BART Strike & Oscar Grant: strike hampered by police racism

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For weeks now, BART management and labor have been arguing over who should give up what on the eve of the expiration of contracts with the five unions that represent BART workers. But there's a problem: the matter of the murder of Oscar Grant and the revelation that another BART officer used a racial slur, and this was captured in a new video, raise questions regarding labor's moral standing to strike.

While BART's police can't strike, as one officer told me, the unions essentially represent the labor issues for the police. Thus, the use of the racial slur by a BART officer with BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, coupled with the murder by Mehserle, opens the accusation that it was a hate crime. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it was officer Tony Pirone who yelled "Bitch-ass N__, right?" As he was hitting Grant while Grant was on the ground.

While Pirone claims he was responding to something Grant said, there's no record or video backing his claim. What I think happened was Pirone may have overheard someone else say this but as Pirone is white, it's not likely someone would use that terms against him, especially since he's a police officer. But Pirone leaves himself open to another interpretation: that he was saying to Grant he's a "Bitch-ass N__, and then used the term "right?" as a way of affirming his own comment about Grant.

If so, and I think it is, that's a clear hate crime. Period. End of discussion.

I don't think BART workers want to be associated with this kind of behavior, but that's a looming possibility. BART workers are already seen to be richer than their riders, many who are like Oscar Grant, poor. So here we are with BART workers unwilling to take payroll cuts to maintain service, asking for a three-percent raise when everyone in the public sector's trying to save their jobs, and now we have two BART police officers expressing the ultimate dislike for a passenger due to his skin color. It also opens this question: to what degree do BART police conduct racial profiling?

A good friend of mine in law enforcement told me that many of the people recruited to become officers are white, suburban in their upbringing, not experienced in working with or befriending people of color. That must change.

The Strike Threat and The Race Problem

It's already clear many riders I talked to are concerned about the possible loss of service, but just wait until they get wind of these racial problems!

If BART's unions are going to achieve any degree of credibility in this matter, they've got to have the police address their problems with racism and issue an apology to the black community. The unions have no right to threaten a strike that disproportionally harms the poor and minority after one of their own working partners, represented by two BART police workers, apparently expressed dislike for and then shot a man who was poor and African American, because was poor and African American.

BARTLabor.com

If you want to keep up with the BART labor issue as it unfolds, I recommend you visit BARTLabor.com, a good and comprehensive website explaining just what's going on with the BART Strike and providing news updates.

BART Shooting: Rockridge BART Protest 3-19-09

I exited Rockridge BART Station and walked into a protest of the New Year's Day shooting of Oscar Grant by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle. I talked with onlooker, protesters, and BART Spokesperson Linton Johnson. According to the protester I talked to in the video, there are a series of these events pre-scheduled at http://nojusticenobart.blogspot.com

On Oscar Grant, Phil Bronstein, BART Police, & My Source

This week I posted a vlog on Oscar Grant and what my source claims is an autopsy where crack cocaine was found in his body. Here is an update and what happened when SF Chronicle's Phil Bronstein picked up the story.

First my source said the following:

1) The shooting was an accident, and not a racist hit. There are officers who have taken such actions but not like that. They would make it look like a random murder.

2) My source thinks that what happened to Grant was shameful, contrary to what some commenters have written.

The vlog was picked up by San Francisco Chronicle Executive Vice President and Editor-At-Large Phil Bronstein on his "Bronstein At Large" blog, and who focused on the idea that drugs may have been planted on Grant. My source insists that was not the case; they were there in Grant already.

For some reason, Bronstein's post was removed and when I emailed to learn why got a response from Zoe Stagg , the star of Citizen Sugar, who told me that the SF Chronicle Newsroom expressed "issues" with the source -- my source's -- information, but I don't know what the problem was.

Still, this is the Internet. Here's a link to the cached version of what Phil wrote: PHIL's BLOG.

Then I also contacted CNN about the video, since Phil linked to my iReport version. I contacted Rick Sanchez, who emailed that he would check into it. I've not heard back from him.

The overall lesson here is that Old Media tries to control the spread of information. Look at how KTVU used the BART Shooting videos it had to gain ratings and keep the story going, making sure it had legs, or look at how the Chronicle and CNN are treating the story. This is in direct contrast to New Media, which is designed to quickly communicate a story to many people, regardless of origin.

Who will win? Well, I think New Media's ahead so far.

