The Cold Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant: What Happened 01-01-2009

[roody]

The Cold-Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant: What Happened the Morning of January 1, 2009
by Revolution writers
Friday Mar 20th, 2009 1:49 PM
Early New Year’s morning phones in Hayward and Oakland were ringing: “Wake up, wake up. Something’s happened to the boys.” Calls were going back and forth between the families of 22-year-old Oscar Grant and his friends—families so close all the women were called “aunties.” The youth had gone to San Francisco to celebrate. “What the hell had happened?”

The hellish, heart-tearing news soon came. Oscar, their lifelong friend, the one they had played baseball with, gone camping and swimming with, was dead. Shot in the back by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

The police murder, caught on cell phone videos, has shocked people. In its wake, the system—the police, their lawyers, the District Attorney, the City of Oakland, BART, and the media—have spun all kinds of explanations: the killer-cop was a poorly trained rookie; he meant to go for his taser; he was scared; he’s a lone racist; it was a terrible, unexplainable mistake.

But the events of January 1 show that these “explanations” are lies designed to cover up the truth: the killing of Oscar Grant was not a mistake or an accident, it was cold-blooded murder. It wasn’t an isolated act by one rogue cop; it was the culmination of an orgy of brutality by a whole gang of police against a crew of Black youth that included racial profiling and slurs, threats with tasers, assaults, and illegal detention.

The system didn’t treat the cops’ actions on January 1 as intolerable exceptions to what they’re supposed to do; instead, the system’s institutions moved to cover up and legitimize this violence and let all the cops but one go free. All this—and the whole nationwide epidemic of police brutality and murder—point to the cold truth that brutalizing, terrorizing, and yes murdering oppressed people—especially Black people—is what the police are supposed to do—not to “protect and serve,” but to keep people down.

New Year’s Eve—Gearing Up for Suppression

At about 2 am, the BART train operator supposedly radioed that there was a fight on the train. She didn’t see any individual involved, and many would question how bad a fight it could have been: no “victims” ever came forward and no fighters were ever identified by any witness. Some said there had been a short shoving match which was quickly broken up. Everyone agrees: the atmosphere inside the train packed with revelers was calm when it pulled into the Fruitvale station, located in a mainly Black and Latino proletarian neighborhood in Oakland.

BART cop Tony Pirone, an ex-Marine, was on the platform and he immediately began targeting Black and Latino youth—although he had no description of anyone in the reported “fight.” When four of Oscar’s friends get off, Pirone let three of them leave but grabbed one. Then, yelling and cursing, Pirone banged on the train window and pointed his taser at two young Black men—Oscar and his friend Michael—and ordered them off the train.

As soon as Michael and Oscar stepped off the train, they were hammered. Pirone lunged at Michael, grabbed him by his dreadlocks, and slammed his head, face down, on the concrete, leaving a large cut on the bridge of his nose. Michael’s friends started to yell, “why are you doing that?” “What did we do?” Then Pirone grabbed Oscar and hustled him to a wall. Soon other cops came and threatened more youth with their tasers, yelling the “N” word at the young men, calling them “motherfuckers.”

When three of Oscar’s other friends got off the train they too were held against the side of the train by Officer Marysol Domenici who thrust a taser at each one, tapping one between the eyes with it.

Another video clip, not shown on TV until weeks after the murder, shows Pirone suddenly stride by Michael, who was handcuffed and lying on the cement, across the platform toward Oscar, hitting him hard in the face, causing his head to snap back.

Oscar fell to a sitting position and put his hands up in submission gesture. One video shows that Pirone then aimed his taser at all three youth in front of him. Although no media has reported it, the video then shows Mehserle striking the youth seated next to Oscar about three times and then handcuffing him. Oscar rises to his knees, protesting.

Pirone then pushed Oscar’s face to the pavement, still threatening to tase him. Mehserle straddled Oscar’s back, pulling his arms back. Pirone dug his knee into Oscar’s neck. People on the train started to shout, “that’s fucked up. Let him go!” Witnesses heard Oscar cry out in pain and tell Pirone, “I have a four-year-old daughter, don’t tase me.”

Oscar and his friends were fully in “police control,” not resisting. The video shows Oscar lying face down on the ground with both hands behind his back, barely moving, if at all.

But Pirone and Mehserle didn’t stop, they escalated. Pirone claims he heard Mehserle say to him “Tony, get away. Back up,” a chilling statement pointing to a cold, calculated decision. With Pirone still on Oscar, Mehserle wrenches his gun from its holster and shoots Oscar Grant at close range—in the back.

