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Why Oscar Grant Never Mattered
Jan. 3rd, 2011 01:19 pm"But they were drinking and swearing!" - An argument made by a pro-Meserhle supporter as to why he was justified in shooting and killing Oscar Grant.
"They have the authority to kill a minority." - From the NWA song Fuck the police
It probably seems strange to a lot of people, why someone would write about this subject now in the age of insta-news on thee internets and the cable ghetto of 24 hour news channels. The subject is supposed to be ancient history by now, but I've had more than a few conversations with people about this topic recently. It's past time to let out my thoughts on this topic.
It's also just past the second anniversary of Grant's slaying, and you can still feel the effects in Oakland and the East Bay, especially since the officer who shot him was only senetenced for this crime not too long ago.
Oscar Grant does mean a lot to a lot of people. What happened to Oscar Grant means a lot to me, especially under the circumstances of the aftermath of his shooting, but for the supporters of Mehserle and the mainstream media, and mainstream views and opinions in general, Oscar Grant never was and never will be the point of the whole matter. This whole incident, for them, was all about Johannes Mehserle.
As others have already pointed out, it's not as if Mehserle said he was going out that night to kill a young black man, but everything about Grant's ethnicity, gender, and social status affected everything that happened that night, and everything that happened afterwords. His race and gender mattered when he was stopped, and in the way he was treated, and the way he was portrayed after the shooting. Oscar Grant is the invisible man in all of this.
Many people accepted the idea that Mehserle thought he was reaching for his taser instead of his gun. The mainstream media focused primarily on the "plight" of Mehserle, and bent over backwards to try and make protesters of Grant's killing look like criminals in the shadow of cold blooded murder. All of the attitudes, outlooks, and even the way the law was applied, completely change for these particular circumstances.
( Read the rest. )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant
"They have the authority to kill a minority." - From the NWA song Fuck the police
It probably seems strange to a lot of people, why someone would write about this subject now in the age of insta-news on thee internets and the cable ghetto of 24 hour news channels. The subject is supposed to be ancient history by now, but I've had more than a few conversations with people about this topic recently. It's past time to let out my thoughts on this topic.
It's also just past the second anniversary of Grant's slaying, and you can still feel the effects in Oakland and the East Bay, especially since the officer who shot him was only senetenced for this crime not too long ago.
Oscar Grant does mean a lot to a lot of people. What happened to Oscar Grant means a lot to me, especially under the circumstances of the aftermath of his shooting, but for the supporters of Mehserle and the mainstream media, and mainstream views and opinions in general, Oscar Grant never was and never will be the point of the whole matter. This whole incident, for them, was all about Johannes Mehserle.
As others have already pointed out, it's not as if Mehserle said he was going out that night to kill a young black man, but everything about Grant's ethnicity, gender, and social status affected everything that happened that night, and everything that happened afterwords. His race and gender mattered when he was stopped, and in the way he was treated, and the way he was portrayed after the shooting. Oscar Grant is the invisible man in all of this.
Many people accepted the idea that Mehserle thought he was reaching for his taser instead of his gun. The mainstream media focused primarily on the "plight" of Mehserle, and bent over backwards to try and make protesters of Grant's killing look like criminals in the shadow of cold blooded murder. All of the attitudes, outlooks, and even the way the law was applied, completely change for these particular circumstances.
( Read the rest. )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant