Verdict

Today was interesting. Back on New Years Day 2009 in Oakland, there was an incident involving a Black man named Oscar Grant and a cop(J. Mehserle) for our train system, BART. So there was an argument or scuffle with the group of Black guys and the cops put him on the ground. Then, Mehserle shot him in the back. Mehserle gets accused with the murder but he pleads not guilty and says that he pulled his gun out by mistake. What he really wanted to do was pull out his taser.

So, as you can imagine - people are upset that a 22 year old guy was shot & killed by a cop who tries to say it was all a mistake. Originally, the trial was going to be set in Oakland but riots broke out. So, they moved the case to LA. Well, today was the verdict of the trial. It was announced around 2 that the verdict would be read today. I was over at the client in Oakland. We were in a meeting around 3 and someone came in to say the building was closing at 330. We had to stop the meeting and basically, get out of the office. When the office closes, they wait for no one. We rushed out. Other offices were clearing out too, for fear of riots. People were running to BART. Shoving into trains. Luckily, I walked onto the train like normal and even sat down. But, people were squishing. The verdict was that the cop was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

I went home after I got back to the office just to avoid any craziness in the city. However, SF and Oakland are like two separate universes. It was all over the news & the mayor gave a speech with the police. I was just reading on twitter that things are getting ugly in Oakland. Windows of a bank were broken & a store was broken into. So crazy!! The clients will probably work from home tomorrow. Hopefully, this calms down. Even the family of the Oscar Grant asked for peace & for no riots.