If she actually assaulted a police officer, then she absolutely deserves to goto jail. It would be nice if this article actually went into a bit more detail about what she's accused of doing, rather than pulling the obscufant "this needs to be looked at in the context of the larger struggle against police violence".

The violence that the protesters did during the Oscar Grant protests was not 'so-called' violence. It was violence. It needs to be labled as such.

The cars that were smashed and vandalized @ 14th and Broadway were the cars of my fellow students at a school that I was going to right at that building there. My school had to shut down a couple times for those protests.

The OPD didn't vandalize anybody's car, or anybody's business during those protests. Nor were they guitly of assualt with a deadly weapon. The OPD were pretty well behaved during those protests. They should be commended. The protesters acted like total jack-asses. I know, becaue I tried to join them. I opted out once the 19 year old kid with a bullhorn started going off about about 'Palestine' and about how we could have 'infitada' right here in Oakland. I knew then that the protesters weren't there for Oscar Grant at all, they weren't even from Oakland a lot of them. It was just the various 'radical' bay area factions trying to 'fuck shit up' for their infantile visions of revolution that nobody wants and is never coming. It was opportunists who were/are trying to take advantage of the tragedy of Oscar Grant. It was weak.

I think in the trial we'll learn exactly what the "deadly weapon" was. The officer was not hurt and 6 years is completely excessive. Also, this incident does need to be looked at in the scope of the larger struggle against police violence because Mehserle has yet to be tried, yet convicted. OPD may not have vandalized anybody's car or business but a police officer did kill an innocent kid while he was laying on his back. 

Furthermore, it is obvious that you don't know about resistance, and fully do not understand that the struggle against oppression is an interrelated one that has multiple strands, thus, when something like this happens, it brings up the various forms of struggle that people are fighting for. Most of these are against a system that has practiced oppressive tactics for hundreds years. Some of these are against the lack of accountability that anyone involved in the government has to take when innocent civilians are killed or unjustly incarcerated. The totality of governmental corruption comes into scope when an incident like this appears and if Mehserle is actually found not guilty you find that these voices come out in even louder forms of protest - and it would be justified. 

This idea that police officers are innocent when they cover up the actions of their comrades is nonsense. It's like a gang that hates its own members for "snitching". They cover up for each other regularly and suffer no measures of accountability. They kill one kid and go back to business as usual. The people are pissed off and they should be. 

You don't need to pull rank on me. I was part of an Anarchist collective many years back. I know plenty about these theories of 'resistance'. It's all a crock of shit to me these days. Y'know what, I AM 'the people'. I am pissed off about what Meshserle did. I'm also pissed off at the opportunists that came out en' masse to create the spectacle and violence they did using Oscar Grant as a cover for their bad behavior. I think those people have not been held accountable enough. Don't come to my neighborhood from Berkeley, or wherever the fuck, and trash it for 'infatada in Oakland' solidarity in Palestine or whatever trendy little cause you deem sexy and makes you a 'true radical' in the eyes of yr peers.

When the cops do something right, they need to be commended. So, I commend the cops for their pretty much perfect handling of the Oscar Grant protests. If you want to make it a cops vs. 'the people' that's some childish fictional drama that you need to get over. It simply isn't true. Of course there's a real history of bad cop behavior. I'll never deny that. The cops are accountable for their bad behavior as well, but it is a trusim that it takes good policing to keep communities free of violence and criminality.

While I stand with the protesters regarding the Oscar Grant murder, I must side with Wagnerian in this exchange. Call violence what it is. It is not 'so called' violence when the personal property of innocent citizens is destroyed for no reason other than being in the way of immature, out of control, and in some cases criminal marchers. It's biased and dishonest to downplay the vandalism of the protestors. Not one broken window is justified. 

I hope officer Mehserle is brought to justice. His act of violence is certainly not 'so called'. Violence in protest of violence is never acceptable. Two wrongs don't make it right. Grow up. Learn to control your emotions. Trying to justify protest vandalism and violence with the phony intellectual argument of 'oppression' is laughable. Pathetic. 

The case against Holly Noll is shaky. If she 'assualted' a police officer with a 'dangerous weapon' at a level worthy of arrest and prosecution, I would expect at least a weapon as evidence and injury to the alleged victim. Without this evidence I believe the prosecution will fold. Noll's case will be dismissed as others have. 

I also hope Oakland is spared the violence of outraged fools willing to riot over any injustice, real or imagined.

