SACair Forum

So i'm heading to Oaksterdamn for a visit to my favorite medicinal distributor after work last night, at about 6:30pm. En route we see not 1, not 2, but 3 ghetto birds spottliting the area from Fruitvale to Lake meritt to down town oakland.

Scary... Danielle and I were driving around Oakland yesterday. Didn't see anything luckly. We had gone over to San Fransico before it got dark so maybe we just missed it. I think Oakland is like any big city... there are plenty of good parts, just enough bad parts to make it sound scarier then it is.

as i understand the protest started at 4pm at Fruitvale BART and the real fun didnt' hit downtown until 7. it sound like ya got lucky and i've PM'd ya my number as I'm about 10 miles from the SF bay bridge and 5 miles from AEX oakland.

Well seeing as I lived in San leandro for 11 years and we moved because it turned into a shit head infested cr@p hole you can guesse my thoughts on gang members riots race riots and crime in generall. It all has it's moments I say screw the communitys that don't want a civil peacefull life.

You got to put everything in context. Ther'ye upset that their friend/relative was shot in the back and killed by a bart officer. Watch the video and decide for yourself. The officer resigned yesterday and has not met with bart investigators to give a formal statement. Sad all the way around.

i'd put it in perspective if it wasn't a buncha of asshats rioting and thrashing business fronts of minorities. Ehtopians, thai, vietnamese, even latino storefrotns were vandalized. hell 3 of my wife's banks were broken into and vandalized.

I don't condone their actions at all. I just wanted to add more info to what you initially posted.

Scary stuff. My girlfriend works downtown near where they broke out. Something told her to go home early and I am glad she did.

I fully understand people's anger and outrage over that shooting. There is no dought that it was a horible thing and that cops can be ciminals too. However, trashing a city and acting like a bunch of barbarians??? It's not like they are attacking only the cops they are "protesting", they are attacking whoever and whatever they can. It's like they find any excuse to cause trouble.

[quote="ukau"]I don't condone their actions at all. I just wanted to add more info to what you initially posted.[/quote]

so as these wretched protests continue and always end in some knuckledheaded violence, i keep thinking something to myself that one of my coworkers said.

protests are not congruent to riots.

What exactly are they protesting/rioting about anyway? The cop that shot the guy has been arested. What is it they want? What is there goal? Personally, I think nothing. I think like said before they don't really care about the guy that got shot, or the cop that shot him or anything. They just saw a chance to cause trouble in all of this.

Quite frankly I'm pissed off because a good friend of mine at my AA meetings was his Aunt, until that racist a$$ son of a b!tch BART cop shot him in the back. Also, I live just 1.5 miles from where this occurred, and now I'm always watching the news before I leave the house to see if theirs another "RIOT" going on in the direction of where I'm heading. People rioting, throwing pieces of sidewalks at Hair Salons & Restaurants, destroying OPD police cruisers, and all of that other BS makes these "RIOTERS" just as bad as the BART cop who shot Oscar Grant on new years early that morning at Fruitvale BART. It's a chain reaction of violence, stupidity, and it needs to stop.

[quote="hairy_apple"]What exactly are they protesting/rioting about anyway? The cop that shot the guy has been arested. What is it they want? What is there goal? Personally, I think nothing. I think like said before they don't really care about the guy that got shot, or the cop that shot him or anything. They just saw a chance to cause trouble in all of this.[/quote]

You take offence to what? That there isn't anything to be "protesting" anymore. That I'm think these people are just looking for any reason to make trouble? What I'm saying is that the cop who killed the guy was arested for murder yesterday or the day before and they are still out there smashing stuff up... for what? What are they "protesting"?? He's been arested, he will be found guilty and sent to jail. What's the problem now? What are they mad about? Nothing. They are just a bunch of thugs looking to smash up there own city and someone gave them a good excuse to do so. The fact that they are still rioting after the cop was arested pretty well proves that to me.

