About 60 people marched and rallied in Oakland on Wednesday to condemn the police and honor Lovelle Mixon, who was killed by Oakland police after he fatally shot four officers Saturday...
"OPD you can't hide - we charge you with genocide," chanted the demonstrators as they marched along MacArthur Boulevard, near the intersection with 74th Avenue where Mixon, 26, a fugitive parolee, gunned down two motorcycle officers who had pulled him over in a traffic stop. He killed two more officers who tried to capture him where he was hiding in his sister's apartment nearby.The protest was organized by the Oakland branch of the Uhuru Movement, whose flyers for the march declared, "Stop Police Terror." Many marchers wore T-shirts featuring Mixon's photo, including a woman identified by march organizers as Mixon's mother. The woman declined to comment and gave her name only as Athena.
Lolo Darnell, one of Mixon's cousins at the demonstration, said, "He needs sympathy too. If he's a criminal, everybody's a criminal."
Asked about police allegations that Mixon was suspected in several rapes, including that of a 12-year-old girl, marcher Mandingo Hayes said, "He wasn't a rapist. I don't believe that."
This is a familiar refrain for anyone whose come up in shouting distance of the hood. Jay-Z articulated the phenomenon of mothers swearing their slain sons were angels:
I put your crew in hard-bottoms, the preacher's like God's Got EmBeyond that, my Pops published a book a few years back looking at the legacy of the Black Panther Party. He was really proud, given that he'd been a Panther. Though largely sympathetic, and maybe slightly nostalgic, the book is not a piece of hagiography. In one of the more trenchant essays, the author points out the folly of equating thugs with revolutionaries, of essentially criminalizing the vanguard. Man, just writing that sentence takes me back to 95.
He ain't did nothing to nobody, but them boy's shot em
Anyway it's a rather stupid pattern that's been repeated on the black left (and likely on the radical right, too) right up through hip-hop. Think T.I. nuzzling up with Farrakhan, or Eldridge Cleaver asserting that rape was a revolutionary act. It's very hard for me to imagine Malcolm X making such a claim.
A few years back, I remember this group doing "cop watches" in the style of the old Panthers. They'd basically follow cops around to make sure they weren't brutalizing anybody. I used to think cool, but are you watching for them fools who stuck up my girl after she got off the Q train? In all fairness, that sort of thinking is much less common today. But when we see it, we should call it out.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
As an East Oakland resident the group that put on this "march" is basically funded by liberal white folks who donate their wonderful furniture so that these fools can sell it because they feel bad about slavery. They have used this money to post fliers and riot in downtown for Oscar Grant.
Such nonsense and I'm embarrassed to have known(no longer consider person a friend) one of their members.
You should see their website
http://uhurufurniture.blogspot.com/
As I understand it, they've got a DNA match for Lovelle Mixon on the rape of the 12 year old. However, because the match came from a database, they have to take a new sample from Mixon (his corpse at this point) and do the test over again. The Oakland Police Dept got the match on the Friday afternoon before the shootings.
Lovelle Mixon wasn't a victim, he was a predator. Not exactly the kind of guy you want to march for.
His actions look more like "suicide by cop" than anything else.
Jena Six all over again. Sigh.
Jena 6 is a Poor comparison.
It's not great, but it's close.
Not for me, but maybe that's because I always approached it from the point of view that the real problem in Jena wasn't that the Jena 6 were tried, but that the white kids who were involved weren't charged, and that the local DA basically told the black kids that he could crush their futures if he wanted to, and that they couldn't do a thing to stop him. The reason I supported dropping charges on the Jena 6 is because there was no way to rectify the situation by charging the other people who did wrong--fair in this case meant letting some perpetrators skate. Not a good solution, but better than what was being done.
J6 didn't kill 4 cops and rape a 12 year old. Yes, they were wrong, and some of them may go on to lead lives of crime, but in the end J6 was about them receiving disproportionate punishment for what they did do.
I think you'd be a lot harder pressed to find serious black folks getting worked up in any real numbers to protest this kids fate given what we know he did (killed 4 cops) and what he appears to have done (raped a child and potentially others).
Mumia might be a better one.
Another speechless Oakland resident, here.
I was a little PO'd that this occurred: that one of my church members had to tell his 17 year-old son to stay home for two weeks in case he gets unfairly targeted by police.
Watching the news and hearing the OPD reps saying that they are re-evaluating procedures when it comes to pulling over cars in traffic. How do you prevent someone from pulling out a gun and shooting at you?
