Helicopters loudly proclaim that the America I remember is long gone. If it ever existed. Nothing in the news. Nothing on Twitter that I can find. Helicopters mocking me, circling, swooping. Frantically I'm typing, searching. Finally I find what has to be it -- not that any mainstream media has picked it up :
by Jeff Shuttleworth, reposted from the Bay City News
Rally, March To Protest Police Shootings Planned In Oakland This Afternoon
A rally will be held in Oakland today to protest the fatal shooting of barbershop owner Derrick Jones by two Oakland police officers on Nov. 8.
Oakland police said the officers shot Jones, 37, after they responded to a report that he was assaulting a woman at a laundromat next to his barbershop in the 5800 block of Bancroft Avenue.Police said Jones refused repeated orders to surrender and was reaching into his waistband, which the officers thought indicated that he was reaching a gun. But no weapon was found at the scene.
The rally, organized by the activist group By Any Means Necessary, will begin outside the Alameda County District Attorney's Office at 1231 Fallon St. at 4 p.m.
Protesters will then march to Oakland City Hall, where they plan to speak at the City Council meeting scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
In addition to protesting the fatal shooting of Jones, rally participants also will speak out against a bid by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle to be granted bail while he appeals his involuntary manslaughter conviction for fatally shooting unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry is slated to consider Mehserle's bail motion at a hearing on Friday.
On Mehserle, reposted from a column by Tammerlin Drummond, in the Oakland Tribune
Justice not served in Mehserle sentencing
Seven months.
That's how much longer Johannes Mehserle will likely spend in prison for shooting and killing Oscar Grant III.
[snip]
"Many people contributed to the tragedy in this case," Perry said, blaming Grant for fighting on the train and blaming BART for its poor training of Mehserle, whose defense was that he mistook his gun for his Taser. "I made the ruling because I believe it is in justice to do so."
Actually, this is not what justice looks like. This is what happens when justice falls down on the job. Two years is not sufficient punishment for the criminal taking of a life -- especially if you are a police officer sworn to uphold the law. Perry's cavalier remarks from the bench chastising concerned Oakland residents who wrote to the court requesting Mehserle get the maximum sentence add further insult to injury.
[snip]
Mehserle told KTVU-TV Channel 2 that he never expected to go to prison after the verdict. He thought he would walk out of the courthouse a free man. Rains argued that the involuntary manslaughter conviction was unwarranted and that he will appeal...
Grant's family said Mehserle should have gone to prison for at least 14 years. John Burris, the Grant family attorney, said NFL star Michael Vick got a tougher sentence for running a dog fighting ring. "What you take from that is that Oscar Grant's life was not worth very much," Burris said.
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