Cold-Blooded Murder, Cold-Blooded Cover-Up

Mehserle’s attorneys suggest he was going for his taser and made a horrible mistake, while some media “experts” have speculated about how stressed Mehserle must have been. This is absurd. The X26 taser issued to BART cops is plastic and weighs seven ounces. The Sig Sauer that killed Grant is metal and weighs 30 ounces unloaded—more than four times as much as the taser, and feels completely different.

Videos also show that neither Mehserle nor any of the other six police were “stressed out,” horrified, or regretful about having murdered Oscar. As Oscar’s friends, still handcuffed, yelled for the police to help Oscar, the cops told them to “shut the fuck up” and said if they weren’t silent, they wouldn’t call an ambulance. No cop moved to administer first aid. Instead a video clip shows them flipping Oscar over, jerking him up and down, handcuffing him, and leaving him to bleed out on the platform.

The cops weren’t in shock or disarray: they immediately began a cover up. No cop radioed that a shooting had occurred. Pirone ordered the train operator to leave the BART station, taking all the witnesses away (instead of getting their names). As the train departed, Domenici ran after people, threatening them and trying to grab their phone cameras.

After the shooting, five of Oscar’s friends were detained in the BART police station for more than five hours. Sources close to the families say that the youth heard BART police laughing, saying, “We got a good one tonight.”

All this points to the reality that such brutality is ROUTINE for these pigs, including trying to cover it up afterward, and that murdering one of the people can be a cause for laughter and celebration.

What about the “higher-ups,” BART officials, the City of Oakland, the courts? BART officials express sorrow for the killing, yet their own “investigation” made no recommendations, they’ve reprimanded none of their police, and they claim there’s no BART surveillance video showing what happened, despite the fact that BART trains and stations all have cameras in them. BART’s Police Chief Gee wrote a memo to his troops, explaining how to send money to Mehserle while he was in jail.

Oakland’s DA didn’t arrest Mehserle for nearly two weeks (and then only because people rebelled); Pirone—who initiated the brutality that led to murder and could have been charged with felony murder—has not even been arrested. Nor have any of the other cops. And in its first “prosecution” brief, the DA reiterates the police’s version of events, including repeating Pirone’s claim that Mehserle thought Oscar was going for his waistband (and possibly a gun). Oscar Grant was unarmed.

All the police violence leading to Oscar’s murder has been treated as normal, “no big deal,” by the authorities and media. And in this system, police violence IS routine and systemic. Take Oscar and his friends: “These youth are used to being accosted by the police” said one of the aunties, “it’s been going on since they were 13 years old.” (Another mother showed Revolution pictures of the wounds her son received after a beating by Hayward Police several years ago, which broke teeth: he had to be treated in the hospital, including for severe taser burns on his back.)

This system is showing that it will do everything it can to protect the ability of its police to brutalize, terrorize and murder the people. Enough is enough!

There is a real need for continued and increased protest, and independent journalistic investigation into the murder and its cover-up. We cannot allow this kind of blatant murder to be “routinized,” excused, or tolerated.

On March 22, Revolution Books and the Bay Area Revolution Club are holding a People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Oscar Grant and the Nationwide Epidemic of Police Brutality that will indict Oscar Grant’s killer and “the whole damn system.”

The next day, March 23, is Mehserle’s preliminary hearing.

Both are key junctures in this battle, and big outpourings of people are needed at both.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/18426590/detail.html>

http://www.revcom.us/a/158online/Tribunal-en.html

PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL
The Murder of Oscar Grant and the Nationwide Epidemic of Police Brutality and Murder

Hear relatives of victims of police murder, journalists, legal experts, arrested activists, and others present testimony, evidence and analysis of Oscar Grant’s murder—what happened and why; the nationwide epidemic of police brutality and murder; racism, national oppression and the targeting of Black, Latino and other youth of color; and the systemic roots of this epidemic.

JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!
THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!

Initiators: Bay Area Revolution Club 510-725-8754 bayarearevolutionclub gmail.com
Revolution Books 510-848-1196 http://www.revolutionbooks.org

Sunday, March 22nd, 2-6pm
Where: Calvin Simmons Middle School Cafeteria
2101 35th Ave, Oakland (south of Fruitvale Avenue, east of Foothill Boulevard. Enter 35th Avenue Gate for parking lot.)

