This is a cellphone video, taken from a subway train, of a Bay Area Rapid Transit policeman shooting Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old Black man and father of a four-year-old daughter, on New Year’s Eve. Grant was lying face down on the ground, handcuffed, without any resistance when he was shot.
The murder has triggered outrage in Oakland’s Black community and beyond. See Jesse McKinley, “In California, Protests after Man Dies at Hands of Transit Police” (New York Times, 9 January 2009), and watch the videos by Davey D.
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 1
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 2
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 3
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 4: “Ron Dellums Gets Confronted”
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 5
Oakland Rebels against the Police Execution of Oscar Grant, Part 6
George Ciccariello-Maher, who went to the demonstration against the police murder and confronted the Mayor of Oakland himself, notes: “For now, the fires are out. But despite the soothing words of Barack Obama and Ron Dellums, there is no lack of fuel and no lack of spark in Oakland” (“Oakland’s Not for Burning? Popular Fury at Yet Another Police Murder,” CounterPunch, 9-11 January 2009).
H/T to Dave Pugh.