The only personal opinion I have is: I honestly expected voluntary manslaughter. It did catch me off guard. But the jury made the wisest choice they felt was best.
The craziest thing was seeing West Oakland unfold or rather fold up. Stores boarded up as if they are closed or preparing for a hurricane. The Citi Trends near Jack London I thought had closed permantly but I found they were in fact open, just boarded up for safety.
Around 3pm PST I got a call at OTX, one of the parents who and her child were in enrolled in tonite's THCP Class. She was the first I heard, a verdict is coming out in an hour. No sooner than I got off of the phone with her. It all started to close in.
Our office and volunteer coordinators (Jocelyn and Jeff) immediately prepared to get any volunteers who take public transportation back home. People were kind and reached out, offering rides to others who lived near them or along the way. Jocelyn called and canceled tonite's class. Soon our boss (Bruce) called and said "shut it down." We were on our way. Our intern's supevisor called and wisely demanded his high school age interns "Get out of West Oakland, now."
Soon we heard that 580 had became a mess, and the buses stopped coming through West Oakland. One of our loyal volunteers offered Jeff a ride home, leaving his bike behind so more can fit in the SUV. I was glad of that because at first it seemed we would follow in a car, Jeff a bit of the ways on his bike. I really hoped that most pedestrians and bikers got rides home today or went in large groups early.
We were just out the door, when we discovered one of our volunteers who is in wheel chair had been dropped off by ParaTransit, which was really unintelligent. AC Transit is part of Paratransit, so if AC Transit won't go to West Oakland why would Paratransit?
Bruce came back to OTX and said he would wait for Paratransit to pick up our volunteer. So we all headed out. On my way home I saw the cars packed on 580, small businesses closing up, people heading home. I admittedly noticed that indie stores with white employees making a concious effort to head home. I don't blame them. Sometimes when people are angry their anger is pointed at the wrong people, just for their appearance.
The creepiest thing was as we moved closer to my neighbourhood, the lack of buses. The only bus I saw was the Transbay F extremely packed.
My corner of Oakland is quiet, honestly more quiet than usual. Normally kids are playing and people are on the porch but after a few friendly debates every "hunkered down" for the evening.
In the hurry I left my lunch, and the cupcakes for the small birthday celebration for one of our techs. A set of digital photos I had printed is currently residing in the closed Walgreens on 14th and Broadyway.
I'm watching the news now, but honestly I don't expect the foolishness that happened when it first happened. I hope not at least. I'll spend the rest of the evening at home watching netflix and playing video games, just in case.
Stay Safe Oakland.
Don't let the stereotype become a truth.
0 comments:
Post a Comment