November 15, 2010

Jonathan Nack reports on the response to both the Mehserle verdict and the Jones killing.

Then, only days after the sentencing was announced, the police struck again in Oakland, killing Derrick Jones, another unarmed African American man. Again, protesters took to the streets.

Grant was lying facedown on the train platform when Mehserle shot him in the back--the killing was captured on video by train riders, and the footage proved that Grant was completely subdued. Mehserle was found guilty, but of the least serious charge made against him by prosecutors. Now, with the judge giving him credit for time he has already served, Mehserle will be eligible for release in just seven months.

On November 5, former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced to just two years in prison for killing Oscar Grant, an unarmed African American man, on an Oakland, Calif., transit station platform on New Year's Day 2009. Oakland was gripped by protest once again to demand justice.

LESS THAN a week after thousands protested the verdict in the Oscar Grant case, hundreds came together in Oakland, Calif., to demand justice for Derrick Jones, another unarmed Black man killed by police.

Jones, 37, was shot and killed by two Oakland police officers on November 8. Jones was a father and owned a barbershop in East Oakland. He was well known and liked in his community.

Police claimed they thought they saw Jones reaching for a weapon. Jones had no weapon and had committed no crime. Officers said Jones ran away when they approached him.

The protest began at 3 p.m. on November 8 with a rally in front of Jones' barbershop on Bancroft Avenue in Oakland. As the first hundred people gathered to hear speakers, the mood of the crowd was outrage, mixed with grief and solemn determination.

Following the initial rally, protesters marched down International Boulevard to the Fruitvale BART station. Oscar Grant was killed on the platform of this station by BART Police Office Johannes Mehserle in the early hours of New Year's Day 2009.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of an Oakland, Calif., barber shop owned by a victim of the police (Jonathan Nack | IndyBay)

Officer Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the killing Grant and was sentenced to two years of prison on November 5. Both the verdict and the sentencing sparked community outrage.

The rally at the Fruitvale BART, which was conducted at the entrance to the station, was double the size of initial rally. BART closed the station in response. A line of police in riot gear stood in front of the station's closed gate. Numerous family members and friends of Derrick Jones attended the protest, including Jones' parents.

First published at the IndyBay Web site.