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Vol. 74/No. 28      July 26, 2010

 
1,000 protest in Oakland
after Grant trial
 
BY CAROLE LESNICK  
OAKLAND—Chanting “Justice for Oscar!” some 1,000 people demonstrated near City Hall here July 8, voicing their protest that Bay Area Transit cop Johannes Mehserle was not convicted on stiffer charges for the killing of Oscar Grant. The Los Angeles jury, where the trial was held, found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

“It’s important for people to be out here,” Kevin Watson, 36, told the Militant. “Police brutality is a reality and I don’t like the role of police in this society. They would have been more careful that night if it wasn’t a young Black man.”

“The cops are doing what they want and it’s not fair,” Jasmine Lasukau, 20, said at the protest. “The whole system is guilty.”

More than 40 people spoke at the rally, including many young people who expressed outrage at frequent police harassment directed against Black youth in Oakland. Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers candidate for governor of California, was one of the speakers.
 
 
Related articles:
Miami meeting hears protests over killing of Black man by cop
Fight against police brutality
Socialist candidate: Cops serve capitalists’ interests  
 
 
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