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Indybay Feature

Pigs to Rally in Support of Johannes Mehserle & Other Cops Who Kill

i_support_johannes_mehserle.jpg
Date:
Monday, July 19, 2010
Time:
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Location Details:
Walnut Creek Courthouse
640 Ygnacio Valley Road
Walnut Creek, CA

An earlier version of the murderous pig-loving Facebook calendar listing, which by Tuesday afternoon had been taken down once it started getting attention outside of pig circles, declared: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. ITS TIME TO STOP THROWING OUR OFFICERS UNDER THE BUS. ITS TIME TO STEP UP AND SUPPORT JOHANNES AND OUR OFFICERS AND TAKE A STAND. OSCAR GRANT WAS RESISTING ARREST. JOHANNES MEHSERLE TOLD THE TRUTH!"

Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, it was tamed down, all posts were erased, and the rally was renamed "In Support of Johannes Mehserle and L.E.O." LEO stands for Law Enforcement Officers.

Concord police Officer Ken Carlson said he plans to attend.

"Within the law enforcement community we've raised some money for (Mehserle) and things like that," Carlson said. "And as far as an outspoken event in support of him, it's long overdue."

John Burris, attorney for Oscar Grant's family, said he was not surprised such a rally would be held.

"There are individuals who support Mehserle and support police in general & and that's just part of & the split in this country, those who don't really understand the actions of the police in the African American community," Burris said.

Junior Aguilar, a Pleasant Hill resident who plans to attend the rally, said it's not about race. .

"BART failed Mehserle," Aguilar said. "He was not properly trained to use the Taser. So the question is, who is at fault here? It's the BART agency. I believe he is innocent."

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, 40 people had confirmed on the Facebook page they would attend the rally. Some work for police departments in Contra Costa County.

Walnut Creek Police Chief Joel Bryden said that if any of his officers attend, they will be off duty and not representing the department.

Police learned of the rally Tuesday, Bryden said, when a woman who said she was organizing the event came to City Hall to ask whether she needed a permit. Because it's a "First Amendment issue," no permit is required, Bryden said

Bryden said he will have officers at the rally to keep the peace.

Why rally in Walnut Creek?

"That only shows the demographic," said Burris. "If they came to Oakland they may have a confrontation they do not want to have."

Carlson said he assumed that Walnut Creek is a local point. " "I think it's just a matter of convenience."

Michael Walker of the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant said a pro-Mehserle rally is an attempt to reduce Mehserle's jail time.

"They all just sat back and said 'let justice play out' and they didn't do these mass rallies because they thought he was going to get away with it," said Walker, who plans to attend Monday's rally with other coalition members.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15508131

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=131311036904027
Added to the calendar on Tue, Jul 13, 2010 11:50PM

Comments (Hide Comments)
This ain't over until it's over. I don't know if you some of you people've noticed, but this is a war; a social war, a class war and an urban war ta that. I wonder what the family of Oscar grant is thinking about this right now? What would a pro Mehserle pro cop rally gone unchallenged mean for the community who want justice? How would it impact the final sentencing of this killer cop? Would the circumstances of why a person was murdered even matter if it were a cop the was capt in the back face down? Would the media have asked questions and said "but we don't know for sure if he meant to pull the trigger" if it were on tape with Oscar being the shooter? Think about this. Just think! Do the rules that apply to us when we commit crime apply the police in the same way? Does the media treat a dead cop the same as another African American?

We've got to stand up every fighting chance we have in this battle for justice and to lay our arms down now would mean defeat and also mean the death of democracy.

There is nothing sad about 80 police officers losing their jobs. If it were us losing our jobs and holding protest strikes the police would be used against us and they would think twice about arresting us and beating us and locking us up to be tortured in a jail cell. Fuck the police state.

Fuck cop sympathy!


by MC
they are doing this in walnut creek because all the bay area cops live in the suburbs. very few, if any, oakland or BART PD live in oakland.
by !
We just saw one town in Southern California and one in Northern California ABOLISH THEIR POLICE DEPARTMENT because they are too expensive, the former primarily because of POLICE BRUTALITY LAWSUITS. There are still the County Sheriffs, the Highway Patrol (400 of them from Fresno were at the Oakland Police Riot on July 8, yet they just could not manage to stop looting, but they did falsely arrest lots of innocent people exercising their Constitutional rights to protest), the State Police, the National Guard, and the Gestapo of the USA, Homeland Security. POLICE ARE NOT SOCIAL WORKERS; THEY ARE THUGS. We need the money wasted on all police departments for social services to put an end to poverty that is the cause of most street crime. KEEP FILING THOSE POLICE BRUTALITY LAWSUITS AND WE WILL FINALLY GET RID OF THESE POLICE DEPARTMENTS, AS WILL THE DECLINING ECONOMY. Oakland just laid off 80 cops and will have to lay off hundreds more if the voters do not approve more taxes to pay for the heavily armored terrorist thug police, which taxes they have rejected in the past, and are likely to do the same as the economy gets worse daily. THE BART POLICE DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN TODAY. We do not need heavily armed thugs on our trains; it is not enough that people are saying their guns should be taken away or that their guns and tasers should be taken away, IT IS TIME TO CLOSE THE BART POLICE DEPARTMENT. Fights go on every day on BART and they soon resolve themselves and are certainly not cause for calling the police. The police do nothing about the cars in the BART parking lots which are vandalized, so there is NO REASON FOR THE BART POLICE. AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE REST OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS CLOSED BY THE REALITY OF NO MONEY FOR THUGS.
by freedomfighter
All cops. cop sympathizers, and other oppressors should be under that bus, with the bus driver riding over them again and again. No to oppression, Yes to freedom.

