BART verdict: Oakland damage extensive from unrest; at least 80 arrested

Oakland officials on Friday morning were trying to sort out the damage after serious looting in the downtown area following the BART verdict in which an ex-officer who killed an unarmed man was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Crowds of people roamed the streets following Thursday’s verdict into early Friday, smashing storefront windows, stealing merchandise, setting trash fires and tagging walls.

According to Oakland police, more than 80 people were arrested. Among the stores looted included a Foot Locker, Sears, 24 Hour Fitness as well as jewelry stores. 

As of Friday, officials said calm had returned, and BART service -- which was stopped at some stations during the unrest -- had resumed.

Men sprayed graffiti on walls and windows on Broadway; one outside Tully’s Coffee read: “You can’t shoot us all.” Large fires billowed out of dumpsters on 20th Street and Telegraph Avenue.

At 20th Street and Broadway, authorities released smoke to disperse a crowd that was overrunning police and throwing bottles at officers, according to Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts.

Batts said there were probably about 100 troublemakers out of up to 800 people who showed up at 14th Street and Broadway after Thursday’s verdict, in which former transit Officer Johannes Mehserle, a white man, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Oscar J. Grant III, an unarmed black man, at the Fruitvale BART station on Jan.1, 2009. Prosecutors had sought a stronger conviction of second-degree murder.

Batts said there were probably about 100 troublemakers out of up to 800 people who showed up at 14th Street and Broadway after Thursday’s verdict, in which former transit Officer Johannes Mehserle, a white man, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Oscar J. Grant III, an unarmed black man, at the Fruitvale BART station on Jan.1, 2009. Prosecutors had sought a stronger conviction of second-degree murder.

Batts described the troublemakers as “anarchists” who came to Oakland to cause trouble and not peacefully express their views on the verdict.

“This city is not the wild, wild west,” he said. “We will allow people to protest, but we will allow it to be done peacefully.”

Workers in Oakland evacuated the downtown core after news broke that the verdict was to be read, and store owners boarded up windows.

The demonstration throughout the early evening was largely peaceful but tense. People held up photos of Grant as police equipped with helmets and riot gear looked on. A sign draped over a light post read: “Oakland says guilty.”

As darkness fell about 8 p.m. and most of the demonstrators went home, a group of people dressed in black and wearing black masks moved toward police.

“It was clear that they were taking an aggressive posture. ... We started taking a number of rocks and bottles,” Batts said. “We then made a dispersal order.”

By 8:30 p.m., the looting began. People broke windows at a Rite-Aid drugstore. A California Highway Patrol car window was smashed, as was the window of a news television van.

Residents could be heard yelling at the younger protesters in the street to “go home. This is our city. Don’t destroy it.”

The reaction in Los Angeles, where the trial was moved because of intense publicity in the Bay Area, was peaceful. A group of people upset with the verdict gathered in Leimert Park late Thursday, but the event was so peaceful that even the police left before the end. 

Grant’s uncle, Kenneth Johnson, 48, came to see the rally but did not stand up to speak. Johnson, who lives in Los Angeles, said he was unhappy with the verdict and thought justice had not been served.

He was, however, glad to see Angelenos rallying for Grant.

“L.A., Oakland, the same things go on both places,” he said.

-- Maria L. La Ganga in downtown Oakland; Abby Sewell in Leimert Park; and Rong-Gong Lin II and Louis Sahagun in Los Angeles

Photo: A demonstrator taunts officers in downtown Oakland. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[guest]

Maybe the next time a minority is convicted of killing someone who is unarmed we should go burn down their neighborhoods and say, "you can't kill us all." These kind of violent reactions are nothing more than opportunistic punks looking for free TVs. Their elders were right to scold them. The violence doesn't resolve the problem. There's too many people trashing this country up and not respecting anything or anyone anymore.

[Paranah]

The 80 people arrested should be required to pay for all damages as well as for the stolen merchandise. They don't have a job, no problem, they forfeit their welfare check for the next 10 to 15 years to pay.
Maybe the fools won't riot next time a there's a trial.
If the officer was aquited there would be riots, he was found guilty and they riot, they were just out there to steal and damage private property and used the trial as an excuse. Too bad the store owners weren't in the stores with shot guns loaded with 000 buck shot protecting their property.

[Ish]

Businesses should leave, take their tax revenue dollars to cities where they are welcomed and appreciated. Let the residents travel far distances to "buy" their products.

[Brett]

J.W., while I admire your passion, it was NOT murder, it was manslaughter. Mehserle didn't slash his victims' throats in a cowardly and jealous rage and then get acquitted, he was convicted of a criminal mistake for which he could serve up to fourteen years. If we took away the police's "ability to kill," as you describe it, I cannot begin to list the number of situations over the past several years where innocents would have died had the police not been carrying weapons and had the police not used those weapons. Rubber bullet and pepper spray are no defense when the criminal element out there are carrying lethal weapons, many of them better armed than the police who are charged with finding and arresting them.

