B&T

If you're local, you've heard that the Mehserle verdict (BART cop who shot a handcuffed Oscar Grant on New Year's Eve) came down yesterday. It has been the central focal point for Oakland race related conversations for somet ime, and the verdict announcement was expected to be a flashpoint. Businesses closed early, some Oakland shops boarded their windows, and people braced or prepared for rioting regardless of the verdict. Personally, I find rioting stupid (Um, that mom and pop corner store you're burning had nothing to do with the crime or the penalty, and they are part of your community too.) But again, I completely sympathize with the White Night riots, so maybe I'm just withdrawn from this one.

I am not alone in bemoaning the "bridge and tunnel" (B&T) element that crashes and ultimately ruins SF public fun times. The gay high holy day of Halloween has had to be canceled for the masses of non-locals and their tendency toward violence, mayhem, and murder. This year's Pink Saturday was also overwhelmed by the B&T youth, and of course some of the stupid thugs came armed and shot a bunch of people.

However, those who are offended by the B&T characterization point out, rightfully so, that the suspected shooter (now known not to be the shooter) was from Bayshore, a scary neighborhood to be sure but still in the 415. I know many lovely people who do need to take a bridge or a tunnel or two to get to the City. I don't count them as "bridge and tunnel" necessarily, probably because the B&T appellation is necessarily pejorative. But yeah, we have a nice community here, and we tend to look after each other. Interlopers bring the trouble and I'd just as soon they have their own parties instead of crashing ours. I don't like that there is this "us versus them" mentality within me, but there it is. I've made peace with it because this is my extended family, chosen though it may be, and we have had to protect our own from predators from some time now, and that threat still exists. I'll stop resenting the intrusion of "them" when the "us" are finally free (free from violence and free from political and legal discrimination).

But that's not the point of this particular rant. I, like many SFers, have a bad habit of denegrating the B&T, well deserved or not. Local reliable online news source The SF Appeal has some interesting numbers regarding the post-verdict Oakland riots (arguably sensationalized by television media):

10:20 AM: The Alameda County Sheriff's Department has released a revised number of arrests from last nights demonstrations in Oakland, and, per commenter Briana's request, we have some demographics.

Sgt. JD Nelson says that there were 78 arrests (earlier reports said 83) at last night's protests, 66 of which were on misdemeanor offenses that will be "cited out" (that is, the folks will be released with tickets) today. Of those 78, he says that

-- 19 were from Oakland
-- 28 were from the Bay Area, outside of Oakland
-- 19 were from California, but not the Bay Area
-- 12 were from out of state

So, about a quarter of the arrestees were from the area in which they were protesting, which backs up Briana's assertion that people should be careful about "assuming that looting is 'typical of those people in Oakland.'"

The SFist cleverly points out: "A scant 25% of said arrested protesters were from the city of Oakland. Something to think about, San Francisco, the next time you bemoan bridge-and-tunnel crowds."

Photo from the SFist: Police hold a demonstrator during a protest in Oakland, Calif., after a guilty verdict for Johannes Mehserle, Thursday, July 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)