Since we can't drive the bus over them at the Walnut Creek rally (too many of them, both supporting the rally, and in their "peace officer" jobs; and probably too few of us -- it being Walnut Creek which is somewhat out of our base areas, and there also being many liberal keep-the-peace types), but let's go anyway, have a counter rally, and look for opportunities to fuck with them or fuck shit up in Walnut Creek. We can be real "outside agitators". At least the liberals can't claim we're destroying our own community.
by nevebelieveapig
Thursday July 15th Oakland Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant!!! also 80 officers have been layed off from OPD recently, and many more to go soon as well.
by cp
The departments should really be hiring a lot more medium-payed social worker types to do a lot of the tasks like monitoring parole, and certain assistance calls. Look at how California is way on the high end of police costs. We do need people around for cases of domestic violence, abused children, total antisocial behavior and so forth, but in a lot of cases, it is untreated mentally ill who end up in prison, and social workers could avert that.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060109190609/http://www.policepay.net/6thYearBase.asp
by Mario
I'm all for a counter rally in Walnut Creek . And BTW Walnut Creek and Contra Costa county isn't nearly as monolithic as some might think . Many Asians and Latinos and a growing number of African -Americans live in CC County . Politically it's not nearly as right wing as Oaklanders . SF ers and those Notorious ''' Outrageous agitators '' from Berkeley also may think . For example one of the most active radical student groups in Northern Cal is the SDS chapter at Diablo Valley Community College in Pleasant Hill .
But all that being said there are far more rightists and Police living there than along the coast . And picketing a Cop rally anywhere can be a dangerous thing . As one poster noted they are thugs . And sadly most of us are n't as tough and as physically fit as those goons .
So-o I would strongly suggest a verbally confrontatively only rally . And when you leave depart as a group and get the hell out of Dodge (Walnut Creek ) asap .
You know the police are going to steal the headlines this Monday and you all know it's gona be in defense of Johannes Mehserle and the 80 police that got laid-off to try and make the community feel sorry for them and the media is going to back them up as usual because they are all on the same side and serve the same agenda to protect this fuck't up system. WE NEED A WHOLE NEW FUCKING SYSTEM IS WHAT WE NEED!

Revolutionaries and Insurrectionists need to put a side their differences and find a way to work together and have their own meetings and general assemblies that can't be hijacked by conformists, pacifists and good-Samaritans. Social Networking is our skill! Let's spread this idea before it's too late and try to get some bay area groups together. In are in need of desperate help.

I don't care if the RCP or the Anarchists organize an anti-cop march. There is no time. Let's just get work done!

Email, twitter, text, facebook and myspace this to your organization and friends who are tired of pacifism plaguing our environment.




by Darcy
to '.....',
how should I put this? You might want to rethink your rhetoric. You express thumbs down on conformists, then recommend twittering all your friends? While a rally or response might be in order, it's not wise to so blatantly emphasize antipacifism in a public call for an event because you will draw a lot of bad attention. Indeed, police could legally use such rhetoric as the basis for future monitoring or investigation.
by bay man
But we already have cointelpro working 24/7 around the clock. We are always being investigated. We are always being spied on. We are always being watched. Knowing that we are being watched is not a good argument for toning down the rhetoric but for turning it up. The worst time to speak out is always the best time to speak out. Unless you are giving specific details away there is nothing wrong with calling for civil disobedience, direct action or even rebellion. They want you to be afraid of stepping out of line and so long as they can keep you afraid till you're old & wrinkly, they won't have any problems so you see the technique? Fear is the number 1 tool preventing you from changing the course and organizing serious militant anti-authoritarian action. Other nations aren't so afraid of there government and not only say what ever the fuck they want when ever they want but do so as well. How long are we to remain the most pathetic people in the face of the earth?

We live in militant times with a militant police force in a police state so what's holding us back. It's 2010 already! How much more time do you need to wake up and realize that working with the government to change it and watching every word you say and every move you make is doing nothing to help the cause for social and economic justice?

Now is the worst time to call for calm and peace and toning down the rhetoric and giving into threats of violence and arrest and more harassment and police terrorism. Do not beg your oppressors for freedom. Do not beg your oppressors for rights. Do not beg your oppressors for justice because so long as you depend on the system to bring justice to the system it self there will be no justice. Only time there is justice is when the organizers become revolutionaries and the anarchists work with the revolutionaries to resist and resist and resist!

They will always be watching us. They will always lock us up. They will always shoot us. This is never going to end unless we organize with out central leadership and the only people who do that are anarchists. The worst thing we can do now right now is make their jobs easy for them. THEY DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE IT THAT EASY!

