UPDATE: Yobie Benjamin at SFGate says the crowd downtown is less than 1000 people, and it is pretty orderly right now.
From my friend Beth Spotswood at the CBS5 Eye on Blogs, here a few links for the Oakland situation now that the Mehserle verdict has come in. The photo is from the tweets of KevMo from Uptown Almanac, showing an AC Transit Bus being blocked by protesters in Downtown Oakland. This image of police lined up to block the street is also pretty dramatic.
* First, to state the obvious, the family and supporters of Oscar Grant are not satisfied with the Involuntary manslaughter verdict.
* That being said, with the gun enhancement, the minimum prison sentence is now 5 years, with a maximum of 14 years. Alameda DA Nancy O’Malley said that she was disappointed about the verdict, but that Mehserle will be going to prison.
* SFist and SF Appeal will be updating with the latest news, as will the SF Chronicle. Of course, check out some of the local Oakland blogosphere, including OaklandSeen.
* In the end, Violence is not Justice:
Does it apply? The Court’s Spokesperson told KTVU that the gun enhancement does not apply.
If I were on the jury, could I have said that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Mehserle’s actions were murder? No. If the standard was “preponderence of the evidence” or some lesser standard, that would be different. But defendents (who almost by definition are people we don’t like) deserve rights. I think that there is reasonable doubt about his intentions. Therefore I think it was the right verdict.
However, young blacks in East Oakland rarely find that the nicities of legal standards work to their favor. Mostly they find a tough on crime society wants to think up new felonies to send them to prison. When someone is black, juries don’t see much reasonable doubt and the entire system seems to work against them.
I can understand why there is so much anger about this verdict. Its the right verdict, but few young blacks enjoy this standard of legal protection.