over there. Arrest him.” The same. He gets one other, a white guy this time, I guess for good measure. By this point it is four PM and there is a ratio of about one police to one person, including onlookers on the other side of the line. It would be difficult to take this SUV man seriously were he not able to arrest anybody here pretty much at his will. The scary thing is he can.
All in all, at least four people are arrested before protesters disperse. On the part of protesters, there is no violence or breaking of shit. I look over to see a white guy putting plywood over the humongous windows of his downtown business. When I go over to talk to him he says he pretty much started boarding it up as soon as he heard the news about Mehserle. Next door to his business, a white woman in a black suit is frantically wheat pasting colorful pictures of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama onto her own plywood storefront, just beside her huge custom graffiti portrait of Grant. Most businesses on this street have at least pasted xeroexed pictures of Grant’s face on each window of their storefront. “I guess it is better than a security system,” a passer-by observes. Soon the clouds of reporters, protesters, and police subside. People go home and some racist white people descend upon internet news post comment pages like vultures, writing some irrelevant shit about how young black folks are thugs.
When the shit hits the fan some of us have the option to get out of the way. It is important to recognize that option is a luxury.


Update: Johannes Mehserle was released 3:45 PM Friday, February 6 after making $30,000 -- 10% of his three million bail.