Nothing inflames people to anger like perceived or real injustice. Throw in the tinder of a deteriorating economy in which millions of people are losing their homes, and raging unemployment, and the situation can become extremely ignitable.
This was the firebox that the city of Oakland found itself in last Thursday. Around 2:30 p.m., word leaked that the verdict in the Johannes Mehserle murder trial would be read at 4 p.m.—the news set off a mass exodus of residents that was just short of resembling a panic, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