[quote="hairy_apple"]You take offence to what? That there isn't anything to be "protesting" anymore. That I'm think these people are just looking for any reason to make trouble? What I'm saying is that the cop who killed the guy was arested for murder yesterday or the day before and they are still out there smashing stuff up... for what? What are they "protesting"?? He's been arested, he will be found guilty and sent to jail. What's the problem now? What are they mad about? Nothing. They are just a bunch of thugs looking to smash up there own city and someone gave them a good excuse to do so. The fact that they are still rioting after the cop was arrested pretty well proves that to me.[/quote]

Story for those interested.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be really mad about this. It was a horible thing, but I am saying most the people rioting don't give a crap about any of it. You still haven't answered why are they still rioting after the killer was arested? What are they still mad about? What is point they are making?

[quote="hairy_apple"]I'm not saying people shouldn't be really mad about this. It was a horible thing, but I am saying most the people rioting don't give a crap about any of it. You still haven't answered why are they still rioting after the killer was arested? What are they still mad about? What is point they are making?[/quote]

[quote="Th3Ital1an"]Quite frankly I'm pissed off because a good friend of mine at my AA meetings was his Aunt, until that racist a$$ son of a b!tch BART cop shot him in the back. Also, I live just 1.5 miles from where this occurred, and now I'm always watching the news before I leave the house to see if theirs another "RIOT" going on in the direction of where I'm heading. People rioting, throwing pieces of sidewalks at Hair Salons & Restaurants, destroying OPD police cruisers, and all of that other BS makes these "RIOTERS" just as bad as the BART cop who shot Oscar Grant on new years early that morning at Fruitvale BART. It's a chain reaction of violence, stupidity, and it needs to stop.[/quote]

"I think a lot of the outrage has to do with how the BART board of directors handled the PR situation. They underestimated the controversy this situation would spark. Absolutely, handled this in the wrong way."

[quote="tommyknocker2121"][quote="Th3Ital1an"]Quite frankly I'm pissed off because a good friend of mine at my AA meetings was his Aunt, until that racist a$$ son of a b!tch BART cop shot him in the back. Also, I live just 1.5 miles from where this occurred, and now I'm always watching the news before I leave the house to see if theirs another "RIOT" going on in the direction of where I'm heading. People rioting, throwing pieces of sidewalks at Hair Salons & Restaurants, destroying OPD police cruisers, and all of that other BS makes these "RIOTERS" just as bad as the BART cop who shot Oscar Grant on new years early that morning at Fruitvale BART. It's a chain reaction of violence, stupidity, and it needs to stop.[/quote]

[quote="Th3Ital1an"]In my mind, the mind of my friend who was his Aunt, until he was killed, and most everyone I know and the majority of people in Oakland, this was indeed a racist action. If these guys were white, this wouldn't have gone quite as far as it did. Think about it...[/quote]

thanks Jas, i've been skating around sayign that very thing

The whole thing is FUBAR is you ask me. The cop was dumb, the rioters are idiots. This whole thing has got way out of hand. A stupid/sad thing was turned into a major event and it shouldn't have been.

I can understand the anger and I can understand the viewpoint that it looked intentional. However, with careful thought and analysis and some research into taser practices and techniques, it becomes very obvious that this was just a terrible mistake. As I said before, the intent to kill just isn't there. The DA will probably charge the officer in question with manslaughter: negligent homicide.

I had not heard about any of this tazer/gun mixup untill yesterday. That totally changes things in my opionion. If he didn't intend to shoot him(which makes way more sence then a cop shooting someone in the back), this whole thing becomes even more tragic and the "protesters" even more of idioits. If that really is the case, then this whole thing is just insane. Rioting because of a sad mistake? Really continues to prove that these people just want an excuse to smash up there town. How sad that as a socaity as a whole can act this way and even sadder that some people can justify the actions of these thugs as part of a "civil rights" protest. EVEN if the cop killed him because of race, riots solve nothing. That is not how problems are solved, that is not how progress is made. These area bunch of morons smashing up stuff becuase they can.

People who like to protest will find any means to protest.

[quote="michaeld"]People who like to protest will find any means to protest.