top
East Bay
East Bay
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Town Hall Reports from Inside Mehserle Hearing & Orloff Recall, Oakland, 5/30/09: audio

by dave id
At this week's Town Hall for Justice for Oscar Grant, Minister Keith Muhammad, Reverend Ramona Tascoe, and Oscar Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson all offer direct reports from inside the court room during Johannes Mehserle's ongoing preliminary hearing in his trial for the murder of Oscar Grant. They point out that the BART police involved in the murder of Oscar Grant have been exposed repeatedly by the prosecutor as they tell lie after lie in the court room and yet the corporate media has failed to mention anything about these developments.

The effort to recall Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff is moving forward. Tom Orloff has already submitted a response which listed several law enforcement representatives and two local NAACP chapters, including the Oakland chapter, as supporters of his.

Also speaking at the Town Hall is retired Judge Claudia Marco from Detroit who recently returned from a United Nations' Durbin Conference committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland focused on the elimination of racial discrimination around the world. She gave a presention on the need to eliminate police brutality and racial profiling in the U.S. which included the case of Oscar Grant, the misuse of tasers, and other injustices. She noted that people from 156 nations are now aware of the murder of Oscar Grant.

Minister Keith Muhammad speaks first about the Caravan for Justice III on May 26th -- the third in a series of trips to Sacramento intended to pressure state legislators to fix unjust laws such as three strikes and policies that create a "pipeline to prison" for California's youth of color. He also discusses our corrupt economic system that favors the wealthy and has led to the current state financial crisis whereby California now finds itself tens of billions of dollars in debt. Finally, he goes on to report on what he has seen inside the court room during the days he has attended the Mehserle preliminary hearing:
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
(audio 31:15)

The Trial of Johannes Mehserle Heads to Week Three (on June 3rd)
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/24/18597663.php


Town Hall for Justice on Mehserle Hearing, BART Review, & Caravan, Oakland, 5/23/09: audio
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/30/18599513.php

Town Hall Meetings
Every Saturday 4pm - 6pm
Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church
807 27th Ave, Oakland
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
(audio 41:31)

She starts by noting the racial profiling that was done by a paranoid "citizen cop" Dennis Zafiratos, who initially set off the chain of events of that night by calling the BART train operator to report an exaggerated disturbance.
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
(audio 21:24)
§Judge Claudia Marco
by dave id
townhall_053009_claudiamarco.jpg
§Claudia Marco
by dave id
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
(audio 11:30)
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
(audio 16:21)

Minister Keith reads the recently posted public notice that appeared in Alameda county newspapers to announce the intent to recall District Attorney Tom Orloff. It was the next official step after having already filed twenty initial recall petition signatures with the county.

Not surprisingly, every police chief in Alameda and other law enforcement officials have already announced support for DA Orloff in fighting the recall effort.

Surprisingly, two local NAACP chapters, including the Oakland NAACP, have listed their support for Tom Orloff. Apparently, local NAACP president George Holland even sat with the Mehserle family at the preliminary hearing.

If you do not believe the NAACP should be supporting Orloff, Minister Keith encourages you to contact Oakland NAACP president George Holland at georgehollandattorney [at] yahoo.com.

Recall updates will be posted at:
http://www.recallorloff.org
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by jc
we need to strip away all pre conceptions and give a kid a real trial. It works both ways. we can't expect a real trial for anyone else if we are going to hang this kid without a trial. I know that will make people mad but it is true. it has to work both ways
by huh
by "this kid" I'm assuming you are talking about mehserle

if you haven't noticed, he is getting a "real" trial. he's represented by a top cop lawyer. he's even free to gallivant around as he pleases when he's not attending the court-related events. he's already gotten far more deference than an average citizen would. he wasn't even confronted by authorities about the killing for two full weeks after he shot Oscar Grant

while you're imagining things "both ways" think about what it would be like now if a BART passengers had ordered an unarmed BART cop to lie face down on the concrete in front of dozens of witnesses with video cameras, and then while one passenger pressed his knee into the BART cop's neck another passenger pulled out a gun and shot the cop in the back. imagine that. do you honestly think we'd be in a similar place 5 months later that we are in today? do you really, truly think mehserle is getting a raw deal compared with what would be happening to the passengers involved in the death of a BART cop? c'mon.

if you're struggling with the whole imagination thing and can't get past your misplaced sympathies for "this kid" then maybe a real-world example will help. exactly how long after Lovelle Mixon supposedly shot two cops did he get before other cops shot him down? two hours tops. not two weeks, not months or years like mehserle will get. no "real" trial. ever. just a hail of bullets and then hearsay slander from cops for weeks in the press

mehserle is getting more than his fair share of a "real trial" and in it the cops are lieing through their teeth every day. any thinking, fair person can see that. the prosecutor certainly does. read the full reports from the hearing (not the corporate news reports on the hearing) or actually listen to the audio here from people who have attended. the cops are getting busted out every day for lying. not sure what else could be more fair to mehserle than to allow cops to lie for days on end, unless you just think cops should be able to murder unarmed people and get away with it without ever being called to account
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network