My personal view is that the case against Holly Noll appears shaky to me, as Don Poir says, I wonder if there is sufficient evidence against Knoll, or whether the charges would be more fairly dismissed, as they were against JR Varley, another person arrested.

Just a few quick things -

Charging protesters with assault w/ a deadly weapon is a common tactic which almost never goes anywhere in court.  Officers make these charges, often in the heat of arrest, and DA's are obligated to pursue them because, theoretically, they're all on the same side.  The fact that the DA has refused to publicize what the supposed "deadly weapon" was indicates that there wasn't one to begin with.

As for the assault charge, again, it is common during mass-arrests to charge protesters with assault or resisting.  This tactic is done en masse so that the DA can pursue charges at will, in order to hinder or deter future mass actions or demonstrations.  During mass-arrests, police are not required to follow normal protocol, which means that they often leave out or fail to collect critical information about the arrestees until after the arraignment.  An assault or resisting charge allows them to look at arrests again and see (or make up) what they missed.

Holly Noll continues to proclaim her innocence, and we continue to support her.

Wagnerian, I would like to add that it seems strange to me that one "19 year old with a bullhorn" would be enough to turn a person with such strong convictions as yours away from a march, rally or demonstration.  It's interesting, given your extensive history as a collective member, that you wouldn't take the opportunity to model a demonstration that you deemed to be fit for the cause.

I also find it interesting that you think jail is a suitable place for a person with this vague and general charge.  You seem to be a one size fits all kind of person.  It makes sense that you do not adhere to any sort of anarchist principles.

Lastly, for my purposes only, I contend that violence is an act of physical and/or phsycological coercion enacted upon other human beings.  To this I believe that one can not act violently toward a building or a window.  I suppose that is neither here nor there at this point.

Also I'd just like to point out what has been pointed out time and again; the majority of protesters during last year's rebellions were in fact youth from Oakland.  And even if they'd all been from Ohio, anyone should protest as loudly as possible the murder of a person at the hands of the police.

Those of you who think that the idea of demonstratng against oppression is laughable...well...Let's just say I'm glad you're not on my side.

Every once in a while I stumble onto these obscure, self effacing blog sites and end up wondering what planet the commenters are from.

I would bet that everyone, I mean EVERYONE that commented about Mehserle's guilt of "murder" spent not one day in court or has read the transcripts of the lead up to the event and  this trial.

Oscar Grant folks FYI... STARTED the fight on the train ...no fight no cops. Oscar avoided the cops by moving from car to car and had to be called out .... parolee two striker at the tender age of 22 heading for his destiny .... Last time he went to prison was for a concealed weapon violation(yep) and the guy he was fighting with was in prison with him .... Imagine that!

Were all of you out terrorizing John Q public with his kids coming home from the fireworks in SF on the transit system that nite?

The widely shown picture of Grant holding the baby with the white cap was clipped to get his hand gang signs out of the shot..... in Short he was a thug. If you want a true martyr ....go to Jesus.

Even Grants friends who were handcuffed and two to ten feet away said Mehserle was not made, no racial shit AND said he was going to Taze Oscar Grant. Its on VIDEO depositions everyone.

Now, shoe on the other foot.

Imagine you made such a terrible MISTAKE and the evidence showed it was such....you and all your cohorts, be they cops or citizens, would be yelling from the tree tops about the US Constitution, your rights and innocent until proven guilty. That is what Mehserle is doing, defending himself against political prosecution. Plain and simple.

Struggle for good neighborhoods free of drug dealers like Oscar instead of making the guy out to be someone he was not. Turn in drug dealers when you see them, pimps when they prostitute woman and girls, mothers when they beat their kids in the grocery store, and guys when they are beating and raping their partners.

Mehserle, if justice is what you'd want for yourself, should get off.  Grant put in motion something called cause and effect. Terrible mistake ..yes...Murder NO

Sorry to come late to this discussion. I think it's important that we have reasoned discussions on these issues. First of all, no one has to be elected a saint in order to be protected from being executed by a cop. Reaction to that horror was to be expected and prepared for, especially given the pathetic response by BART as an agency to Oscar Grant's murder and the frightening scene for everyone detained at that station .

Here's the But-

When a small business owner puts his or her (mostly her, in this case) public face on the street, it is a trust extended to the community that we are "in this together." The violence done to these small, minority&women-owned businesses (I'm talking about the 17th Strteet district) was destructive to us as a community. It doesn't equal, in any way, the murder of an individual lying prone on the cement.

