Impunity in Oakland

We don’t have to go all the way to Colombia or Gaza to see executions of civilians using US tax dollars, we know that. But it is rare that a video of a killing by white police of a black man lying facing down on the ground brings that killing into our own experience. For some, it brings back their own experiences of police brutality.

On New Years Eve, the trains ran late into the night in San Francisco and Oakland. At Fruitvale station in Oakland, transit police pulled people off a train after reports of a fight. Those still on the train caught what happened next on cell phone video footage. Three cops have young men sitting on the platform, their hands behind their backs, possibly handcuffed. They take one of the men, Oscar Grant, and get him face down on the pavement. One of the cops has his knee on Grant’s back. Another stands up, takes his gun from his holster, and fires it into Grant’s back. Grant died that night in the hospital. The video shows the cops then moving other detained young men away from the bleeding body of Grant. Not long after, according to several reports, the police went onto the train and confiscated cell phones from passengers, in what clearly appears to be an attempt to hide or destroy evidence.

At the very least, there is sufficient evidence on the video to charge the cop with manslaughter, possibly second-degree murder. But instead, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) made appointments with the officer to ”˜interview’ him. His lawyer cancelled the appointments, and on Wednesday, the cop resigned. Neither he nor the other officers present, who apparently did nothing to stop him, have been arrested or charged.

On Wednesday, about 700 people gathered at Fruitvale BART station to protest this killing. Later, less than 100 people who marched into downtown Oakland lit a dumpster on fire and rocked a police car in an attempt to turn it over. Police shot rubber bullets at them, and the small crowd dispersed, some of them breaking store windows, playing cat and mouse with police. I live a mile from downtown, and heard helicopters until past 11 pm.

Yesterday the community showed up in large numbers at a meeting of the BART board of directors, to hold them accountable for what Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and others called an execution, and for the agency’s inaction. They called for an oversight board for BART police, for public disclosure of the coroner’s report on Grant’s death, for community meetings to dialogue, for turning the investigation of all officers present over to the District Attorney. They were angry that the BART police chief said the images showing the killing were “grainy.” A father of four black sons said, “I want to know, what do I say to my sons? Who will protect them?” Oscar Grant was himself a father of a 4-year-old child, and was working two jobs, at a farmer’s market and a KFC.

Another man spoke to the officer’s rights as a union member, saying “There are no union rights to protect against the charge or murder.” Oakland city counselor Desley Brooks recalled her work hearing refugees’ asylum claims for events similar to what happened to Oscar Grant, saying she never thought she would have to hear that here. Dereca Blackmon of the Coalition Against Police Executions called on the BART board to be accountable for the excessive use of force, policies that led to this killing, and the agency’s delayed reaction.

The thing is, this wasn’t isolated. The day before, in a suburb outside Houston, police shot minor league baseballer Robbie Tolan, supposedly on suspicion that he had stolen the SUV vehicle in his driveway. Tolan is the son of former baseball star Bobbie Tolan, and there’s a bullet lodged in his liver, as he recovers in a Houston hospital.

He was another young unarmed African American, and police couldn’t explain why they thought he’d stolen a vehicle.

In war they change the rules, and as we see in Gaza, even then they break them. But aside from racism’s persistence, what are the rules here? And who of us will hold to account those who are sworn to protect and serve?

In Oakland, a legal protest will be held Wednesday, January 14 at 4 pm at Oakland City Hall.