Po'Lice Terror! "The Racist Murder of Oscar Grant"

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Po'Lice Terror!

The Racist Murder of Oscar Grant

Phil Adams/PNN
Friday, January 9, 2009;

I’m a 25 year old mixed Latino/black male USMC veteran who lives in the East Bay. Racial profiling and police abuse of power is very real to me and in fact plays a part in my life every time I’m in a public place. I have been arrested for jay-walking and put in handcuffs without explanation and repeatedly pulled over for no reason. Police abuse is very real but for once it has gained some attention.

On January 7, Several reporters and poverty scholars from POOR Magazine/PNN re-ported and sup-ported with several thousands other organizations and folks at the demonstration at Fruitvale BART the day before Oscar Grant III's funeral. There was a large shrine taped off for the memory of Oscar Grant III. There were many lit candles and personal statements from people who knew him such as “You will be missed”.

“This has to Stop, as a black mother I can’t stand by and see our children murdered,” Queennandi, member of the welfareQUEENs of POOR Magazine and fellow staff writer spoke an impassioned scream into the mike for all young men of color.

“Let’s call them the Po’Lice,” Tiny, co-editor, and formerly incarcerated founder of POOR came up to speak ending by talking about the connection between the case of young black mother Nadra Foster’s own po-lice terror because of a call by other so-called media-justice makers at KPFA and the police terror of Oscar Grant.

The general theme for all the speakers was that we will no longer accept another missing generation of men and this injustice will not stand. Numerous chants filled the air:

"Organize or die"

"No justice, No Peace"

One thing I think all the demonstrators knew is that it’s time for change and that we as a community working in solidarity will be the only way that change can occur.

New Year’s eve 2009 a BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant III in an attempt to restrain him on the Fruitvale BART platform in front of a crowded train car. BART will not release the security footage of the event and the officer has resigned so BART claims no action can be taken. Numerous videos of the slaying were taken by the cell phones and cameras of onlookers and released to various media outlets. Those are the facts.

PNN TV--Justice for Oscar Grant - PNN-TV coverage of BART hearing on the Oscar Grant Murder by the Po'Lice - ( includes Willie Ratcliff and other speakers from across the Bay speaking out on this tragedy! ) Filmed by PNN-TV co-producer Tony Robles

The city of Oakland has been plagued with police brutality and mistrust of the police for decades. What do you expect from the city where the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded? Being a 25 year old male of mixed racial background I have to ask people, how much things can change in a little over 40 years. This country was built on hundreds of years of slavery with vast economic gain due to free labor making it one of the most powerful nations in the world you think an addiction to free labor and money like that can just change overnight? Economic gain from free labor is the whole reason we have the most incarcerated people of any nation and we have to deal with this Orwellian police state. And that is the reason why Oscar Grant III was shot in the back in front of a crowd by a BART police officer.

Oscar Grant III was hard-working young man holding down two jobs. Oscar Grant was a father. Oscar Grant was a son.. At the protest I had the chance to interview Sharon Raffety whose son had grown up with Oscar in Hayward, CA. She reminisced on when they were younger how they used to play little league and what he was like in the second grade. Oscar grew up in a religious household, his mother was a reverend and growing up his life was steeped in the church. Sharon told me like all young men he had his share of troubles but "kids make mistakes" and like most men do he matured and went on with his life. Before Oscar was killed he worked at Farmer John’s market and a Kentucky Fried Chicken to provide for his four year old daughter who is now missing a father.

As far as I am concerned if, you shoot an unarmed person in the back you should go to jail I don’t care if its a mistake or you were angry or drunk or its a warzone, you shoot an unarmed person who isn't resisting in the back you should go to jail. But that would be equal justice. Not Just-US!

Editors Note: DUE TO THE TERRIFYING REALITY OF GLOBAL AND LOCAL Po'LIce TERROR FROM EAST OAKLAND TO PALESTINE TO KPFA - ONE OF THE POOR MAGAZINE MURALS CREATED AT SATURDAY's PAY TO PAINT OPENING PARTY WILL HONOR OSCAR GRANT, IDRISS STELLY AND ALL THE SPIRITS OF MURDERED YOUTH, ELDER AND DISABLED SCHOLARS VICTIMIZED BY Po'LICE TERROR IN AMERIKKKA AND ACROSS THE GLOBE!- PLEASE COME AND HELP US CREATE THIS.. BRING YOUR IMAGES OF ANCESTORS AND FOLKS- AS WELL, HELP US CREATE THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE WHICH CALLS FOR NO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE -Po'LICE - EVER!!!

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Savage linked San Francisco event to the "artistes" and "leather fetishists" of Weimar-era Germany, whom he blamed for Hitler's rise

MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Summary: Discussing the Folsom Street Fair, a leather-themed adult-entertainment event in San Francisco, Michael Savage declared: "This country today is far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened by the perverts, sickened by the artistes, they were sickened by the leather fetishists, they were sickened by the degeneracy, and they couldn't handle it."

