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Uploaded: Friday, March 27, 2009, 9:53 AM

Oakland to televise funeral of slain officers  

Posted by YouShouldKnow, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 11:23 am

Today I hope everyone takes a moment to think of these officers who gave their lives in the protection of their community. Of ALL officers who have perished in the line of duty.

I am very grateful to the local news stations for broadcasting the memorial, and rather surprised that the National media has not done more on this story.

Last, I am disgusted that Kamala Harris is at this service. She believes cop killers should be rewarded with life in prison, not the death penalty. Her refusal to seek the death penalty in Officer Espinoza's case shows she is not a DA who can do her job. I read she filed papers to run for States Attorney General. She claims she will put her personal beliefs aside regarding the death penalty. If she didn't do it for a police officer, I doubt she will do it for anyone else. At least in this case, these officers got some measure of justice.

Rest in Peace Mark Dunakin, John Hege, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai.

Posted by ooo, a resident of the St. Claire Gardens neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 12:58 pm

oscar grant was killed without resisting,the world saw it.you cannot escape consequences of murder

Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 1:05 pm

Oscar Grant was not totally without fault. You engage in antisocial behavior, such as fighting on a Bart train, which could have caused harm to many, and you assume a risk. I am NOT saying he deserved what he got, I am simply saying that there is a certain amount of personal responsiblity that should be taken into account when assessing blame.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Grant had high level of both alcohol and ketamine in his blood test.

He had a history of armed confrontation with police in Oakland.

Of course this does not mean he should be shot.

He should of complied with police commands immediately.

It looks like the police officer confused his gun with his tazer, a terrible mistake but not murder by any means.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 2:55 pm

"OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is attending Friday's funeral for four slain city police officers, but will not be speaking at the request of at least one killed officer's family.

The mayor's spokesman, Paul Rose, said Dellums turned down a police offer to give opening remarks after at least one of the families requested he not be among the dignitaries speaking at the ceremony."

I wonder why the families did not want to hear from him?

Posted by Shame on Sharon, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 27, 2009 at 3:10 pm

Sharon--I do not believe the postmortem results on Oscar Grant have been made public yet. Where do you come up with your claim that there was alcohol and ketamine in his blood test? Where do you come up with the claim that he a history of armed confrontation with police in Oakland?

Mesherle knew what he was doing when he pulled the gun out and shot Grant in cold blood. Look at the video--his fellow officers do not react as if anything was amiss. They treat the execution as a fairly routine occurence

I am familiar with your posts and this looks like another attempt by you to inflame passions.

Posted by BACK THE BADGE, a resident of another community, on Mar 27, 2009 at 3:51 pm

I wonder why the families did not want to hear from him?

BECAUSE HE DOES NOT SUPPORT COPS

Posted by Gary, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 4:12 pm

I watched the entire ceremony. It began with the pipes and ended with the pipes. Very moving.

Posted by MR.IRONIC, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 4:12 pm

[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

Posted by Tim, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 4:38 pm

To Mr. Ironic.

I have no problem "paying" for the funeral of these fallen heros.

"What goes around comes around"- you need help.

Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 5:00 pm

No one said that Oscar 'deserved' it. In fact, the postings have categorically stated he did not.

What has been said is that when you act out in a way that could attract police attention, or cause possible harm to others, you assume a risk. You are on a speeding train, a small enclosed capsule, surrounded by people just living their lives trying to get from Point A. to Point B. On a Holiday Weekend, families. Just like mine. WE were on a Bart train on New Years Eve and had some people acting up on OUR car. It was frightening. We were once on a train coming home from a Giants game when a fight erupted. The train was stopped in Millbrae, everyone had to get off and the police were waiting when the train was stopped.

You don't give any thought to what could have happened on that train as a result of that fight. ANYONE could have been harmed, including the participants themselves. The car could have lurched, Grant or another involved could have fallen backward, hit their head, died. Or, HURT SOMEONE ELSE. People do not live in their own little bubble. There are other people around, minding their own business just trying to live. The Bart train was stopped, and the fight continued on to the platform. At that point, what happened is up to interpretation. I saw the same video you have, it COULD have been an accident by an inexperienced cop reaching for his tazar or mace instead of his gun. It could have been he was reaching for his gun. We don't know, WE WEREN'T THERE. What people know for sure is that Grant and other people were FIGHTING. No one else was shot on that platform, perhaps because they didn't get off the train hurling punches at anyone else? Does common sense EVER enter into victim thinking? What ever happened to accountibility for your own actions?

If you are speeding down the freeway, answer your cell phone, cross lanes and someone else hits you, is it all their fault? OR YOURS TOO?

As long as you dwell in a victims frame of mind, you will always be a victim, even if only of your own actions.

As to sympathy for the fallen officer, cops are human beings just like anyone else. Many will care, some will care from a distance, some may not. The cops that cared, were at that funeral. Others were out patrolling the streets taking care of Oakland and other Cities keeping both you and me safe.

I appreciate it. You, apparently do not. I pity you for your ignorance.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 6:04 pm

Osars postmortem results revealing excess alcohol and the illegal narcotic ketamine as well as his previous armed criminal offenses are a matter of the public record and were reported weeks ago in the Oakland Tribune and the SF gate.

It will be part of the trial.

Obviously Oscar should not have been killed and it looks like a terrible accident, it will probably end in involuntary manslaughter.

As for the Oscar family attorney, he is a well know shakedown artist who made $5m on rodney king, king had to sue him to try and get some money for himself.

