Race and Police Brutality

Oakland, California - It was the early hours of 2009 New Year's Day. Oscar Grant, an African American father of a 4 year old girl, was on his way back from a New Year's celebration at 2:00 am. A fight broke out along the BART train which caused the police to be called to the Fruitvale Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and officer Anthony Pirone responded to the call. Officer Pirone used offensive and aggressive language to pull the men off the train. Through all the insults and the abuse, Oscar Grant stayed calm and told his friends to stay cool and cooperate. That was not enough to save him from what was to come. A series of events instigated by Officer Pirone's hostile behavior led to the officers assaulting Grant. Pirone punched and kneed him, Grant was pushed down and Pirone kneed him in the face and finally, Officer Mehserle pulled out his gun and shot him in the back.

This incident created anger and protests among the black community. It was one of the first shootings to have been filmed and shown to the world. Grant's cooperative and calm behavior showed that the shooting was completely unprovoked and uncalled for. The racial slurs and offensive language used by officer Pirone caused the events to escalate and lead to unnecessary police brutality. This was a crime that had happened before and had happened often but this one was filmed for the whole world to see.

A similar case of police brutality was that of Michael Brown. Both cases demonstrated an unprovoked act by the police towards black men and both created an outcry by the black community. The unfortunate killing of Brown and Grant at the hands of a white police officer were both blamed on racial motives. 

Source: https://www.kqed.org/news/11744106/bart-releases-report-with-new-details-of-officers-roles-in-oscar-grant-killing