Another victim of police-/state-brutality, in the USA, not Greece, somewhere in Africa or Germany in the 30ies.

Kop Kills Kid on the gound, ice-cold like execution

On January 1, 2009, at the end of the New Year’s Eve celebration, police responded to a call of fighting on BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency. When the train pulled into the Fruitvale station, the police swarmed onto a train and randomly began pulling primarily brown youth from the train. The youth were forced to sit on the ground while they were detained. Knowing the OPD and BART police history of brutality, the youth were calmed and actually begging not be hurt. Among them was Oscar Grant, a 22-yr old father, recognized as a peacemaker among his community. Oscar specifically asked the officers not to be tased, citing the fact that he had a 2 yr old son at home. The officers turned him over onto his stomach, placed their knees on his neck. One officer drew his gun and shot him through back. The bullet ricocheted of a metal plate under him and went into his lungs. Even the other officers were shocked but not enough to apprehend the officer. Instead, they immediately began confiscating cell phones and cameras for the sake of “evidence”.

For 7 days, there was no official response from the city, BART officials, or the District Attorney. A peaceful protest / vigil was held at the BART station that that drew thousands. A few hundred from the group splintered off and marched on downtown. The march grew rowdy and protesters burned police cars, broke windows and fought police who were out in huge numbers to protect private property from the community. The next day, the BART board of directors were confronted by hundreds of protestors and issued a hollow apology.

Finally the officer was arrested and charged with murder by tuesday 13th january.

The youth who rioted saw themselves in Oscar Grant, who’s death would have probably gone unnoticed and unresponded to had it not been caught on tape. So many of Oakland youth have been attacked, beaten or humiliated by police, with not accountability and nothing to stop them. Many youth have had their brothers and sisters injured or killed. The lack of response was typical of the government, who was simply trying to cover-up and not be held financially responsible. People were not upset because this was a rare or unique occurence. In fact, the opposite was true. The people were upset because this a common occurence in the community and even caught on tape, nothing appeared to be happening to discipline the officers or hold anyone accountable.

From this hopelessness grew the anger and frustration that caused the riots. Although the first steps in terms of charging the officer who committed the crime have been taken, the community expects a lot more transformation from its government and without substantial changes, the people will rise up again.

Live from Oakland.. Desi W.O.M.E

Passing The Torch of Police Brutality: Sean Bell & The Solution 

By Adisa Banjoko (The Bishop of Hip-Hop), www.allhiphop.com
April 28, 2008

And… hanging out at the park, can result in your arrest – for just being there. America – the land of the free – around 2008.

Police-brutality is part of every-day life.