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We Are All Oscar Grant

On June 12, 2011, a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, a diverse crowd of people

gathered outside the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, California to protest the

release from prison of BART police officer, Johannes Mehserle, who shot OscarGrant III January 1, 2009 at the Fruitvale BART Station. Mehserle was released

Monday at exactly 12:01 a.m. after serving eleven months of his two year

sentence. The jury determined that Mehserle, 29, was guilty of involuntary

manslaughter and using a firearm in the commission of a crime. Mehserle could

have faced a maximum of fourteen years in prison but in his eternal wisdom, Judge

Robert Perry sentenced him to two years, which is the minimum sentence for his

conviction. On the day of sentencing, Judge Perry threw out the gun enhancement

charge, declaring to the jury and courtroom that he was troubled by the jurys

findings".

At the time of the shooting, Grant was lying on the ground of the BART station

face down, with his arms behind his back and he was surrounded by at least three

other officers. The incident was captured on the video feature of many cell phone

cameras. The BART police handled the situation by closing the doors of the train,

moving it on to the next station, and unjustly confiscating peoples cell phones, so

that the video could not be released to the public. Fortunately, with the many

forms of modern technology that humans now have at their disposal, it is almost

impossible to hide the truth of the misdeeds of our public officials, such as our

police officers, politicians, and religious personalities. The video was leaked ontoYouTube and within a few hours, the video had gone viral.

Mehserle has insisted since the beginning that he did not intentionally shoot Oscar

Grant. He claims that he mistook his service weapon, a Glock pistol, for his X26

Taser. This is very odd because those two items are very different and it would not

be easy to mistake the sleek grip of a hand-gun for the bulkier feel of a Taser. The

manual for the Taser X26 reports that the weapon weighs seven ounces, while the

average weight of a Glock pistol is at a minimum over twenty ounces. The really

strange and therefore suspicious fact is that most police issued Glocks are a verydark color, usually midnight black, while the Taser X26 has bright yellow

markings on its surface and also has a two-digit LED screen. The difference

between the two weapons is a vast chasm where Oscar Grants blood pooled and

immediately stained Mehserles defense of mistaking the weapons in the heat of

the moment. Regardless of what was happening, Mehserle was a trained officer

that should have been able to keep his wits about him in this type of situation. It is

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true that there were many passengers on the train at the time of the shooting, but

none were on the platform. Three officers shown on the video backed him up and

there is no way of knowing how many other officers were in the station at the

time. Grant was face down, arms behind his back, possibly handcuffed when

Mehserle "accidentally" pulled the trigger.

The injustice of the case brought protesters to the street even before the trial,

conviction, and release. Downtown Oakland erupted in chaos and anarchy the

night after the shooting occurred and other violent protests took place throughout

the past two years in Oakland.On Sunday, as protestors gathered at the Fruitvale

BART station, almost a hundred officers watched the crowd for any signs of

trouble.As the Police Helicopters flew through the air, a dozen police motorcycles

readied themselves to escort the protest marchers down International Boulevard to

the Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland and the protesters blocked off the

corner of Broadway and 14th. Many stores closed early and some even boardedtheir doors and windows to protect against the damage they had suffered from

previous protests. The only business open in the immediate area was Pizza Man,

who did a brisk trade with the hungry protesters. At least ten unmarked units were

present, along with many patrol cars. Undercover police officers floated through

the crowd at the rally, obvious with their noticeable ear pieces stuck deep within

their ears. The police expected the worst, even as the speakers and family

members asked for peace and nonviolence during the march. The rally and March

did end peacefully, with only one arrest made.The people made their voice heard

and demanded justice for Oscar Grant legitimately.