Demonstrate: Justice for Oscar Grant

Preliminary Hearing for Oscar Grant’s killer, BART Cop Johannes Mesherle

(This hearing will determine what charges, if any, Mesherle will be facing and whether he will be tried, including for murder)

Monday, March 23, 8:00 am

Alameda County Courthouse – 125 Fallon Street – Downtown Oakland

Thousands shot, tazed, or beat to death - A system that greases its wheels with police brutality
ENOUGH WITH ALL THIS!!! WE NEED A REVOLUTION! and the whole world is waiting for you to act.

Bay Area Revolution Club 510-725-8754 bayarearevolutionclub gmail.com

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. K & R

.
.
.

words fail me

(sigh)

[my2sense]

self delete

[my2sense]

2. self delete

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[roody]

4. How heartbreaking that Oakland cops who may have been

fair and just paid for their lives for the murderer of Oscar Grant.

[cali]

6. this appears to have jackshit to do with Oscar Grant.

despite your desperate attemopt to link it and justify the murder of these four men.

[roody]

7. No attempt to justify here.

Has a revenge motive been ruled out?

[cali]

9. as if YOU did.

Mixon had previously committed a violent crime. He killed two cops at a traffic stop. He was a parole violator. And his family hasn't suggested that this had anything at all to do with Grant. They apologized for his murderous spree. That certainly puts them head and shoulders over many vile DUErs.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Please don't do this.

I wish people would not cheapen the death of Oscar Grant with this kind of agenda. I lived 5 blocks down the street from Fruitvale BART and heard the shot that night. I understand that the community is in pain, but this kind of rhetoric does nothing to help the situation. We all have bad cop stories. But this does not bring justice.

[Swagman]

20. how outrageous of you to link one case with another

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[laylah]

8. And two wrongs make

a right since when :shrug:

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Disgusting.

Truly.

[LooseWilly]

13. It's too bad the commies insist on overselling police misconduct like this.

Forcing a more dramatic perspective onto the problem just makes any mention of police brutality/ignorance/racism/stupidity/incompetence sound like an echo of an over zealous portrayal of that behavior.
In short, the article you posted makes all of us who think the cops are creeps (well, 95% of them, there are some that are ok) sound like we are also lunatic assholes.

If you want to stir some shit, you should at least not post Revolutionary Books rantings.

On the other hand, the real question I have is: How the hell did that gunman take out 2 of the SWAT cops??
Morality/Ethics aside, but solely considering the issue of "talent" as a thug, this had to have been a "Wee Bey" (the Wire, season 1, reference) among thugs that OPD wound up tangling with.
I've had to cross the street so as not to be in the way when they take a door, and there was a line of cops in full riot gear, with assault rifles, half a block long.. and this Lone gunman manages to take down two of them?

[roody]

15. I am sorry I forgot the link:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/20/18579725.php

[LooseWilly]

17. Well, at the bottom of what you listed...

and obviously included in the link... is mention of Revolutionary Books.

I guess I just know of them too well, and assumed that everyone would make the same association that I did when I mentioned them.

They run a store near the UC Berkeley campus. I used to stop in regularly, as I was all for the "Revolution" when I was a young idealist. (I'm still not necessarily against "it", just more jaded.) I liked to browse their literature, looking for a "counter-slant" to that of the MSM.
Unfortunately, I soon recognized that they were just as much about the spin as the MSM... though I guess it should be called a "counter-spin". The analyses were no more even handed or open minded than the (then Reagan/Bush I era) MSM slants.
I, regretfully, had to abandon their perspective as mere counter-propaganda.
The piece you quoted as OP is just that... counter-propaganda. i.e. it is propaganda from the "other side", in this case the "worker" or "anti-powers-that-be" side... and seems to be stretched to the limit in order to incite confrontation/violence.

In my opinion.

Of course, the funniest part of everything I've just said, is that I actually agree with the sentiments of the OP, the underlying sentiments at least, nearly completely. I just can't stand the intellectual dishonesty/hyperbolic rhetoric of the ultra-left (which I call commies ironically because it amuses me to use the term tongue in cheek) any more than I can condone the intellectual chicanery of Faux News.

I hope that dispels the notion that posting the link will actually change my perspective of the OP. I suppose it is easy to mistake my distaste for the actual form in which the views are expressed ( the actual words used, and the order in which they are used) with my essential sympathy with the underlying sentiments contained within the views expressed (except for the implicit view that some sort of class/race war should start right now, which is implicit in the tone of the rhetoric and perspective of the OP quoted material... and most especially, the implication that using manipulative wording/perspective in order to precipitate said war is ok... rather than a more reasonable approach of giving reasonable information and letting the "people" decide on "revolution" based on at least an approximation of the truth, rather than "purple prose journalism").

