Last Friday I was flipping through the channels on my television and what do you know, the footage from the Jan. 7 riots in Oakland was running on “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Bill O’Reilly, who has been extremely critical of San Francisco and the Bay Area in general, claimed that the protesters are out of line for coming out against the BART Police. He claims that people have the right to be upset about the execution of Oscar Grant, but should just let the BART Police figure this out in the courts. That the people of Oakland have no morals because they are upset about this obvious police brutality yet haven’t protested the higher-than-national-average violent crime, “the gang problem, the downtown blight or any of the 124 murders last year.”
Bill O’Reilly has no idea what he is talking about. He just loves to attack the San Francisco Bay Area. In reality, though, the situation isn’t so cut-and-dry. Not mentioned in Bill-O’s report is that this is the third BART Police execution in 15 years. Also not mentioned is the BART Police’s cover-up of the murder, which was dashed to pieces by a witness’s phone video. The video depicted the police officer execute an unarmed, handcuffed man, who by all accounts was complying with the officer’s commands.
Bill-O didn’t mention that the BART Police have absolutely no civilian oversight. Up until a couple days ago they had withheld the name of the officer in question, confiscated phone and cameras at the scene, and avoided questions about the shooting.
Bill-O just saw people rioting on TV. Has it out for the Bay Area anyway, because of what we represent, and gave us a browbeating from his regular position of arrogant ignorance. This riot is a response to the conditions in Oakland. Oakland is having real economic problems. People are upset about the violent crime, and the worst thing is that the police are exacerbating the situation. That is why we are at this boiling point.
Bill is a master at blaming the victims. All urban areas suffering from economic woes have higher-than-average levels of crime and violence. Oscar Grant, the father of a 3-year-old girl, reportedly works two jobs. This wasn’t anything to do with gangs. Another cheap shot at San Francisco. Real original.