No arrests in Oakland vandalism (post-Zimmerman protests)

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Protesters marched through the streets of San Francisco and Oakland on Saturday evening, upset at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

In San Francisco, demonstrators marched through the Mission District after gathering at the 24th Street Mission BART Station. Hundreds marched down Valencia Street, chanting "Justice for Trayvon Martin."

The crowd dispersed peacefully, and officers will "maintain a presence in the Mission District for the time being," said San Francisco police Officer Gordon Shyy, a department spokesman. Another protest was scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at Powell and Market streets.

Across the bay in Oakland, however, about 125 protesters gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall before marching through downtown, starting small fires and smashing windows at the Wells Fargo Bank at 12th Street and Broadway and at several locations, including the Dogwood Bar, the Oakland Tribune, the Foot Locker shoe store and the Sears store.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/No-arrests-in-Oakland-vandalism-4664343.php

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Photos:

San Francisco:





Oakland:





Sheesh, the protest-related violence in Oakland whether after the Oscar Grant killing, Occupy Oakland, or the Zimmerman trial makes the cause look bad. At least the SF protesters didn't cause too much. Or maybe OPD has another deep cover agitator?

Oddly, the most post-trial violence happened not in Central Florida but the other side of the nation.

[heaven05]

1. small fires

a few windows for a murderer getting acquitted? Small price to pay. No one else has died,yet, at the hands of the police or wannabeeees. I hope the protests get loud enough for zimpigs god to hear.

[roseBudd]

2. How does breaking business windows and setting fires help?

The white supremacists want riots

[heaven05]

5. I don't

want riots. It would give zimpig policepersons a reason to kill more people, probably 99 percent black fatalities, I don't want that. I want a protest so loud that zimpigs god hears it. I know what the white assholes want, and now they have a precedent set in stone to do what they want to those thuggish blacks.....

[Downtown Hound]

40. They smashed the windows of a Wells Fargo bank

As somebody who's fiance had her home stolen from her by Wells Fargo, I'm just sorry that they didn't burn the fucking thing down.

[Beacool]

12. Why a smalll price to pay?

Since when is it acceptable to destroy other people's property to express anger at a judicial decision? These people had nothing to do with the decision in FL.

[heaven05]

24. no

clue. Since when is it acceptable to shoot down an unarmed kid, no matter what state

[Beacool]

31. You seem to justify the destruction of property.

What does that have to do with protesting against a verdict? You are the one who needs a clue.

[heaven05]

32. go

fly a kite. no clue.

[840high]

34. You're the one with no clue. Pray

tell us how destroying property is helping any.

[heaven05]

37. ?

[premium]

14. Small price to pay?

Even though these business owners had nothing to do with what happened in FL?
Sick, just sick.

[heaven05]

25. sick

is that jury. sick is that judge and defense team of zimpig. Incompetent was the prosecution and unacceptable is 300 years of this shit. No clue.

[PaulKersey]

38. What about the

revenge beatings in Miss. and Baltimore...........

[heaven05]

39. take

a ticket, get in line. If it's true, sad. If not, it's more RW troll bullshit. The day after the verdict, a fox affiliate ran a story about riots in the streets. Turned out the footage used was of the hockey riots in Canada.

[mainer]

3. Why are they protesting in California?

Protests in Florida, I could understand.

[heaven05]

6. ?????

no clue

[Skittles]

26. it's sad, isn't it?

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Outrage doesn't stop at the state line.

[mainer]

11. But outrage against California when Florida is at fault?

It's like bombing Iraq after Afghan Taliban attacked us.

I understand the outrage. I want it directed at Florida, where it belongs.

[Beacool]

13. Florida is not at fault. It's a state that has many Democrats too.

A bad judicial decision should not condemn millions of people.

[mainer]

15. Florida's stupid laws are at fault

and who elects the legislators who enact these laws?

[alp227]

18. Most of the people who don't live near Miami, Orlando, Tampa, or the major universities, I guess.

See this map of which areas voted for Obama and Romney last year and corresponding list of counties in FL. The blue counties are where the cities of Gainesville (home of the University of Florida), Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee (state capital/home of Florida State University), Tampa, and West Palm Beach are. However, Jacksonville is in a red county, Duval.

[Igel]

16. It's outrage.

Are you saying it's not authentic?

I'd point out that the response to Rodney King was in Los Angeles. Lost of Korean stores and property were destroyed. Firefighters were shot at.

The trial was in Simi Valley, a decent distance from where the "disturbances" happened.

