Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Do police forces talk to each other?

G20 "best practices" on display in Oakland, California.

Oscar Grant was an unarmed, handcuffed Black man murdered by an Oakland cop, Johannes Mehserle. A white judge, Robert Perry, kissed the killer with a sentence of two years less time served--the minimum sentence possible. The cop had claimed that he mistook his gun for a Taser.

The judge refused to allow prior use-of-force testimony against the officer, but permitted the defence to introduce evidence about the defendant's past criminal record.


Protesting this travesty was deemed illegal. A peaceful protest led to 152 arrests: everyone was released, many after harrowing experiences in custody. The decision to charge the protesters is still up in the air.

Meanwhile, in
backwoods Canada, sundry far-Right wingnuts are howling about "white privilege." No, no, they aren't opposing it. They don't like the term, and claim that no such thing exists.

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