please pray

i know this is biased, but this is also happening now. this article was posted 20 minutes ago. what a heavy weight. pray for safety: mine, my group's, the children of oakland that we work with, the angry protesters, and the police.

Oscar Grant's killer on trial

Alessandro Tinonga reports on the final days in the trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle--and what comes next.

July 1, 2010

Protesters demand justice for Oscar Grant at a demonstration in Los Angeles (Youth Radio)Protesters demand justice for Oscar Grant at a demonstration in Los Angeles (Youth Radio)

FINAL EVIDENCE was presented in a Los Angeles courtroom on June 29 at the trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Oscar Grant III, an unarmed African American passenger, on New Year's Day 2009.

The defense rested its case with the testimony of Thomas Rogers, a forensic pathologist with the Alameda County Coroner's Office, who performed the autopsy on Grant's body. In graphic detail, he described how the bullet entered Oscar's torso and penetrated his left lung.

Rogers testified that the bullet had moved from left to right through Grant's body. Defense attorney Michael Rains claimed that the wounds indicated that Oscar's shoulder was coming up from the platform. Throughout the trial, the defense has argued that Oscar was resisting arrest when he was shot.

Tashina Manyak, a reporter for the CaliforniaBeat.org, wrote that the testimony was emotionally devastating for the family. The father of Grant's friends, Jack Bryson, had walked out of the courtroom. Oscar's mother, Wanda Johnson, "began to sob uncontrollably, prompting Judge Robert Perry to call a short recess. Johnson was later transported to an Los Angeles hospital after collapsing outside the courthouse."

This is the first time a police officer has been tried for murder in California for a killing committed while on duty.

In the early morning hours of New Year's Day, Mehserle and other officers pulled Oscar and his friends off the BART train. After they detained Oscar on the BART platform for several minutes, the officers started handcuffing Oscar and his friends. While officers held Oscar facedown on the ground with his arms behind his back, Mehserle took his pistol out of his holster, pointed it at Oscar's back and fired.

Prosecutors argued that Mehserle intended to shoot Oscar in the back. Defense attorneys maintained that the officer mistook his pistol for a Taser gun and that Oscar resisted arrest. However, the videos that captured the incident are damaging to the defense and its case.

In the videos, Mehserle and his fellow officers come off as aggressive. The footage contradicts the original reports and statements of the officers. In addition, their stories have changed many times in the last 18 months.

Last Friday, Mehserle testified on the stand. In a tearful display, he stated that he "didn't intend to shoot Mr. Grant; I meant to Tase him." He claimed that he shouted, "I'm going to Tase him," when he unholstered his weapon.

When the prosecution asked why none of the video footage picked up his alleged shouting or why he never told anyone it was an accident, Mehserle said he didn't know. Mehserle's close friends and fellow officers testified in court this week that he at no point said the shooting was an accident in the days following the murder.

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THE OUTCOME of the trial remains uncertain. There are no African Americans on the jury; seven are white and five are Latino. Over the course of jury selection, the defense dismissed several African Americans.

Members of Grant's family feel that the challenges to potential jurors were based on race. Tracy Cooper, Oscar's aunt, said, "I think [defense attorney] Rains did it because he didn't want one Black mother looking at another Black mother."

Furthermore, three very important pieces of evidence for the prosecution were ruled to be inadmissible.

The first was evidence that one of the officers, Tony Pirone, called Grant a "bitch-ass n-," about a minute before the shooting.

Second was testimony by Oscar's girlfriend, Sophina Mesa, who spoke to him on a cell phone while he was being detained on the platform that night. She could have testified that Oscar sounded nervous and scared shortly before the shooting. Prosecutor David Stein said, "If Mr. Grant was 'nervous' and 'scared' after just being beaten by the police for no reason, it was less likely that he would resist arrest minutes later when he was shot by the defendant."

