Parable of Oakland, A City Traumatized

Parable of Oakland, A City Traumatized


At this hour, Thursday, July 1, 2010, Oakland is a city under siege, the OPD occupying army is everywhere throughout the downtown area and the hood. The police are riding four deep, stopping cars and people in the hood, from the west to the east to the north. Downtown stores and businesses were shuttered today and many workers have been told to take the day off tomorrow, for fear the pitiful verdict shall be rendered basically exonerating the BART police of murdering Oscar Grant on New Year's Day last year while he lay handcuffed on his stomach. A bullet was pumped into his back by the officer charged with his murder, but the judge has instructed the jury that first degree murder is out, only second degree murder and manslaughter is the possible outcome. Second degree murder or manslaughter is tantamount to a verdict of innocence, when he should have been found guilty of first degree murder. When you shoot a man handcuffed on his belly, this is premeditated murder in the law book of the hood.

The people of Oakland see what's about to happen, something similar to the Rodney King verdict. We attended the rally at City Hall today and conversed with some of the leaders from the Laney College Black Students Union who spoke to the media.

We advised them to take heart from the fact that when Louvelle Mixon took out the four OPD officers in a shootout, he did so in the name of Oscar Grant. As Dr. Fritz Pointer said, we take an "obscene pride" in the actions of Louvelle Mixon, that he applied ghetto justice to the occupying army that has been abusing and murdering us for years under the color of law.

The OPD has not earned our respect but our hatred and contempt. They are as much an occupying army as the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they need to remove themselves from our neighborhoods and permit us to secure our own neighborhoods as the US is allowing insurgents to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. If they can pay the Sunni insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan to lay down their arms by providing them with jobs, housing and education, they can do the same for the youth of Oakland who have been terrorizing our ho0ds because they lack jobs with a living wage, housing and education that is free of the white supremacy curriculum, including black studies that does not address community issues and need.

Yes, preachers, teachers/professors, and politicians have betrayed us, and the police have enforced the betrayal. Thus, we do not put the total blame on the police, but the corrupt leadership of our community in general that has sold us out for a mess of pottage.

So an entire city is suffering trauma. The young men are being arrested at every turn this very minute. The workers are suffering from losing time from work. The small business owners must board up their stores and safeguard their cars. The common people are vowing to not enter the streets when the verdict is rendered. This is chaos on the highest level.

The BSU students, after conversing with me, suggested perhaps they should stay away from the protest after the verdict, since it is surely to be a set up by the police. Let the anarchists get their heads whupped, but let us stay away to fight another day.
--Marvin X
Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland