The Riots Following the Verdict in the Mehserle Trial

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

I had not been in a riot since Boston's first World Series victory in decades, but let me say this: Oakland doesn't fuck around.  Everything was pretty mellow, minus a few minor incidents, until about 7:45.  Then the police decided they needed to disperse the crowd and all hell broke loose.  Looting, vandalism, fights, and even more police storming the crowd.  By the time the night was winding down, I had seen 5 dumpsters lit on fire, at least 2 dozen burning trash cans, the police beat no less than 3 people, and one flash grenade thrown into a crowd.

As things got really violent, some rioter figured out how to start cutting power to all the traffic lights and lamp posts in the area.  After the second instance of cutting the power, a man in the same group as me stuck his 9mm in the air and shot it off.  At this point the police decided to break up the crowd yet again and everyone ran towards Sears.  At this point, people were taking out their leftover 4th or July fireworks and shooting them off into the crowd.  In the mayhem, a car driving by threw a M1000 in my direction, blowing up right by my leg but.  I was fine but it hit another man behind me so badly that he couldn't even walk from the shock.  That's when I left.

Eventually everything got tagged.  However, it all started with this AC Transit bus.

Very quickly after the protest spread, the police quickly fled the area, as did the AC Transit bus pictured above.  In the mayhem, a deaf lady was run over by a vehicle and she was refused help for quite some time.

Before the mayhem, many people treated the entirety of Oakland like it was Sunday Streets.  For example, it provided a rare opportunity to get your photo taken while kick-flipping in front of riot police.

Police moving in.

The news media basically jumped on every act of violence, literally sprinting to the slightest bit of chaos.  Pictured is the media busting a nut over a small hole made in a Subway sandwich shop window.

The moment people started looting the Foot Locker (sorry for the shitty video).

You've probably already heard by now that people looted a Foot Locker.

This man was sad for the Foot Locker.

A riot is no excuse to use a freewheel.

Getting serious.

This girl was laying in front of the police line.  I guess they felt the best way to get her out of the way was to kick her down.

The police were getting much more hostile at this point.  While they threatened to use tear gas, they didn't end up doing it.  However the started pushing the crowd back soon after this video. 

After a glass bottle hit a police officer, they threw a flash grenade into the crowd.  It landed on this Telemundo news van.

This is about when I really considered leaving: some guys lighting fires didn't like that this cameraman was filming it so they attacked him (and obviously I filmed it because I'm a moron.)  They got him to the ground and started kicking him.  What I didn't film were people breaking up the fight and getting the guy away.  Three people from the initial attack decided they wanted to destroy his camera and went after him again.  They hit him a few times and eventually broken the lens off another photographer's camera who was trying to break up the second fight.  Eventually the cameraman ran toward the Fox Theatre.  A cyclist went after him and the cameraman pushed him off the bike and kept running.  The police stood by and did nothing.  Eventually the cameraman ran to the riot police with two other men in pursuit until the riot police let him go through the line.

People eventually decided that Foot Locker was not enough and looted Sears.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

12 GALAXIES CONSPIRED TO RIG MEHSERLE TRIAL

— By Zach Perkins |

The CBS Newspaths are using Eucalyptus Trees to brainwash Sitrokrillions of Populations.  Fuck an NBA championship; If that's not a reason to riot, I don't know what is.  (via Caliber's twit pic)

Unless you're like my roommate who just woke up 15 minutes ago in a drunk/hungover stupor, you're probably already aware that ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.  Depending on your source, he faces a 5-14 year prison sentence (up from 2-4 years because the crime involved a firearm).  Considering that a drug related felony could potentially land you more time than he'll get for shooting a detained 20-something in the back while everybody filmed it, it's no surprise that people are pretty upset.

The Uptown Action News Team will have more live coverage of the potential unrest in Oakland soon whenever the fuck we feel like it. 

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Improvements Coming to 19th and Dolores?

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

It was nice to see Mission Loc@l's Rigoberto Hernandez do a follow up on the subject of the 19th and Dolores death trap (previously whined yelled about on this very blog).  Interesting take aways from the piece include that Supervisor (and mayoral candidate) Bevan Dufty does not support stop signs at the intersection and the city is considering putting “bulb-outs,” similar to the ones installed recently on Valencia St., on Dolores.

Personally, I think stop lights, or better yet a stop light, or even better speed bumps or 5 Sandinistas brandishing machetes and assault riffles enforcing traffic laws, would be a better solution, but anything is an improvement.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Levi's Workshops Not Really Doing Anything For the Community?

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Reader and local print maker nathalie has some words on the matter:

Hi. There is an idea that the public can go here and print. There is no info about a supposed public day on the levisworkshop site. An article in sfgate said that Sunday is public day and that one needs merely to sign up. I emailed through the levisworkshop site regarding specifics, how does one sign up, do you need to bring your own paper? no one responded. Today I went in to ask theses same questions and was told to just show up on Sunday and that I could use the facilities and supplies. I'll try it Sunday and let you know how it goes. My intention is to prove that anyone can print there if that is true and set an example. If anyone can really print there, let's bombard the place and print our show posters, art prints whatever. Am I naive to think this is a possible? “Sales” from items in this “store” I am told by a worker go directly to your choice of a provided list of mission non profits. I appreciate the intention of this levisworkshop project to provide public facility and benefit local non profits but so far I am not convinced that the execution of this intention is successful. So far they are getting a lot of attention and press but has anyone from the mission community benefited from this experiment?

I know from personal experience that on Sundays they let you play with the print making equipment, but it didn't look like they were letting you do any type-setting.

Maybe reader Greg has a point and they don't owe us or the community shit:

Corporations are part of life in 2010. Your car is corporate. Your clothes are corporate. Your computer is corporate. Your phone is corporate. Your bike is corporate. Your shoes are corporate. Your house is made of corporate wood. Your activist spray-paint is corporate. And the drugs to keep you from feeling depressed from your own anarchist mind are corporate. Better get used to your place in the space/time continuum because it's where you are.

Levi's is trying to incorporate into the community by adapting and providing something useful & interesting & artistic. Is there business and branding motives behind it - sure - we live in a capitalist city and country. But no one complains when a mom & pop shop puts up a trashy store that gives nothing back to the community - why? What's the difference? Trash is okay as long as it's local? They're local employees at Levi's. They're local managers at Levi's. Hell, they're even a local headquarters that started in San Francisco. So are we to vandalize any Valencia street company that actually grows beyond Valencia st.

At the end of the day, it still feels like they are just taking advantage of Valencia St.   From what I understand, they are doing some filming in the store for a new national ad campaign “Everybody's Work is Equally Important.”  Feels like a crappy, corporate “Real World: Valencia St.”  But, hey, you can use their print-making tools on Sunday, so I guess it's cool?