Justice for Oscar Grant? It's up to Jerry Brown

On New Year's Eve, Oscar Grant was executed by a transit police officer in Oakland, California. He was shot in the back while face-down on a subway platform, unarmed and posing no threat.

Twelve days later--despite several videos showing what happened--the officer who killed Grant hasn't been arrested, charged, or even questioned. He quit the force and has refused to speak. The District Attorney has done nothing.

It's time to demand that California Attorney General Jerry Brown take over the case and arrest Grant's killer, and to ask that the US Department of Justice launch an independent investigation into the conduct of the local authorities.

Oscar Grant is the third man murdered by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police in the past 17 years. All three victims were Black and none posed a serious threat. In each case, BART and county authorities have failed to hold the officers accountable.

In the previous cases, BART's internal investigations concluded that the officers felt threatened by the victims and were justified in pulling the trigger. It's unbelievable given the circumstances of the killings:

• In 1992, 19-year-old Jerrold Hall was shot in the back by a BART officer as he tried to leave the parking lot of a station. The officer was responding to reports of an armed robbery and said he suspected that Hall and a friend were involved. The officer tried to detain the two, Hall ran and then the officer shot him in the back and killed him. Hall was unarmed, but the officer said he thought Hall was on his way to get a gun and return for a showdown.
• In 2001, a mentally ill man named Bruce Seward was the next victim of the rogue force. Seward, 42, was naked and had been sleeping on a bench outside the BART station when an officer approached him. Seward did grab the officer's nightstick at one point, but there were several options for subduing him. Instead, the officer shot and killed him.

In addition to BART's internal investigation, Alameda County's District Attorney is also investigating Oscar Grant's murder--but the office's record on investigating police killings is horrible too. In both cases just described, the District Attorney bought BART's argument that the officers felt threatened. As a result, the cops were cleared of any wrongdoing.

In the case of Grant's murder, the DA has already let 12 days pass while doing essentially nothing--the officer who killed Grant is able to travel and leave the state, and he's free to talk with other officers and attempt to construct a story to justify his killing of Oscar Grant.

The problem with Alameda County's DA goes beyond BART police murders. In the past two years alone, there have been 11 fatal police shootings in Oakland (not including that of Oscar Grant). When asked, the officials at the District Attorney's office could not remember a single case in the last 20 years where an on-duty cop had been charged in a fatal shooting in Alameda County. It gives the clear appearance that the District Attorney's office just doesn't have the will to prosecute police crimes.

California's Attorney General needs to step in now and arrest Oscar Grant's murderer. And the US Department of Justice should investigate the failure of the authorities in Alameda County to act. It's the first step towards justice. After that, we will push for systemic changes to create public accountability for BART and other police departments. Creating those structural changes will be a much longer fight, but Oscar Grant's tragic death is a wake-up call that should give us a real chance to help prevent this from happening again.

You can sign ColorOfChange.org's petition to CA Attorney General Jerry Brown and the US Department of Justice here

Comments

[jdboone369]

Where is my sticker James Rucker? People do not trust the man, he is what was known in the '70s as a poverty pimp. He is not to be trusted.

[jdmba]

This would not have happened under Kamala Harris' watch.

[adawg]

wow! look at that. officer arrested and we didn't even have to contact jerry brown. imagine that! i told everyone that justice would come through and it did.

[ErikW65]

-btw thank you Mr. Rucker for the post keeping this story up front, just before the arrest of officer Johannes Mehserle, and also posting the history of shootings in the area, to put this in context.

It's too bad they waited so long, giving him time to tailor his story to the evidence. He will probably try to claim he grabbed his pistol by mistake, meaning instead to have fired his taser... but I'm relieved that the charge is MURDER, not merely manslaughter.

[caligirl48]

YES!!!! Thank you Mr. Rucker for getting this out front. I am a Bay Area resident and I, too,am glad. It has been very tense around here. I was afraid that there would be no arrest and the minor unrest that occured last week would escalate into something we haven't seen in Oakland since the Black Panthers squared off in a shootout with OPD. However, the charge is not murder, but an open warrant listing Homicide. This leaves it open for the DA to prosecute on the basis of murder (probably 2nd degree) or manslaughter (voluntary or involutary). Unfortunately, I don't think they will prosecute on 1st degree, nonetheless, this needs to be prosecuted. The BART cop that killed Mr. Hall in 1992 was exonerated on nothing more than being a 'brother in blue', alas, he could not live with his deed and committed suicide. I very much want to see some justice in this case.

[ErikW65]

Thanks, CaliGirl48. Yeah, I guess the use of the term "suspicion" (of murder) should have tipped me off to that finer point. I had debated murder vs. manslaughter earlier, but didn't get into the degrees of murder.

[ErikW65]

Update: the officer was arrested in Nevada: "BART officer arrested on murder warrant in NY Day shooting"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/13/BAM615A08A.DTL

[RoloTomassi]

This ultimately is a symptom of a larger national problem. Since Nixon began with increases in law enforcement personnel, with each administration the idiocy has continued and increased. These people are not adequately trained, and are immediately introduced into a "Us vs Them" mindset, a mode of operation that has produced a national crisis in law enforcement. These guys, particularly in large urban environments, are out to 1) play every angle possible for profit, and 2) cover each other's crimes against the public, and 3) provide prosecutors with evidence and testimony that corroborates the assertions of their cases [be it factual or not].

