The internets newswire is buzzing around the resignation of the officer responsible for the handgun lynching of AMADOU DIALLO SEAN BELL OSCAR GRANT III. A protest in the Bay area turned ugly as the tensions are very raw and unrequited.
The officer was scheduled to answer questions from the internal affairs division of the Bay Are Rapid Transit police, but he opted instead for having his attorney submit a resignation letter. This is an odd choice for action from the officer especially since the BART influenced media machine was flying the story that the officer mistook his handgun for a handheld Taser pistol.
What is incredible to this point is all the video that people have captured from their communication devices. The quality and sound is rich and dramatic. I am posting one of the YouTube clips that recently surfaced. I wonder if we won’t see some manner of censorship placed on YouTube for allowing these types of videos to be posted.
I so badly wish that OSCAR GRANT had not been a Black kid because the real story is the rise of unadulterated and unaccountable fascism. The officer resigns from his job and sits in his home. I remember that NYC had a week of “hell nights” after the murder of SEAN BELL in the vain attempt to find another witness to corroborate the officers story of a fourth man. If there had been a fourth man in the car with SEAN BELL there would have been a fourth guy with bullets inside of his body. All the police did was kick in doors in the south Queens neighborhood and convince people to keep their mouths shut.
This is another execution of a poor person by another poor person. Except in this case the killer won’t have to be accountable for his crimes and a whole community is changed forever. Even though this story is repeated ad nauseam for Black males we have to see that this murder is the result of all the wrong values we are instilling within people. The police, the onlookers and the victims are all complicit for allowing this situation to exist and multiply. How do we remove this cancer from our collective bodies?
With a lot of pain.
Collectively.
I can’t even watch any more videos because they mess up my whole day, but you’re right. This mess is like cancer. You forget how other people are living with it till it creeps up in your own family or friends. People will probably forget this story in a month tops, yet Grant’s family (and the cop) will be living with this for the rest of their lives.
I was good with the shit popping off in Gaza since that place is a world away from my understanding but this story effs with me because I know what it was to go out for NYE when I was 22
the real question to ask ourselves: what would the GREEKS do?
“I so badly wish that OSCAR GRANT had not been a Black kid…”
Never looked at it like that before DP but it is a very interesting spin. Because then maybe it would be less like “Well he HAD to have done SOMETHING.” if he was “something else”.
What I find even more troubling is that they’re not even making up the bevy of excuses that usually come with this about “what the perp was doing” or I have yet to hear the classic smear campaign against the victim (a la Sean Bell & others – including “illegal immigrant” in the case of Diallo). I’m hoping that Oscar Grant was just a good kid and race as nothing to do with a life that was snuffed short…
BTW – fuck all that Gaza shit. Ain’t nothing but nationalistic gang banging over turf.
PS – America is still mourning the loss of Travolta’s kid to be concerned with this.
“PS – America is still mourning the loss of Travolta’s kid to be concerned with this. ”
So true, it’s not even funny.
Patrick Dorismond is the first name that comes to mind here; dude was motherfucking assassinated by NYPD and with what consequence? Giuliani pissed on a Bishop Loughlin altar boy when his body was still warm.
To me that even more outrageous than Amadou Diallo, which at least had a very small margin of human error. The Ousmane Zongo killing was outrageous also. At least there were nominal charges against the dipshit cop (Bryan Conroy) who killed him, tho’ was a patsy for a much larger pattern of negligence by NYPD (i.e. he was recognized as lousy officer by previous bosses but he had a hook in the department & got undercover duty anyway– the Post actually did decent reporting on all this at the time.)
The Music Director
Who Walk In Brooklyn
^40, the word is already OUT.
Oscar Grant was recently released from prison September 23rd, 2008. He has a record. A regular young d-boy. The information may be used during this case but it is not relevant in any way . . . well unless the lawyer representing the officer is a trial lawyer magician.
^kiana, I don’t think folks are forgetting Sean Bell nor Diallo any time soon. Abner Louima, Danny Reyes, Rodney King, Timothy Stansbury, and Anthony Baez comes to mind.
— Interesting notes:
Since Officer Johannes Mehserle is no longer an employee of BART, he does not have to talk to investigators. I guess the doors are wide open to pursue a criminal investigation.
Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, recently had a child.
Oscar Grant is leaving his child fatherless.
@ Vee…. FUCK!!!! DAMN!!! SHIT!!!!
Although still not an excuse for merkin’ someone at point blank range, I see they already have the defense of him being a predicate felon, and “It was coming to him anyway.”
^D,
“. . . is the result of all the wrong values we are instilling within people. The police, the onlookers and the victims are all complicit for allowing this situation to exist and multiply”
As soon as I read that statement, I disagreed. So I was trying to think about a counter arguement, but the only thing I found was evidence that supported your claim. I really want to disagree and put the blame solely on police officers.
@ Vee, I don’t mean forget in the sense that we don’t know who these people are after some years go by. What I meant was that most people typically let go of all the outrage they feel when stuff like this happens after they stop hearing about it on the news or on the internets in a short amount of time. Except for black males, I don’t think people think about how they could be shot down by the police at any moments time. Even as a black woman, I don’t live with that fear until it happens to someone else and I’m reminded again of all the people you named.
