BART and the Riots

On New Year's day at an East Bay BART station, a policeman stared at the back of one 22-year-old Oscar Grant and discharged his weapon, a shot that proved fatal. Since then, I've watched this story percolate and grow, knowing it was only a matter of time before it started getting the attention it deserved. This black man was shot in the back by a white police offer while he was lying on the ground, and so far BART police or the officer himself has offered no explanation at all. Instead they ask the public for patience.

But it's '09. There are already at least three videos virally circulating the news sites and the web taken from witnesses at the scene with camera-equipped cell phones, showing what happened, if not what went on in the mind of the officer when he took that shot. Did he feel threatened? Did he think he'd grabbed his taser instead? Or, did he just intend to cold-bloodedly fire that shot as soon as he started fumbling for his gun?

We don't know because no one has spoken up. But the public is starting to. Today, there were protests that ended up closing down two BART stations near Oakland, and at this moment, there is rioting going on in the streets. While the reaction is delayed, it doesn't surprise me, just as it didn't surprise me to hear that the lawyer who represented Rodney King will be representing Oscar Grant's family. What a terrible loss they are suffering through right now, made no easier by the BART P.R. machine (what are you thinking, BART P.R. machine, to keep asking for patience, patience, patience, like you're Axl Rose singing that lazy song?). My thoughts and condolences go out to Grant's family and friends.