There are preparations on many sides as the trial of Johannes Mehserle comes to a close — with a verdict possible today. Different classes prepare in different ways.
What does justice for Oscar Grant looks like?
And if the system follows the murder of Oscar with a new outrage — if they don’t truly punish the murdering cop — how will the people give justice and respect to our murdered brother?
Mehserle, a BART police officer in Oakland, pulled his gun and shot Oscar Grant III, an unarmed Black man, to death, as Oscar lay face down on the platform of the Fruitvale station. It was cold-blooded, and it was filmed, and the video was seen by countless outraged people.
And (like the Rodney King case) a whole whipped up cotton candy foam was invented to “explain” the murder in court… including Mehserle’s own claim that he thought his loaded pistol was a taser and so the killing was therefore just a tragic accident.
Dual tactics of Counterinsurgency
Police are preparing to meet any rebellion with force. Oakland officials (including Mayor Dellums) are trying to portray themselves as part of a concerned citizenry.
And (in a particularly controversial set of moves) an Urban Peace Movement has emerged that is trying to politically “innoculate” angry youth (their word, “innoculate”!) to prevent a rebellion (if this killer walks free). They join the authorities in a red-baiting attack on “outside agitators” — in a blatant attempt to prevent any fusion of organized radical groups with the anger of the oppressed.
Naturally this is done in the name of protecting the youth (naturally, of course! protect the youth by diffusing the resistance!) — the police prepare to beat, arrest and kill those youth, and a coalition emerges to urge them go along peacefully.
They say “To be clear, our main concern is the safety and well-being of Oakland’s young people.”
And this view needs to be taken on.
This is a view of cowardice and counterinsurgency. It is a view of non-struggle and defeat. It is the slavishness of the condescending social worker. In fact “our main concern” needs to be justice and liberation — and it is a road that will require self-sacrifice and suffering. There is in fact no “safety and well-being” to be achieved by refusing to struggle — by opposing confrontation without oppressors when their deeds are clear and the people are ready to fight.
And some forces have an answer for any situation: They denounce “small groups” who carry out violent acts at demonstrations — saying they are isolated from the community and scare the people. But then (with no sense of irony or shame) these same people then fight hard to prevent the people from joining in a mass and justified rebellion.
They just don’t want resistance. They don’t like it. They see no value in it. They see no future in it.
They say in their talking points:
“There is no question about it violence & brutality are wrong – whether at the hands of community members or at the hands of the police. “
Is this true? No. Not at all. It is an outrageous claim.
The violence of the oppressed is not wrong, it is righteous — especially when the oppressed are rising in conscious resistance to an intolerable injustice.
The violence of the rapist, the slaveowner, the killer cop, the nuclear bombardier are wrong, horrific, degrading, unjust, intolerable and it is part of the means of preserving an unjust system.
The violence of the raped, the enslaved, the brutalized people when they rise in conscious resistance is righteous, inspiring, uplifting, just, worthy of respect, and more — it is a necessary part of the road to liberation.
And those who equate the violence of oppressed and oppressors, in this way, are (perhaps despite their own intentions) becoming defenders of injustice and servants of the status quo.
- Mike Ely, Kasama Project