DWB is hard enough in Oakland..what more are they going to do?
At the same time..I feel so badly for the families of the police officers who were killed, and I am scared for my friend who just joined the SFPD.
The Black Uhuru movment is big down here in St Petersburg florida and largely they are a bunch of clowns. Those are the same jack asses who were heckling President Obama when he came here and got put out of the rally. The same jack asses who only march when a black person gets shot by the police no matter how many time the black person licked shots first. When I say I loathe those bastards that really doesn't do justice. They are revolutionaries in their own mind and I really wish they would just go away.
Thanks, sgwhite! I always wondered what was up with that commotion. I couldn't find any info on the hecklers. Now I know.
Ugh. I didn't know this.
Ghetto and embarassing.
The Philly branch of Uhuru is fairly prominent, especially re: Mumia. 25 years later, they have fully developed a completely insular narrative of the Mumia episode that stunned me the first time I heard it, since it contradicts itself and the evidence so flagrantly. So I'm not surprised they'd be involved in the Mixon affair, but I do wonder what their complete narrative of events is, just for curiosity's sake. People have an awesome capacity to convince themselves of bogus things.
From Uhuru:
"Knowing the history of how the police treat Africans, Lovelle Mixon felt he had to defend himself in the face of the oppressive police state. And he did so, honorably."
http://uhurusolidarityoakland.blogspot.com/
Others have probably noted this, but I can attest as an Oaklander that this "Uhuru" group is mostly a bunch of white folks, led by a delusional crew who got lost in the '60s. They run a used furniture store and sell food at the Farmer's Market in one of the most affluent sections of the city. A bunch of out-of-touch nutcases who are parasites on the black community and feed off of liberal white guilt.
Re: "cop watch" - I'm surprised more folks don't consider CCTV. It's less intrusive, and a lot cheaper, than hiring a bunch of cops or following them around to make sure they do right. Film the perps when they're doing something stupid, and nail them later. Cameras don't discriminate, and they don't lie. If a cop shoots an innocent - everyone sees it (ref: the BART shooting). If a solid governance and oversight process is set up the system is hard to abuse. Successful CCTV programs are already in place (albeit with a limited installed base) in most major cities, and will only grow with time. Of course the old hippies and Uhuru f*ckers always oppose expansion of CCTV initiatives, but they've never really operated with the best interests of public safety in mind anyway. Bring the cameras, and bring them now! Gentrification is in full swing! Yuppies, Buppies and techies unite - film-f*ck the ghetto trash out of the cities.
I'm just across the Bay in SF and I don't like this march, its message, or the organizers. BUT ... then I read the comments section in the San Francisco Chronicle for the articles about this whole incident and the march and I get less sure. Because man is that comments section full of pure hatred, and yes, genocidal thoughts. People who think everyone in that neighborhood should be written off the first time they get arrested. One commenter: "Lovelle Mixon got exactly what he needed, he just didn't get it soon enough. Right after his first felony would have been better for all the rest of us."
Raised in a neighborhood where you know a large portion of the population doesn't view you as equal or even necessarily human (the comments section also contains many many references to "monsters" and "animals") and where "thug" is an actual career choice, maybe I would start to hate the police, and hate the world, and put no value on humanity, too. Maybe I would sympathize with this Lovelle Mixon more if my life were a whole lot different.
Also, in the Bay Area, this incident is being looked at with the Oscar Grant killing/murder fresh in everyone's mind. Intellectually, I can separate them. It's easier for me - I'm white and I don't live in fear of the police. But if I was "in it" would I be able to make this distinction so clearly? I'm not so sure.
So, I have an open mind about these marchers, the family, and also the many people who probably hold similar views, but would never march about it because they know how bad it would look and it also might make them a target of the police.
As TNC noted, this isn't just a Oakland issue..it's all over. Here's another example today:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/032609dnmetcopstop.3e9c080.html?nTar=OPUR
As a black resident of Oakland, my mind isn't open about these marchers. It's tact and tasteless to do it, right now. I'm scared of cops- but my first instinct is not to come out shooting and for Uhuru to declare that acted honorably is just wrong.
Yet..I've never seen the inside of a jail cell, either. So you are right, circumstances dictate a lot.
To quote Sullivan, "My gob is smacked."
Some of my friends, growing up in the East Bay, had family that was involved with the Panthers. Almost all of them were living kind of trife, relative to the stated beliefs of the group.