To protest is to beg for mercy! To resist is to take back what has been stolen, your life, your dignity and your spirit.

Resistance means non-cooperation. The passive progressive left and clergymen have been leading the pack for too long now and I see it only there to exist as a roadblock to suppress peoples anger so that they may never find the strength to break free from their rulers and masters. How long is this going to last? HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO ENDURE THEIR WORLD? THEIR VIOLENCE AND OUR SILENCE IS SO UNNECESSARY I DON'T HAVE THE WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW FUCKT UP IT IS.

The revolutionaries & insurrectionists goal would be to break this cycle of cooperation of the masses because with out breaking the law there can be no revolution and with out revolution you know in the back of your progressive minds that change will never come and the only thing preventing you from admitting that is your own denial of reality and fear of what's real.

To steal a phrase, "The only thing we have to fear is fear it self!" FDR.

SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT!



by prevale
thats right bay person,police state does not care about you. look at katrina,and war money waste. they are the last degenerate euro american race.
by fredomfighter
Bayman is right. The police watch us already. We have nothing to lose. Let's go all out.

The only thing i disagree with Bayman is when he says "revolutionaries" and anarchists should unite, as if anarchists aren't revolutionaries. I don't know Bayman, but this sounds like Avakianoid crap. Anarchists are as revolutionary as anybody, and probably more so because they (we) put the revolution into practice and go against all oppression. Yes there are other revolutionaries and others who do good work, and yes there are some people who call themselves anarchist who are not revolutionary, but anarchism is revolutionary, and don't let any communist, liberal, social democrat or whatever tell you otherwise.

Smash all authority and oppressors and exploiters.
Yes we American anarchists especially clash with American communists but we must forget about that so we can get work done is all I was saying. You look at Greece during the riots in Athens and what do you see? GREEK COMMUNISTS WITH THEIR RED FLAGS WITH ANARCHISTS AND THEIR BLACK FLAGS SIDE BY SIDE FIGHTING AGAINST THE POLICE STATE AND THE SYSTEM! The system of brutality they fight is the same system of brutality we are against. People resist the economic system that's fucked in other parts of the world but we don't even care about the issue as an American population and so it is my strong opinion that every town must have it's own Athens at some point that should have been long time ago.

Maybe if anarchists and communists weren't so divided in America even though they have differences and disagree on a lot of things. We need to re-evaluate our selves and have a fresh clean start somewhere because eventually communists and anarchists are going to meet them selves on the front-lines fighting a common enemy anyway. Might as well drop the beef now and work together to be better organize for when the days of rage finally arrive and if you've been watching the doom and gloom reports lately along with the states falling apart you know it's only a matter of time.

It's about time that the Grant Family emphasize that the police are only one part of a immoral system of slavery called capitalism and they may not agree that violence is the answer now but when the state of California collapses there won't be anymore speeches only riots!
by x
I believe BART stops in Walnut Creek...hop those fucking ticket-stiles and git yer ass to Walnut Creek! We need to keep the pressure up, we just had our first major(still not enough) victory! As Crimethinc says "They won't fuck with us much longer".

by Insurrectionary Anarchist!
Remember remember the 5th of November Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

Mehserle sentencing has been extended to the exact date of Nov. 5th by the way.

Isn't that a coincidence?

Cheers
from the Insurrectionary Anarchist!
by freedom fighter
is that they're not revolutionary communists like the communists who some anarchists work with in Greece, but they are a cult group led by a silly stupid-ass old man who thinks he is the smartest man, Bob Avakian. It's not real communism, but more like a religious group, Scientology, or Lyndon LaRouche. Do you pray to Bob?

Think for yourself.

And then to have the audacity to tell the Grant Family what to think. No, we don't have to follow what they say. That's part of thinking for yourself, but to tell a grieving family what to think. I wish i knew who you were, because i would throw your ass in front of the cops in Walnut creek, as a way to start the riot out there.
by bayarea man
I am only suggesting to the Oscar Grant family that the militarization of our police is a direct result of an international movement that has been struggling for over a decade for strong issues such as social and economic justice and world peace. The enemies are not only the police who shoot to kill but the very people they serve at the top of the pyramid being the rich aristocratic people and Harvard Yale people who run the show in business and government keeping this fucked up system together. I am only wishing that the Grant family look into it because they are not going to get full justice until the system comes to a stop. The system is almost like an indestructible killing machine and we all love to make excuses for why we should not fight it and love to vilify those who stand up to it with the vengeance.

The problem is systemic and not just one bad apple in the police force. The whole system is guilty. I would say to the Grant family and so there for we must not stop with the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle once there is a conviction. There is a lot of work to be done for all those who have been victims of the justice system and prison system and cops in general. We must take it a step further. I want to go all the way as you can already imagine!

So long as this system exists and resistance to the system grows, more and more police will grow hostile toward the general public at large and more unarmed people will be shot as a result but that doesn't mean we abandon the struggle for freedom, justice and equality. HELL FUCKIN NO! We only escalate tension when the system escalates from it's own side.

Americans are the greatest threat to their government!

Connect the dots.

-A-
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