"Last night protesters in Oakland, CA rioted after a Los Angeles jury convicted former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle of Involuntary Manslaughter. Mehserle, a whilte police officer, had been on trial for a highly visible shooting of black Oscar Grant in the back during a 2009 New Year’s Day incident at the Fruitvale BART station. Protesters had been planning for over a week to meet at the corner of Broadway and 14th streets in Downtown Oakland after the verdict was announced to respond. Local community leaders and activists had been advocating a peaceful gathering after the verdict, but last night’s gathering in the end turned violent as many suspected it would. I attended the protest from the announcement of the verdict at about 4:10pm until police declared the area an unlawful assembly and ordered everyone to leave the area or be arrested at about 9pm — covering a lot of it on Twitter at the time. The protest was also heavily covered by Bay Area news media." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet