Oscar Grant, Bill Walker

These are the two incidents that sparked my desire to document and disseminate information.

First: Oscar Grant (R.I.P.)

Oscar Grant was murdered by a man with a gun in a BART platform on the first morning of 2009. The gunner was protected by police, and the state carefully protected the murderers name and information for several days, until it became apparent that the states image was suffering. The killer, of course, was an officer of the state, and his actions will be treated far differently than if the exact same actions had been perpetrated by a citizen like you or I.

Links:

SFGate
Youtube Video (thanks Observateurs!)
Wiki

As I write this, there are reports of riots and protests getting violent. I can't help but think that if I was there, I would join in the resistance to police force.

Second: Bill Walker

This isn't as famous a case, but for me it's just as devastating. A police officer assaulted a 71-year-old greeter in a Wal-Mart in Tennessee. The officer set off the security alarm, and when the greeter asked to check the receipt, the detective shoved the septugenarian to the ground, and stood over him, threateningly.

The real heartbreaker of the case, however, is the aftermath. The police didn't press charges against one of their own (have they ever?), and after the victim pressed charges, the courts determined that the officer's actions did not warrant an assault charge.

That's the end of it, as far as Mr. Walker is concerned. He was assaulted by the state, and the state determined that it had done nothing wrong. Mr. Walker's rights (apparently) are either non-existent, or unimportant, according to his attacker, and his attacker's allies. Because of this, he has no hope for justice.

Luckily, Mr. Walker's attacker decided to stop after the simple assault, because it doesn't look like the officer would have been charged for anything, even if he had continued in his violence (The officer threw another man threw a plate glass window in the same incident).

That's my fear for the family of Mr. Grant; I fear that Johannes Mehserle (Mr. Grant's Killer), will escape, and that we, as a society, will accept another atrocity commited by those who oppress us in the name of justice and peace.