‘Propaganda’ suggests Mixon is ‘greatest cop killer of all time,’ among other things
A posting on propagandapress.org — whoever they are — about Lovelle Mixon, the Oakland parolee who gunned down four Oakland cops, includes a fake URL that suggests, among other things, that Mixon is the “greatest cop killer of all time” and is “getting his dick sucked by virgins” in some unspecified hereafter. Click the thumbnail for a full view. The URL is, of course, non-existent; the post explains that it was “was removed from the web for being too offensive to big.whitey.”
I don’t know about of all time… but Lovelle Mixon is the first offender in Alameda county to take out 4 cops since a guy with explosives over a hundred years ago. The East Oakland incident last weekend is the first time in California that 4 police officers died in the line of duty since an incident in Newhall in 1970, but that case involved more than one suspect.
Statistically, it’s just plain fact that Lovelle Mixon may very well be amongst the so-called "greatest" US cop killers of all time. In the lawless parts of Iraq, Colombia or Mexico there must be a few guys ahead of him in the line. I simply know of no museum honoring those who have exceeded his total, or if the Guinness Book keeps track…
It’s truly sad for the children now without fathers due to the murders of these police officers, and I couldn’t help but notice that two of the downed officers had 3 kids each.
Don’t necessarily expect a ton of sympathy in East Oakland though, as it is full of angry children, many without fathers, and Lovelle was amongst them.
"Vell", as he is known in the community, is now a martyr for the young homies in the darkest corners of the impoverished and red lined ghetto communities of the Bay Area.
From the tempting digital perch of a lily white mac laptop, it’s easy to dismiss and disparage the vented anger seeping out of of the unsightly, broken homes of East Oakland. Deriding those that see Mixon as a hero doesn’t elevate the discourse, and simply cheerleading the cops and their roles in the city will never really acknowledge the complexities of our fragmented societal shenanigans.
I ride the buslines that traverse this particular part of Oakland each week and have overheard plenty of awed teenage banter about Mixon’s deed. The kids of this neighborhood see Mixon’s act more in terms of macho behavior, an act of raw desperation and heroism in many ways. Some didn’t critique the murder of the cops, only that Lovelle didn’t strive harder to get away in his car after killing the first two cops, rather than lie in wait nearby at his sisters.
I really don’t enjoy being around the kids from Lovelle’s neighborhood, in fact I truly fear them, more so than a pit of venomous snakes. These kids are from a world where life is cheap, and anything you have can be taken away at anytime. A cell phone, iPod, home, father, mother, brother, self esteem and freedom can all go away fairly quickly and often violently.
Most kids I meet from East Oakland are way to young to be as hard as they are, usually fairly uneducated, with few role models to help them develop useful social or job skills. They are unfortunately caught up in a cycle of living broke near areas teeming with wealth, and develop immature materialistic goals, with almost no possible legal means of attaining the goods and potential lifestyles they aspire too.
Their cultural heroes and influences do not bode well for any of us, in a place where few books or newspapers are read, but much foul mouthed robotically created rap is cranked at ear splitting volume.
It’s well documented that hip-hop, the sound of the streets, went from a late 70’s and early 80’s type of celebratory funk protest music to a much more commercial cultural barometer. The sounds of the ghetto youth have moved away from the large ensembles creating party anthems, and strident social commentary ala Grandmaster Flash into a millennial parade of narcissistic nincompoopery about materialism, murdering and misogyny peppered with product endorsements.
Eventually, many urban youth, aspiring to be like their pop cultural icons, will resort to crimes as the quickest and most realistic route to the "bling, bling", desirable clothing, electronics, cars and other goods that engender respect and status in their communities.
How else was Lovelle Mixon, who dropped out of school in the 9th grade (with probably a 6th grade education) ever going to rise up out of the fray, get a sweet "ride" or anything else for that matter? He had no parents for some reason, and his grandma who raised him was long dead.
He soon figured out how to provide, he got a gun… which is easier than getting a job in his neighborhood. In fact a gun is often better than having a contractors license in the ‘hood. It means there’s always the possibility of bread on the table…you work when and wherever you want too.
