I am not an anti-police sort of person. I have a couple of friends who are police and, by large, they and their colleagues do as best they can in a thankless, difficult and probably traumatizing job. I think 95% or more of policework happens within boundaries which are tolerable by society.
But then you have the stupid bastard in Oakland who murdered a kid on New Year’s in the BART station — a kid who, by all accounts, was the victim of an attack by a bunch of other guys. The dude is on the ground, he’s cuffed behind his back, he’s got his face on the pavement, there are two policemen on him — one on his neck, one on his back. He looks like he’s struggling a bit, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.
Until the cop that’s on his back stands up, draws his gun, and shoots the suspect point-blank. With two different people filming him from different angles.
I can’t think of any way this is even remotely justifiable. I mean, I could have kept that guy on the ground with nothing more than a firm hand. His hands were cuffed behind his back. He was face-down. He had another cop holding him. How in the hell did anything about this situation require the use of deadly force? Particularly in the middle of a bunch of other cops? The officer holding the kid’s neck couldn’t have been more than twenty inches from where that bullet hit.
What kind of complete fucking retard psychopath shoots a cuffed, unarmed, mostly docile suspect with another cop holding him right next to your gun?
I hope they fry this fucker. Because there’s no worse misuse of power than to murder someone who not only can’t fight back, but who legally can be killed if he does try to fight back.
This is disgusting and there’s no conceivable justification for it. But it doesn’t appear the suspect was cuffed. At one point the reporter on the video says others were cuffed, but the victim wasn’t. At another point the reporter says that as the cop was standing, he was “reaching for his cuffs”.
Still, this is a sad episode and a flagrant and almost psychotic abuse of power by the police officer.
Damn, I couldn’t see it. All I got was the audio. The screen just stayed black.
I’ll keep trying. Does youtube have a copy?
OK, there were a few of them and I got one of them to work … man, that is fucked up. I’m surprised I didnt hear about this until I saw it here. Yes I have to agree that cop was 100% wrong. No way at all was he or anyone else in danger by the guy on the ground. That was totally UNJUSTIFIED. I hope he is charged with murder.
Hey Josh,
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say thanks or goodbye when I was in Vegas. Since you never made it to The Coffee Bean on the day I left your place, I stopped by your house that night to see if you were around, but you were still out. Not knowing where I might find you, I decided to walk back to Trop & 515, knowing I could find a good place to sleep and subsequently round up some fundage the next morning–that is, fly my sign–before heading back to Green Valley as I made my way out of Vegas.
Anyway, thanks for feeding me and letting me stay at your place that night; it was good to see you and meet your girlfriend. I really enjoyed hanging out with you.
I’m back in Ohio now, and my tramping days are over unless someone offers me some big money to do it again someday with a camera crew. Right now it’s time to start writing a book.
Regarding the blog post: I haven’t seen the video yet, but I definitely know what it’s like to deal with rogue cops. Like you, my experience tells me most cops are pretty civil if you don’t start any shit with them and you don’t have anything to hide. But there are probably a handful of cops out of every 100 or so that will go the extra mile to fuck with people who haven’t done anything, usually because: 1) These cops profile and target certain types of people, like transients, because transients and homeless generally have some kind of addiction and almost certainly will not report the abuse of power; and 2) These cops are sadistic pricks who think they’re above the law. (You could probably reverse the order.)
A few cops fucked with me when I was in Florida in spring of 2007. (My hair was REALLY long then.) But each time, as soon as they realized I was not a total fucking moron, they stopped fucking with me and scrammed.
Fontana, California was different, though. These motherfuckers pretty much beat me up, for no reason other than they had profiled me as a worthless bum and they were too stupid to realize I was the kind of person who would walk several miles out of my way to report their abuse of power, as a way to keep it from happening again. Not that it did any good; Fontana is just a mega fucked-up city with lots of asshole cops. Someday a Fontana cop will be the star of one of these videos. And whenever that happens, I hope the Sarge–a pretty cool guy–remembers the conviction of my story and how he chose not to take any action to keep those evil motherfuckers from taking it a step further with their next victim.
If I didn’t say this already, I’m about to start writing a book about the year-plus I spent aimlessly tramping the US of A.
Take care dude, Ryan
I live in Oakland and although I am not black I now fear for my life when I ride the train just the same. Mouth off to a cop. Get a bullet in your back. That’s the message if this guy does not do hard time. I hope the cop gets a murder rap.
thats one good reason why crooked cops need to be put to sleep and make something good for their kids like 6 feet in the dirt! R.i.P TO ALL THE FALLEN PEEPS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES THROUGH THESES PUNK ASS KOPS, KIL EM ALL TILL I FIND PEACE
It appeared to be an accident to me. Look at the Oh, crap look on his face after the shot. Besides not many police are dumb enough to shoot a suspect with so many witnesses are around. I can buy that he thought he reached for his taser. The way he is holding the weapon appears that way.
