Remembering Oscar Grant this New Year’s morning…

Ten years ago many people around the country were excited as the New Year came in.. 2009 had special meaning because in 3 short weeks we were going swear in the country’s first Black President Barack Obama

There was a lot of hope in the air and many of us naively thought a corner was turned especially after it was announced Eric Holder would be his Attorney General. That too was historic as Holder was to be the first African American to hold that position

Many were not only anticipating the historic moment when Obama would take the Oath of Office and be sworn in, but many were also excited that the US under Obama would be partaking in the upcoming UN Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance..He had already begun initial conversations about this…2009 looked to a different year with lots of Hopes fulfilled and Lots of Change to come…It’s important to remember the political climate at that time in the wee hours of that morning New Years Day 2009.

A lot of that ‘good’ feeling and ‘excited’ anticipation was harshly deflated and shattered that morning when a cowardly officer named Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar as he laid on his stomach face down, hands behind his back in hand cuffs..

Grant was killed in front of hundreds of people who watched in horror from the BART train on Fruitvale station where Grant and his friends were pulled from..

People watched in horror as an over the top aggressive officer named Tony Pirone called Grant a ‘bitch azz n—‘ before kneeing him…

The horrific actions of Mehserle and Pirone seemed almost calculated and ritualistic… Many of us felt it was an attempt to put uppity, excited Black folks back in their place.. We had a Black president coming into office to become the most powerful person in the world, we were reminded that racist police would still be a threat even under a Black President… As comedian Paul Mooney would often say in his routines, we were getting a N— wake up call…

That wake up call was firmly cemented as we saw the replay of the graphic video of Grant being shot over and over again and not one elected official including our Mayor at the time Ron Dellums hold a press conference or anything to ease the angst people were feeling or denounce the shooting.

, It wasn’t until 7 days later, when Oscar was being buried that we saw some movement after 100 people rolled up to the DAs office Tom Orloff and demanded he press charges and folks in Oakland took to the streets and turned up like nobody’s business. In remembering Oscar we need to never forget how the ball got rolling

Later that day, hours after Grant was killed, we would come to find that horror had visited the city of New Orleans. In the wee hours of the morning around 3 am five plain clothed and 4 uniformed police officers would shoot a 22 year old father named Adolph Grimes more than 14 times in front of his grandmothers house..

Grimes had just driven 5 hours from Houston to New Orleans when he was descended upon by 5 plain clothed officers. These officers claimed they were on the lookout for robbery suspects and when they saw Grimes, a man with no criminal record, they identified themselves and Grimes started shooting.. That’s when the other officers shot him back..

That story was immediately disputed. Many felt the plainclothes officers never identified themselves and if Grimes did fire a weapon it was in self defense.. Folks in New Orleans woke up New Years Day to the same type of horror story we woke up to in Oakland..

New Years Day 2009 we would learn of one other horror story.. This involved Robbie Tolan, son of a former major league baseball player Bobby Tolan and it took place in Bellaire Texas right outside of Houston.

Around 2:00 a.m. Robbie Tolan and his cousin were returning home when a police officer assumed they had stolen the car they were driving. Robbie was in his drive way when he was order to get down on the ground with guns pointed at him.. When his mom came out to tell the officers Robbie was her son and that he was driving her car, they pushed her, Robbie attempted to stand up and and a back up officer to the scene Sgt Jeffery Cotton shot him, saying he feared for his life.. Luckily Robbie Tolan survived the shooting..

18 months after Oscar Grant was murdered, Johannes Mehserle, thanks to a massive movement was convicted for Oscar’s murder. It was the first time in California history such a verdict was rendered on a cop who shot someone while on duty. But sadly a chump pro-cop Judge in Los Ángeles named Robert Perry reduced Mehserle’s 10-14 year sentence to less than two years…

Sgt Cotton was charged for aggravated assault and his case went to trial.. In May of 2010 a jury acquitted officer Cotton for the shooting of Robbie Tolan..

In January of 2015, after massive nationwide protests from New York to Ferguson around police killings, after gruesome details of police corruption in New Orleans was made known, Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African American to hold that job, decided they would not pursue any charges or further investigation to the Adolph Grimes killings…

In remembering Oscar Grant we can’t divorce ourselves from the political climate that proceeded his death and the climate and movement that was sparked in the aftermath. People did what was thought impossible for 18 long months to get justice..

We cant talk about Oscar without remembering the police terrorism that visited Adolph Grimes and Robbie Tolan. that same morning..

We can’t talk about Oscar Grant without noting the disappointment and the harsh lessons we saw first hand that even with Black folks holding the most powerful positions in the land, noting would be done to bring about justice. Heck folks didn’t even get a phone call from the first Black president, but 3 months later and just two weeks after Obama announced the US would boycott that important UN Conference on Race, he called the families and sent a letter of support to the 4 Oakland officers slain by Lovell Mixon..

We can’t remember Oscar without coming to grips with some hard and fast lessons. First, people power and deep seated love for the community can create movements and make things happen.. Second, we are on our own in fighting these fights, we cannot depend upon far too many elected officials to do right by us.

Many fear police unions, many fear that they wont be re-elected and quite frankly many actually side with killer cops.. Sure, their rhetoric may say one thing but their actions speak another truth. Just look at the recent passing of the Blue Lives Matter Bill in May of 2018 where we saw everyone from Civil Rights icon John Lewis on down to former Black Panther Bobby Rush on over to progressive stalworth Keith Ellison all get behind this police union inspired bill..

In remembering Oscar Grant, ten years after his tragic death, we still have along ways to go to getting justice and ending police terror.