Oscar Grant—& YOU

Mumia Abu-Jamal

From a Jan. 17 audio column. Listen to other Abu-Jamal audio columns at www.prisonradio.org.

Like you, I’ve seen the searing phone-camera tape of the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Oakland, Calif.

And although it’s truly a terrible thing to see, it’s almost exceeded by something just as shocking. That’s been how the media has responded to this police killing by creating a defense of error.

This defense, that the killer cop who murdered Grant somehow mistook his pistol for his Taser, has been offered by both local and national news reporters even though they haven’t heard word one from Johannes Mehserle, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop who wasn’t even interviewed for weeks after shooting an unarmed man!

If you’ve ever wondered about the role of the media, let this be a lesson to you. You can see here that the claim that the corporate media is objective is but a cruel illusion.

Imagine this—if the roles were reversed; that is, if bystanders had footage of Grant shooting Mehserle, would the media be suggesting a defense for him?

Would Grant have been free to roam, to leave the state a week later? Would he have made bail?

The shooting of Oscar Grant III is but the latest West Coast version of Amadou Diallo, of Sean Bell and of hundreds of other Black men—and like them, don’t be surprised if there is an acquittal, again.

Oscar Grant is you and you are him, because you know in the pit of your stomach that it could’ve been you and the same thing could’ve happened.

You know this. And what’s worse is this—you pay for this every time you pay taxes and you endorse this every time you vote for politicians who sell out in a heartbeat.

You pay for your killers to kill you, in the name of a bogus, twisted law, and then pay for the State that defends him.

Something is terribly wrong here—and it’s the system itself.

Until that is changed, nothing is changed, for we’ll be out here again (in the streets)—chanting a different name.

Postscript by WW reporter Larry Hales: Since this column was written, Mehserle, who had been allowed to leave the state, was arrested on a fugitive warrant in Nevada, charged with homicide and given a bail of $3 million.

BART cop Tony Pirone, who is being investigated for punching Oscar Grant, had claimed that Mehserle told him after the shooting, “Tony, I thought he was going for a gun.” Pirone now claims Mehserle told him, “I’m going to tase him, I’m going to tase him,” implying that Mehserle mistakenly grabbed his gun instead of his Taser.

Judge Morris Jacobson, according to reports, scoffed at the change in story. But he granted bail, despite the fact that Mehserle had fled once to avoid questioning and that other allegations of abuse are surfacing.

As word spread in Oakland about the bail, protesters marched to the Oakland Police Department headquarters. The cops fired tear gas and pepper spray and arrested nine people.

As of Feb. 2 Mehserle had not posted bail.