4 cops in Oakland killed

Lovelle Mixon, below, pictured with his uncle.

Living in East Oakland for most of my life, I have developed a justified sense of hostility towards the police. Living in Los Angeles in the late 90's didn't help. I shout "F.T.P" (X Clan reference) even though I have a cousin who has been an officer for Oakland's own police department.

Mind you, I have never been a pants-sagging, white t-shirt/skirt wearing kinda guy. So I am sure that there are many many others who have had far worse run-ins with Johnny Law than I have.

Oscar Grant comes to mind.

With that being said, I don't know if there are too many right-minded people out there who can justify what the now deceased Lovelle Mixon is accused of. It's murder when they kill us. It's murder when we kill them. And if you only believe 0.01% of what the news is telling us, Lovelle Mixon was the kind of dude who would kill us or them. The world may possibly be a better place without him.

Tonight (Weds) in Oakland, a vigil and rally was held for Lovelle Mixon and his family @ Uhuru House in East Oakland, just blocks from where everything "went down" on Saturday. Every news report I could find, every comment saw this as a completely shameful thing. How can you support his family? How could you honor his life or (God Forbid) mourn his death? How dare you act like this dude was a human being with a mother and a father and siblings and emotions and hopes and fears and pain and... LOVE? I'm sure somewhere there are baby pictures of him. He deserved better than the life he lived.

Let me repeat. I'm not okay with anybody killing anybody. When I see shady stuff going on, I'll call 911 in a second, and I will stand in the middle of the street and tell every uniformed and undercover cop every single thing I saw.

What went down on Saturday? None of us knows anything as a fact yet. The newsmedia changes the story every two hours. There will be no day in court.

The life his Creator breathed into him is gone. Your life is better when you attempt to see everyone around you as a human being. Our lives will be collectively improved once we say that we will NEVER let another young man walk the life path that this cat did. You will be safer. You will be less likely to be robbed, kidnapped, shot, stabbed, raped, carjacked, etc. if we all would work to find some way to prevent somebody else's baby boy from living and ending his life in this way.

American's have agreed to stupider things in the name of safety. (Okay, you need to put GPS in everything and wiretap my phone without having a valid reason? Yes you can.)

That's all I have to say.

I was inspired to write this by a comment I read on a blog site. Among a hundred comments calling every citizen of Oakland every name in the book, this really stood out to me.

"My heart goes out to Lovelle Mixon and his family. We will probably never know what really happened when Lovelle Mixon was stopped by the two motorcycle riding members of the Oakland Police Department. The evidence was quickly concealed and swept away by the police. Interpretation of the "facts" may depend on which side you choose to stand on in understanding the ongoing tensions between the police and the black community.

Kamika Dunlap, staff writer for the Oakland Tribune, reported that Lovelle was on the cell phone with his uncle when he was pulled over by police. He was parking his car and told his uncle that he would have to call him back. He never got the chance. How did he come to the point of shooting the two policemen who pulled him over?

The mainstream media are answering that question in the predictable manner -- by smearing his name. The death of yet another African man at the hands of the police is justified by a recital of his prison record and a warrant for parole violation. Now the media is convicting him for crimes he was never even charged with.

Not everybody is buying into this perspective. Some have a different perspective because they live in a very different reality. This is the half that believed that O.J. didn't do it(!). This half doesn't get a voice in mainstream media. Many of these people fear the police. Their encounters with the police and the state hold great potential for loss of resources, bodily harm, prison and death.

I use the word "their" because I am not of them. I am white and I will never know this fear. My relationship with the state is one of privilege, protection, assumed innocence.

I'm not some guilty liberal. I don't believe in self-flagellation. I do believe in responsibility -- to my neighbors, my community, my world. How can we pretend that we don't see or don't understand?

Human beings originated in Africa! African civilization was advanced and humane and complex. The Europeans brought slavery, genocide and devastation of African society. We break their wings and blame them for not being able to fly. We break their legs and punish them for being crippled.

That's old Malcolm X talk but has anything changed? We've got Oprah and Obama now but East Oakland, Southside of Chicago, Brooklyn and West Philly never seem to change no matter what the color of mayor, governor or president.

So, where does that leave us? Lovelle Mixon is dead but he took four police with him. His death was NOT caught on video so the media reads us his rap sheet to prove he was bad. Oscar Grant is dead and he was unarmed, laying on his stomach on the BART station platform pleading with his friends to cooperate with the police. His murder at the hands of the "peace officers" WAS caught on video. But he's still dead. Sean Bell is dead -- unarmed and shot fifty times by NYPD on his wedding day. Adolph Grimes III is dead -- unarmed and shot nine times in the back by New Orleans police in front of his grandma's house on New Year's Day. Javon Dawson -- shot twice in the back at his graduation party, while his hands were raised, by a St. Petersburg, Florida cop who just returned from combat in Iraq. And on. And on. Everywhere. Every day.

I'm just saying. This ain't no ordinary war.


There was a young lady at the laundromat this evening declaring loudly to her boyfriend that the "black guy" who killed the policemen was definitely evil. She literally had no other analysis than that. Sadly, that level of discourse is too common.

I believe we can do better. We can open our eyes to the reality that's in front of us. We can start with education. Ask questions. Do research.

The internet is a terrible thing to waste."