The 2009 new year was brought in with a literal bang as 22 year-old father, Oscar Grant, was gunned down by Oakland subway police officer on the first day of the new year. The killing sparked public outrage and disbelief that these acts of police brutality still exist and in such an audacious manner. Blogs, newspapers and television reports illustrate the message that the public is fed-up and change is necessary.
"There is a deep sense of outrage in the community, and we wait to hear BART’s plans to mend relations with its riders and shed light on the mysterious aspects of this tragic incident," reads a California Beat editorial posted on Jan. 6.
Prior to being killed, Grant was pulled from the Oakland BART subway with other young people ,being interrogated about a fight that had been reported in. As Grant and others were told to sit on the subway station floor as they were being questioned, onlookers took video footage on their cell phones. One onlooker was Katrina Vargas, whose footage has been shown nationally. Cell phone footage observed one BART subway police officer shoot Grant in the back as three police officers held Grant down with his hands behind his back and his face prone. Vargas kept her cell phone away from BART officers who had begun to confiscate cell phones from onlookers immediately after the shooting.
Grant's family attorney, John Burris, is seeking to get a court order dictating that BART transit turn over the cell phones and footage confiscated directly after the shooting. Burris also says that the family of Oscar Grant is seeking $25 million in damages against BART transit and prosecution of the officer who killed Burris, Johannes Mehsearle.
"That claim is based upon a wrongful death," Burris told reporters. "That the death was wrongfully done intentionally or negligently. There's a violation of his civil rights [because] excessive force was used on him. That is deadly force used when deadly force was not warranted," explained Burris.
Burris' nationally observed murder on camera has raised comparisons to the Rodney King beatings in the early 1990's and the later police shootings of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell. Yet, many believe this is worse, given its public face on video.
"I'm saddened," writes a poster on the popular blog the Huffington Post. " I've worked in law enforcement and never have I seen a case of blatant disregard for human life, like I saw in that video. What police officer pulls their weapon, releases the safety, and shoots a man that quickly, accidently? He needs to be fired, and charged with manslaughter. That is what I just witnessed, manslaughter."
Khadijah Ali-Coleman - Khadijah Ali-Coleman was the founding writer for the Youth Development site here on www.suite101.com. Khadijah Ali-Coleman is based in ...