Many said it was a small price to pay for Korean immigrants in Los Angeles to pay for the violation of black civil rights committed by whites in Simi Valley.

I wonder if they somehow thought the whites were bankrolling the Koreans, or if the Koreans were going to bill the whites.

[NaturalHigh]

28. What was the tension with the Korean store owners back then?

I remember some Ice Cube lyrics:

"Pay attention to the big black fist or we'll burn your store down to a crisp."

I never knew what the cause of the tension was. Has the situation changed?

[Igel]

33. I think the tensions have abated.

There were a lot of forums set up and programs put in place before I left to deal with some issues.

There were a lot of robberies, sometimes armed, sometimes after hours. Korean stores looked like mini-Ft. Knoxes. You know the comedies where a store owner goes to unlock his store, takes off a half dozen locks, raises what looks like a reinforced garage door, pulls back a kind of fence, turns off an alarm, unlocks the door, turns off the other alarm, and then mechanically raises the blast shields on the windows? Yeah. That.

Korean store owners routinely had guns. They routinely assumed that any black in the store was a thief--or that was the perception. From my limited experience, the few times I headed to Koreatown, it was fairly true. My then-girlfriend and I walk in, we're ignored until we ask for attention. A black couple walk in, the owner or clerk would watch them. Closely.

Some of this was merited. All the robberies really did happen. But Koreans were also racist. Peninsular, homogeneous, outsiders were bad. Blacks were outsiders. Derogatory names flew nicely. In some cases, the Koreans took a while to figure out what words were offensive. 2nd language learners.

The black communities resented the Korean stores for all of the above and more. The Koreans were new. They had been in the country for a decade, two decades. They had stores. Some had small chains of stores. They had jobs. Many of the blacks in the area had lived there their entire lives. The Koreans were recent arrivals and more prosperous. Envy. And, since the Koreans were outsiders, racism.

Korean shop owners also tended to charge what the market would bear. Sometimes to pay for all the security and losses due to theft. Sometimes not.

Before the King verdict some bad things happened. An example: a black girl, maybe 9 or 10, IIRC, was killed because she was shoplifting something trivial (orange juice?) or the Korean owner thought she was.

Korean stores were small, family things--which might not be so small, with extended families. But in a sea of African-American communities, there was a compact Korean community that had most of the stores, most of the shops, and kept the jobs to themselves. They distrusted blacks. And blacks felt it. They also resented that the owners would bring a relative over from Seoul instead of hiring locally.

It was easy to have some programs to ease tension. Get Koreans and AA locals and leaders to talk. You know the drill--mutual understanding. But also the need to hire local kids and adults. And above all, the need to be able to communicate and be members of the community--things like supporting the local football team or sponsoring a Boy's Club.

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Probably more general outrage at the never-ending war on black people.

Trayvon is just the latest example.

[Posteritatis]

19. Just going out on a limb here, but maybe the problem's systemic and not state-specific. (nt)

[LanternWaste]

41. Racism is not the fault one of merely one state.

Racism is not the fault one of merely one state. Racism will not end if Florida suddenly disappeared. Racism is not confined to simply one imaginary set of red lines on a map.

But, I do understand the convenience of blaming it all on FL.... it's simplistic and avoids critical thought-- which indeed, is quite uncomfortable for many people.

[tblue]

35. Because we identify

with Trayvon and his family. We are as outraged as if it had happened to us. I'm glad people all over the country care.

[Scurrilous]

4. They got those signs printed up rather quickly. And on a weekend night.

[7962]

22. Happily provided by "answer coalition"

[NaturalHigh]

27. What is "answer coalition"?

Is that a local group?

[7962]

29. Quite the contrary

http://answercoalition.org/

anti war, anti racism, anti israel, pro palestinian, etc etc. When you see a protest, their website is usually at the bottom of a lot of the signs. They harm the true progressive movement, IMO

[NaturalHigh]

7. What a bunch of morons.

A jury makes a decision they don't like in Florida, and they set fires in California? I'm glad nobody was killed, at least.

[heaven05]

9. it

takes one to know some.

[NaturalHigh]

10. Clever!

You're on your game today.

[heaven05]

23. no

you're the winner. You called it.

[Posteritatis]

20. Good to see the cops are playing it cautiously there; that could have gotten much uglier. (nt)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Things like this could very well be from people who simply take advantage.

[JRLeft]

30. Oakland PD has beaten the shit out of black people for years.

[kelliekat44]

36. Really sorry to see this happen. It is unnecessary and only harms the people who need our help and

support by making them all look bad.