Today, the national spotlight is on Oakland, California (pictured above) because a verdict was announced at about 4 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) in the case of Johannes Mehserle, a former BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009, on a platform in Oakland: guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
The trial was held in Los Angeles, due to tension and intense media coverage in Alameda County, where Oakland is located. Some of that tension is related to race because Mehserle is white, while Grant was black. In fact, there were riots in Oakland, not long after the shooting (which has been on YouTube), and people in recent days have been bracing for similar violence after the verdict.
This case, indirectly, has special relevance for me because my boyfriend is covering the reactions and responses to the verdict in Oakland for one of the news agency. I have had mixed feelings about him doing this all along. As someone who also has a journalism background, I understand why he's there: someone needs to report what's going on and capture this news in words, images, and videos. But on the other hand, why is he in a potentially dangerous situation -- an unpaid intern, who I'm not even sure has the same protections and benefits that would probably be afforded to paid employees (e.g. for being injured on the job)?
My boyfriend wanted to go, though.
A year ago, I finished reading a great book called Watching the World Change by David Friend about the various imagery related to 9/11. As I read about certain people who took pictures on that fateful day in New York (in some cases they even went toward the damaged towers to get closer to the scene), I could picture my boyfriend as the type of person who would also go toward the danger for the sake of journalism. Of course, 9/11 and what's happening in Oakland are totally different and separate and not on the same scale, but what I'm focusing on is how my boyfriend would want to cover a breaking news event if he was in the area, or at least find out what was going on.
Today, as some people were leaving Oakland after the verdict, he headed toward it. Days earlier, while his supervisors were deciding if he should go, he once told me that he would go to Oakland, even if he wasn't representing a news agency. He always carries some sort of camera with him everywhere -- you know, just in case something happens. I was with him when he even bought a vest from a store that sells military-related gear. At home, he spray-painted the word, "PRESS," on the front and back to wear for this occasion (and perhaps beyond in similar situations).
In the days leading up to the potential verdict, he didn't seem scared or nervous about covering the reaction in Oakland. In fact, for some reason, he thought things would be okay, that there would be enough police presence, that people have been preparing for potential violence all along, that we shouldn't assume it would necessarily be very violent. His dad and I were more skeptical than him. Well, if he's not going to worry about himself, then someone has to worry about him -- and that someone is me.
I even called him not long after I found out the verdict. After leaving a message the first time, I got through to him the second time, but he said he was shooting something and that he'd call me later. I called him a third time moments ago, but no reply. I've been following along with live blogs such as this one and even saw some photos he had taken online. Right now, I don't even know if he's still in Oakland, at his internship's office, at home, or somewhere in between.
I'm still waiting for his phone call.
Updated: After numerous phone calls and tweets through Twitter, I finally heard from him at 2:40 p.m. today.
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