Lovelle apparently graduated to armed car jacking. He got caught, and by age 20 was sentenced to prison for a violent felony. Then he got out at age 26 after a few years of experiencing prison, the predatory sexual climate of fear, the institutionalized racism, and networking with other wannabe gangsters and "respected" criminals.
Lovelle, was now back on the streets having completed his basic "prepatory" education. Only now the problem was that the 3x daily meals and laundry were no longer prepared for him, and being a bit brash and incorrigible, he had no means, employment or permanent place of residency leading to inevitable parole violations. The OPD now say Lovelle was a suspect in some rapes and muders, but no one can show they actually went looking for him. Basically, he was just one of hundreds of paroled violent offenders wandering Oakland without any real supervision.
Lovelle’s uncle and sisters told the media his probation officers failed him. The parole people say Lovelle failed them, and since they wield the power of the state, they win that argument. Truth is probably in the middle, as Lovelle likely had no discernible means, ability or eventual interest in actually navigating the catch 22’s, red tape and traps that the current self fulfilling recidivist generating parole system really is.
Parole officers, Like Lovelle’s each have about 70 clients they are supposedly keeping tabs on, but who checks up on a parole officer to see if they are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing? Parole officers have all the power and who is really gonna believe a parolee if he complains?
The "correctional" system itself seems to create a self fulfilling cycle of recidivism, with 70% or more ending up back in jail, and then eventually re-paroled back out again. The more the so-called "correctional" system fails, the more clients it has to take care of… just imagine an endless flushing loop of your tax dollars going down the shitter.
Despite the best efforts of legislators and voters to be tough on crime, the inherent costs & systemic problems, whether it’s be our failed inner city educational programs or the state’s expensive correctional crisis, we are only making the situation worse.
It seems last Saturday Lovelle finally realized he’d got himself ensnared, and rather than leave the violent and desperate streets of Oakland and go back to the violent and desperate straits of the prison system, he committed another series of violent desperately suicidal acts in a very violent desperate & somewhat suicidal society where scenes of violent desperation are literally beamed into our homes dozens of times a day on tv, and even more through bloody realistic violent video gaming.
According to one Federal Communications Commission study, by the time Lovelle Mixon, or any other average American child finishes elementary school, they have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence, and that doesn’t count real incidents in their homes, or on the real life streets of their ‘hood.
As screwy as it may seem to some, to many of the local populace, the local cops, while perhaps a noble idea on paper, are the real enemy of Lovelle’s community. They threaten the livelihoods of all those that are simply trying to get ahead, albeit through nefarious means.
In the street subculture, there is nothing more derided than "snitching", or what you might call "helping the police". The unsolved murder rates atest to this. The cops are seen as a violent, out of touch, outside force brought in and paid by the government to harass, and even kill any one that displeases them.
Not everyone in Oakland knew Oscar Grant, but everyone has, or at least knows someone that has, been detained, brutally beaten, unfairly charged, or denied their rights by police. Cops are seen as foreign occupiers, and in the Bay Area most urban law enforcement do not live in the same cities they patrol.
Cops, while performing an important mandated role, also can seem resentful of the populace, and generally do a pretty poor job of community relations. Most public interactions are negative by nature, and even in benign situations, officers prefer wielding excessive authority through outright rude and abrasive command vocabulary and conduct.
in the wake of the astounding broad daylight East Oakland deaths, I am sure the oppressive heat will be turned up even higher.
There will be thousands in attendance at the mega-funeral tomorrow, and the media & public sympathy, the pomp and the circumstance, will all certainly be with the police who lost their lives just doing their job.
There will no doubt, however, be an embittered, insolent bunch of people that will pay the event no mind. For them, Lovelle Mixon is also a martyr, and always will be a symbol of deeper more complex circumstances than most care to really see.
I know that, out there on the 57 bus meandering by the half abandoned Eastmont shopping center, there will be people on board tomorrow who will simply shrug and look away, they’ll be worried about plenty of other things.