With any luck, anyone who cares to will both read through that windy philosophical tirade, understand it, and anyone who does so is free to judge me as they will.

[roody]

24. I realize that it is hyperbolic; I thought it was interesting and

informative.

[rjwin]

16. they wouldn't have to if the racist didn't undersell it trying to cover for the police.

bigot.

[LooseWilly]

18. hehe... they still don't have to, no matter how many racists are underselling.

If the racists are "underselling" the horseshit conduct of the police (and I'm not sure that it's a purely racist thing, though I have no doubt that that is a large component)... then the proper response, in my opinion, is an honest one.

Honesty can be heard, I think, when spoken. Not always, sure... but likewise I think spin/bullshit can also be heard.

The Worker's World/Revolutionary Books/Communist Party spin on the OP can be mentally tasted as the post is read... just as surely as the spin of the BART police or the spin in a Black Muslim tract on the topic can be mentally tasted.

An honest assessment of the situation may not rally troops in one's favor as surely as fiery rhetoric, but it will at least be honest. Overly hyperbolic rhetoric, on the other hand, is more quickly and easily dismissed. And, like it or not, the Revolutionary Books/Communist Party rhetoric induces knee-jerk dismissal in this country even more quickly than the hyper-self-conscious rhetoric of the Black Muslims.

You can call me a bigot for judging the rhetoric of the Communist Party, or judging the rhetoric of the Black Muslims, if you want. Just like an old black woman I drove back to the projects of West Oakland in my taxi once yelled at me "go back to your own country!!", angry because I wouldn't make an illegal U-turn with the sun in my eyes blinding me too much to be sure there weren't any cops likely to spot me and pull me over... but that doesn't change the general reaction of most people to rhetoric that they've already been conditioned to ignore/discount.

Hehe... and the notion that I'm carrying water for racist cops of all things... well, that just makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.

[Swagman]

21. You cannot have 95% being "OK".

That other 5% will wreak havoc..especially when the 95% do nothing about them.

[LooseWilly]

22. 95% of what being ok?

I'm really confused.

Ok, let's be reductionist here and see if I can't figure out what you're talking about. I know you're not trying to imply that I've said that 95% of cops are "ok"... because I know I'd never say that.
Are you saying that 95% of cops being creeps equates to 95% of them being "ok" (cause that I might've said)? Are you then implying that the 5% that aren't creeps will wreak havoc? No, that wouldn't make sense.

Are you saying that I think that 95% of drug dealers are ok? (well, actually I do think that... though closer to 79%, give or take). But, are you then saying that that's not acceptable, because the other 5% (or 21%, but who's counting?) will... wreak havoc? No, that also makes no sense.

Ok, I'm guessing that you've just responded to the wrong post. I will now stipulate that 5% of crooked/racist/rule-ignoring cops is enough to bugger up the system. I will further stipulate that I would put the "rogue" cop rate at a considerably higher level than 5%, though giving the benefit of the doubt... a large portion of that would be more a matter of ignorance then any sort of well-thought-out "fuck-nutishness".

So, if i've correctly divined what you meant to say, then I agree. If not... well then "what we have here is a failure to communicate..." to quote from Cool Hand Luke.

[barbtries]

14. a large and loud presence

of protesters, long angry letters to the editors, the city council, the mayor, etc., that's all that will lead to justice in this case.

what a shattering tale. :cry: so wrong, so very wrong.

[Swagman]

19. there is a culture of letting bad cops get away with anything they do

..there is a little accountability. It's a culture that isn't to be questioned and the end result is a young man like this needlessly murdered and a hundred broken hearts.

[SoDesuKa]

23. Legitimate Interpretation

This interpretation is farther to the Left than I am personally, but the Left is frequently on the money when everybody else is wrong. For example, the Left is quick to pounce on racism when the rest of us - possibly because of our own racial privilege - do not. So I'm not quick to dismiss this analysis of the Oscar Grant killing.

A lot depends on whether Mixon was a real criminal or what I'd call a category criminal, i.e., a person who gets arrested a lot and is charged with greater crimes than he actually committed. For example, Mixon actually did time for possession of marijuana. Who goes to prison for marijuana these days? The other crime for which he went to prison is ADW - assault with a deadly weapon. For all we know that might have been only brandishing a weapon, but the District Attorney decided to teach this n**ga some manners.

We'll find out as the City of Oakland tries to sell its vision of the incident as that of heroic officers who put their lives on the line to protect Oakland's citizens. Then again, Oscar Grant's shadow does indeed loom over the more recent killings.