22 year old Oscar Grant of Hayward was gunned down by a BART police officer on the morning of New Year's Day.
Numerous
videos taken by witnesses from their cell phones show that Grant was face down on the ground in handcuffs when he was shot in the back at close range on the Fruitvale BART station platform at 2am following a New Year's Eve outing with his friends.
In this new year, it is the same old story. Police killings of African men like Oscar Grant have reached epidemic proportions. In fact, the number of police killings outnumber the killings of U.S. soldiers in Iraq in a war that is clear for anyone to see who has been paying attention against the African community in the U.S. This war usurps the budgets of cities like Oakland which pays out the majority of its monies to "public safety" justifying the war in the eyes of the outside world by the "war on crime" and "war on drugs." This has been the reality for decades since the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960's and 70's.
Last year in Oakland, the Oakland police killed Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jody Woodfox and at least four others. The previous year the OPD killed Gary King Jr. and Andrew Moppin on New Year's Eve. The heavy handed policing in East and West Oakland is justified by the economic reality that these communities face that make them "high crime" areas, code word for the conditions faced by African and Mexican communities because of the legacy of slavery and colonialism.
Oscar Grant III's young life was brutally taken away by the police. In this case, there were many witnesses making the police unable to fabricate a story and say that Grant had a weapon.
Grant's family members and friends have come out to express their grief in losing their son, nephew and friend making the press unable to slander Grant's character like they normally do. His four year old daughter is left without a father to raise her and a family and community mourns the loss of this well loved young man who worked as a butcher at the Farmer Joe's Market in the Dimond District of Oakland.
In this time of hope and change, we have to take an honest stand against the policies in place that systematically ends young lives yet never stirs an outcry from white people who call ourselves progressive.
We can stand up against the U.S. war in Iraq or in other places, but we say nothing about the killing of African people who are criminalized by the police and media.
It is time to speak out! We must stand up against this cold-blooded murder.
Stop the war the African community! Justice and reparations for the family of Oscar Grant III! Jail the killer cop!
The Uhuru Solidarity Movement works under the leadership of the Uhuru Movement to organize political and material solidarity from the white community with the African led Uhuru Movement. Uhuru Means Freedom!
Email oak_office@apscuhuru.org or call 510-625-1106 to join the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement
