May 1st- Oscar Grant

Oscar Grant was shot and killed by BART police in Oakland, California on New Years Day 2009.

Essentially, yet another case of police brutality, racism, violence, oppression, overreaction, lack of training etc. by the police state.

He was already detained and being held by the police when he was shot in the back. He was unarmed. The police were basically freaking out. They were responding to a supposed fight on the train. You have to question what good the police are if when called because of a fight they escalate the situation to the point of murder.

This is the cop that killed him. Johannes Mehserle.

His trial begins June 1, 2010- over a year after he murdered Oscar Grant, when he was less than 22 years old.

Unfortunately, this is just one of many cases of police killing an unarmed person of color. This case has received a lot of attention because the whole instance was caught on film by many people, which has led more folks to a pretty reasonable conclusion that Oscar Grant was murdered.

Technology was used positively in this instance in order to provide evidence as to the brutality of the police. Even though it is too late for Oscar this evidence might help prevent future injustices. Which is a good motivator for folks to carry cameras or video cameras, participate in Copwatch programs, etc. in order to monitor the behavior of police in our communities.