The legacy of resistance and self-defense by the Panther’s Oakland youth has been steadily replaced by purple pill poppin’, C mixed with H snorting hyphy adolescents – BY DESIGN (Fuck yo apology E-40, the damage is done)! But the overall cali-libertarian energy in the Yay Area is alive n well.
“Except for black males, I don’t think people think about how they could be shot down by the police at any moments time. Even as a black woman, I don’t live with that fear”
Its funny you should say that. As some one going thru a current legal hassle which involved pleading guilty and having to turn myself in for sentencing for a short stay. The only person in my family who understands my anxiety and unease is my old man. My moms and sister and woman think I’m being a little over the top when I express concerns or albeit “paranoia” but my dad does. My fear is not at the hands of what other cats are in the holding pens but the cops, lawyers, and judges (aka “The System”). Needless to say its a real bitch and every encounter with law enforcement as a male POC runs the gamut of all types of potential fuckery.
^Kiana,
I walked around with the outrage and it kind of stays in your system like cigarettes and weed funk will stay in your hair. That rage wasn’t really productive for me – that’s another story.* But I know what you mean and feel you, people are ready to discuss a post-racial America with Obama-filters covering their eyes.
The one video image that’s still fresh on my mind was during the Diallo aftermath an older white woman stated that she would live in fear if she was a black mother with a son in New York.
^40,
On the same note, my lady doesn’t understand why I’m NEVER crazy about going to court buildings for whatever reason.
^40
I guess I’m somewhere between you and Kiana. On the one hand my dad used to be a CO (no Rick Ross…well actually I little I guess)
On the other hand the police murdered my unarmed cousin in ’95– shot him 41 times on “accident” (they meant to raid the apartment next door to his). The cops involved served less than 2 years in jail.
I basically treat cops the same way I treat big dogs. They could be harmless, but they could also have rabies, so I avoid them altogether. Of course, that’s easier for me to do as a woman than a black man. It’s pretty much impossible for a young black man to successfully avoid the police for long, they’ll figure out a reason to interact with you. It’s a scary position to be in.
It’s safe to say that some folks care very little for history.
Folks are rioting.
Locals are randomly trashing other peoples property and businesses like Creative African Braids.
The last thing I would do if something like this happened to some one I know personally is burn down the local laundromat or barbershop.
You hear about the shooting of Robert Tolan, son of former Major League baseball player, Bobby Tolan? 5 0 just declared it hunting season on innocent Black men. Fuck a police all effin day!
http://cbs13.com/national/Robert.Tolan.shot.2.902245.html
@ Angela
I can dig what you’re saying and I don’t treat every cop as a menace nor do I think every one is. I just do err to the side of caution when I’m dealing with ’em. As some of the commenters here who have met me in person I’m no little guy. When I got arrested I looked like Michael Clarke Duncan in “The Green Mile” next to the two cops I was being escorted by. Strength and size brings out something in everyone when they’re faced with it, and I’ve been told by cops (some who are friends and family) that “If you made any move while I was arresting you, you’re getting either shot or beat the fuck down.” So I gotta walk softly around po at all times. They’d love an excuse to fire off on someone my size on some justification of force shit. Again this ain’t all cops but I can’t tell who’s what I treat it all the same. So I find shit like this even more daunting on a personal level when the victim is some compliant average size dude.
the cop will prolly kill himself
WTF at Combat Jack’s link. Yo this is some straight up bullshit. Reminds me of getting beat the fuck up by the Popo in my yard last year on the kids birthday. Cot Damn!
40 yeah you lost. I noticed the trend amongst a number of tall extra-large brothers to “small up dem selves” regularly. Especially if they work around any non-black folks.
I have a friend who puts fear in people simply by his presence. Around 5-0 he learned to walk and talk softly and very, very, slowly.
Apparently Rodney King did not get the “big man” memo and continued to get up to avoid the blows. Any movement on his part was probably viewed as life-threatening.
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DAMN COMBAT JACK!!! ANOTHER ONE!!! YOu’re probably now liable to get shot sleeping in the comfort of your own bed! Word to Fred Hampton!!
@Vee
*The last thing I would do if something like this happened to some one I know personally is burn down the local laundromat or barbershop.*
Public transportation in The Bay is designed to keep poor folks out of San Francisco. BART cost $3+ one way from the East Bay (Oakland) to SF and it stops running at 12:30AM everyday.
When high school students walked out of school on Halloween to protest the Immigration Customs and Enforcement raids BART shut down the system to prevent them from traveling to San Fran aka full control over your movements.
Best believe all civil disobedience will be kept across the bridge.
i missed you and the discourse, dpenn. babybird is coming back home.
fuck BART and the OPD. i’m entirely too easy and small to have the shotty pointed directly in my face on a cold night in front of hundreds, but it happened. shit will hit the fan.
^vee– i was in LA for the King riots and it wasnt about tearing up your own shit. we were effectively immobilized and every civil right we had was taken away. even if you had a car (we didn’t) no driving out the city. lights, gas, & phones turned off. armored cars riding down the streets twice daily.
pair that with having a two year old sister and milk spoiling in a hot ass fridge in a dark apartment…..wasnt no choice but take what was out there. not saying ppl didnt go too far, but as a kid i was angry about curfew, etc. i can only imagine as a productive contributing adult how worthless the shit made em feel.
this right here is very sick though.