Mr. Oscar Grant of Hayward, California, an unarmed man was shot and killed by a police officer on January 1, 2009. This young man was 22 years old, a father, a son, a brother, a companion, a nephew, a cousin, and man of faith. He loved his daughter, his family and his life. He understood the responsibility that stood before him and suddenly his life was no more.
As the story of this young man's life travels around the national scene, his family and friends are left without answers to why he was gunned down. Yes, many were present on that platform in the last moments of his life and those who loved him most are left to wonder why his life stopped so suddenly and senselessly. Abuse of power, overreaction, anxiety, police brutality, murder, undue remarks yelled at Oscar, and rashness has left his daughter fatherless and his parents grieving over his loss.
How do you explain to this little girl that her daddy will never hold her in his arms, give her a kiss or celebrate another day with her? How do you comfort the hearts of his sister, his mother, the woman he desired to marry and every person that knew him? How do you explain why an unarmed man, defenseless person, lying face down on a platform, surrounded by multiple police officers and witnesses and confused as to why out of the three men sitting against the wall he was selected out of the crowd to be talked to, to be forced to lie face down, shot and died? How do you explain why this officer made no official statement, quit his job, refused to cooperate with company investigators, and immediately detained counsel? Why would the other six officers give immediate statements and the officer who pulled the gun and fired the shot, not instantly but with pause first have nothing to say? Every officer to my recollection that has ever shot a man and claimed it to be an accident has quickly defended himself or herself against these allegations and issued a statement.
There are many witnesses, videos, and other victims that have come forward. I pray that the family of Oscar Grant gets justice on his behalf, their behalf and on behalf of his little girl. She has forever lost her daddy. What was his crime on January 1, 2009? There is nothing that indicates that Mr. Oscar Grant had did anything but been aboard a train, where a fight happened to occur, but he didn't have any involvement. Out of all of the people aboard this train, why was he targeted? Why were the other young men not asked to lay face down sitting beside him? Where were the rest of the hundreds of riders aboard the train that night? I pray for peace, comfort and fairness for this family.
I am terribly curious, so I'll simply ask. Were you there?
The official statement appears to be that the gun went off during the process of cuffing Mr. Grant - and as eager as I am to believe that someone just wanted to shoot someone, I'd like proof.
All of the evidence you offered was filled with emotion, anecdote, and was rather unfactual. To be clear, I didn't even know who Oscar Grant was (as I've been avoiding the news) until I read this and then had to go read the news.
The videos of the shooting are curious to me - if someone was getting shot, why would the other officers allow people to record it? If I were going to kill someone in cold blood, I would probably make sure I wasn't caught on tape.
Just my initial thoughts. I'll probably form more of an opinion after reading and watching a little more.
-acertainsaint-
You can look up the story and watch video about it on both youtube (video of the actual shooting) as well as Cnn.com for more info about the story and everything that occurred.
There were three cops and only one pulled his gun and shot him. If there are three cops, don't you think they would have been able to subdue him? And if he really posed that much of a threat (which I'm pretty sure he didn't since he was just sitting on the ground as they instructed him to do), wouldn't all three have drawn their guns and proceeded to talk him down or fire if they couldn't control him?
Furthermore, last I heard, the cop who shot him fled the state and was later arrested and charged with murder.
And finally, while I'm not sure that the cops were even aware they were being taped, I don't think that would deter some cops. We've had cases before with clear-cut evidence of what occurred (MURDER) and cops are protected and covered. Just a thought.
P.S. don't think I'm attacking you or cops, as i have several loved ones that serve and protect, but it had to be said.
This young man was 22 years old, a father, a son, a brother, a companion, a nephew, a cousin, and man of faith.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but Mr. Grant was ALSO a convicted felon who had only four months earlier finished an 16 month prison sentence for fleeing police while armed with a loaded pistol. So please don't do us the disservice of pretending that this guy was some kind of angel.
THAT BEING SAID, however, the initial evidence does seem to indicate that Officer Mehserle's use of deadly force was unwarranted (and that's putting it mildly). The mere fact that the officer has been charged with murder (which is extremely rare in California) would seem to indicate that the appropriate departments are taking the incident VERY seriously, and rightly so.
