The strangest thing happened to me tonight. One moment I was right in the middle of the protests in downtown Oakland. And literally 5 minutes later I was pulling into my garage. With all my clothes smelling like smoke. I live in Oakland about four or five miles from where the protests were going on. And the contrast was bizarre. My street was totally quiet. Everyone was asleep. Yet just down Broadway, literally minutes away, there were hundreds of police officers in full riot gear. They were facing off against hundreds of protestors. They were furious that the Grand Jury in Missouri decided not to bring charges against the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. I first got to the protests at about midnight, right after I left work. There was no way I could go home without stopping to see them first. So I parked my car down the street and walked up Broadway. I spent about an hour watching. There were people yelling. There were officers with loud speakers telling the protestors to leave. There was several loud bangs. (Im not sure what they were) I also saw people being arrested. I saw broken windows. And I saw that brick right in the middle of the road. It didn’t get there by accident. Someone threw it at an officer. I was told it hit him in the head. Fortunately his helmet protected him for the most part. I was also told that the protestors didn’t go after small businesses tonight. (Like they have during other protests in Oakland) They only broke the windows of large companies. The broken window in the picture is from Starbucks. But all of this was nothing compared to what happened tonight in Ferguson. It sounds like that city was just trashed. And a number of businesses were literally burned to the ground. I have no idea what it is like to be that angry. But even so, it still seems to me that all the vandalism and damage serves no real purpose. I have no problem with peaceful protests. However, I’d sure like to hear someone tell me how burning down businesses in Ferguson, or breaking windows and looting stores in Oakland, helps “the cause.” And while I’m at it, why is it that every time there’s a protest, its Oakland that gets hit. There were no major protests tonight in SF, San Jose, Berkeley or anywhere else in the Bay Area. Just Oakland. Can someone explain that to me?
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 10:29:27 +0000
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