Oaklanders Respond to Guilty Verdict in Oscar Grant Murder Trial

Oaklanders gathered downtown following the conviction of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer accused of shooting and killing Oscar Grant while on duty in the early hours of New Year's Day, 2009. Cell phone videos of the shooting shared on YouTube by witnesses gave rise to a movement surrounding the incident and a protest that became violent in the weeks following Grant's death.

This afternoon, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter. One video captured a few people's initial reaction, which was to leave the city:



User name: youthradio
Location: Oakland, Calif.
Date uploaded: July 8
Views: 5
Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

Oakland businesses boarded up their shop windows in anticipation of possible riots following the verdict. On the boarded up windows of one building, artists painted a mural of Grant.



User name: MrWalkwithme
Location: Oakland, Calif.
Date uploaded: July 8
Views: 4
User notes: Oscar Grant mural at Youth Radio - Oakland, CA - July 7th two thousand ten.
Click here to watch this video on YouTube.