In my opinion, the officer is probably guilty as charged and should be punished accordingly. Whether that case can be made in court, however, remains to be seen.
TTFN,
Blackout
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A question of love.
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
Thank you for posting this, for the simple fact that getting the word out about cases like this (and there are several) and getting the word out about police brutality is important, and it provides a great service for creating awareness. Thank you again.
I'm sick of people pussy-footing around this issue. Who gives a flying fuck about Grant's jail time or criminal past. This man was killed when he possed no threat to three armed officers or anyone around him. Not everyone's life in this country is valued. Point Blank. Like the range this young man was shot at. I saw this posting while reading a "similar post" by mjh7: http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/51220-would-cops-shoot-president-obama-...
you may enjoy it as i did. H
Who gives a flying fuck about Grant's jail time or criminal past.
It becomes relevant when someone tries to evoke extra sympathy by misrepresenting the victim's character.
This man was killed when he possed no threat to three armed officers or anyone around him.
Based on the limited evidence that is available to us, I would tend to agree.
Not everyone's life in this country is valued.
That's just about as gross of an over-generalization as I've ever heard, and it would seem to be contradicted by the fact that the State of California is pursuing a murder charge on the officer.
TTFN,
Blackout
---
A question of love.
---
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
A simliar blog inspired this thought. Because it is appropriate I'll repost it here :
I'd like to add, i'm soooo sick of people acting like when people (esp in the public sector) do the bare minimum, when they do what they are supposed to do, we are supposed to pat them on the back. BULLSHIT. case in point, the state of CA "pursuing" charges of murder on the murderer of Oscar Grant. well duh, that's what should happen, i'm not gonna give them bonus points for doing the right thing! that makes them feel like they can continue to do the wrong thing and toss us bones of "justice" sporadically. go above and beyond so that this doesnt happen any more. make an initiative, do something so that police brutality and murder rates go down! and stop blaming the dead because u feel they deserved to be killed with out going to court, and letting the police but judge jury and executioner, that is NOT OK
FOR THE RECORD (another DUH moment) you can be a "a father, a son, a brother, a companion, a nephew, a cousin, and man of faith." AND an ex-felon concurrently (at the same time) NO ONE deserves (constitutionally for those who base their stock SOLELY in that) to be murdered by the police when their is no chance of them harming anyone else that is a fact not some silly form of extra sympathy.
i'm not gonna give them bonus points for doing the right thing!
No one is suggesting that you should. However, it seems strange and even a bit counter-production to criticize the State when the DO actually "do the right thing."
FOR THE RECORD (another DUH moment) you can be a "a father, a son, a brother, a companion, a nephew, a cousin, and man of faith." AND an ex-felon concurrently (at the same time)
You could be, sure...but I doubt seriously that anyone involved in this discussion knew the victim well enough to provide us with a credible personal insight into that matter. But let me ask you...why even bring that up at all? If you really believe that...
NO ONE deserves (constitutionally for those who base their stock SOLELY in that) to be murdered by the police
...then what possible relevance could that information have in determining the factors regarding the alleged crime?
when their is no chance of them harming anyone else that is a fact not some silly form of extra sympathy.
Speaking of "BULLSHIT"...a plea for sympathy is EXACTLY what that was. Justice is supposed to be blind. The felon and the philantropist should receive the same treatment, and it shouldn't matter who they are or what they do. And call me crazy, but I hate liars and I can't stand bloggers who try to manipulate the opinions of their readers by only giving them the carefully selected bits of information which would predispose their readers to agree with them. The only reason to bring up the victim's character was to evoke sympathy, and to do so dishonestly brings the credibility of that plea into question.
If you want to discuss whether or not it was wrong and illegal to shot the victim, I have already agreed to that insofar as our our limited access to the evidence would suggest the probable guilt of the officer. But that wasn't the pont of my criticism, with was to remind the blogger that being outraged doesn't excuse them from having to make their case in an objective and truthful matter. If you can't sell your argument to the readers without relying on spin and other dishonest methods of presenting one's point-of-view, then there's probably something wrong with what you're selling.
TTFN,
Blackout
---
A question of love.
---
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.