Acting White: Aggravated Insult To Assault

Contrary to what some believe, I don’t see race in every issue. Sex, maybe, race, no. Race issues (like everything else) are often about sex, but I’ll save that for another post.

Back on topic - when a bullet came flying into my living space last week, fired by a young woman, there was no issue of race, except that she was not a young black male, the statistical odds-on favorite for such activity here in Oakland. The three responding police officers, Asian, White, and Latino, arrived, albeit delayed, and were professional all the way around, including the arrest of shooter. No race issue here. The OPD called the following day to say they wanted to send a technician by to look at the evidence, but this has yet to happen. It seems that the technicians are a pretty busy OP department. Still, no race issue.

Continuing on - one of my neighbors sent me an e-mail saying that the shooter had been charged with aggravated assault (negligent discharge of a firearm), which carries, even as a misdemeanor here in California, a minimum six-month jail sentence. So I’m thinking, wow, these people are serious – go Oakland. Fair is fair, still no issue.

So where’s the race issue, dude? Well, yesterday I got another call from the OPD, but this time they are saying that the D.A. is asking if I want to press charges against the shooter. What? Since when do I have to press charges to get people to do their jobs protecting the public? The caller said the D.A. would pursue at my request, and that I should bring the collected bullet fragments to court, once they got back to me with a date.

Now just for fun, I replayed the officer’s request to a friend (non-black) who lives in Oakland, and the first thing she said was, “I bet the D.A. wouldn’t be asking you that question if the shooter was black”. Yes world, we have a confirmed sighting of a race issue in Oakland. Let’s see, witnesses (5), bullet hole, smoking gun, spent bullet, but still a questionable prosecution, why? Two words – white female.

Now, it is only her fault that she is likely to go to jail – the law is the law and her actions risked GBI (great bodily injury). I’m betting that the D.A. would like to bend the charge to simple assault (minimum probation), but for that he needs to know that the victim, me, is not going to kick-up a shit storm. Don’t count on it. They don’t know how well I kick. For starters, I smell a class-action suit on behalf of all the black, Latino, and other non-white CPC 245’s prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to the full extent, while this D.A. is looking for a reason to let Snow White off with a wrist-slap. I’m not playing – this B.S. is not funny, and on this, as the owner of the bullet hole, I have some standing, whether certain people like it or not.

Stay tuned.

James C. Collier

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