Trouble viewing clip? Download: QuickTime

During the September 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing the Folsom Street Fair, a leather-themed adult-entertainment event in San Francisco, Michael Savage declared: "This country today is far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened by the perverts, sickened by the artistes, they were sickened by the leather fetishists, they were sickened by the degeneracy, and they couldn't handle it." Savage also said that the people who participated in the Folsom Street Fair are "doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion."

Later in the program, Savage said of the San Francisco event:

What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.

As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage formerly hosted a television program on MSNBC but was fired after he described a caller as a "sodomite" and told him to "get AIDS and die." Savage has also repeatedly referred to "the homosexual mafia," claimed that "the homosexual dance of death" is the "seminal issue of our time," compared gays to "drug addicts," and repeatedly called gay parenting "child abuse."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation.

From the September 29 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R-TX) [audio clip]: We're not gonna load our kids up with an unaffordable debt burden that'll bankrupt this nation and turn us into the Weimar Republic. We've got to be careful and --

SAVAGE: Well, here in San Francisco, we're way past the Weimar Republic. They had in the midst of all of this a so-called Folsom Street Fair, where naked men cavorted with whips and chains and leather yesterday. I noticed that our Italian grandmother, Nancy Pelosi, had nothing to say about values. This went on in the sickest city in the world. We're way past the Weimar Republic. I only pray that there's no Hitler in the wings.

[...]

SAVAGE: Now, I want you to go to MichealSavage.com, go to the middle of the page on the right, and you'll see a man in a leather mask -- a man, a grown white man, standing at a leather parade yesterday. A leather festival, so to speak, in San Francisco, where people were walking around with their private parts exposed beating each other up with whips, while others stood around in a drunken stupor, or a drunken orgy, witnessing men being whipped in public. And my headline is, "The Devil Runs San Fransicko," and that's what I said to Representative Culberson.

It's interesting to me that you mention the Weimar Republic, because this country today is far beyond -- has gone far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic, which led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened -- the average person in Germany was sickened by the perverts; they were sickened by the artistes; they were just sickened by the leather fetishists; they were sickened by the degeneracy; and they couldn't handle it.

Now, you know, leather and this and that is, you say, someone's business. I may agree with you. If someone does so willingly, I could look the other way. But it shouldn't be permitted on a public street. When this occurred last September, I voiced opposition to it. Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to say that, as a Catholic grandmother, she's not offended by it. I said, "If she's not offended by this, what would offend her?" Well, apparently, nothing offends Nancy Pelosi except Republicans who don't go along with her iron gavel.

No, this shouldn't be permitted in public. They should be arrested by the vice squad. But we have a sick mayor -- a useless, sick piece of spaghetti. He's not even al dente, you know, he's al softy. We have a mayor that's al softy in this city, not even al dente. The vice squad is now only looking for people who do not burn American flags rather than people who burn American flags. Everything's upside-down. It's "Alice in Wonderland." I guess what I'm getting at is this: At the same time we have the largest financial meltdown in our time, these sickos go to a leather parade and whip each other in the streets -- still doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion. And what they were doing in the streets was an example not of wholesomeness but of sickness.

[...]

SAVAGE: What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.

—H.D.

Savage on "liberal social activism": "They imposed affirmative action on me and stole my very birthright simply because I was white"

MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA
Monday, September 29, 2008

Summary: On his radio show, Michael Savage said, "I grew up with parents who went through the Depression. And I went through a sort of depression in my own life as a result of liberal social activism. They imposed affirmative action on me and stole my very birthright simply because I was white."

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Michael Savage discussed the current financial crisis and said, "My value system is from another world -- I'm like Rip Van Savage. I grew up with parents who went through the Depression. And I went through a sort of depression in my own life as a result of liberal social activism. They imposed affirmative action on me and stole my very birthright simply because I was white. They stole my birthright, and I could have gone under."

As Media Matters for America noted, Savage previously called "civil rights" a "con" and asserted: "It's a racket that is used to exploit primarily heterosexual, Christian, white males' birthright and steal from them what is their birthright and give it to people who didn't qualify for it."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation.

From the September 26 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: My value system is from another world -- I'm like Rip Van Savage. I grew up with parents who went through the Depression. And I went through a sort of depression in my own life as a result of liberal social activism. They imposed affirmative action on me and stole my very birthright simply because I was white. They stole my birthright, and I could have gone under.

I'm telling you now, I'm telling you, like, from the Savage confessional something, then I'm gonna get back to executive compensation and the yuppie punks on Wall Street who went to Harvard. I'm not jealous of them -- I don't need what they have -- I'm a better man than they are, 'cause I never stole from anybody. I never sacked a pension plan. I never robbed a person's retirement fund. OK, so don't think I'm talking from the point of view of bitterness here.

—H.D.