Here's some raw footage, shot by ABC 7, intended to make you believe Oakland was just a big chaotic bonfire following the Mehserle verdict. In actuality, these were just a few fiery dumpsters full of trash, surrounded by a lot of people waiting for something exciting to happen. There seems to have been a relatively contained protest in the early evening, followed by a relatively predictable, after-dark bout of anarchy (including the looting of a single Foot Locker, according to the Oakland Tribune), and at about 1:15 in the video, you can see the street lights go out, which makes everything seem more exciting, lit only by the fires.

The Oakland PD expects to arrest about 100 people in total this evening, according to Bay City News, and there were at least a few M-1000 fireworks thrown at law enforcement. The Chron reports that most of the troublemakers were random, opportunist anarchists (largely Caucasian) wearing black hoods and masks, who were looking for an excuse to throw a few bricks through windows. As one protester told the Trib, "The people who went in there and came out with shoes [following the Foot Locker incident], that's not about Oscar Grant anymore. What we had before the sun went down, that was justice. This is just pure stupidity." See our blow-by-blow here.