This incident horrifies me for so many reasons. I won’t get into them here but I will say that justice needs to be done.

I think that the reason people reacted so violently is because they are tired of being afraid. Any black man that says he is not nervous when he must deal with police is a liar. I believe the crowd wanted the police to feel just a little bit of the fear that blacks live with everyday. I am not justifying the violence but I think that it must be understood that the rage must go somewhere. You can only swallow so much for so long.

“Any black man that says he is not nervous when he must deal with police is a liar.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

And I understand what you’re saying, and understand the rage behind the rioters actions. Ten years ago, I very well may have responded the same way. What hit me, though, was that a black-owned business, a symbol of black pride and self-sufficiency, was negatively affected by this as well. I guess I just wish we could channel our anger a little more effectively.

That is horrific. This is done at a train station? In front of an entire train full of people? Wow.

Immediately after the murder, the officers attempted to take the video recorders of the people on the train, but luckily it started to pull out of the station before they could. Their first instinct was to try and COVER UP what had happened — it’s outrageous.

The cop needs to be behind bars point blank. I read today that two rioter or vandals if you prefer were arrested & arraigned for exciting violence.

Frustrated negro citizens get brought up on charges with the quickness & white murderous cop get desk duty, paid leave, consoled by co-workers.

WTF is wrong with this picture???

I don’t care that he quit his job either, it shows nothing.

Did you hear about this case, which is similar but more bullets in the back? http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/09/new.orleans.shooting/index.html

Tafari

I’m sure the officers wanted those videos and photos so they could conduct a full and impartial internal investigation of the shooting.

I’m sure it had nothing to do with an instinctive response to try like hell for damage control after some utter asshole executed a prisoner in front of witnesses.

I also sure do wish that the demo on Wed night had more carefully distinguished between BART and its administration and Oakland and its downtown. Yes, the OPD have their very own set of grotesque incompetence, corruption and murder issues.

Oakland students are planning a demo on Monday – I work in the Fruitvale and have seen flyers taped up calling for a walkout. (And they do look like they were produced by students, rather than an outside group – students in the Fruitvale district have been doing some political mobilizations for a while now, around the war, around immigrants rights, and now around this.)

I particularly hope that people will attend – en fucking masse – the MLK commemoration BART plans or planned to have at its HQ

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2008/news20080114.aspx

I’ll be very interested in whether they go forward with this. I don’t have a suggestion on things to do while attending, but it looks like a must-attend to me.

Did you notice why that one guy yelled, “Hey! That’s fucked up!”? Before he shot Oscar Grant, that same cop punched the man to the right of Oscar when he stood up. You can tell this happened because that asshole liked to play tough macho man and brutalize people. Those young men were for the most part passive, with their hands raised not putting up a struggle. There was absolutely no reason to rough them up, to pull any kind of weapon on any of them, and definitely not to shoot and execute any of them. Unless you’re a tough macho man who likes to overpower and beat on people for fun.

Kevin, thanks for posting about this. I had no idea until I read your blog. I’m posting some links at my place.

@Kevin: It’s quite criminal is what it is. I’m sure that train was full of people from teens to the old and they came out for fun but ended up witnessing a murder. I’d like to see what judge is going to let him off after killing someone who was handcuffed behind his back and prone on his belly. Unfortunately, stranger things have happened.

I have been a Georgia law enforcement officer since 1984 and after watching this video I am truly sickened at that officer’s actions. We have to hold ourselves to a “higher” standard and what he did was just wrong. Now is the time for the authorities in Oakland to show the public that we live under the same laws as the public and the officer who pulled that trigger needs to be held accountable for his action. I will add this tough – if one person of a certain race pulls a trigger against another race does that make all of that race guilty. So if one wrong officer pulls a trigger wrongly that does not make all in uniform of the same moral character. My respects to the Grant family and I pray that they will find some justice in the tragedy they have suffered.

Shae Shae,
Unfortunately, it won’t be a judge deciding the case… it will be a jury of 12 persons. And who knows who these 12 persons are. And based on the comments I have read, some saying it was Oscar’s fault for “putting himself in police contact”… who knows what will happen. I hope for the best, but I won’t be surprised if the officer gets off. Not one bit surprised.

How could a man handcuffed be a threat, why was a gun ever brought into the equation. Very very sad!!

Not to take the cofficers side but I really hope to god he shot this man by acident. I have never in my life seen anything like this. Never. And I really can’t believe only one cop was charges. I saw more on that vid than a cop shoot an unarmed man. They hit him, held his head down with a knee and then shot him. WTF was that? And you wanna know why people riot? Don’t get me wrong we do not need to get angree and start running around tearing shit up. We do have the power to stop these things from happening. But for the most part we get mad run around tearing up shit then go home and forget about these events ever happened. At least untill the next black mad is killed unjustly. We don’t even see the real power that we have. This event should have made national headlines. Instead I heard it from a guy who heard it from another guy who say it online.? Hell youtube is better than CNN and we control the content of youtub. Not the masses. So if we really want to be heard lets get online and make some noise. Its is not to late. The whole country is ready for a change. Not just is goverment but everywhere