Oakland residents awaken to broken windows, debris

Oakland residents awaken to broken windows, debris
OAKLAND, Calif. — Looking out her front window in a usually quiet residential neighborhood in this city, Deanna Goldstein's knees began to shake. More than 100 Protesters were hemmed in by Police in Riot Gear. A trash can was blazing on the street. "I came home early from downtown to get away from the craziness, but the craziness came to me," she said. In the past, the violent Protests over a white transit Officer's slaying of an unarmed black man trashed downtown Oakland businesses....

Oakland residents wake up to broken car windows following protests in transit cop case
Oakland, CALIF. — Looking out her front window in a usually quiet residential neighborhood in this city, Deanna Goldstein's knees began to shake. More than 100 Protesters were hemmed in by Police in Riot Gear. A trash can was blazing on the street. "I came home early from downtown to get away from the craziness, but the craziness came to me," she said. In the past, the violent Protests over a white Transit Officer's slaying of an unarmed black man trashed downtown Oakland businesses. Bu...

Oakland residents wake up to broken car windows following protests in transit cop case
Oakland, CALIF. — Looking out her front window in a usually quiet residential neighborhood in this city, Deanna Goldstein's knees began to shake. More than 100 Protesters were hemmed in by Police in Riot Gear. A trash can was blazing on the street. "I came home early from downtown to get away from the craziness, but the craziness came to me," she said. In the past, the violent Protests over a white Transit Officer's slaying of an unarmed black man trashed downtown Oakland businesses. Bu...

Oakland residents awaken to broken windows, debris
OAKLAND, Calif. — Looking out her front window in a usually quiet residential neighborhood in this city, Deanna Goldstein's knees began to shake. More than 100 Protesters were hemmed in by Police in Riot Gear. A trash can was blazing on the street. "I came home early from downtown to get away from the craziness, but the craziness came to me," she said. In the past, the violent Protests over a white transit Officer's slaying of an unarmed black man trashed downtown Oakland businesses....

Violent protesters of police verdict target Calif. homes
OAKLAND, Calif. — Looking out her front window in a usually quiet residential neighborhood in this city, Deanna Goldstein’s knees began to shake. More than 100 Protesters were hemmed in by Police in Riot Gear. A trash can was blazing on the street. "I came home early from downtown to get away from the craziness, but the craziness came to me," she said. In the past, the violent Protests over a white transit officer’s slaying of an unarmed black man trashed downtown Oakland busin...

Oakland protests went wrong - 152 arrested
(11-06) 19:23 PDT Oakland -- Philip Means could sympathize with the hundreds of people protesting Johannes Mehserle's two-year sentence for killing Oscar Grant Friday night - right up until they surged into his neighborhood and started screaming, jumping on cars and smashing windows. Means, 23, burst from his house at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street in his underwear, took in the situation at a glance and decided to flee. "I was afraid for my truck because it was parked right in front of the house...

Protesters massing in Oakland as businesses close
(11-05) 14:42 PDT Oakland -- Office buildings are emptying and Protesters are gathering in downtown Oakland in anticipation of demonstrations today over the two-year Prison term handed down to former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle for killing Oscar Grant. Grant's family and supporters expressed outrage at the sentence, saying it should have been closer to the potential maximum of 14 years. "The whole system is guilty!" a group of about 20 people chanted near the corner of 14th Street an...

152 Arrested in Oakland Cop Sentencing Protest
Like this Story? Share it: (CBS/AP) Police arrested 152 Protesters who streamed through the streets Friday - some breaking windows and knocking down fences - after a white ex-transit officer received the minimum two-year Prison sentence for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform. The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and Police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence...

Ex-BART officer Mehserle sentenced to two years in prison for fatal shooting of unarmed man [updated]
A former transit Police Officer convicted of involuntary Manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed man on an Oakland train station platform was sentenced by a Los Angeles judge Friday to two years in Prison. Johannes Mehserle, 28, contended that he mistakenly used his firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon when he shot Oscar J. Grant III in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009. But prosecutors argued at his trial that Mehserle meant to reach for his Handgun as he tried to han...

Mehserle Gets the Minimum
A Southern California judge handed down the minimum sentence possible for former BART officer Johannes Mehserle in the shooting death of Oscar Grant. Mehserle was told in Court he will serve two years in Prison for involuntary Manslaughter. Before the sentencing hearing began, Mehserle was facing up to 14 years in Prison. Once the sentence was read, it was immediately met with outrage by Grant's family in the courtroom. "He got nothing! He got nothing," Grant's mother Wanda Johnson yel...

100 protesters arrested in Oakland
(11-05) 20:30 PDT Oakland -- More than 100 Protesters angered by the two-year sentence handed down to former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle were arrested Friday night after marching from downtown Oakland into a residential area south of Lake Merritt, where mobs smashed about a dozen car windshields and a Police Officer's gun was snatched. The marchers headed out of downtown after a peaceful rally outside City Hall, where as many as 500 people sang songs and heard speeches denouncing the...

White ex-transit officer's sentence sparks protest
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Hundreds of Protesters took to the streets Friday, some breaking windows and knocking down fences, after a white former transit officer was given the minimum possible Prison sentence of two years for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform. The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and Police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence that many thought...

Oscar Grant's Family Plans Next Move
Family and supporters of man killed on a BART platform early New Year's morning 2009 are planning their next move now that Johannes Mehserle has been sentenced to the minimum two years in Prison for involuntary Manslaughter. According to KGO-TV, Grant's family and supporters got together Saturday night at a Baptist church in Oakland for a pre-scheduled strategy session. One of the people who organized the meeting told KGO they are not giving up. "We don't accept the decision by the judge to...