No doubt there are police officers who take their jobs seriously and who are truly trying to serve the public, but within this corrupt culture such non-standard attitudes rarely survive the test of time, and when they do these people are isolated and/or marginalized to the point of ineffectiveness.

We've come to accept the notion that these civil servants must do what they have to do to survive--and that applies to the financial aspect as well--and so being good and violent capitalists, they turn to methods of corruption that are available only to people in positions of authority.

And so when an officer uses deadly force when it is uncalled for--in most any city, in most any situation--his fellow officers and the legal system do their best to cover it up.

[praire2paradise]

I know Jerry Brown. He's a man of integrity and a rare public servant. He should be trustred to make some sense out of this tragedy and to serve justice as well as it can be served.

[Robert2664]

The only if anyone thinks that because there's video that justice will be served remember rodney king there was video there too and we all know how that worked out. We all know that if you are of color i.e.
blk/hispanic your an endangered species not that the folks in blue are the only culprits we do enough of extermenating each other ourselves without anyone else's help.But that does not give the police or anyother law officer bart cop or not the right to shoot someone in the back who is allready handcuffed
on the ground.But also it does not give the people the right to destroy anyone's property just because we're mad.

[ruweusmaximus]

Demand justice! Sign the petition.

[MBryant]

If this is in Jerry Brown's hands.. it's in good hands. The nation may not have a better public servant.

[singforpeace]

Thank you for your blog post. It is profoundly troubling that we continue to have this type of blatant abuse of power by law enforcement. Thank goodness for cell phones video. There is no denying what witnesses saw. To see this young man murdered-- no--assassinated in full view of witnesses is beyond horrifying. As one other commentor noted, if the officer was going for his taser, the question remains, WHY? The man was clearly under their control, not fighting. So why was any additional force necessary? And why is a taser so close to the gun on the belt that such a mistake could be made (if it was a mistake). I am on your listserv and have already signed the petition and posted it on my Facebook page. Thanks for the good work!

[adawg]

This tragedy must not go unpunished. The officer involved, while intentional or not, must stand trial for his wrongdoing. There are a few things worth mentioning:

The officers investigating this JUST got done with the paperwork and turned the case over to the DA on Monday. From there the DA has to review it, conduct their own work, and then decide to go to trial. To call for immediate action by the state Attorney General is too sudden a move. I would rather see the DA do the right thing in this case and I think it is important to allow them time to do so.

Drawing attention to the fact that Mr. Grant is the 3rd black man to be killed by BART in 17 years doesn’t draw a conclusion that there is a discriminatory institution, which it seems to me you are trying to portray. Such a thing is very much unfair to the hard working officers at BART and I hope this is only a misunderstanding on my part.

Furthermore, you bring up the fact that in two years that there have been 11 fatal police shootings in Oakland. None of these officers were charged with wrongdoing, and you then conclude that it is the fault of the DA for not prosecuting. I don’t suppose that these shootings could have been the officers exercising their highly trained judgment in situations that they felt either threatened themselves or others could it?

[RoloTomassi]

"I don"t suppose that these shootings could have been the officers exercising their highly trained judgment in situations that they felt either threatened themselves or others could it?"

Of course it could have been that scenario, but when you see this kind of response to what obviously not that kind of scenario, then it is more than reasonable to question other police shootings. When an incident such as Oscar Grant's shooting is handled so, doesn't it stand to reason that there might be other shooting incidents that are never adequately questioned because there was no video of the incident to draw attention?

Clearly, if there had been no video, this shooting would have been explained away for the officer's benefit.

[xs10shl1]

James Rucker, Thank You. I signed the petition. Thank You for being there.
I'm another who is terribly upset, not only by this horrifying and tragic occurrence, but by the inaction and the sluggish, almost shrugging-off attitude by officials of why this so-called officer hasn't been arrested. And the talk about "preventing this in the future." Excuse, but this is about THIS fatality, THIS cold-blooded murder of a citizen posing NO threat whatsoever and ABUSE of the worst kind by an authority person. Let's hope our outrage is heard and acted upon.
My sincere condolences to his Family and Community. So tragic.

[cheesewiz]

Why are so few people interested in this? A mere 20 comments? You bet this is far more troubling than gay marriage, yet so few seem to be enraged by the murder of this young man. I am having current trouble with Alameda County CPS which is notorious for its constant lying. What gives with this wacky county?

[DMSmith]

It makes not difference if he thought he was using a taser - Grant was on the floor, face down, hands behind his back being held down by several officers. There was no need to do ANYthing! The videos make at least THIS much clear.

They also make one other thing clear that nobody is talking about. Mr. Grant was killed, not by the original shot, but by the ricochet off the cement floor of the station. Now...think about this...Mr. Grant was being held down by at least three other officers. In other words, several officers were directly in line of a ricochet!! Any officer who used a gun in these circumstances should be prosecuted for endangering his fellow officers, in addition to the murder of Oscar Grant!!

[vedder110]

How does the video make it clear he was killed by a ricochet? This is the first I've heard of this. Very interesting.

[VideoHammer]

Early reports aledged that the bullet passed through Grant, bounced off the floor, in two pieces, then passed through Grant again. It's part of the on going coverage.