“WE WON’T rest until we have honored Oscar Grant by winning justice for his family and ending police brutality in Oakland.”
Those were the words of Dereca Blackmon, one of the principal organizers of a rally and march of nearly 1,000 people on January 7 to protest the murder of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III early on New Year’s Day by police on an Oakland transit station platform.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer Johannes Mehserle fired a bullet into Grant’s back as the father of a 4-year-old girl lay on his stomach, his hands cuffed, according to a lawyer for the Grant family. The bullet went through Grant’s body, ricocheted off the concrete station platform, and punctured his lungs.
Police tried to confiscate cell phone videos taken by horrified riders who witnessed the shooting, and initially claimed that the station’s security cameras didn’t record the incident.
But in the last two days, videos of the murder—including an especially graphic one taken by a passenger no more than a dozen yards away—have spread on the Internet, leaving no doubt that Grant was lying motionless when he was shot in the back. Police, meanwhile, had to admit that security cameras did capture the assault.
A few hours before the protest, Mehserle resigned from the force rather than show up to an interview with police internal affairs investigators.
The January 7 rally at the Fruitvale BART station where Grant was killed was organized on little more than a day’s notice, using the social networking Web site Facebook and text messages, with organizers speaking out on the KPFA radio shows of Davey D and Aimee Allison. The protesters were predominantly African American, but significant numbers of Latinos, Asians, Arabs, Filipinos and whites also participated.
BART police were nowhere to be seen during the demonstration. BART management closed the Fruitvale station for a while, no doubt frustrating even more people who tried to exit trains to participate in the rally.
Sean Dugar, California NAACP Youth and College Division president, told the crowd, “It’s not enough that the officer has resigned. We demand that he be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Today, the NAACP contacted the attorney general’s office to demand that they take over the investigation.”
Minister Keith Muhammad of the Nation of Islam asked the crowd to raise their fists in the air and repeat, “I am Oscar Grant!”
Later, some of the protesters tried to march toward City Hall. On the way, they were met by a cordon of riot police, who used tear gas and batons to try to disperse them. A group of the marchers broke away, breaking storefront and car windows and setting fire to at least one vehicle. Confrontations with police continued for several hours.
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THE HORRIFYING videos showing Grant’s murder have transformed the incident from one in a series of police killings in Oakland into a national scandal; there is even a march on Washington being organized.
At the rally at the Fruitvale station, Malia Lazu, director of The Gathering Project in New York City, said, “I come representing thousands of formerly incarcerated youth who will be doing events in solidarity with you next week across the country, because police brutality must end.”
Earlier in the day, at least 1,000 people attended the funeral for Grant at the Palma Ceia Baptist Church in nearby Hayward. “They were remembering an extraordinary young man,” said Mer Stevens, a member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “The sense of anger in the room was thick.”
Signaling a new feeling of defiance, the crowd at the rally was in no mood for promises from politicians.
A representative of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums announced that the mayor wouldn’t be attending, but that he was concerned about the shooting. That was met by loud boos from the crowd.
“The officer has resigned, but that isn’t enough,” Evan Shamar, who initiated the protest, said in an interview. “We don’t want him on administrative leave or fired. We will not rest until this officer is in an American court, on trial for second-degree murder.”
Tony Coleman, a longtime civil rights leader in the Bay Area and friend of the Grant family, spoke for many when he talked about how deeply affected he was by this murder:
"Oscar Grant was a teenage friend of my son. For all the Black fathers who’ve been coaching and going to all the practices and sitting in the stands and watching their kids, I want to say that this really hurts, because I watched him grow up. I watched him in the lay-up line, working on his skills on the court.
To all the Black fathers, you’ve got to stay close to your kids when they’re out of high school, because they have a track for them: straight to prison, and if they don’t go there, this is what happens to them. They kill them, like they don’t mean nothing."
Other speakers at the rally included representatives of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, ANSWER and the Millions More March, plus youth and community members.
The newly formed Coalition Against Police Execution is planning a major rally for Wednesday, January 14, at 4 p.m. at Oakland City Hall, with a planned march to BART headquarters to follow.
January 8, 2009
* From Sociaoist Worker:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/...
