Oakland: My City of Ruins

Here are just a few links to blogs worth reading in the wake of the New Year's Day killing of Oscar Grant by BART police in Oakland. 

M. Dot at Model Minority: BART Police Kill an Unarmed Man, Oscar Grant, on New Year's Day and Black on Black Murder and Oscar Grant

Oakland haunts me.

Edwin Okong’o at Okong'o's Policy: 'Pigs, go home': Oakland Riots Awakened My Demons

That single night did not make me change my attitude toward pigs. Over the years those pigs have harassed me, used unnecessary force, racial slurs and profanity against me, and even killed people I know. Those pigs judged their victims collectively. They assumed that every black man was a hardcore criminal that deserved to be manhandled and locked up. But the night taught me that stacking officers like Raul and my brother in that filthy pile makes me no different from a pig.

Oaklander Online: Oakland Authority, Now and Then

I wait in anticipation, then, of the BART police’s findings. Their investigation, said chief Gary Gee yesterday, should end this week. It’s my hope that they’ll conclude what all of us should already know, that a man was unjustly shot while on his back and on the ground. The subtext, as the videos show, is that Oscar Grant died because he was a black man. We also know—after looking beyond the color of his skin—that his middle name was Juliuss. He had a warm smile with a little gap in between his teeth. And those who knew him say he was a loyal friend.

Diane Leota Davis: Violence in Oakland

With all this said, in a spirit of protectiveness, I must add that this is my home and I love Oakland.

City Homestead: Thoughts on a Fractured City

To the world: we are not trapped here in this city; we have chosen to be here. We are here not because it is the only place we can afford living, but because it is the only place we can imagine living. I believe in this city, in its vast potential and its vibrant communities—and I love it, with all its imperfections. As a community, we will work through the anger and the violence, unearthing the very roots of it. Then, together, we will rebuild trust across the city and create from the fragments a single unified community. There’s a long road ahead, but I have faith that it is one that the people of this city will travel together.

Richard at Fem. Men. Ist Report From The Oscar Grant Protests/Riots.

I head down 14th street towards Webster... and that's as far as i get. A couple blocks further down, the crowd looms, and its a riot crowd. i can smell something burning, and Broadway is obscured with smoke that could be the source of the smell, or tear gas. A metal hulk slowly rolls out of a backlit cloud of smoke. it is a paramilitary tank with a mounted water cannon. Is this my neighborhood?

RaceWire has several posts worth reading.

Hope. With these hands. C'mon, rise up.

A prayer for Asbury Park, New York, New Orleans and Oakland...