Oscar Grant: Source: Autopsy Shows Crack Cocaine In Body

A well-placed source reported to me that BART Shooting victim Oscar Grant was found to have Crack Cocaine in his body, and planted through his buttocks. My source also accuses KTVU TV (Oakland, CA) News of delaying video release.

My source is a long-time law enforcement official who has seen cases like this more often than not -- but this case given the video evidence, is different.  My source originally tipped me off to the extense of a third KTVU video of the Oscar Grant shooting by BART Police Officer Johannes Mesherle.   He said that  the video showed that another BART officer was clearly on Grant and beating him.  The source said that KTVU was withholding the video because they did not want to start a race-riot.

The second tip regards the Crack Cocaine matter.  He claims that the autopsy, which is to be completed by March according, shows that the drugs were stuffed in his body via his buttocks.   My source holds that this is why -- he contends -- Grant's behavior was agressive.

He continues "Initially, Grant approached a female police officer agressively but was blocked by a male officer."  My source also says that Grant did not have a gun on him, but that the person in the fight on the train actually got off at West Oakland station and was never found.

According to my source, this is what happened:

A fight on a Dublin-bound BART line train started at Embarcadero Station, and continued through the BART tube.  When the train reached West Oakland station, the person who had the gun got out of the train, which then went to Lake Merritt station, but was not stopped by police.   Then it went to Fruitvale Station, where it was stopped.  Grant was pulled from the train with a number of other suspects who were in that car and said to have been involved in the fight.

KTVU Controls Video Evidence

My source has stated that KTVU has been "controlling video evidence" and using it to generate ratings.  His assertion is backed by video evidence where KTVU news reporters claim that the video are "only on Channel Two" and in the case I show, demonstrates that KTVU made decisions to show videos because they would effect the case itself.

Source Believes Mesherle Will Walk

Finally, my source believes that a trial will not result in a conviction of (former) Officer Mesherle, even with the video evidence.  His reasons are how the case is being set up as a murder conviction, when it was clear to my source that it was not intentional or premeditated and what he's hearing from other colleagues both in the "Law" and the "Order" side of this matter in Alameda County.

Please "stay tuned" for more updates.

Click for iReport version.  

BART SHOOTING: Ron Dellums, Oakland Mayor Speaks at Protest

In the aftermath of the late-night arrest of BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, a planned Oakland City Hall-based protest went ahead as scheduled Sunday but with a less-angry energy than existed last week, when over 100 people were arrested and many downtown Oakland buildings were damaged in a night of rampaging protests against both Officer Mehserle's actions and the overall response of BART and elected officials.


In today's event, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums took the microphone and really talked to the crowd about how their voice led to change. Then I talked with Mayor Dellums about his call for change and if that would lead to reforms within the Oakland Police Department.

Here's the video:

Officer in BART shooting abruptly resigns

More at SF Gate.com: “(01-07) 19:14 PST OAKLAND -- The BART police officer who shot an unarmed man to death on a station platform early on New Year's Day quit the force Wednesday, avoiding an interview with police internal affairs investigators trying to get to the bottom of an incident that has prompted broad outrage.

Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, was supposed to make a statement Wednesday about why he shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant as the supermarket worker lay face-down at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland, BART said.”

Oakland BART Police Shooting Update News

This is a review of the latest (to this date) information on the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant. The Grant family lawyer John Burris has filed a $25 million damage claim. Two protests are planned for Wednesday one at 3 PM at Fruitvale BART.

On The Oakland BART Shooting By Police at Fruitvale Sta

The Oakland BART Police Fruitvale Station shooting was a horrifying act of an individual police officer that, upon reflection, went insane for a moment. I'm glad people had video cameras and used them. But I'm not happy with the state of the police in Oakland and the East Bay.

What the officer did to young Oscar Grant was shameful. If you look at the videos, the officer first drags Grant over the station floor then positions him against the ground, and then pulls out his gun slowly then shoots him, but then looks up as if to say "Oh, that was an accident."

It did not look that way.

This should prompt a major investigation into how police are trained and the backgrounds and attitudes of the people that are recruited and how they're trained. There's something wrong and where there's smoke,there's fire.

Now, Oakland Lawyer John Burris has introduced a $25 million lawsuit against the police department and BART, and given the look of the videos -- there are two with very clear angles -- the evidence is clear and hard to refute.

That police officer deliberately shot Oscar Grant.