But, it doesn't make that an acceptable alternative to police violence. Any serious organizer knows that is a very serious strategic mistake. Any moral person knows it was wrong and should have come out to help those businesses pull themsleves back together and be supported by our community.

It is true that police often charge someone with assaulting police or resisting arrest when the victim was arrested after being hurt by the police. We should have a discussion on what violence is; but then we have to talk to all of the victims if we want to bring the community together. First we have to decide if that, indeed, is the goal.

Pamela Drake say "response by BART as an agency to Oscar Grant's murder"

Statements like this are exactly the problem ..... there is a wide swath of reality between TRAGIC MISTAKE and MURDER.

Pamela, you certainly are entitled to your opinion, even as ignorant of the facts it is.

Like I said before, there is ample information out now to show the mistake it was. Though tragic ...Oscar was fighting on a train with a thousand people on it with 8-12 others ..... Face it.....no fight and Oscar would have lived to be gunned down in the streets...... and more importantly,

Mehserle, who is a stand up citizen by all accounts from those that know him as a person, would have gone on with his life without this distraction.

Get the plywood ready Oakland to board up your windows when he is found not guilty

if you want a more substantive he said/she said report, try http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/05/BAOD1CO4A2.DTL

An update-

The trial was postponed until May 10th because the officer who was allegedly assaulted did not show up.The Judge granted continuation and excused the absence as the officer was away at SWAT training.

Wagnerian, Don, and Pamela, and anyone with a similar sentiment around "violence"-

I will not deny that in situations involving domestic abuse or interpersonal confrontations, that destruction of property (ie breaking glass) is a violent display of power and should be referred to as violence.

However, what we witnessed (yes, I was there too) last January is a historical phenomenon in which one group (in this case young ppl from the community and sympathizers) feels targeted by the hostile actions of another group in society (in this case, BART police and police in general) and reacts in self-defense by wreaking havoc in the location they happen to be in when they come together.  On the night of the 7th, in the moment that it became clear to people in the streets that BART and City Officials had no planned measures of accountability for what happened to Oscar Grant, we felt threatened by these agencies and were forced into taking various actions.

As no persons were injured as a result, it is important to call it so-called violence when the media automatically labels as "violence." If it weren't for legitimate forms of self-defense that go beyond waiting for the state to intervene (especially if you're expecting them to intervene against themselves) which were much more prevalent 60+ years ago, we would still have a massive KKK in Oakland and no woman/minority business owners downtown to speak of. You may not agree with the tactics, but from what I saw there was not much planning that went into it.  And although you wouldn't have chosen random cars and small businesses as targets, it is clear that you chose not to do anything, which certainly didn't help the people to feel less threatened.  It is ok to be critical of tactics and learn from collective experience, but people are not stupid, and they got results. Everyone knows that it was these actions in the streets which lead to the subsequent arrest of Mehserle.  Which brings us to crashing into you.

Crashing into you and other bigots-

I'd like to use neutral language to address you, but there's just no way.

I find your logic offensive, ridiculous, racist, and above all, just as violent if not more than the smashing of a window, as it perpetuates the very real violence that we face here in the world outside anonymous internet trolling.

Those of us who didn't have time or resources to go to pre-trial hearings in Oakland and LA or read full court transcripts which take the word of cops and their friends aren't ignorant of what's going on.  We've wasted enough time hearing from trusted friends, family, and elders who have sought justice through the judiciary process. They have told us that time and time again, the young, the poor, and people of color lose their lives at the hands of police, and that excuses are always made, facts are obscured, and we must learn to live with it.  But in this case there is a video we have all seen. And it is not a video of Grant and his friends acting violently towards people on BART. Anything you read in a court transcript are words that have been coached by two opposing legal teams and one should seek information from other sources if they want to speak as authoritatively as you do.

I spoke with a Highland ER intake staff member who indicated that BART cops gave hospital staff no information on how Grant was shot when the ambulence brought him in, which may have aided them in the attempt to save his life, and immediately took the bullet after it was extracted for "evidence." Again, being informed is more than reading court transcripts.

This is not the "tragic mistake" that fits perfectly into your paradigm in which every young black man who gets rowdy on new years is a "drug dealer" who would have been killed in the streets anyway and every cop who has someone vouch for them is a stand-up citizen. It is a system wide epidemic with roots in a very ugly history of class and race relations. We don't expect it to be perfect, but the reoccurring deaths of innocents is cause for more than mere griping.

