""Whenever there is a change of venue, it doesn't bode well for justice in our community, and it tends to send two messages: that somebody wants to move the trial so they can get the verdict that they want, and not neccessarily the verdict that is deserved," was the statement to bystanders and media at a recent protest at Davidson Courthouse in Oakland to show support for keeping  Johannes Mehserle's trial in the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland. According to Oakland North coverage, family and friends met at the Rock Sissors Paper Collective to remember Grant right after the ruling was issued; there's a video statement from Cephus Johnson, one of the relatives.

(As you probably know, this past Friday Alameda County Superior Court judge Morris Jacobson ruled that the case against Johannnes Mehserle should occur in another county because he will not be able to receive a fair trial in Oakland.)

In related news, The SF Appeal reports that four of the friends who were with Oscar Grant the night he was killed have filed a lawsuit  The  lawsuit was filed by Oakland attorney John Burris, who previously filed a $50 million suit on behalf of Grant's mother and his girlfriend, with whom he had a child.

Mercury News columnist Tammerlin Drummond, who last week wrote about Oakland Local and other new-fangled news sites, this week says the friends of Oscar Grant lawsuit is "nothing but a money grab." Rather than ask for money, she writes, his friends should ask what they could have done to prevent it. "What if homever in Grant's group shouted the nasty name at the other passenger's son had kept his mouth shut?" she says " Is he one of the one's now suing?"

In the blogosphere, Jaded Hippy, a young student, writes: "Anyone who knows the history of this sort of thing knows what the defense team is now going to try and do is find a city more likely to view Oscar Grant as a criminal and more likely to believe Mehserle's testimony (to be blunt; a way more racist city than Oakland). "Racial tensions" as Medserle's attorney calls them basically means "holy fuck they think he's guilty here!""

Mike Keely, at Chicago-based Kasama, says  ("His friend) Jose urged posting this piece and said: “Simi Valley justice all over again.” (A reference to the way the police trial in the Rodney King case was moved from LA to the police suburb of Simi Valley to guarantee an acquittal, and then the 1992 LA Rebellion in fury over that acquittal.)"

There's another video, and a piece about Grant's shooting, that focues on Minister of Information JR Varley, a Bayview reporter who was arrested by he police for arson while he was covering the Grant case. The brief video that 393 Films, in partnership with Black Report Radio has produced is powerful.