A man shouted “that’s the modern day lynching” and the mob quickly continued its rampage.**
A protest over the fatal shooting by a BART police officer of anunarmed black man mushroomed into several hours of violence Wednesdaynight as demonstrators smashed storefronts and cars, set several carsablaze and blocked streets in downtown Oakland.
The roving mob expressed fury at police and frustration oversociety’s racial injustice. Yet the demonstrators were oftenindiscriminate, frequently targeting the businesses and prizedpossessions of people of color.
They smashed a hair salon, a pharmacy and several restaurants.Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, but some peopleretreated along 14th Street and bashed cars along the way.
The mob smashed the windows at Creative African Braids on 14thStreet, and a woman walked out of the shop holding a baby in her arms.
“This is our business,” shouted Leemu Topka, the black owner of thesalon she started four years ago. “This is our shop. This is what youcall a protest?”
Wednesday night’s vandalism victims had nothing to do with theshooting death by a BART police officer of Oscar Grant on New Year’sDay – but that did little to sway the mob.
“I feel like the night is going great,” said Nia Sykes, 24, of SanFrancisco, one of the demonstrators. “I feel like Oakland should makesome noise. This is how we need to fight back. It’s for the murder of ablack male.”
Sykes, who is black, had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.
“She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life,”Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: “Ijust hope nobody gets shot or killed.”
The protest had started calmly shortly after 3 p.m. at the FruitvaleStation in Oakland, where BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle shot22-year-old Grant of Hayward a week ago. BART shut down the stationwell into the evening commute, although the demonstration there waspeaceful.
However, shortly after nightfall, a group of roughly 200 protesterssplit off and headed toward downtown Oakland, prompting the transitagency to close the Lake Merritt and 12th Street stations. The groupwreaked havoc through much of downtown, drawing hundreds of police inriot gear. It wasn’t until roughly 10:40 p.m that police clamped downon the mob, arresting dozens who were cornered near the ParamountTheatre, and bringing an end to the mayhem.
**We can only speculate as to why this story and its obvious racial overtones has not been front page news: the looming coronation of president-elect Barack Obama.–Ed.