Police shooting of Oscar Grant
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OJTa9F2O14


Their rioting over this in Oakland, California despite the pleas from the young man's mother and close friends to stop the violence

Graphic, grainy video.

I see no just cause at all

Cop that shot the victim, Johannes Mehserle, has resigned already.

Watch this video, it helps focus in on the Officer's reactions after he shoots the young man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqpP...eature=related


This was an accident. The Officer meant to Tazer him, lost in the emotion of the moment he pulled the wrong police tool. Seriously

This was no accident. The cop had a rough season betting college football (IC was his tout) - and the dude on the ground was his bookie - and he wanted to just wipe the slate clean with a bullet instead of pay him the couple K he was down.

I can see using a tazer if the dude on the ground was resisting .. or if there wasn't 3 cops on top of a defenseless guy. It looked like a public execution to me...and I swear I could hear the guy on the ground saying "Don't shoot! IC loves OU in the big one.., I got a daughter.., Bradford can bail you out."

Probably wouldn't of taken place at all if they weren't so loud harassing the cops like that. Of course it's a tragedy, but they didn't help the situation at all. Not an excuse of any kind, but there are a lot of reasons mistakes happen. I think all they could hear were idiots acting up, and that didn't help.

I wouldn't want to be a cop in Oakland.

Public Execution? LISTEN TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE,MAN!! Ain't like it was a secluded alley. Eyeballs everywhere. He couldn't hear anything but them idiots. Got scared. He looks fat. So fkn tired and scared that he decided to taze the guy. Who knows what he thought next. People try to back out of closed garages all the time. **** happens. What ever he did originally(to get the cops attention) .....don't do that. Don't act up. Then, this won't happen to you.

Extremely poor reasoning

And, I have to backtrack on my thinking it was an accidental shooting. If he was on the ground, handcuffed, why Tazer him? Because he was dissin' the cop's mama?

I'm not looking at the video for the same reason most are looking at it. Most are looking at this in order to see what should be done to discipline the cop. I'm looking at it to see how this could have been avoided. I doubt the cop wanted to kill someone right in front everybody. So, I am gunna assume it's the biggest mistake of his life. What I do know is the easiest way it could have been avoided is if that crowd wasn't harassing that group of cops. Then, there would have been more help controlling this guy. How many cops are even looking at the suspect when he gets shot? Anybody besides the shooter? I think the cop helping him has his head turned towards the crowd. Many accidents have somebody doing something very wrong, and another person doing something that person wasn't counting on them doing. All I am saying is that crowd acted as a catalyst in this situation. It's his responsibility, but if they really care about this not happening again, then they won't do this mob harassment stuff. There is a way to act, and this wasn't the way. There are cameras. It's not up to them to try to stop cops from doing something. Make a formal complaint. Tape it on your cell. They got the exact opposite result of what they wanted. They made the result much worse for the people they wanted to be left alone. He'd be out amongst them today if they wouldn't have acted that way.

I see what you're saying, Scuds

At first when hearing about this shooting and video, I expected to see that the young man had exacerbated his own bad situation of having the cops remove he and friends from a subway, by being an ass. I imagine he must have been saying something that did get a reaction. However, if you're a government employee with a gun and handcuffs and have all your buddies blocking the crowd away from you, you're not supposed to be so thin skinned that you react like you're either an angry little boy or a maniac

I believe it may have been an accident, but this guy seemed to be under control and even the tazer was not really necessary.

True

Oh, I don't know if we are ever gunna know why the guy went for a weapon. I just think the chances of that happening went way up with the crowd threatening them.

For anyone interested in this story, watch this view of the incident. It's taken from the train, but has a strong audio track(of the crowd watching) and a much clearer video. Afteer watching this, I think the police force is liable, not just the officer that pulled the trigger. It's clearer here that a second cop comes in and escalates the situation, perhaps overstimulating the shooter cop's emotional state. I think the victim's friend that was also handcuffed and against the wall can legitimately sue for his impending post-traumatic stress disorder, as he watched the murder(?) from very close proximity:

This viewing is 1:59 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUp1FA-aXdw

Even mace would have been uncalled for. This situation looks to be under control to me. The "suspect" (victim?) seems to be cooperating.

I hope they send all of them to prison.

He might be a catholic...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6LHC.DTL&tsp=1

typical.

Sad situation all the way around.

one things for sure, the "I thought it was my tazer" excuse doesn't fly

if the policeman can't differentiate between a gun and a taser, perhaps he is in the wrong line of work.

No perhaps about it.

He shouldn't have shot him plain and simple, but how screwed up on the people on the train. What happened to keeping your mouth shut and letting the police do their job. How about we yell at them and hope they ignore us. People always looking for some action even if they have to create it, its sad.

you have a point...but dying seems a bit harsh of a penalty.

I agree zig, the police officer was wrong plain and simple. You can't shoot an unarmed guy in the back. However, my comment was more in response to the people on the train who were constantly goading the police officers. It's amazing, instead of acting like civilized humans, they have to constantly scream at the police. Shooting the guy was wrong, however, the crowd was not helping the situation at all. It probably contributed to the police officer making a stupid decision.

We're talking about this circus that was going on before(and during the shooting.) Like I said before, an accident often has 1 person doing something totally incorrect, and another person(s) acting as a catalyst. That's exactly what took place here. It's obvious to me that the Bart Cops are forced to do their job in a hostile environment like this shown in the video. I think if this had been taken care of before now, then this shooting would not even have come close to happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmyrx...eature=channel

See, you have a group of folks out there that will tell you this guy who got shot was doing nothing wrong that night, and that the crowd was doing nothing wrong that night.

1) He got into a fight with another group on that train. If he didn't do that, then this is avoided.

2) As you can see on the video, he is the only one of the 3 guys (against the wall) that tried to get up, and they had to force him back down. Obviously, he continued to present a problem after that. So, he did not cooperate correctly with the police. He did do some things wrong that night. It's just that some people think they can act any way they want to when being arrested. In our society, the police are given the power when you're being arrested. You do not have the right to ignore their requests etc. There are a lot of factors in this taking place, and the easiest ones to correct are going to be ignored. The shooters actions are incredibly rare, and it's difficult to detect who is going to act that way when under pressure. It's much easier to try to get people to act the way they are supposed to when being arrested, or when watching someone else being arrested.

Stupid and sad all the way around.

Who in God's name is going to start trying to squirm around and get up when a cop has a gun? And all the commotion? These "kids" have become too accustomed to seeing guns and thinking they wont die. They have no fear of weapons in the hands of anyone. Its crazy.

How in the heck that guy ever became a cop....
I thought they trained all the time for these types of situations, especially in lovely Oakland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caG7h...car-grant-shot

This is the best video I have seen to get a feel for what was going on between the cops and the crowd. That's a damn Circus. If they weren't harassing these cops, then the cops would have been handling this situation much quicker(instead of having to keep the crowd from interfering.) You can see how you can't tell what the situation was like(very bad) unless you see a video with proper audio. It's not an excuse for what the officer did, but it's not like it was a calm situation. Not the calm situation it appears to be on the videos that don't offer audio.

just read that the transit officer, johannes mehserle, has been charged in oakland, ca, with murder for shooting oscar grant.

as he rightfully should.