He was also in on the OJ fiasco.

Pointing out the truth does not"inflame passions.", on the contrary, I appeal to reason, justice and law.

I am opposed to denial of fact, denial of justice and denial of due process.

After the slaughter of 4 fathers and policemen by a violent, drug dealing and apparently, child rapping thug the vast majority of sane people now support my point of view

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 6:22 pm

Regardig the Oscar Grant matter

The facts are also on wiki and have been for weeks

"Previously Grant had been convicted of drug dealing and, in 2007, was sentenced to sixteen months in state prison for fleeing "from a traffic stop while armed with a loaded pistol".[9] At that incident, near his Hayward home, San Leandro police shot him with a Taser to subdue him after he threw the pistol into the air and ran.[9] Grant was released from prison September 23"Web Link

"Michael Rains, stated that toxicology testing of Grant's blood revealed the presence of alcohol (0.02 grams%) and Fentanyl, a strong narcotic pain reliever"Web Link

Not ketamine but fentanyl

"Fentanyl is an odourless, rapid-acting opioid (or synthetic opiate, narcotic analgesia), which depresses central nervous system and respiratory function. It is the most powerful opioid known, with a potency approximately 80 times that of morphine and 100 times that of heroin.[1] Fentanyl has an LD50 of 3.1 milligrams per kilogram in rats and 0.03 milligrams per kilogram in monkeys. It is classified as a Schedule II drug in the United States due to its high abuse rate. "Web Link

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Everyone is obliged to cooperate with police. When you initiate violence you lose the right to object when it gets out of hand. It is a shame that a people who were oppressed by lynch mobs have chosen that means of expression for themselves.

Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Thank you Sharon, for backing up your comment with fact. Nothing is ever as cut and dried as people think it should be.

Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 27, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Clarence Ellis, hero of Saturdays slayings of the four Oakland officers by running into the unsecured intersection without any thought to his own safety to provide CPR to the first fallen Officer said today that he will catch a lot of 'static' for 'helping the police'.

The man is not only a hero, he's a stellar human being.

Why would anyone give this man hell? I guess THAT is the mentality of the ghetto. Nauseating.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 1:16 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

The poverty pimps have a lot to answer for, but more likely they will, like Angela Davis, send their acolytes in to do their dirty work.

Posted by Perspective, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 6:03 am

Yes, I agree. It is nauseating that the hero will be given grief, but not surprising when apparently it is perfectly acceptable to air on the radio news the opinion of one young black man who said ( I paraphrase since I was in the car), " The man who was shot was a victim of police murder. African American men and women are shot all the time by police, much more than anyone else, so he was as much of a victim as anyone else". After the "victim" killed 4 cops. Apparently this is fine with a lot of folks, since I have now heard this several times.

Apparently it is also fine to "blame the system". Ya know, the prison systme is so bad, the guy killed 4 cops because he didn't want to go back there. So, the poor guy was a "victim", not the cops.

And, apparently, it is also fine to blame the economic situation. Ya know, he was unemployed, so of course he was frustrated and killed 4 cops.

What is wrong with us that ANYONE accepts these 3 completely insane validations of "vicitimhood" of a man who kills 4 cops? Even disregarding his horrible history of nauseating crime? The latest being a rape just a few days earlier?

I feel so bad for families of cops. Like families of military fallen, they have to put up with so much grief.

Posted by Perspective, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 6:09 am

BTW, a warning. A bit of a tangent, but a warning related to behavior and consequences.

The weather is warming up. I and my 2 kids were in shorts, stopping by a 7-11 for an Icee, but noticed at the cash register a young man ( apparently) in full baggy sweatshirt, hood up and over his head and almost down to his eyes, hands in his pockets. We didn't go in to the 7-11 until he left. Racism? Don't know what color he was until he had turned around. Just caution. Warn your kids, don't wear hoods up over your head when it is warm outside. Your intentions could be misunderstood and there we will have another headline of a dead kid, killed with "no justification", because someone felt very threatened.

I have already warned my boy. Behaviors that are threatening are risky. It is simply reality.

Posted by Shame on Sharon, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 28, 2009 at 10:35 am

Sharon once again plays fast and loose with the facts:

She posted:

"Michael Rains, stated that toxicology testing of Grant's blood revealed the presence of alcohol (0.02 grams%) and Fentanyl, a strong narcotic pain reliever"

The rest of the paragraph reads:

"The coroner's bureau said the pathologist's autopsy protocol won't be finalized until March 2009."

If you go to the link at the end of that sentence:

Web Link

"But the coroner's bureau said the pathologist's autopsy protocol won't be finalized for another eight weeks, as it will take that long for toxicology tests on Grant to be completed." (the story was written Jan 9)

Since Rains comments are from a bail motion filed in January, they cannot be based on any solid facts.

Not unexpectedly, Mesherle's lawyer is playing the "blame the victim" game.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Shame, can you say "interim"?

Posted by silly, a resident of another community, on Mar 28, 2009 at 5:21 pm

This event has nothing to do with Oscar Grant. Not the same agency, circumstances or anything. Have some respect and don't even taint the circumstances involving the deaths of these four officers.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Perhaps they should have televised the anti police demonstrations in the interest of equal time. Where is Ray Talliaferro, the West Coast Al Sharpton, when we need him?

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 28, 2009 at 7:48 pm

I see Cisco CEO John Chambers has given $50,000 of his own money to the trust funds for the murdered cops families--- good for him, we are making a contribution to these funds and we encourage others to do likewise.