[Wilbert Martin]

I'm hardly amazed that so many commenters have blamed the family of Mr. Grant for the actions of the protesters and looters. These people have lost a family member to a senseless killing. The BART official who did this MURDER got off easy. Once again you see that a young so-called Black Man can be killed unjustly and the perpetrator gets off lightly. I believe that a lot of non-Black people feel it's perfectly alright to kill a Black Man. It's like you're doing society a favor to take a Brother out of circulation. I don't believe we'll ever get sympathy for the plight of our people from non-Blacks as a whole. Some insightful people with a conscience and an understanding of history may have real concern about this. I simply believe that it is past the time for the Black people to try and separate from this evil called the United States. This place is a nightmare and a curse upon for Blacks. We may not be able to leave physically, but spiritually we have to stop being a part of this mess. The Good Lord is going to exact a severe judgement on this place.

[Vincenzo]

Did they riot because the cop is white or because he is a cop or that he got off with manslaughter?

[Michael Kirby]

These type of actions is why people, police, single then out. Please understand i am not or do i mean to sound racist. Where white people out rioting. Do you see them going in the street up in arms looting. Why must you show them that they are right about you. You just fuel the fire.

[Connie G.]

How does causing all of this damage and starting fires solve anything? Why do they always respond like this? So you go around looting and setting things on fire and breaking windows, come on that is a joke....grow up.

[otis]

Lets have a beer summit with a black man!

[Deepeyes]

Let's see here....

Man gets very routy and causes BART police to arrest him ( He's been in prison BEFORE , we LATER learn ) He is violent and buligirant and he resists arrest. additional BART cop s are called in to maintain peace...and hold off the "cuffed" law breaker...

BART police get anxious,excited , and threatened by the routy guy, and the guy is shot instead of "TASERED"...by a responding officer.

We send trial down to L.A. to" be more fair and calm."

We CONVICT ( EX-cop ) of manslaughter for NOT doing "his job"and accidentally killing instead of "capturing" this guy.

Some "FOLKS" cause terrible damage and act like unprincipled, BADLY spoiled children and they burn , loot, and smash THEIR OWN neighbors stores and shops....and they show the WHOLE WORLD this pathetic level of character and moral maturity. They do NOT represent all of Oaklands' citizens..or the genuine level of dignity in Oakland...

What is WRONG with SOME "FOLKS"...and WHY do THEY get "attention" and "understanding"as they make decent folks look PRETTY BAD?

Where are the "decent" folks in Oakland who use the BART everyday, pay taxes, work hard and suffer set backs and still act mature and responsible ( EVERY DAY !! ) and manage to BUY ( rather than STEAL ) and support and maintain ..rather than RUIN things in Oakland ?
Let's hear from THEM...

[The Starving Economist]

I could not be more appalled at the blatant racism I read in some of these comments. I confess I do miss some of the years pre-Reagan, where racism was at least out of fashion enough that the haters would keep some of the vitriol to themselves.

And I love the way some of the "don't-tax-me-I-should-get-it-for-free" types are suddenly the buddies of cops, when cops have confrontations with African-American citizens.

You don't want to pay for anything anymore that would help kids who are born into our inner cities be safe enough, and healthy enough, and educated enough to be able to help turn things around in their communities as adults. Every good thing that was beginning to bud in blighted areas was hacked to death by budget cut after budget cut, year after year, in response to whiners who just yelled "cut, cut, cut!" instead of taking the time and effort to see WHAT should be cut. But these days, you don't even want to pay for your cops!

And you're going to get your wish, in a governor who has no experience in anything but amassing wealth for herself. As she privatizes everything, costing you far more while giving you far less that you would have got if you'd just stopped pissing on your own government instead of working to fix it, and her rich buddies profit from the privatization, enjoy your pricey rent-a-cops. If you can afford them.

Cities like Oakland need more, not less security to make their citizens safe from violence, whether locally-grown or imported. But how can they trust police who have the kind of racist attitudes which have been blasted on this board?

There needs to be a new kind of security for citizens which screens out idiots, racists, power-mad-on-testosterone types, and sadists. And people who can't tell the difference between a gun and a taser. If they are so similar ,than why doesn't someone make the feel of them very different? Make one have a bumpy surface or something. Not rocket science. Or are things so bad that the gun needs a voice which will activate and say "This is your gun. Do you really want me right now?"

Whatever happens, our country is losing our place in the world and many of the blessings we always took for granted at home. We have to start pulling together to make things better and that is not going to happen while we point fingers and hate based on race, class, politics, religion, or anything else.

[1muley1]

I'm suprised that the Reverend Al Sharpton and his pal Jesse Jackson have not shown up to put their 2 cents in.

[Heisenberg]

Mehserle is a murderer.

[Williams]

I'll never understand rioting & looting. Destroying business in your own neighborhood only raises the number of unemployed. I think the cop should have been found guilty of murder, but as Martin Luther King, Jr would have done, it should have been a peaceful protest.