As a kid who thought the Panthers were as cool and bad-ass as you could get, this was initially a point of disillusionment. But I think that any kind of strong dogma like theirs (or the NOI/NGE, for instance) leads to inevitable violations of it. We're all humans. I knew a 5%er back then who would sneak off to eat pork, or hit on white chicks. Prohibition makes the heart grow fonder.
Oakland's popping off right now, and there's a lot of frustration. But this is just disgraceful.
man, you have to at least get T.I.'s name right
When is the last time someone was shot by cops, that you saw the mom say bad things about her son? Whether he was guilty or innocent. As Springsteen said in Highway Patrolman:
My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call over the radio Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in '68, and me, I took this job
Yea we're laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine
Well the night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad bleedin' hard from his head there was a girl cryin' at a table and it was Frank, they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I must of done one hundred and ten through Michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good
Ta-Nehisi,
OT, but are you planning a post on the current situation in Oakland? I ask because I remember you posting about that BART shooting by the cop.
There are idiots in any community. Those celebrating the murder of these cops qualify as idiots. In fairness I saw something the other day where people, largely black, were visiting a memorial for the slain cops and offering their condolences. I suspect there are many more of the latter than the former.
Those who defend cops no matter what they do are idiots.
Those black folks who defend any black man, and it is still largely men, arrested by the police no matter the crime are as stupid as the cops who look the other way at brutality and corruption.
If we had a sane criminal justice policy in this country these types of incidents would be fewer, but they would still occur. Lovelle Mixon clearly was someone who should have been locked away for life. One problem is since we have such a ridiculous percentage of our population in prison we can't correctly prioritize who needs to be locked away and who should be free. It would be nice to have total knowledge of someones criminal future.
Like Andrew Sullivan today I was disappointed with President Obama's answer regarding marijuana legalization. I can understand his reluctance to tackle that issue at the moment given the economy, but laughing was uncalled for.
Senator James Webb is moving forward with "prison reform" and I hope we have some broader "criminal justice" reform to go along with it.
I live in West Oakland. A few weeks ago, my dog and I had to fight off a pack of dogs coming out of a yard. It was 2 days until someone from the city came to take a report, and by then the dogs and the kids who breed these dogs were long gone. This city's government is totally broken, and my problems pale in comparison to the people who live in fear of being robbed, raped, and killed in Oakland. Most of us have known for some time that we are fending for ourselves. Cops are overwhelmed, residents are fed up, and I don't know any good solutions. Is there anyone out there who wants to fucking RUN this city?
As for those fools parading around defending psychopaths, they're just trying to get a rise out of pissed off cops. If you live in the Bay Area long enough, you learn to ignore what you can't change.
I live in West Oakland. A few weeks ago, my dog and I had to fight off a pack of dogs coming out of a yard.
Ah, Dogtown lives up to its name!
"repeated on the black left (and likely on the radical right, too)"
I'm damned proud you slipped that balance in.
"In recent weeks, Mr. Mixon had started to carry himself with an unexpected swagger, something his cousin said he might have owed to a new profession: pimping, an occupation that paid for the 1995 Buick Park Avenue he was driving when the police pulled him over."
Mr.Mixon and his uncle merited a photo & coverage in the International Herald Tribune, it attempted, unsuccessfully to frame his death (& murder of the cops)as a failure of the parole system.link to IHT
It's unfortunate with so many systems failures, such a compromised poster child was selected to show outrage by the Oakland residents, as well as the N.Y Times (publisher of the IHT)
That article appeared in the Times and is actually some very good reporting. Reporting isn't the same as expressing outrage - which is what blog comments like yours are for, legitimately - but to offer context. The Times reporters did that, uhm, successfully. You are engaged in opinionmongering, but they are journalists doing a very good job. It's not easy to disengage from gut outrage and look at a bigger picture in these moments. The bigger picture includes daily failures of the parole system. Are you seriously arguing that with better oversight guys like this couldn't be either kept off the streets if they're continuiing as bad actors or, perhaps in a few cases, directed to resources that make them less likely to return to criminal behavior when they percieve other doors as closing. This isn't sappy liberalism, it's common sense. Give it a thought before you take cheap shots or dismiss quite rigorious and thorough reporting - the best I've seen, frankly, on who this creep actually was without painting a phony picture or simply reducing him to feel-good "monster" status so we can just close the book on a guy who caused so much almost incomprehensible pain and destruction to others and go on to the next headliine. Your comparison of this Times story to the small band of idiots involved in Uhuru demos is bizarre. "(W)ith so many systems failures" this is as good a story as we'll find to examine some of them. People are paying attention. Your comment implies that nothing can be learned from such an utter failure to protect citizens and public servants from rogue parolees descending into the worst sorts of criminality. The guy was no "poster child" but the subject of a story that had substantive information about the path this guy took and the inability of the system to monitor him effectively and catch up with him before he ran totally amok. This is stuff I, for one, want to know.
