A vigil for Oscar Grant was held on New Year’s Day at Fruitvale BART, two years after he was shot and killed by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

Oscar, Oaklanders fight for justice in your name.

Last night we got an email in our inbox with photocopies of a set of "OG Dollars"--bill imprinted with the message "Remember Oscar Grant" across the front side.  The accompanying note said :"The line between security & tyranny is a fine one, and justice requires close & continuous attention to it.

Former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle shot an unarmed Oscar Grant III on New Year’s Day 2009 on an Oakland subway platform.  Grant died hours later at a local hospital.  Amid extensive pre-trial publicity and accusations that African-Americans were prejudiced, the trial was moved to Los Angeles last fall.  The jury in the Los Angeles is made

Back in 2000, the campaign against California's Proposition 21(the "Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Initiative") was historically significant because it combined political activism and community advocacy from a youth-centric point of view. Much of that activism happened right here in Oakland.

by Lance Williams

 Johannes Mehserle, the former transit police officer who shot an unarmed* man on an Oakland BART platform, wants the judge to set him free pending appeal.

Johannes Mehserle, the former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer convicted of killing unarmed Oscar Grant in July of this year, was denied bail yesterday [Dec. 3],  by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry.

Michael Rains, attorney for Mehserle, had asked the court allow his client to go free pending an appeal of the involuntary manslaughter conviction handed down by a Los Angeles jury on July 8.

The shooting of Oscar Grant by former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle Jan. 1, 2009, was captured on video and shown widely throughout the United States and abroad. Tensions surrounding the case have not abated to this today; indeed, they may have been worsened by the subsequent trial, verdict and sentencing.

Headquartered in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, the movement for justice for Oscar Grant has spread virally and through good old-fashioned community organizing. In Los Angeles, however, where the trial was moved due to pre-trial publicity, many of the activists involved in the justice for Oscar Grant movement feel that a “media whiteout” severely hampered their efforts to generate the same amount of knowledge and concern about the case as the Bay Area had.

Back in July, the OPD shot Fred Collins, an unarmed man, on E 12th Street, after he came toward them acting erratically. Collins was shot by at least 5 cops--and was reported to be saying "shoot me"--but there were real questions about the barrage of bullets--and the mass reaction.

As Oakland citizens wrap their heads around the role of police in the community, one local organization is working to improve citizen-police relations through research.

What do Oakland high students think about our local police?  In the spring of this year, PUEBLO - People United for a Better Life in Oakland - distributed more than 800 surveys to local high school students. The surveys were based on an adult questionnaire that was originally given by PUEBLO in 2005. They include questions on the public's experiences with the police like "Would you describe your most recent contact with Oakland police as positive or negative?" Several questions also asked about the public's perceptions of the police. For example, "When you see the police in your neighborhood, what is your first reaction?"

Youth Speaks is working in partnership with other Bay Area youth organizations to host a Youth Town Hall in the wake of the November 5th sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police Officer convicted of killing Oscar Grant.