A family from Stockton, California also spoke to the crowd Sunday

afternoon. Their son, James Rivera, Jr. was shot and killed by Stockton Police

Officers Eric Azarvand, a fourteen-year department veteran; Gregory Dunn, who

has been with the department for eight years and San Joaquin County Sheriff's

Deputy John T. Nesbitt, who has eleven years at the San Joaquin Sheriff's

Department. Rivera, 16, of Stockton, had already escaped from the San Joaquin

County Juvenile Hall, where he was being held on felony charges. While on the

run, Rivera was suspected of committing new crimes and when the Stockton Police

spotted him in North Stockton driving a minivan, the police and Rivera becameentangled in a high speed chase. The officers intentionally caused a collision and

Rivera lost control of the van. It slammed into the garage of a residence, which the

police quickly surrounded, and when the van began to reverse out of the hole in the

garage, the officers opened fire into the back of the vehicle. James Rivera, Jr. was

struck many times and died because the police officers said that they feared for

their lives. Neighbors of the house where the shooting took place claimed that the

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officers had an M16 assault rifle with armor piercing bullets at the scene. Stockton

Police Department spokesman Pete Smith denied that armor piercing bullets were

used. "There's absolutely no validity to that," said Smith. "An M-16 rifle was not

fired at that vehicle or used at that scene."

This incident and many more throughout the State of California has certainly

brought to light the Gestapo tactics employed by the police. The Central Valley is

an area where many shootings have occurred, with little or no repercussions for the

officers. An organizational speaker at the protest rally was quoted as saying they

operate by being blue by day and white by night, implying that the police

sponsored and participated in violence against innocent citizens. The family of

James Rivera, Jr and the family of Oscar Grant III have both filed civil lawsuits

against the police, in an effort to find Justice that has been denied to them so far.

I do believe the shooting of Oscar Grant was an accident; there was nopremeditation on the part of Mehserle and I sincerely doubt that he went to work

that night, New Years Eve, with the intention of killing a young black male, but

the tragedy of this story is the immediate lies and the cover-up. Mehserle had his

pistol out because that is what officers are trained to do. I am not sure why the

safety of his pistol was not engaged at the time of the shooting or even why he had

his finger on the trigger because when you are pointing a gun at someone, you

never touch the trigger unless you intend to use it.

An innocent person shot by the police is not new. Despite what color you are, ifyou are poor or just happen to make a horrible, stupid mistake, there is constant,

continuous police harassment. A sad truth is that some, but not all, of the police

are not there to help, as they claim, but rather to judge whether or not you belong

in the system. Once in the system, certain aspects of your life are basically

ruined. You can overcome it sometimes, but many folks climb to the top, only to

slide right back down, a product of their environment. I am white, but throughout

my life, most of my friends are people of color. I grew up in Stockton, where the

police are notorious for shooting first and asking questions later. I have witnessed

horrible things the police have done to my friends. An old roommate of mine in

West Oakland was once pulled over at a liquor store and he exited out of his carbefore he realized the police were there. A woman police officer ran over to him

with her gun pointed at him, screaming that he needed to get back in his car or she

would shoot him. She then dragged him out of his car, pulled down his pants and

boxers in the middle of rush hour traffic on College Avenue, informing him at the

same time that he was lucky that she was not a rookie because she would have

probably shot him and added she would have been justified.

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I happen to carry a KA-Bar knife that hangs from my belt. I wear this knife every

day; it is sort of a good luck charm and in California, it is completely legal to carry

as long as it is in full view, which is how I have always carried it. My wearing it

sort of tests any police officer who sees me as to whether or not my civil rights will

be upheld. One day a while ago, I stepped outside of my house to speak to several

Stockton Police Officers who were there because of a possible domestic

incident. Walking toward the four police officers, I voiced a greeting but before I

was through with the sentence, they had pulled their guns out and told me to put

my hands in the air. The police then detained me, taking the knife, and cuffing my

hands behind my back, all the while informing me that they could have shot me

right then and there and that they would have been completely justified. My

mother was a witness that I had done nothing wrong, nor had I even reached for the

knife. I argued with the officers about this and they all insisted that shooting me

would have been within their rights of deadly force, even though the knife was

legal and not in any way concealed.

This incident astonished me and proved that the mentality of the police is twisted

and maliciously deformed when it comes to the rights of the innocent citizens that

they are here to "Serve and Protect". I do not find it surprising that many Police

Departments have removed the decal on their patrol cars that used to say to

Protect and Serve because that is no longer their intention. In that, at least they

are being honest.

Andrew N. Farrens

June 15, 2011