Oakland protest organizer watched in horror

The man who organized Wednesday's BART police protest said he broke down in tears when he saw his peaceful march turn violent as some participants began throwing bottles, spitting on police cars and setting small fires.

Evan Shamar said he left the demonstration and watched on television as the situation got worse.

"I was devastated by it," said Shamar, 24, a photographer who lives in Oakland. "I worked diligently for the past 72 hours, and for it to be destroyed by a group of anarchists was extremely upsetting. I felt like my integrity had been compromised."

Shamar and others organized their rally to pressure authorities to more rigorously investigate the fatal shooting by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle of Oscar Grant, who was unarmed and lying facedown on the Fruitvale Station platform on New Year's Day.

To organize the rally, Shamar said he and others drove from Dublin to Vallejo to San Francisco, handing out thousands of flyers. He posted notices online on a slew of sites, including Facebook groups, Indybay.org and MySpace.

The event began at 3 p.m. as a peaceful forum at the Fruitvale Station, where hundreds of participants waved signs and listened to speakers take turns at a microphone to voice their anger over the shooting and alleged police abuses. They sang civil rights songs. They said prayers.

Dereca Blackmon, 38, another of the organizers, said the rally was intended to provide a "safe and proactive venue where citizens would be able to express the pain and the outrage that they felt at the execution of Oscar Grant III."

The event, Blackmon said, was meant as an alternative to violence.

"It's what the city should have done. It's what BART should have done, so people wouldn't feel that the only way to be seen is to take to the streets.

"We are nonviolent, and we have a responsibility to spread nonviolence," Blackmon said. "We did what we came to do: We had an incredible, peaceful, positive forum where citizens of all ages expressed their pain and outrage."

But around 5 p.m., about 200 demonstrators left the Fruitvale Station and began marching toward downtown Oakland.

Not everyone agreed a march was the best thing to do.

Blackmon, who opposed the march, said she felt there needed to be a trained group of facilitators escorting marchers and working closely with police to maintain safety.

She said she was worried about some of the more uncontrollable elements at the Fruitvale rally.

"We did not feel that there had been proper preparation for it to be safe," said Blackmon, who said she's organized several demonstrations before.

Shamar disagreed.

"I did not want to stay confined in one area where we would not be seen," he said. "I wanted to let everyone know what was going on. I wanted to make it clear the city was outraged."

When the marchers reached the Lake Merritt BART Station around 6:15 p.m., Shamar saw things start to go bad. Marchers began kicking newspaper stands and using papers to start fires. As he saw them throwing bottles and spitting on police cars, Shamar said he wept and returned to the Fruitvale Station.

For the next four to five hours, marchers smashed and burned cars, shattered storefronts and clashed with police. Eventually, police arrested 105 protesters.

Shamar and other organizers said their cause was exploited by those who simply wanted to wreak havoc.

Organizers say Wednesday night's chaos revealed some of the limitations of community organizing, as opportunists can quickly co-opt a loosely organized group. But they added that it also shows promise. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums made a personal attempt to quell the crowds, empathizing with the people's anger but urging calm.

"The mayor was forced to come out and acknowledge that the citizens of Oakland are angry and that we want Justice," Shamar said. "I'm not condoning violence, but sometimes to get justice, you can't just sit around holding hands singing 'Kumbaya.' "

On Thursday, dozens of shopkeepers and car owners swept up the shards, dealt with contractors and talked to their insurance companies. Several kept their storefronts boarded up, fearing vandals would return quickly and smash the glass windows again.

Shamar and Blackmon empathized with the vandals' anger, but deplored their tactics. But others weren't so critical.

"I uphold the whole protest from start to finish," said Reiko Redmond, one of several people from Revolution Books in Berkeley who were in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night. She called the events a "righteous rebellion" that stemmed from a long history of oppression and police brutality.

Redmond wouldn't say whether she knew anyone involved in the vandalism.

"That's somewhat an inappropriate question," she said.

Others described the violence in other ways. The victims of vandals had little to do with Grant's killing, acknowledged Hillary Lehr, a 24-year-old from Berkeley who is starting a nonprofit aimed at democratizing the UC Regents and who was also present Wednesday night.

"But if your systems of government to make change are unavailable, if your justice system isn't just, if your police department is attacking and murdering citizens, people are going to show that anger and frustration in people's immediate surroundings," she said.

Blackmon, the Fruitvale rally co-organizer, said the disproportionate amount of attention given to violent protesters encouraged their behavior.

"If people committing violence are doing it to get attention," Blackmon said, "they certainly get more attention than people doing things peaceful and positive."