Thousands oppose police brutality

Oakland, Cal.--On the early morning of Jan. 1, 2009, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police pulled several young Black men off a train supposedly for fighting. Oscar Grant was lying face down on the platform with his hands cuffed behind his back when Officer Mehserle pulled out his gun and shot him in the back, killing him. The initial reaction of the authorities was for Oakland Police Department (OPD) to say they have no jurisdiction, because the incident took place at a BART station. BART failed to even take a statement from their own officers. Instead, they claimed they didn't know what happened, because the cameras pointing at the platform supposedly only transferred images to the agent on duty, that they did not record.

There were, however, videos taken by other passengers. The lack of response by anyone in authority angered many. Thousands came out on Jan. 9 to the Fruitvale BART station shutting it down for hours, then marching to city hall. At the end of the demonstration windows of downtown businesses were smashed and a trash container was set on fire. Another demonstration was called for Jan. 14. That morning police finally arrested Mehserle, hoping to defuse the situation. Thousands came again to city hall to demand justice for Oscar Grant. Following are statements from protesters. --Editors

I feel that the authorities could be doing a better job right now. As for BART and OPD working together, that would be a great thing, but I honestly don't think that this issue is going to be dealt with in a way that will satisfy the public if we leave it in the hands of BART and OPD. We need to bring in some third party resources to get this job done, to get it resolved quickly.

Almost everybody has seen the videos (of Mehserle shooting Oscar Grant). We know what we saw. But we can't jump to conclusions. From what I saw, it could be that the officer didn't mean to do it. I don't know what was in his mind. He needs to make a statement about what happened, come out and say you're sorry. If it was a mistake, taking a human life is a pretty terrible mistake. How do you live with yourself?

I don't know BART procedures. Even if they were justified in pulling the youth off the train, using excesive force after they subdued them was clearly wrong.

--M. A.

* * *

We need justice for Oscar. It is not fair how they look at people based on color, especially in Oakland. It is one thing to arrest him. It is quite different to shoot a man lying on his stomach with his hands cuffed. We can't live like this, we can't let the police get away with it as though nothing happened. That will just let them continue to do what they're doing. We have to put a stop to it.

--A Youth Together student from Mission High School

* * *

We are protesting more than the murder of Oscar Grant. What is important is people coming together to protest injustice, to confront it, to organize, to make a change.

I don't expect anything but cosmetic changes to come out from this particular campaign around Oscar Grant. They will treat it as an isolated, individual event and try to appease it as that. But people coming together like this creates a space where other questions can be raised, other issues brought up and challenged.

I would like to see a challenge to the way police create a state of emergency in poor Black communities and specifically target young Black men. I would like to see a challenge to the state and the way the state is operating, the systems and levels on which it functions.

Just putting Mehserle in prison will not do that. There needs to be another way to hold them accountable. We need to come together and shut down the city. The powerful thing about this demonstration is that right now everything is shutting down in downtown Oakland. Downtown Oakland represents big business. When big business' money stops moving then they take notice, they treat it as a crisis, as an important issue.

These kinds of things are going to keep happening. As we are pulling out of the war in Iraq, there are other wars popping up around the world. The governments are attempting to suppress, not the murders or the deaths, but the attention that is going to these issues. We are going to see more violence here, because you can't have violence all around the world and not have violence at home.

So we will continue to see police incidents like this, and other episodes of violence, especially in such a desperate time for the economy when everyone is stretched as thin as they can be.

We are tracked into a culture of coming out to complain and then going home. But we could shut down the state functions and cripple the state to the point that they will have to recognize and actually confront the issues at hand.

--Hannibal

* * *

BART officials want to justify the shooting by claiming the officer "may have made a mistake, that he was only reaching for his Taser." How in the world can anyone justify using even a Taser when a man is already down? There is absolutely no justification.

Officer Mehserle merely pulled the trigger. But the system was already there. He was nothing more than a cog in its wheel. He essencially did only what he was trained to do. Not to "protect and serve" but to kill. How is his training any different from all the "trained" youth sent to Iraq? Too many youth like Oscar Grant get killed in the U. S. streets. Killed by yet too many youth carrying guns, regardless whether they are wearing the badge or not. Real justice needs to go a lot deeper, all the way to the roots. Focus on the system, not just the individual culprit.

--T. C.

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