Protests over BART shooting turn violent:

A protest over the fatal shooting by a BART police officer of an unarmed black man mushroomed into several hours of violence Wednesday night as demonstrators smashed storefronts and cars, set several cars ablaze and blocked streets in downtown Oakland.

The roving mob expressed fury at police and frustration over society's racial injustice. Yet the demonstrators were often indiscriminate, frequently targeting the businesses and prized possessions of people of color.

They smashed a hair salon, a pharmacy and several restaurants. Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, but some people retreated along 14th Street and bashed cars along the way.

The mob smashed the windows at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, and a woman walked out of the shop holding a baby in her arms.

"This is our business," shouted Leemu Topka, the black owner of the salon she started four years ago. "This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?"

Wednesday night's vandalism victims had nothing to do with the shooting death by a BART police officer of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day - but that did little to sway the mob.

"I feel like the night is going great," said Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, one of the demonstrators. "I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back. It's for the murder of a black male."

Sykes, who is black, had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.

"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life," Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: "I just hope nobody gets shot or killed."

Lexi & I got out of BART and exited Lake Merritt Station just as things were heating up. We didn't see any of it, though the ghetto birds were out in a swarm last night, and we did see rollers blockading 14th around Franklin or so.

As a citizen of this city, I'm outraged that a man can be facedown in cuffs, a BART cop is filmed pulling out his gun and emptying a round into the man's back, and the cop can just resign and not have to face internal investigators. This is all kinds of fucked up, without even getting to the issue of "did he mistake his firearm for a taser?" The killing of Oscar Grant is no minor thing.

But Nia Sykes, FUCK YOU! Go the fuck back across the Bay you fucking knucklehead. Yes, BART is an area-wide system and what happens on the station platform is not just an Oakland problem.

Oaktown does not need your kind of noise.

Lexi & I patronize several of the shops you smashed. The people's cars you wrecked, those are my neighbors. A lot of them are figuring how they're going to get to work and get the kids to school this morning.

I gotta remind myself, once the arrests start working through the system, to see how many of those arrested actually live here in The 'Town, and how many just came to my city for the riot.

[EDIT] merle_ points out a very salient fact: the rioters were getting into it with OPD, but it was a BART cop on a BART station platform who put a round into Oscar Grant wile he lay face down & cuffed.

OPD got issues, no doubt. But this one isn't on their doorstep.

[1/10/09 EDIT] Nia Sykes claims she was quoted out of context by the Chronicle:

I was a part of the peaceful rally that began at 3 p.m. at the Fruitvale BART Station, where Oscar Grant was murdered. I said that the peaceful protest was "great"- not the destruction of property! Some of us continued to downtown Oakland, but I was not a part of the faction of protesters that became violent. I do not advocate violence at all, from police or the protesters, nor did I have any part of it. In fact, when I saw people vandalizing property, I moved to another block, where I was interviewed by the reporter.

I have no reason not to take her at her word. I still am interested to see if the Chron issues a retraction, but I do notice that she seems to have been quoted after leaving the original peaceful protest, after marching downtown as part of a mob, and after parts of that mob turned violent.

Maybe the lesson is never speak to reporters ever.

Also, you fucking knuckleheads from Revolution Books over in Berzerkeley who were setting the fires... I hope the cops catch you and I hope Mom & Dad refuse to pay your bail.

And then there's the case of protest organizer EVAN SHAMAR: YOU ARE A KNUCKLEHEAD AND YOU ARE PARTLY TO BLAME FOR THE RIOT! You were told by people who were experienced in this kind of thing that there needed to be better organization and facilitators guiding the protest.

But, NO! You thought "If we just get a big mob of people from all over the Bay Area & California, angry about watching a young black father being shot in the back by a cop on YouTube, and spread them out throughout the city with an admonition to be good, spontaneous righteousness will arise from people's inner nobility. Yeah, that's the plan."

YOU WERE TOLD THAT A MARCH DOWNTOWN, UNSUPERVISED AND UNCOORDINATED, WAS A BAD IDEA. BUT YOU LET YOUR IDEALISM AND POETIC BELIEF IN "THE PEOPLE" GET IN THE WAY OF EXPERIENCE AND REALITY.

Maybe the over-privileged children from Berzerkeley in the black hoodies were going to start fires anyway. But if the march downtown had been organized and coordinated with law-enforcement, maybe they wouldn't have had a chance. You, sir, are a starry-eyed knucklehead who is partly to blame for all the broken windows in the stores on 17th @ Webster.

And lastly, for everyone who is making with the "SQUEEEEE!" over Mayor Dellums coming out on the steps of City Hall to address the crowd, FUCK THAT! Ron Dellums is getting close to $184,000/YEAR for doing JACK SHIT. This city needs a full-time mayor and if Dellums isn't going to be that man, get the fuck out of office and let Robert Bobb or Wilson Riles or SOMEONE fucking do the job. I've got reservations about Nacho, but at least he seems to want to spend 40+ hours a week on the job.

I'm sure RD is a nice guy. But he is an abject failure as Oakland's mayor. 25 hours A WEEK on the job is not going to cut it. I'm with Chip Johnson, Dellums has to go.