Yes, he obviously deserved it. I mean, he might have called the cop a name or mildly resisted arrest. So clearly he deserves to be executed with a shot in the back, his face down on a dirty subway platform.
You stupid cunt.
In Greece, when the cops shoot and kill an innocent 15 year-old boy, the entire country breaks out in riots for months.
In America, when cops shoot a homeless guy point blank on a railroad platform, and murder the guy in cold blood, there are a few comments of disbelief on the internet, a few yawns heard in the vicinity of the killing, we shake our collective heads, and move on.
He deserved it? Are you people joking? That is pure racism talking right there. He was not doing anything at all besides cooperating. Even the person who recorded it said he was on the ground cooperating. Wow, some of you people who live in America are seriously an EMBARESSMENT to this country.
Oh sure. He deserved it. After all, he was probably talking back to the police. That’s a no-no. You don’t talk back to the police. That’s a crime punishable by being shot on sight.
How can anyone defend the cop after seeing those videos?
Yeah, the cop had that “oh shit” look on his face after he did it because he KNEW he was wrong and he knew he was now fucked.
I have one question – where the hell is Al Sharpton now? For the first time in my life I can actually say that I would be more than willing to march alongside him on this one!
Everyone is so hysterical over this. I thought that we are all innocent until proven guilty including the bart policeman. It makes no sense that he would knowingly shoot this young man. Now people have damaged property and set fires which only means that Oakland needs more policing. Has anyone paid attention to the fact that Oakland has the 5th highest crime rate in the United States? There was a murder in the same area as the riot on January 5th yet we see no coverage about that. Has it occured to anyone that a policeman might want to confiscate videos to take as evidence to find out what went wrong and to prevent mob hysteria?
I say good riddance to bad rubish. Shoot ’em all. Nothing but animals anyway. We should make it a sport!
Or…simply wait. The way they are knocking off each other it won’t be that long before they are extinct in this country.
I agree with the rioting. The ex-policeman is now charged with murder, but they continue to riot. I understand they are angry, but enough is enough. They are going about it the wrong way. And they wonder why people have a negative view on them.
Yes, “them” as in black people. I won’t beat around the bush and I don’t care if people think I am a racist. I know I am not. But what I am saying is many times they bring it on themselves. Now the American mainstream is saying “tsk – and look at this. They’re burning down a city!”
As for innocent until proven guilty, I know what I saw in that video, and many times being “proven guilty” never happens.
I know OJ killed his Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. He was never convicted of that. Does that make him innocent? Hell no.
Whether this guy is convicted or aquitted will never change what I know I saw on those videos.
Okay, Everyone is confused and pissed even I am and I’m a cop. I’m confused about what happened and why in God’s name would this guy shoot this fella. I carry both a taser and a glock 9mm. my taser is on my left leg in a drop down holster on my thigh. my firearm is on my right side in a hip holster. this gives me no chance of accidentally reaching for my firearm when intending to reach for my taser. I emplore any officer who carries a taser(Which is a life saving non-lethal option by the way) to carry it in the aforementioned manner. This way if you screw up it’s on you and everybody knows it. there would be no affirmative “I was reaching for my taser” defense. ultimately our prayers should go out to the families of both involved. the victim and the cop. We know it looks bad but lets find out the whole story before we pass judgement.
Oh, I almost forgot. You(Cops) have to yell Taser, Taser, taser! before you deploy it so your fellow officers dont think your bustin caps in someone. if you don’t they may respond in a way which could result in gunfire. I did not hear him call out taser in the video but then again it was noisy and chaotic.
Peace T-Dawg da popo
Laurie:
“Has anyone paid attention to the fact that Oakland has the 5th highest crime rate in the United States?”
Does that include the crimes committed by the cops?
Let’s get this straight, i hate having to correct all these sites… IT WAS NOT OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT it was BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) that SHOT OSCAR GRANT in an OAKLAND BART station they are a separate police department. OPD had nothing to do with this
I am glad that guy was shot. Cops should shoot more of these pieces of crap who are a burden on our society. They are worthless, don’t hold jobs, have numerous children that are on welfare, sell and do drugs, steal from hard working people, rape, beat up their stupid girlfriends, riot when things don’t go their way and demand to be treated with respect and they would not hesitate to shoot an innocent person if they don’t get the respect they feel they deserve. Now what are you idiots going to say regarding the piece of shit who just shot 4 Oakland policeman. Oh, I know,you are praising that Mixon guy. Wow he did something so honorable. He had a rap sheet a mile long. But of course he was forced into a life of crime by us White Folks. It is too bad he died and wasn’t left paralyzed, not brain dead, so that he could suffer for the rest of his miserable, useless life.
I hope the Bart officer gets off and as far as I am concerned he did us all a favor.
Aa I understand it, the only excuse that might ( and I say might ) be plausible is that the officer thought he was drawing his taser instead of his gun. Who knows? Human nature is capable of incredulous things. If he was actually executing the person on purpose, we should all sit down and try to comprehend our humanity.