Protests that started out peacefully turned violent in Oakland and honestly...I can't believe this is happening again. Check out some excerpts from an Article which was published by SF Gate as of 21:13 Pacific Time January 7,2009.
Protesters smashed the storefronts of McDonald's as well as stores called Creative African Braids and Oakland Yoon's Pharmacy. Cars along 14th Street were smashed, and some were set ablaze.
A woman walked out of Creative African Braids holding a baby in her arms.
"This is our business," she shouted. "This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?"
Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, a protester who was with the group, said, "I feel like the night is going great. I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back.
"It's for the murder of a black male," said Sykes, who is black. The demonstration "is totally appropriate."
Sykes had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.
Unbeliavable...seriously..."totally appropriate"??? I agree that what happened was horrible and as a Mexican american citizen I KNOW what this prejudice is all about but if breaking into someone's business and endagering the life of children is "totally appropriate" there's something very horrible with the morals of that woman. But it goes on...
"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life," Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: "I just hope nobody gets shot or killed."
WHAT?! First she goes on to say that she should consider herself lucky not to have died then goes on to hypocritically say that she hopes nobody gets shot...right after she just said that death should be expected by anyone which happens to have the misfortune of crossing this "protest"'s path.
Nearby, Godhuli Bose stood near her smashed Toyota Corolla, and a protester walked by, repeatedly calling her a misogynist epithet.
"F- your car. F- your car," he said to Bose. Bose, a high school teacher: "I can't afford this."
This is hurtful to the cause..this is not good for anyone. This is just rage. This is anger...I'm not saying that there should be no anger, however manifestations of it like this are completely asinine and ridiculous. You don't end violence with more violence. Ridiculous.
The assassination of Oscar Grant was horrible and it shows that America still has some racism issues, however to use this as an excuse for a couple of misderected and dysfunctional people to go out to the streets and endager people's lives is almost as bad if not AS bad as what happened to Oscar Grant.
I hope this doesn't escalate...
...and I hope I don't have to post stuff of this nature often.
Source: SFGate