from the IHT/NYTimes article:
"The police and witnesses have painted a savage picture of Mr. Mixon as a man who stood over his victims, fatally...Mr. Mixon had also shown disdain for authority before his death, going to Modesto, California, without informing his parole officer, in violation of his parole. "He told me that he was ready to go back to jail just so he could change his parole officer," his father said."
His pimp stroll was highlighted earlier. You wrote :"Reporting isn't the same as expressing outrage...the best I've seen, frankly, on who this creep actually was"
On the whole- Mr. Mixon was a pretty outrageous character. That's what I got from "news" article. According to MS Word count the article was 8051 words long. **If** you include the 50 word sentence attributed to Mr. Mixon's grandma, describing how his parole officer belittled him the total word count devoted to the parole officers. e.g. "the system" was 157... that is less than 2% of the article.
You wrote; "Are you seriously arguing that with better oversight guys like this couldn't be either kept off the streets ... This isn't sappy liberalism,"
This article was exclusively about a criminal,NOT the justice/parole system. Full stop. No substantive argument was presented by the NY Times, nor Uhuru for that matter. Don't let your own biases color your reading of my comment.
I don't hold the reporters responsible for a dumb headline in a European addition. The Times story headline was "A Familiar Path in Months Before Shooting", which is a pretty straightforward intro to the story.
You seem to have missed this:
"But whatever illegal activities Mr. Mixon was engaged in were easy to hide. Mr. Mixon was supervised by an agent from one of Oakland’s three parole units, which have three dozen officers and nearly 2,000 parolees. His agent, who has not been identified, handled 70 parolees.
"It is a ratio that even corrections officials lament.
"If there’s any one thing I could change with a magic wand, it would be to reduce that caseload,” said Gordon Hinkle, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
"His agency has 124,000 parolees, according to the latest data, but the whereabouts of 13.5 percent of them are unknown."
That's not a "sappy liberal" rationale for the perp's actions, but an objective account of the public not being well-served by an over-stressed parole system that loses track of violators. Presumably, the social services available to help parolees steer the right course are also stressed, which again is first and foremost a pragmatic matter of public safety and only secondly some "social justice" issue. And, again, I don't understand your once more putting the NYT and Uhuru in the same sentence. There's zero correlation. Seems like "not even wrong" territory to me.
I read a hard copy of the IHT. Just went back to my Thursday edition,(weirdly the headline is different on line). The the copy I bought here in London reads: "Murderer, or victim of failed system"? High Beam Research, (not the web version of IHT )- has the original headline. That indeed framed, how I read the article. So yeah, it kinda was *SAPPY* Liberalism.
"I don't hold the reporters responsible for a dumb headline in a European addition."
You'll note my criticism was directed at the publisher: the NY Times
"But whatever ...13.5 percent of them are unknown."
Minuscule as it was,I didn't miss it,that statement sans grandma's 50 word quote, is 107 words, out of 8051, for a grand total of 1.3% of the article. I give it a fail.
"I don't understand your once more putting the NYT and Uhuru in the same sentence."
Correlation: the IHT headline "Murderer,or Victim ?", as if they didn't want to make that tough call. The equivalency with the Uhuru protest: Mixon= Victim. That's the common, or correlated event, you get it? The IHT headline "legitimized" that victim POV. I don't understand why the International headline was different, or most importantly why it was so off base from what I would imagine the vast majority of the local Oakland population (of all races) would feel about this particular individual. Mr. Mixon and his uncle were pictured in the IHT hardcopy.
The system failed. A congentital criminal, committed horrendous crimes, not really news in my book. To repeat "It's unfortunate with so many systems failures, such a compromised poster child was selected to show outrage by the Oakland residents, as well as the N.Y Times (publisher of the IHT)". And on further reflection, to perpetuate the idea that some people [black Americans?] would see Mr. Mixon as a victim of 'the man'.
Good day to you Sir.