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The Coalition Against Police Executions has called for a demonstration on January 14 to demand justice for Oscar Grant. The protest will start at 4 p.m. at Oakland City Hall, with a planned march to BART headquarters to follow.
A video of the police shooting of Grant, taken by a BART rider, has been posted online by anti-police brutality activists: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/20....
For more information about future protests, e-mail KreaGomez gmail.com.
On Facebook, go to the Coalition Against Police Execution home page for regular updates on what you can do: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?g....
Murdered in cold blood in Oakland
Todd Chretien reports on the outpouring of anger after Oakland police killed an unarmed man on the platform of a transit station.
January 7, 2009
A video taken by a commuter captured Oakland police hovering over Oscar Grant after shooting him (Oakland Cop Watch)
ON NEW Year’s Eve, as scores of horrified people looked on, Oakland transit police forced 22-year-old Oscar Grant to the ground, kneeled on his head and then shot him in the back.
Grant, an African American father of a 4-year-old daughter and an Oakland grocery story worker, died several hours later. The bullet entered his back, ricocheted off the concrete floor and punctured his lungs.
Police attempted to confiscate cell phone videos taken by Bay Area Rapid Transit passengers and initially claimed that security cameras didn’t record the incident. However, in the last two days, they have been forced to admit that the security cameras did capture the assault.
Additionally, one especially graphic video taken by a passenger was released by the Bay Area television station KTVU. It shows an unarmed and unresisting Grant, lying face down, shot at point-blank range by an officer as his horrified friends and onlookers watch.
Although police and BART authorities still refuse to give the name of the officer who shot and killed Grant, KTVU obtained a copy of the civil lawsuit filed by Grant’s family, which names officer Johannes Mehserle as the shooter.
Grant “was unarmed and offered no physical resistance to BART police officers,” according to the claim filed by attorney John Burris. According to KTVU’s summary of the lawsuit:
“Grant fell to his knees and put his hands up”in an effort to demonstrate that he was submitting to the Latino officer’s thuggish display of authority.“But the officer dug his knee into Grant’s back, causing Grant to”yell out in agony," the claim states.
Grant feared for his life and “made a valiant effort to de-escalate the situation by appealing to the officer’s sense of humanity by telling the officer that he had a 4-year-old daughter” and asking the officer not to use a Taser gun on him, according to the claim.
The claim alleges that Mehserle, who was standing nearby, kneeled down and restrained Grant’s hands, then “inexplicably” stood up, drew his firearm and pointed it directly at Grant’s back.
The claim states, “Without so much as flinching, Officer Mehserle stood over Mr. Grant and mercilessly fired his weapon, mortally wounding Mr. Grant with a single gunshot wound to the back.”
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THE NEW Year’s killing has provoked a growing community response as the police account of the incident has fallen apart. Although Mehserle has yet to issue a statement, according to media accounts, police officials suggested to the press that he intended to use his Taser gun on Grant and claimed he might not have recognized the difference between the two weapons.
That assertion has been met with disbelief by anti-police brutality activists. Burris cast further doubt on the police account at a January 4 press conference:
"It’s an outrageous set of facts. My sense is clear that this was an unjustifiable shooting. There were no movements, and he was not trying to overrun the police officer. A gun cannot discharge accidentally. You have to have your finger on the trigger.
When conduct like this occurs, there is a price to pay. Police have to be held accountable when they engage in this kind of unlawful conduct."
Following the killing, a spirited, spontaneous protest of 20 people took place outside BART Police headquarters on January 5. Grant’s family is holding a memorial for him in his hometown of Hayward, just south of Oakland, on January 7.
Activists are planning a rally to demand justice for Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland later in the day, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The protest was called by concerned community members and is spreading quickly by word of mouth.
Police brutality is nothing new in Oakland. In the last few years, a string of police killings have angered residents, including last spring’s shooting death of 15-year-old José Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez, which remains an open case, with no officers being accused of any wrongdoing.
“We have no intention of letting the cops off the hook,” said Dana Blanchard from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “The whole criminal injustice system is rotten, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure Oscar Grant’s death shines a light on it.”
* From Socialist Worker:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/...