ColorOfChange.org changing the color of democracy

On Saturday, Bay Area filmmaker, Ryan Coogler accepted the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the Sundance Festival, for his original work: Fruitvale. Fruitvale centers around the life and murder of Oscar Grant, the young father who was shot dead by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer while lying facedown on an Oakland, CA train platform. 

The 2009 incident of police brutality was captured on camera for the world to see, BART officer Johannes Mehserle fired one round into Grant's back. Mehserle later claimed he thought he was firing his taser -- one of many unbelievable missteps that occurred that night at the Fruitvale BART station.

This past New Year's Day marked 4 years since Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Oakland resident and father, was brutally killed by BART police officer Johannes Mesherle. Grant was unarmed, restrained, and laying face down on the train platform when Mesherle shot him. Even though the racist murder was caught on video and broadcast around the world, Mesherle served a relatively light sentence of 11 months in an L.A. County jail. National outrage spurned massive organizing, including 20,000 ColorOfChange members who signed a petition expressing their discontent at the case's handling.

Communities of color — disproportionately young Black males — have long-experienced the kind of systemic police violence seen in the Grant case. Throughout 2012 we've seen that police Stop & Frisks create encounters where racial bias and police overreach collide and can quickly turn violent. 

Moving into 2013 and remembering Oscar Grant, Remarley Graham, Alan Blueford, and the countless others who didn't make national headlines, the importance of fighting police violence could not be more clear.

UPDATE: (12/01/11) Mehserle walks again in the 2008 case of alleged police brutality.

Beginning in 2009, ColorOfChange members mobilized in response to the killing of Oscar Grant, the young father who was shot dead by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer while lying facedown on an Oakland, CA train platform. In an act of police violence that was captured on camera for the world to see, BART officer Johannes Mehserle fired one round into Grant's back. Mehserle later claimed he thought he was firing his taser-- one of many unbelievable missteps that occurred that night at the Fruitvale BART station.

Just 11 months after being taken into custody, Mehserle was a free man. Many of us recognized this injustice as systemic, which is why we were not surprised to learn that Mehserle is currently standing trial for a separate case involving another incident of alleged brutality and misconduct he participated in while a member of the BART police force.