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Indybay Feature

Oakland Police Massacre Casts Ugly Glare on Ex-Felon Desperation

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, NAM (reposted)
Originally From New America Media

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 : The killing of four police officers in Oakland shows the desperation of an ex-felon. Lovelle Mixon was trying to avoid going back to jail and at the same time unable to find any employment that would give him a second chance.
Its a story repeated all over America, even if it does not always end in a killing spree as it did in Oakland, says NAM contributing editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson. Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, The Hutchinson Report can be heard in Los Angeles on KTYM 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com.

A general consensus is that it was a deadly mix of panic, rage, and frustration that caused Lovelle Mixon to snap. His shocking murderous rampage left four Oakland police officers dead and a city and police agencies searching its soul about what went so terribly wrong. Though Mixons killing spree is a horrible aberration, his plight as an
unemployed ex-felon isnt. There are tens of thousands like him on Americas streets.

In 2007, the National Institute of Justice found that 60 percent of ex-felon offenders remain unemployed a year after their release. Other studies have shown that upwards of 30 percent of felon releases live in homeless shelters because of their inability to find housing. And those are the lucky ones. Many camp out on the streets.

A significant number of them suffer from drug, alcohol and mental health challenges, and lack education or any marketable skills

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Comments (Hide Comments)
by imager
lovellemixonhope_1_1_1_1.jpg
Lovelle Mixon
by BlackFemme
I sure hope Lovelle didn't actually rape that 12 year old. Because I can't think of anything more damaging to that girl then to see her rapist touted as a hero for her community.
The cops planned to murder Mixon before they entered the building. They knew they were going to go in to kill him. That was their plan. They planned to commit murder and justify it by alleging that it was urgent to go in right away. But it was NOT urgent to rush in.

They could have planned to wait him out and negotiate a peaceful end, but instead they wanted to rush in and shoot and kill him. And they did rush in. But before they could shoot him, he got a few rounds off of his own. Then they killed him just as they had planned. The only problem for the cops was that their plan went bad. They didn't think he'd get some of them first.

But the cops murdered him, because they had a choice and they could have stayed outside and tried some reasonable non-violent alternatives first.

So Lovelle Mixon was indeed murdered. The allegations of rape are to distract people from what the cops did wrong. They want to demonize him as much as possible now. Don't believe the lies.
by ..././.
they even want o further criminalize him even though he is dead!
by reality check
Portraying Mixon as a victim and equating Mixon with Hope is absurd and sick, unless you mean that because he hoped he could carry a loaded weapon as a parolee and get away with it that now there may be some hope that whoever is dealing assault rifles in Oakland will be stopped, hope that the NRA and gun dealers will be put out of business, some hope that the prison-industrial complex will be exposed as criminal itself with parole officers who don't care about their cases and parolees who aren't fit to be out on the street. While it is true that the police and the media portray black youth as thugs and murderers and use accusations of crime, like rape, to distract from police abuse and misconduct, that doesn't mean that Mixon was innocent and it doesn't mean he should be the poster child for hope. I hope more snitches come forward to expose any young people with guns and stop the criminals inside and outside the police department from inflicting more pain and death.
by watcher
"A general consensus is that it was a deadly mix of panic, rage, and frustration that caused Lovelle Mixon to snap. Lovelle Mixon was trying to avoid going back to jail" Given the fact that his parole was being revoked and he was probably facing a very long, if not life-time prison sentence for other crimes that he himself was aware of but the unfortunate officers who made initial contact were not, it would actually seem that Mixon "snapped" simply in order to escape the consequences of his own actions and escape arrest and imprisonment. If someone had not turned in his location, he probably would have tried to flee further that evening, after dark. This is evidenced by the fact that he was in a stabilized mode when confronted by the SWAT team, he was not proactive at the point before the second confrontation, just hiding.

" and at the same time unable to find any employment that would give him a second chance. " I know it is hard for an ex-con to find suitable employment but I also know that it can be done. What is essential is that anyone seeking such employment have the necessary social skills to be an asset as an employee and an honest desire to straighten out their life. I know someone right now that is moving up the employment ladder and still has a year of parole left - for manslaughter (the circumstances were that he shot and killed someone during the course of a struggle for a weapon).

But the article quoted here attempts to place the responsibility on society for failing Mixon, instead of Mixon failing society. It may be society's desire to rehabilitate the habitual criminal but it is not society's responsibility, it is the criminal's. Mixon apparently preferred and enjoyed and the thug life killed him, unfortunately many others were maimed and killed in the process. Shed the majority of your tears for them.

by Oakland Resident
"A significant number of them suffer from drug, alcohol and mental health challenges, and lack education or any marketable skills."

With the exception of mental health issues, whose fault is that? Is it society's or the individual's?

No one is forcing these thugs to take dope, drink, drop out of high school and not get employed. These are decisions that they make. People want to blame this on everything from institutional racism (lefties) to gangsta ghetto culture (conservatives) and everything in between but they fail to acknowledge that people have power in these decisions. They can make the right choices or the wrong choices.

No, I do not think people should get locked up for minor stuff like vandalism or a little weed, but we are talking about violent criminals here. If it was up to me, I would let many of the small-time offenders out on parole so we would have more room in our prisons to lock people like Minton up for life.
by Oakland Resident
Typo:

Mixon not Minton.
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