City, community groups express pride following protests

On the evening of the verdict, near 1,000 people gathered in downtown
Oakland in a city-sanctioned protest. People chanted, cried, played
chess and shouted obscenities at the police and the media. But there was
no violence until after nightfall, when a small group vandalized and
looted downtown businesses.

“I think [Oakland Police] Chief [Anthony] Batts did a great job,”
said Judith Katz, project manager for the Bay Area
Non-Violent Communication Group, one of several groups that joined with
the city prior to the verdict announcement to plan for the protests.
“I’m proud to be from Oakland,” said Katz.

Michael Nagler, president of the Metta Center for Nonviolence in
Berkeley, which promotes non-violent social change, said he was
impressed with behavior on both sides of police lines. “Given the level
of emotion that was reached by the verdict, you could give people very
high marks for the level of restraint,” said Nagler.

The Oakland Police Department, city government and community groups
had been preparing for the verdict for weeks, hoping to avoid a repeat
of the chaotic protests in January 2009 following Grant’s killing, in
which over 100 people were arrested and dozens of businesses damaged.
This time, over a dozen organizations, church leaders and business
groups joined in the planning process, mapping out ways to facilitate
free speech, defuse potential violence and educate the community on the
criminal justice system.

…Several days before the verdict was announced, the Bay Area Non-Violent
Communication Group held a training for community organizers on how to
diffuse tensions “in a situation where people are freaking out,” as Katz
described it. At the protest on Thursday, her group, along with
representatives of the city’s Measure Y violence prevention program and
the ad hoc group Oaklanders for Peace, Justice and Healing patrolled the
area around 14^th and Broadway, attempting to calm enraged
protestors and engage people in “empathic reflections.”  The strategy,
explained Katz, helps get to the bottom of people’s anger and prevent
them from lashing out. “It’s a reflection process where people feel
heard,” said Katz, “and it reduces tension.”

…Besides using the strategy to calm protestors, Katz said she talked
supportively with anti-riot police deployed to the protest, some of
whom, besides being taunted, spit on and pelted with rocks and bottles,
were soon to be laid off because of the city’s budget shortfall. “They
need empathy too,” said Katz.

Fania Davis, executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland
Youth, which was also involved in the pre-verdict planning, said the
organizers were largely successful in implementing their goal to create a
safe space for people to voice their opinion about the verdict. On
verdict day, young people from the group helped calm angry protestors
and intervened between them and the police, said Davis.

Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth also helped plan the five healing
centers opened on Thursday evening at various locations around the
city. At the centers, residents were invited to express their feelings
about the verdict and talk about ways to move forward.

“You had an organized force for peace and justice that you haven’t
seen before,” said Davis. Nevertheless, she lamented the damage done to
some businesses and the handful of injuries. “I don’t know what we could
have done to have prevented that, and that’s the conversation we need
to have now.” She also said some peaceful protestors got unfairly caught
up in the officers’ nighttime sweep of looters and vandals.

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