FLASHPOINTS

by Dennis Bernstein

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had a chance to shine last Thursday, after the verdict was announced in the murder trial of transit cop Johannes Mehserle for the Jan. 1, 2009, killing of a 22-year-old unarmed Black man named Oscar Grant.

Grant was shot in the back at close range while lying face down with his hands behind his back on a BART platform. Mehserle claimed he pulled the wrong gun and meant to stun Grant with a Taser. The killing was filmed on several cell phones and witnessed by a train car full of witnesses. The killer cop was convicted in a Los Angeles court of involuntary manslaughter on July 8.

The fact that Mehserle, who is white – with a history of violent behavior against Black and Brown people – could be sentenced to as little as two years in jail or even given probation did not sit well with the Grant family or their thousands of supporters who have vowed over the last 18 months never to forget Oscar Grant.

Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, spoke out at a hastily assembled press conference in front of the Los Angles courthouse after the verdict was announced. “My son was murdered, he was murdered, he was murdered,” Johnson said repeatedly. “And the law has not held the officer accountable the way that he should be held accountable.”

“We as a family have been slapped in the face by a system that has denied us true justice,” Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson said.

The FBI has since launched a federal civil rights probe into the case to determine whether Mehserle violated Grant’s civil rights by snuffing out his life. The sentencing, originally set for early August, has been postponed until November.

After the verdict was announced, Dellums asked the people of Oakland to “show the nation” that Oakland can respond respectfully and peacefully to the verdict. Dellums said on the street Thursday night, “I don’t want anyone hurt. I don’t want anyone jailed. I don’t want the police to hurt anyone.”

But apparently Dellums and a thousand cops from around the state were not going to treat the people of Oakland peacefully or with respect. Rather, Oaklanders were about to get another dose of unbridled police power.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE at the SF Bayview

[podcast]http://aud1.kpfa.org/data/20100712-Mon1700.mp3[/podcast]
Today on Flashpoints: an in-depth Look at Haiti six months after the Earth Quake that Killed over two hundred thousand and left more than a million and a half people Homeless and Hungry: We’ll speak with independent reporter, Ansel Herz and Canadian Journalist and Haiti Analyst, Isabel McDonald: We also speak a noted Brazilian Photographer about the negative role played by the US military, which put security in front of Humanitarian aid. And we’ll speak to Human rights attorney Walter Riley, about his false arrest in down Oakland after the verdict in the shot in the back BART-cop killing of Oscar Grant.

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Brazilian photographer Andre Liohn shot this footage of the brutal beating of a Haitian by plain clothes police as U.S. Soldiers and U.N. Police stood by and watched:

Liohn gave Kevin Pina permission to re-edit the above video to include a narrative by Sean Penn uncritically extolling the virtues of the U.S. Military:

Guests:

Walter Riley: Attorney, civil-rights and anti-war movement leader

Manuel Riley: Walter Riley’s son and witness to his Oakland arrest

Ansel Herz: independent freelance journalist

Isabel MacDonald: Montreal-based freelance journalist

Andre Liohn: Brazilian photographer

Judi Bari

We’ll continue our expanded reporting on what appears to be one of the worst environmental accidents in history; also, we’ll hear from the late Judi Barri on the 20^th anniversary of the Oakland bombing of Judi and Darryl Cherney.
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Guests:

Larry Everest

Kindra Arnesson

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Cynthia McKinney in Gaza

An in-depth interview with former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney; we’ll speak with her about her recent trip on the Gaza boat and the arrest by Israeli authorities, and Obama’s expanding war policies throughout the Middle East; also, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges warns about the dangers of the expanding war and occupation policy; JR and the Block Report on the Troy Anthony Davis case, as the Supreme court will hear crucial information that was excluded in the initial trials; and the the Knight Report.

Guests:

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and war correspondent

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Martina Davis, sister of Troy Anthony Davis

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Aung San Suu Kyi

Nobel Laureate and Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is sentenced to 18 months in a Burmese dungeon after already spending 14 of the past 20 years in detention, we’ll have a special report on the conviction; also, the situation heats up in Honduras, where marchers from all over the country are arriving in the main cities to expand their resistance of the coup; UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton brings Haiti back into the neo-liberal camp of economic development with a kick-off speech to the diaspora in Southern Florida; plus, the battles against foreclosures continue in Oakland and across the country, we’ll have a special report from Just Cause Oakland; and the Knight Report.

Guests:

Tim Russo, Free Speech Radio News

Ko Ko Lay, Director of National Council of Union of Burma

Maung Maung, General Secretary of NCUB

Kevin Pina, Flashpoints Special Correspondent

Matt Nelson, Just Cause Oakland