So to answer your question with a question, (and this is purely rhetorical) what planet are you from? Let it be known that I will not be responding to anything else you have to say on the matter, but am aware that you may come at me with digital fire here. If this happens, moderators please intervene, and common sense people, please speak up.

Well and powerfully said, Matty. (And Melissa.) 

Concise and thoughtful, your responses are notable as well as examples of civility and meaningful discourse, something that stilll eludes most on or offline.

and yeah... Amen ditto likewise to the points they made.

Impressed with the conversation here and all the views shared..thank you for articulating these issues.

I'm unimpressed that Oakland Local would publish this post when Matty G left out the details of the charges against Ms. Noll.  

According to OPD, she tried to stab Officer Christopher Cox with a screwdriver, and grazed him slightly.  

It would be one thing to mention this allegation and disagree with it; that I could accept as a responsible editorial.  Leaving it out of the article completely is incredibly bad form, bordering on propaganda.  

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I make no judgements on whether Ms. Noll did what she was accused of or not. I wasn't there. I can't know what happened.

However, Susan's assertion that the charges are "shaky" also seems skewed.  Whether or not Officer Cox is telling the truth, testimony from a sworn law enforcement officer saying he was assaulted is serious and might lead to a conviction all by itself.  

In this situation, minimizing the potential trouble that Ms. Noll faces is as unfair to her as it is to the reader.  Again, whether or not it's bullshit, it's still a cop saying you tried to stab him.  If I was in Ms. Noll's situation I'd be worried as hell.

This article could have been written responsibly and still maintained the point of view that Ms. Noll is innocent, and that OPD set her up.  Instead, Matty has weakened his own case by failing to present the opposing side, even if only to dispute it.  And Susan has utterly failed as an editor by allowing this to be posted without demanding Matty include critical details.

If you want to see what an objective article on this subject looks like, check out Demian Bulwa's article in the Chronicle.  He talks to both sides, doesn't hide facts, and leaves it to the readers to decide what to think:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-05/bay-area/20835495_1_shooting-of-oscar-grant-protests-detained

Max, Matty G's piece was written as a community voices essay, a report by someone who clearly has a point of view about the events and is open and direct in presenting it. However, I don't agree that the Chronicle piece is more "objective."  The article doesn't quote any eye-witnesses, it just presents what the police said happened and states that her attorney rebuts that.  Clearly, the point of the trial is going to be to try to determine who is telling the truth.

What I appreciate here is the dialogue between readers with different perspectives, including those who share how common they believe these police tactics are. Does this mean Knoll is going to have to go to trial to prove her innocence? How many others arrested that day will be tried?  These are hard questions, and none of us were there to know what happened but the sense many people have that Holly Knoll is being singled out for harsher treatment as one of many caught up in a protest is important to note, even as we hold each person on the scene accountable for his or her actions.

Clearly the article was written by a supporter of Holly Noll and is biased in her favor.  People are entitled to their opinions, but when they try to pass it off as "fact", we have a problem.  It is totally ludicrous to assert that police would be "embarrassed" if they had nobody to blame for the riot and therefore had no choice but to "setup" an innocent person.  Quite to the contrary, the police would prefer to report that an event took place "without incident" because it shows they were in control of the situation and it makes the public feel safer.   It's called common sense, and its application tends to give one's opinion more credibility.

While I support peaceful protest, most people who protested the shooting of Oscar Grant couldn't care less about the individual.  And why would they?  He was a thug, and society didn't exactly lose a contributing member.  Many people used this incident to promote their own agendas, like the Palestine protester mentioned in a previous comment.  In the 60s, protests were led by intelligent people who kept the crowds focused and were successful in bringing about important change.  Today's protests are a disgrace and accomplish little more than wasting precious taxpayer dollars. 

I don't doubt that Holly Noll tried to stab a cop with a screwdriver.  I have had the displeasure of meeting Holly, and she is an angry, unreasonable, and self-entitled child.  To say she has a chip on her shoulder would be a great understatement.  You don't show up to a protest with your face hidden behind a bandana and screwdriver in tow if you don't plan to cause trouble.  Your boyfriend (who is also hiding behind a bandana) is not detained for minding his own business.  You don't protest police brutality by dressing up like outlaw Jesse James.  And you don't accept a plea deal to avoid facing the police head on in court when that's what your so-called protest was all about.  Hopefully Holly will learn from this experience and use her anger in more productive ways.