The Great Oakland Riot

Zombie, who keeps tabs on things in the Gay Bay area, thinks trouble is brewing:

When a hurricane strikes the East Coast or the South, residents are warned for days ahead of time to prepare for the upcoming disaster. But out here on the West Coast, unfortunately, our disasters usually come in the form of earthquakes, which arrive suddenly and with no warning.

So it is with a rare and uneasy feeling that Californians are currently awaiting one of the few West Coast disasters which has been reliably predicted ahead of time. Except this catastrophe is not going to come courtesy of Mother Nature, but instead as what our president might call a “man-made disaster” — in this case, a riot.

Nearly everyone in the Bay Area agrees that a major Oakland riot is brewing if the verdict in the trial of policeman Johannes Mehserle, accused of murdering BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day, 2009, comes back anything other than “GUILTY!” The problem for Oakland’s sense of security is that Mehserle is almost certainly not guilty of murder, and the jury is likely to give him a comparatively light sentence or even let him go completely.

Check his post for more information on the case and the signs of pending trouble that are popping up around Oakland.

The greater unwashed part of Oakland is demanding a murder conviction against the cop in question, but as Zombie points out in his post the requirements for a murder conviction simply aren't there. Negligent homicide, yes, but murder one with malice aforethought, no way.

This could be their version of the Rodney King case that led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.  In both cases those most emotionally invested in the outcome probably don't understand the law.

In Los Angeles the officers involved were acquitted of all charges.  That probably won't happen in Oakland since there seems to be ample evidence of some sort of criminal act, even if it's not capital murder.  I wonder, though, if they'll take the same approach with this guy they did in L.A.?  When they didn't get the conviction they wanted the first time they went after the officers on civil rights charges.  Those charges had a lower standard of proof required, and in my view constituted a clear violation of double jeopardy protections since the officers were essentially tried twice for the same incident.

However, after the riots and all the emotional rah-rahs from the race activists the feds dared not let these guys go without a proper crucifixion.  It was a travesty of justice and turned a petty lifetime thug and criminal into a civil rights hero.  Of course, since then Rodney King has gone on to several other arrests and incidents involving police interaction.

The Oakland case will wrap up pretty soon.  A long hot summer could be in store for Oakland.