Johannes Mehserle sentenced to two years with double credit for time served
Cephus Johnson, Oscar Grant’s Uncle Bobby, spokesman for the family, speaks to the press outside the Los Angeles Courthouse after the “slap on the wrist” sentence was handed to killer cop Johannes Mehserle. “I knew what the judge was going to say even before he said it. This whole thing was argued before we got here today,” he declared, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. - Photo: Noah Nelson, Youth Radio Today we had a gross miscarriage of justice. Judg...

Ex-cop jailed for killing unarmed man
LOS Angeles - A white former policeman who shot an unarmed black man to death on an Oakland, California, train platform was sentenced Friday to two years in Prison, the state's minimum penalty for involuntary Manslaughter. Video of the slaying recorded by onlookers sparked a night of Rioting in Oakland in January 2009 and Civil Unrest erupted again last July after the former Transit Officer, Johannes Mehserle, 28, was cleared of Murder charges. Asked whether the family of the Victim, Oscar Gra...

Oakland Braces for Violence After Sentence in Police Shooting
OAKLAND — Protesters vandalized storefronts and clashed with the Police here on Friday night after a white former Transit Police Officer was given what they considered to be a light sentence for the killing an unarmed black man. But Protests initially seemed less violent than others that have surrounded the Controversial case. The authorities said one Officer was hit by a car — perhaps by a Police vehicle — and another officer’s gun was stolen and turned on him. That pro...

Protests Rock Oakland in Wake of Verdict
A man is arrested by Oakland Police Friday night during Protests following the sentencing of a former transit Officer in the 2009 killing of unarmed Oscar Grant. More than 150 people were arrested Friday night as angry Protesters marched through the Lake Merritt area of Oakland following the sentencing of a former BART Police Officer in the killing of a young black man on a transit platform in 2009. The Protest was touched off by what was viewed as the lightness of the sentence, two years in pr...

Oakland police arrest 152 people during protests
OAKLAND, CALIF. — Police arrested 152 Protesters who streamed through the streets Friday, some breaking windows and knocking down fences, after a former Transit Officer received the minimum two-year Prison sentence for the slaying of an unarmed passenger. A rally billed as a tribute to Oscar Grant turned into a march through the downtown Area, where people broke car windows and two windows on a bus. After Police in Riot Gear repeatedly blocked and outflanked them, several hundred protes...

Ex-policeman gets 2 years in divisive killing
By Steve Gorman Los Angeles | Fri Nov 5, 2010 9:50pm EDT Los Angeles (Reuters) - A white former policeman who shot an unarmed black man to death on an Oakland, California, train platform was sentenced on Friday to two years in Prison, the state's minimum penalty for involuntary Manslaughter. Video of the slaying recorded by onlookers sparked a night of Rioting in Oakland in January 2009, and Civil Unrest erupted again last July after the former Transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, 28, was clea...

Ex-policeman gets 2 years in divisive killing
Los Angeles (Reuters) - A white former policeman who shot an unarmed black man to death on an Oakland, California, train platform was sentenced on Friday to two years in Prison, the state's minimum penalty for involuntary Manslaughter. Video of the slaying recorded by onlookers sparked a night of Rioting in Oakland in January 2009, and Civil Unrest erupted again last July after the former transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, 28, was cleared of Murder charges. Asked whether the family of the vict...

White ex-transit officer given 2-year prison term
Johannes Mehserle was convicted in July of involuntary Manslaughter in the videotaped, New Year's Day 2009 killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant in Oakland. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry had wide discretion Friday when sentencing the 28-year-old Mehserle. Prosecutors sought Prison time for Mehserle, whose lawyers argued for Probation. Mehserle testified during the trial that he thought Grant had a weapon and decided to shock him with his Stun Gun but instead pulled his .40-calibe...

Ex-Transit Officer Given 2-Year Prison Term
A judge has sentenced a white former Transit officer to two years in Prison in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on a California train platform. The sentence by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry was significantly less than the possible 14-year maximum term for Johannes Mehserle. When Perry issued his sentence, the mother of Victim Oscar Grant shouted, "Oh my!" Perry, however, threw out a Gun enhancement that could have added 10 years in Prison and said there was overwhelming...

BART officer gets 2 years for manslaughter
Published: Nov. 5, 2010 at 8:58 PM Los Angeles, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A former Transit Police Officer was sentenced Friday to two years in Prison for involuntary Manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed man in Oakland, Calif. A judge in Los Angeles pronounced the sentence in the case of Johannes Mehserle, 28, who shot and killed Oscar J. Grant III at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station Jan. 1, 2009. Mehserle claimed he had meant to draw his Taser and use it to subdue Grant but grabbed his Gun by mistak...

100 protesters arrested in Oakland
(11-05) 20:30 PDT Oakland -- More than 100 Protesters angered by the two-year sentence handed down to former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle were arrested Friday night after marching from downtown Oakland into a residential area south of Lake Merritt, where mobs smashed about a dozen car windshields and a Police Officer's gun was snatched. The marchers headed out of downtown after a peaceful rally outside City Hall, where as many as 500 people sang songs and heard speeches denouncing the...

No Second Chances
Maybe if we realized the true fragility of life, we would not be so hasty to issue out the ultimate sentence of death, and take comfort in the Supernatural to set things right. Maybe not, but one can hope. Johannes Mehserle did not only take away everything Oscar Grant had; he took away everything he was going to have. Imagine. Imagine all the things you want to do in your lifetime, and ask yourself if Oscar did not have goals of his own, dreams, ambitions, plans. Ask yourself if two years is ...