OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT DECIDES TO BEEF UP ON COPS FOR NEW YEARS

If you're looking for a cop this New Year's Eve, you might try a BART station.

Hundreds of extra cops - including BART officers, Oakland police, and sheriff's deputies from San Francisco and Contra Costa County - are being called either to ride BART or patrol its stations into the early morning hours.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office will add extra patrols to AC Transit, and many local East Bay law enforcement agencies have also agreed to be available on standby.

The beefed-up presence is in reaction to last year's fatal shooting of Oscar Grant, an unarmed passenger who was killed by a BART cop while being held facedown on a station platform at 2 a.m. New Year's Day.

The shooting capped a night of cat-and-mouse between cops and rowdy young partiers returning from San Francisco. In the days that followed, a pair of protests in downtown Oakland resulted in damage to scores of businesses and cars and more than 100 arrests.

Oakland police - who bore the brunt of the post-shooting mayhem - plan to be out in full force on BART and elsewhere throughout the entire weekend, with just about every sworn officer being called in.

"We want to make sure we have the resources available to us at a moment's notice," said Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason.

As for dealing with New Year's revelers, BART plans to add as many as 26 trains to get crowds out of San Francisco as fast as possible and before any trouble starts. The system will run until about 3 a.m. instead of the usual midnight shutdown.

RUMOR: DID JAY Z & BEYONCE CHANGE THEIR NAMES?

We just caught wind of an interesting rumor. According to one of our insiders, Jay Z and Beyonce BOTH decided to change their GOVERNMENT names.

Word is that Jay Z, formerly Shawn Carter is now Shawn Knowles-Carter and Beyonce Knowles is now Beyonce Knowles Carter.

The snitch claims that they decided to keep the "Knowles" name because her parents didn't have any male children, and Beyonce wanted to make sure that the Knowles name continued.

COP DRAWS HIS GUN AFTER BEING HIT WITH A SNOWBALL LMAO

IS JAY-Z REALLY A MASON???? YOU BE THE JUDGE

BUJU BANTON'S LABEL STAND BEHIND HIM 100%

Gargamel Music Incorporated has announced their full support for their star reggae artist Buju Banton, who was arrested December 10 on federal drug conspiracy charges.

According to Gargamel president Tracii McGregor, Banton will be provided with top legal service representation from David Oscar Markus, who is a veteran of many high-profile drug cases including that of former Panama military dictator Manuel Noriega.

Markus is set to replace Banton’s current attorney Herbert Walker III, who represented the singer for his initial court appearance.

“It’s on and popping. Walker has never really been our attorney,” McGregor explained to CaribWorldNews.com. “This is Buju and we’re going to get him the top legal representation there is. We are ready to fight. I saw him yesterday and told him to go inward and preserve you.”

Banton, real name Mark Anthony Myrie, was indicted last Tuesday (December 15) with two other men for allegedly attempting to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine.

Before his arrest, Banton was having a highly successful year, receiving a Grammy nomination for his latest album Rasta Got Soul.

A video for the trackjavascript:void(0) “Optimistic Soul” was recently completed.

Last Wednesday (December 16), Banton waived his bail hearing right and will face trial in Tampa, Florida. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 20 years to life in prison.