When I was in Southern California there was a truly bewildering story of a man who dressed up as Santa and murdered nine members of his ex-wife’s family, and when I came back to the Bay Area I read about something even more disturbing. In the past week the most bizarre and tragic story in the Bay Area has been the shooting of 22 year old Oscar Grant by a young BART police officer. I only saw the more “conclusive” cellphone videos today and I have to say it is truly incomprehensible. The young man was clearly on the ground and secured by more than one officer, and then the second officer stands up and pulls out his gun and fires into the victim’s back. It took several seconds for the officer to take out the gun and the whole thing really looked like an execution and it is just unbelievable.
A lot of people including myself are wondering why the officer did what he did. Apparently in the past there had been two more incidents where BART police blew away unarmed people, but this is the first time when citizen reporting with cellphone cameras have brought so much attention to a BART shooting. According to this blogpost the police immediately started to confiscate cameras after the incident, but a few people managed to keep their phones since their traincar left the station just in time. Technology has made it possible for everyday folks to watch the watchmen, and that is comforting and yet disturbing at the same time.
The aftermath of the incident is yet to be played out.   Right now there is a protest at the Fruitvale BART station and trains are passing the station in both directions. According to IndyMedia more than 500people have showed up around 6pm and the station was closed since protesters blocked the fare gates. The protest is scheduled to last another 2 hours.
Then there is the lawsuit a lawyer filed on behalf of the family. The family is seeking $25 million dollars from BART, and it’s sad to say that this will be a Pyrrhic victory at best since no amount of money will bring Oscar Grant back. BART could probalby cover the costs of the lawsuit with their liability insurance, but I am sure more public funds will be spent and ridership might even decrease a bit. This is not good for the public since BART is such a vital service for so many people here in the Bay Area, but there has to be some accountability.
These horrible stories just show that you may never know when you will meet your maker, and you are never as safe as you think. The police are supposed to be peace keepers, but some people let power get to their heads. The classic Stanford Prison Experiment showed that ordinary people who are put in positions above others stepped over the boundaries and I am sure it happens every single day. Thankfully the internet gives the people a little bit of power back.
Finally, I offer my condolences to both the families of Oscar Grant and the officer. I hope noone else gets hurt in the midst of this and we don’t have full scale Rodney King-esque riots here.
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3 comments ↓
I was disgusted when i seen the video of Oscar Grant beign shot at Bart train staion, on youtube. Like to start of with sending out my condolences to grants family and his daughter he leaves behind, its a sad loss. How can this of happend? The officer is a coward, shooting a man in cold blood whos on the ground with his face to the floor.. Scum. He must! be charged, cause if that was you or me we’d be in jail by now. Something must be done..
Come to Tennessee (no state taxes) — we’d love to have you!
Jeff.
Do a little research on who Oscar Grant actually was. A 23 year old with an extensive juvenile and adult arrest record and jail time in 2007 and 2008. According to Dept. of Corrections and Almeda Country Courthouse he had 12 separate criminal cases heard there between 2004 and 2008. For fun on New Years eve he and his friends haunted Bart trains and scared the crap out of people, myself included. I am not Oscar Grant and, God willing, neither are most of you.
What the police officer did was get WAY too jumpy with the crowd of gang bangers and pissed off New Years eve revelers pushing, screaming, threatening and jumping at them. Of course he shouldn’t have shot him, but it wasn’t racism it was pure panic. And don’t say I don’t know what I’m talking about cuz I was there! I just about pissed my pants with how scary the crowd was that night.
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