Senseless violence. Senseless police violence. Senseless police violence toward a black man.

Another senseless murder of a black man at the hands of a police officer.

I have been trying to come to terms with this ever since the news hit. I did not personally know the man who was killed, but I do know him... we all do, at least those of us who are aware of the historical murdering and police brutality of black men in this country. On the heels of the murder of Sean Bell, who was unarmed at the time he was shot 41 times in New York by police, Oscar Grant of Hayward, CA has joined the list of victims. Like Sean, Oscar leaves behind the woman that he had hoped to marry and their 4 year old daughter. Everyone is trying to figure out why and how this could happen. Again!

If the crime itself is not horrible enough, the sequence of events leading up to Oscar's death have been in heavy rotation across the tv screen. Yes, this time the whole thing was caught on video. Several videos from several angles shot by hand held cameras and cell phones. Showing a handcuffed Oscar being held to the ground by a couple of officers, one of which held his knee on Oscar's head, and a short time later the other drawing his weapon like he was at a showdown in the old West firing a shot into Oscar's back. Although the evidence is there. Murder in plain sight. Officials did not question, arrest or anything else, the officer who fired the fatal shot. They instead are asking the public not to "create stories to go along with what they have seen on tape", while allowing the officer to seek refuge under his lawyer. He hasn't been asked what happened. Why he drew his weapon when there was no threat to his life at the time. Why he fired that weapon into the back of an unarmed, handcuffed man. But, while Oscar Grant is currently laying in a casket, in a church being mourned, the officer involved is under police protection because he is now receiving death threats. I will not say that he should be fearing for his life after what he's done, but I will say that the anger of those who are doing the threatening is COMPLETELY understandable. Someone has been murdered, the murder has been caught on tape, the murderer's identity is known, but he is not treated as a murderer because he carries a badge.

And people wonder why the black youth walk around with a chip on their shoulders. When will people realize that although it appears that we have made some progress, it is clearly not enough. They say we have come so far, but we still have so far to go. Well, I feel that we really haven't had that much progression because this country is still structured in a way that makes it impossible for certain people to thrive. Hell, there are systems in place that make it hard for certain people to live! You may no longer be able to hang a black man, but you sure can make the threat (Jena) and you sure as hell can shoot to kill if you are a man of the law. What message does this send to our adolescent black boys? Barack has made it so there is no longer a reason that you can't shake off the impossible and do and become whatever and whoever you want in America. As long as you don't have your black ass in the "right" neighborhood at the wrong time because the locals will call the cops on you for looking suspicious. As long as you don't move a muscle if you ever get stopped by the police because they will beat your ass and say you were resisting arrest. As long as you don't enjoy any after hours fun and catch the public metro system back home... because you might not make it back home.

I am going to provide you a few videos that you can check out to get a little more on the story or to just enlighten yourself on the many struggles that the black community is still fighting to overcome. You might not wanna have the little ones looking over your shoulder because I believe this first video does show the actual shooting of Oscar Grant. I also encourage you to check out the short documentary that Eb has over at Black Renaissance Woman. It features the reactions and fears of black adolescent boys to the murder of Sean Bell. It kind of puts this whole thing in perspective when thinking about how these kinds of events affect young boys who run the risk of meeting the same fate just because they are black.



This video gives a pure and multi-perspective response to the shooting of Oscar Grant.



If you have room to stomach one more video you can click --->here<--- to see a recent broadcast of the latest in the case. This brief broadcast identifies the officer and talks about how he has been affected by what he has done. Oh woe the hell is he!