Protesters yell during a demonstration against the shooting death of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. Grant was shot and killed by a police officer after an altercation on a BART train station platform in Oakland on New Year's Day. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Fatal Calif. train station shooting sparks anger
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer turned violent Wednesday night with windows broken, fires set and train stations closed.
A few hundred protesters took the streets of downtown Oakland to condemn the shooting and call for criminal charges against 27-year-old officer Johannes Mehserle. Oakland police reported at least 15 arrests.
Mehserle resigned from the transit agency shortly before he was supposed to be interviewed by investigators Wednesday.
Mehserle is accused of shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward, who was lying face-down on the station platform when he was shot and killed early New Year's Day. Mehserle was one of several officers responding to reports about groups of men fighting on a train.
Protesters gathered in the afternoon at the Fruitvale BART station where the shooting occurred. It was peaceful at first but began to turn nasty after a splinter group left that site and marched downtown.
Protesters set fire to a trash container and tried to overturn a police car, smashing the front window. Police attempted to disperse the crowd and smaller groups of protesters marched to different areas.
Some protesters threw bottles, a window of a fast-food restaurant and other downtown stores were smashed and a car was set on fire during the rampage. Police in riot gear threw tear gas to try to break up the demonstration.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums went to the protest scene Wednesday night to urge for calm. He and several council members then led a group toward City Hall and further addressed them.
"Even with our anger and our pain, let's still address each other with a degree of civility and calmness and not make this tragedy an excuse to engage in violence," Dellums said. "I don't want anybody hurt, I don't want anybody killed."
Grant's family has filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against BART and want prosecutors to file criminal charges against Mehserle.
Associated Press writer Evelyn Nieves contributed to this report.
Amnesty International Calls Oscar Grant Shooting a "Clear Cut Abuse of Power"
Contact: Wende Gozan at 212-633-4247 or Dalia Hashad at 202-675-8571
(Washington)--Oscar Grant, a 22-year old unarmed black man, was shot in the back by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer on New Year’s Day. On the day of his funeral, Dalia Hashad, director of Amnesty International USA’s identity-based discrimination program, released the following statement:
“When an unarmed man is shot in the back after police put him face down on the ground, it is the time for authorities to demand action, not patience. Days after the incident, the officer still has not been interviewed. The delay in this critical part of the investigation hints at the callousness to the worth of human life to a public that is all too familiar with racial profiling, police brutality and cover-ups. Whatever the final investigation reveals, the bottom line is that there is never justification to shoot an unarmed person, especially one who is restrained. It is an obvious violation of the most basic human rights standards, and a clear cut abuse of power.”
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20090107002&lang=e
BART shooting victim recalled with joy, tears
(01-07) 16:42 PST HAYWARD -- After his daughter was born four years ago, Oscar Grant kept on driving around with two huge pink flags on his car that proclaimed, "It's a girl," until the material disintegrated.He acted like an older brother to his sister, even though he was six years younger than her.
And he was such a dedicated fisherman that during a church trip, he dressed up in full angler's gear, complete with jacket, hat and 15-foot deep-sea fishing pole.
Those were some of the remembrances shared Wednesday as more than 800 friends, relatives and community members turned out at a memorial service for Grant, 22, of Hayward who was unarmed when he was shot and killed early New Year's Day by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.
The service was alternately somber and spirited. Many people wept as they went up to Grant's open casket, adorned with flowers inside Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward, which he attended since he was a child.
One woman wailed and was escorted outside. Later, the Rev. Ronald Coleman, buoyed by rousing gospel music, proclaimed, "Little Oscar was saved!"
Those who eulogized Grant did not address the shooting, which was captured on video by at least two BART riders and has stirred outrage among those who believe the incident was tantamount to an execution. At virtually the moment the service was getting under way, the lawyer and union representative for the officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, were submitting his resignation to BART officials.
Instead of voicing anger about his death, those closest to Grant spoke of his belief in God, his love of sports and his desire to someday marry Sophina Mesa, the mother of his daughter, Tatiana.
"To me, Oscar was a gift of life, the very apple of God's eye," said his aunt, Donna Smith, adding that Grant regarded her as "his second momma."
Some of the recollections were light-hearted. Eugene Carter, a church deacon, recalled a fishing trip in Tracy in which Grant carried a bucket. Carter wondered what was inside and came face to face with a "big old turtle" that Grant had caught.
Asked what he was going to do with it, Grant broke into a big grin and proclaimed, "I'm going to go home and eat it!"
Carter also recounted the time Grant tried to paint his house. "From now on, if I want my house painted, I'll call a professional," he said, drawing laughter.
But Grant was also a serious man, speakers said, who always looked people in the eye and meant what he said.
Lita Gomez, Mesa's sister, said "I want to challenge every young man here today: Let's keep Oscar's memory going. Make changes in your life, the changes that he was making in becoming a better man." Her comments were greeted with applause.
Grant's sister, Chantay Moore, 28, of Hayward, said her younger brother was protective of her, to the point of insisting that she change if she wasn't dressed modestly when she went out.
"We know Oscar is in heaven," Moore said. "We know he is in a better place. Anyone who knows Oscar knows he had your back to the end."
Some wept as pictures of Grant with Mesa and their daughter were shown on a big screen. Laughter rippled through the crowd when they saw photographs of Grant fishing and playing the drums when he was little.
Leslie Littleton, deputy chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, read a statement in which the mayor expressed his condolences.
"Our entire community grieves at the loss of Oscar Grant III," Dellums wrote. "I am profoundly saddened by the turn of events that resulted in the loss of a young man's life which has left a family and a community in mourning. Our hearts and deepest wishes for peace go out to the families and loved ones of all the parties involved in this tragic event."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/07/MNBI155AL6.DTL
We cannot expect to receive any reports except those that justify, excuse or minimize the killing of Oscar Grant by BART police at 2 a.m. New Year’s Day. It begins with the first report of an “officer-involved shooting”: a term that serves to evade the issue of circumvention of justice and remove the shocking lethality, while assigning the killer a passive role - reduced to merely being “involved” in some unstated way.
The Oakland Tribune story “Man dies in BART officer-involved shooting” is a perfect example. The report completely removes the killer from the killing and shifts responsibility to a mischievous little self-willed, but incontinent, gun: “an officer’s gun discharged, wounding Grant.”
Now the San Francisco Chronicle provides an example of journalism sacrificed in service of police deception: “One source familiar with the investigation said BART is looking into a number of things, including whether the officer had meant to fire his Taser stun gun rather than his firearm.”
The Taser excuse is so preposterous that the source preferred to remain anonymous. Why is the Chronicle printing unaccountable rumors? Yet the article begins with the official BART statement: “BART’s police chief asked for patience from the public today after video footage surfaced showing one of his officers fatally shooting an unarmed man … he found the footage to be inconclusive.”
So, officially, we should wait for the police investigation, and not believe our lying eyes. Yet, unofficially, police anonymously spread disinformation that would have us believe that it was something less than the murder we see in several witnesses’ videos.
You would think that if the policeman actually meant to fire his Taser, he would have immediately admitted that mistake to clear himself from a murder charge. Why would the investigation need to be “looking into” that possibility? I try in vain to envision the policeman sweating under the glare of an intense interrogation about the killing, when the interrogator asks, “Officer, is it possible that you might have mistaken your Glock for a Taser?” I’m sure the killer cop would fall out of his seat laughing.
Why is the Taser excuse absurd?
1. The manual states that the Taser X26 weighs 7 ounces. Depending on model and bullets loaded, a Glock pistol can weigh from 25-38 ounces. You don’t have to be a weapons expert to feel the difference between holding about two pounds and holding less than half a pound - try it.
2. Police pistols are all black, sometimes with a very dark brown grip. The X26 has bright yellow markings on it. It also has a 2-digit LED display.
3. The X26 has a safety on the grip that must be released. The Glock safety is on the trigger.
So let’s review the minimum steps of a Taser deployment:
1. You pull out the lightweight, brightly colored weapon. You load the cartridge onto the tip of the barrel. The cartridge is fat and rectangular, looking nothing like a pistol barrel.
2. You reach on the grip and flip the safety up. The LED display lights up like half of your digital alarm clock, then shows the percentage charge.
3. Police are taught NEVER to use Tasers in life-threatening situations (ensuring that the “Tasers save lives” mantra remains a fairy tale). So, since that eliminates the “split-second judgment” defense, every Taser policy I’ve seen requires a warning before firing, to give the victim the opportunity to comply. Police like to report that merely pointing the Taser and issuing the warning is often sufficient.
To accept that the killer went through these steps without realizing he actually had in his hands a heavy, dark pistol - with no LED display and no cartridge loaded or to be loaded - requires the kind of suspension of belief we’ve not been asked to make since “Plan 9 from Outer Space” hit the screens.
Most likely, this cockamamie rumor is spread by the police in order to buy time. It’s damage control, to pacify an angry public until they can come up with some way to blame the victim.
Tuesday the Chronicle amplified this “Taser mistake” nonsense:
“Don Cameron, a former BART police sergeant and weapons expert who now teaches police officers about proper use of force, said Monday that he had watched footage of Grant’s death and was convinced that the officer had meant to fire a Taser … Cameron said he made his conclusion based in part on the officer’s stance, and the fact that a second officer moved away from Grant just before he was shot, perhaps trying to avoid a second-hand shock.”
Is there any end to the fictions we’re asked to believe? Everyone knows Tasers do not give “second-hand shock,” because we’ve all seen those jive jolt sessions where police hold a reporter as the reporter gets a sample shock from a Taser. We also watched police piled on University of Florida student Andrew Meyer after he questioned Sen. John Kerry at a campus forum. None moved away before, or while, Meyer was Tasered. On the other hand, stepping away from someone pointing a Glock requires no explanation.
The Taser-confusion rumor is now posted on Police One, a law enforcement website where “You must be a confirmed law enforcement member of PoliceOne to post a comment. The comments below are member-generated ….”
Standing apart from the expected boo-hoos for the “devastated” killer is one skeptic, arguing along the same lines I argued:
“I have a hard time understanding how one could mistake a firearm for a Taser, even in a high stress situation. The reason being that even though the Taser may draw and feel similar to a firearm, one has to turn it on. What about the motor skills learned of flicking the switch to turn the Taser’s power on? Would that particular motor skill go out the window during high stress? It seems to me that if one pulled out their firearm, meaning to pull out their Taser, one would wonder where the power switch had gone to when they attempted to turn it on. Should that not tell the mind that there is something not right with ‘this Taser’?”
2002 ‘Taser mistake’ case
There have been at least three shootings where police claim to have mistaken their Glock for a Taser. The most recent I know of was in 2002 in Madera, where Marcy Noriega killed amateur boxer Everado Torres after he was arrested - following a loud party complaint - and handcuffed in the back of a squad car. Noriega was armed with the older and heavier Taser M26 (19.2 ounces). Madera police did not have their Tasers marked with yellow tape; they only added it after the killing. The M26 has a simple LED, with no digital display. But the Taser holster was on the thigh, while the Glock was on the hip.
No criminal charges were brought against Noriega. The federal district court dismissed the family’s civil suit in 2005, but in May 2008 the appeals court ordered the district court to decide if Noriega acted unreasonably.
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