Lastly, a synchronized compilation of videos of the shooting was barred. The defense argued that it would cause jurors to "incorrectly conclude that both of Grant's hands were behind and in the vicinity of the small of his back at the time the shot was fired." This is exactly what occurred and what is shown clearly in the video evidence.

As the trial comes to a close, the Oakland police department has been preparing for a potential uprising if Mehserle is acquitted. The local media in the East Bay air reports almost every night on how the city and state is preparing for a "violent response."

For almost two weeks, law enforcement agencies have been running drills. Hundreds of officers staged a practice drill near the Port of Oakland. The Oakland police have made several assurances that the department would be working to protect property and local businesses. Police are using anti-Mehserle graffiti around Oakland as an excuse to be aggressive in their preparations for post-verdict activities.

It's impossible to predict the response to the verdict. What's certain is that the killing of Oscar Grant continues to stoke the anger of many youth of color who have experienced racism and police brutality.

During Mehserle's testimony, Timothy Killings, a student at Laney Community College in downtown Oakland, stood up in the court and said, "If you really wanted to cry, you should have apologized to Oscar Grant's mom. You killed her son [and you haven't said anything to her] but you're going to wait until you get on the stand and then start crying?"

The jury could begin its deliberations by Thursday afternoon and could reach a verdict as soon as July 2.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/01/oscar-grants-killer-on-trial

catch the reference? i love gina every time.

1/2 way

half way through a new week: kids from washington state. i'm living at harbor house with one other host so it's a more comfy and calm living situation (although the showers are gnarly)...

taking the kids today to the san fran food bank the kids really like working at that place. it's hard work that gives results quickly. tomorrow we head off to funk town farm to help with a painting job. i'm excited to meet the people heading up such great work!

prayers: for a grace-filled spirit. this group has a lot a lot of goofiness that they get on by doing things like throwing underwear out of the housing site window or beeping their horns at each other no matter what area of town we're in. of course then i get my nasty attitude on when i'm talking about them later. i need to pray for grace and peace in my attitude.

once again, i miss you: everyone! email/facebook/write

viva mexico!

yesterday i took my troups on an urban plunge to the mission district. this name came from the manual, but all of the questions and the competition of boys against girls was of my design. all the great planning, exciting questions, latin flare and teenage competition couldn't compare to the fiesta that awaited us. ten minutes after arriving on mission mexico won their world cup game against france an the street exploded. for the full hour an a half that we were there the streets were filled with people shouting and whistling. cars drove by continuously with their horns beeping and huge mexican flags flying from their windows and sunroofs. my day kept getting better from there, but our afternoon fiesta was by far the zestiest thing that has happened to me in san francisco. check out pictures on facebook for images from our mural walk.

50-50

this week we have a group of 50 students from colorado too! 45 students and 10 adult leaders. the basement is packed. i am about to head off for my first service project with my 10 person group: st. vincent's day home. we'll spend the morning working with the kids there and then head over to the golden gate for a prayer walk.

pray for me this week as someone very special encouraged me to pray that i will know god as jehovah shammah, the god who is with us. that he will be in my burning bush and show me that he has a plan for me this summer, a direction i am going.

well, i'm off! keep in touch my friends. i miss you.

also:

when i'm up at 5am

...and listening to Sigur Ros

i did showers at 5 this morning. we walked the dragging girls down the long hall to the women's transitional housing and let them in to shower before the residents needed to shower for work. i have breakfast duty at 7:30 so going back to bed wasn't really going to happen.

i did a little bible reading (i need more structure here) and caught up on some writing and drawing (i need to keep both of these things up this summer!). then i checked a few of my favorite blog-a-logs. if you want to know what i follow on a every-three-or-four-day basis and why, here they are:

