Police outnumber Oakland protesters

  (01-30) 17:47 PST Oakland -- The 12th Street BART station in Oakland was shut down for five minutes this afternoon because of a nearby protest by people angry about the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.The few dozen protesters, organized by the advocacy group Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, gathered at the courthouse for today's bail hearing for Mehserle where his bail was set at $3 million.Protesters carried signs reading "Jail Racist Killer Cops" and "Justice for Oscar Grant," and several of them said they were angry bail was granted.Christopher Cantor, a protester who said he's a post-doctoral researcher at UC-Berkeley, called the entire matter "a cover-up," and said he was especially angry to learn that BART police had not radioed in news of Grant's shooting that night."I'm out here because I'm p-- off," Cantor said. "Without a shadow of a doubt, what has been going on out here is messed up."Cleavon Gilman, another protester who said he's an Iraq War veteran and an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, said the protest was about police brutality in general."These police officers just kill any person they want to," he said. "I mean, we need police officers, but good ones."The group marched though downtown Oakland, prompting BART to shutter the 12th Street station out of precaution."We didn't know what was going to happen," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.The group stopped at a McDonalds parking lot at 14th and Jackson, and police wearing riot gear told them that if they didn't disperse they'd be arrested for unlawful assembly. Johnson said that at some point during the protest, Oakland police fired non-lethal shots into the crowd. There were several arrests, though the exact number is not known. Oakland police have not returned a call for comment.The group then began marching down 14th Street, stopping at Broadway. By about 5 p.m., there were far more police officers than protesters. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM