Like waiting for a hurricane...

[jaybee65]

I'm soooo behind on replying to comments (and reading my friendslist - I will catch up soon, I promise!), but I'm emerging for a quick update. (The virus infection: cured! After 2 days of running different scans and fixes. The knockout combo seems to have been malwarebytes plus tdsskiller. We will be keeping a wary eye on that computer for a

Comments

[madamedarque]

"they'll get hung, and we'll have to go through all this again."

Sadly, this is my feeling too. What a mess. I hope the guy gets punished for what he did, intentionally or otherwise, but this is ridiculous--it's like a circus. No offense, but I wouldn't want to be in Oakland right now.

[jaybee65]

The OPD did a poor job handling the protests last time (I watched from a few floors up - the marchers were headed toward City Hall Plaza where they wouldn't have done any harm and where they could be pretty easily contained, but instead the police deliberately drove them away from there and into the side streets - where all the vandalism to small businesses who had nothing to do with anything took place), so I'm not expecting it to go well this time, either.

I hope it's over with soon, though - everyone is just hanging right now!

[madamedarque]

Dear God. I didn't realize that there was such mismanagement on the part of the police. This whole thing is so awful for everyone; I'm inclined to believe the guy when he said he was actually reaching for his taser, although I thought the tears were somewhat insulting to the victim and his family (what were they supposed to? Give him a hug?). In any case, I hope the verdict is fair and nobody gets hurt.

[nell65]

I'm so blissfully out of it (though we did have burning tires here yesterday, for a cause no one could determine, mostly I suspect because we'd almost gone an entire semester without loosing a single minute to demonstrations and someone felt they had to do their bit to make up for the lack) that I have no idea what's going on in Oakland right now!

But - I hope you will come out of it unscathed, and that goes for Oakland and it's residents too.

[jaybee65]

On New Year's Eve 2008, a group of young men riding home were pulled off the train by the transit police after reports of a fight on board. In full view of a trainload of passengers, one of the police shot and killed one of the young men (unarmed, lying on his stomach on the floor with his hands behind his back) at point blank range and killed him

[clueless_02]

I saw your post earlier and checked out Wikipedia to get more information, and I can definitely see why there is going to be issues.

Is there any indication that the jury will lean towards not guilty?

In any case, I hope that everything turns all right for you.

[jaybee65]

People who have been reporting from the trial have said they really have no idea which way the jury will lean. But it's rare for police to be convicted, so an acquittal is certainly possible.

Fingers crossed for a peaceful and just outcome for everyone!

[sk56]

We're having an incredibly varied life with the cops right now -- a pair of high=profile cop killings in the last few months, and then recently a couple of situations where the police exhibited a total lack of brains in their response to stupid citizen activity (including one time when an officer hauled off and punched a young woman in the face because she and her friend were trying to avoid being arrested for jaywalking) These are all on video, thanks to the prevalence of cell phone cameras, and so have been on heavy rotation in the media. As a result, you don't know whether to hug an officer, or tell them to act like an adult.

My fingers are crossed for you right now, though. What a wet mess.

[jaybee65]

I saw at least one of those videos! These days, everything gets recorded for the whole world.

[belantana]

Heard this on the news and thought of you. I hope you are staying safe.

[jaybee65]

It's amazing to think this news gets reported on across the Pacific, but it's a small world now, isn't it?