For Energy and a Big Beautiful Smile Every Time:
Color me Katie

For Beauty:
The Sartorialist

For Inspiration (how cool is that garbage hotel?):
Art/Inhabitat

my last day

my group leaves tomorrow morning. one week down tonight! no getting lost, no meltdowns, and lots of laughs. i had a hard-core group of mountain kids from colorado. energetic and straight-forward, they plowed through the week with gusto. we continuously amazed our sites with their work ethic and stamina. i was continuously amazed by how much they eat! three huge meals a day plus 5 granola bars, chips, another sandwich and juice three or four times in between. they're skinny mountain kids the appetite of a pack of wolves!

last night we talked about works and salvation. liz read from ephesians and james and we stirred up a little discussion. the honesty of the kids was lovely. many of them have been on mission trips before. last year they went to LA and the year before a few of them went to chicago. they know how to work. but they're very fuzzy on the idea of salvation and of jesus: his life and works and its relationship to us. there were no rote sunday school answers. i asked them, if they didn't need to do this trip to be saved, why do it?

"we do good things because we're good people and i guess that's what good people do" one boy said.

"i do it because i like to travel and think why not help people while getting to do something i like" another guy added.

"to help people."

"because we should."

then what does christianity have to do with what you're doing?

"i think," one girl said, "that we need to be an example and show people that christians can help people too".

none of them mentioned calling or direction from the bible. none of them said that we had been told to do anything. as i sat and looked around the room i realized that these kids, while being well practiced in service, hadn't been fed the bible like so many of the groups that we get. they didn't know the "right" answers and really just threw out what they thought. it was so frank and exposing.

i read from ephesisans about works being the outpouring of our love for god from his love for us and left them with encouragement and a bunch of candles for H's birthday cake.

this summer is going to be a learning experience for sure.
i'm excited.

just quickly:

i am heading into the city with my first group this morning! we depart at 8am which means it's 7 and i'm wrestling with our finickky coffee maker. i am tempted to just go for tea, but i know it'll come back to bite me at about 2pm...

we're off to the food bank, me, L, and our group for Colorado. they're my kind of people. crunchy, you know? thank god!
anyway pray this week:

that god would give me patience
that we would all learn: that we'd be a bunch of sponges and just soak it all in!
that we would be a blessing to those around us all week

i get up early

most days i wake up after our two early birds but before the other six wake up (this will change when next week i have a group and have to get up at 6am regularly). i either read my bible, go for a walk, or catch up with things online. i watched this video this morning, thanks to my good friend C who always posts the best things. it's interesting and makes me think of me, my family, the kids i'm working with here...and everything pretty much...

the people

we met O on a bench in people's park . we were sent out in the park to practice one of our activities: meeting people to share lunch with, to hear their stories.

O moved to berkley in junior high, the year before the park riots broke out. he was part of a cinematography class at his high school and was sent out by his teacher to film something happening in the neighborhood. his neighborhood was the park. he wandered out with his camera and videotaped the police spraying the crowds with tear gas and pepper. it wasn't long before he joined the crowds.

"they would slash our knees" he told us, smacking my knee and grimacing. "when they get you in the knees you have to go down!"

O left berkley eventually. the park didn't become the family center that they all were hoping it would be. he traveled around, worked for an antique dealer, had five children and eventually moved back to berkley. he is now homeless, the sufferer of menial social security service and multiple heart attacks. he spends much of his time in the park teaching bongo drums and the art of simple living and dreaming. the park is home to "crazy people" doing "hard drugs and other crap". hippies roam, make love, and smoke and food not bombs drops in every day to serve a vegetarian dinner. O just helped with a musical celebration of the park's 41st anniversary. O told us that we are our own hope. "i heard once," he said, "that everything a man needs is found within himself".

"tell your friends" he said, "tell them that if they want a future they have to make it!"

future friends is a scary activity. we pair up, step into a park and find someone to share our double lunch with. it feels intimidating and invasive for all of five minutes. and then the truth comes out: people love to talk about themselves. look around, ask a question, and be interested and you will be part of someone's story that lets you into another beautiful life.

my address:

my name
c/o CSM
PO Box 72397
Oakland, CA
94612