 Just to give a heads-up, we will be talking about police terrorism and police killings in this episode. In the summer of 2020, protest against white supremacy and police terrorism broke out across the country after George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Amar al-Arabiri, Sean Reed, and countless of others were killed by the hands of police officers and white supremacists. It's a shame that it took so long for the call to defund and abolish the police to hit mainstream media. Revolutionaries being organized around this. Iyabra, the fight to abolish the police and the movement for black lives didn't just start from these protests. We can't forget about what popped off in Ferguson after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in 2014. Tempers flare on the streets of Ferguson for a second night of unrest over the death of Michael Brown. Police in riot gear facing off with protesters and a lot of people probably don't know, but there's another case that also inspired the Black Lives Matter movement today. It was the killing in 2009 of a 22 year old black man right here in Oakland, and his name was Oscar Grant. I'm Abbas Muntakeem, and I'm Delincey Parhan, and this is Tales of the Town, a podcast about black Oakland. It was early New Year's Day in 2009. Oscar and his partners took Bart to celebrate New Year's Eve in the city, also known as San Francisco. For those who aren't familiar with what Bart is, it's the equivalent to what the subway is to New York City. It's the Bay Area's train system. And on their way home, Bart pigs, they pulled Oscar and his friends off of the train and onto the Bart platform. So that night, I can remember I was at home for whatever reason, Oscar really became heavy on my spirit. You know, I'm at home just relaxing and just enjoying the evening, or actually it's early morning now. It's after 12 o'clock, you know, it's New Year's Day, first day of the New Year's early morning. And I'm feeling Oscar in my spirit, and I'm not sure why, but the urge to text him was so powerful that I text him, and I text him exactly at 12.40. I'll never forget it. That's Uncle Bobby. He's known today in the town as the people's uncle. Oscar Grant was his nephew. And I said in the text, Uncle, love you. God loves you. God loves your family. He sent the text, you know, and didn't think much of it after that. Of course, an hour and a half later, he was murdered on that Bart platform by Johannes Mezzanine. News of Oscar's murder shook up Oakland. Bart was crowded that night because of New Year's Eve, and many witness Oscar Grant being killed by a white Bart police officer, Johannes Mezzerly. According to Mezzerly's so-called testimony, he apparently thought he was reaching for his taser, but instead pulled out his gun. For Uncle Bobby and other members of Oscar's family, his death will change the course of their lives forever. I can remember collapsing in extreme anger and pain and hurt. My relationship with Oscar, you know, goes back to when he was born. Uncle Bobby says he and Oscar spent a lot of time together. He remembers Oscar at just five years old, attending church with him every Sunday. And in front of sometimes 2,000 people, Oscar, without any fear, would open up the church in prayer. Basically, every Sunday, 15 to 2,000 people in the church, and Oscar would open up the church in prayer. When we talk about five years old, six years old, you know, I'm doing this consistently. Oscar had this infectious smile, you know, if he smiled, boy, you couldn't help but smile because that smile was just so smiley, right? And so I would drive fast and he would smile, and it would make me feel good, right? So I would drive a little faster and he would smile even bigger. He just loved it. He was a chess player, you know. He loved playing chess and he was always determined to be his uncle. We played a many a games. And Uncle Bobby remembers just how much love Oscar's community had for him. People loved him. You know, he was the center of attraction. He had friends from all walks of life. You know, you could see his life on that platform because there was Samoans on the platform. There was Latinos on the platform. There was Black folks on the platform. There was Filipinos on the platform that was all with him and his group. And they all hung out and loved each other and just had a great time. So he was that person that brought people together. At the time, Oscar was killed. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were just starting to blow up. And news going viral through social media wasn't common. But when Karina Vargas pulled out her cell phone on the bar platform and filmed Oscar Grant getting shot in his back with his hands behind his back and later uploaded the recording to YouTube, Uncle Bobby said, this changed everything. You know, because we had always been saying police violence is real. But for the first time, you know, in 21st century, the cell phone videos played center role in what revealed to us just how heinous police violence can be. A video of the killing that was uploaded was averaging 1,000 views an hour. And it quickly hit the news cycles. Two new video surfaced today in the shooting death of a young man New Year's Day at an East Bay bar station by a Bart police officer. Now it noon, the mother of a man shot and killed by a Bart police is speaking out about newly released documents into images in the video recording of Oscar circulated all over the country. And it became one of the first cases of a police killing documented on social media that had national, if not global impact. After the video spread across the Bay Area within hours of the shooting, people took to the streets. One of those people was Pindarvis Harshaugh. Pin is a journalist who was born and raised in the town. And he was 21 at the time when Oscar was killed. Pin was tweeting what was happening in the streets of Oakland in response to Oscar's death, which not even major news outlets were doing at the time. I remember one of the earlier protests and I'm on the street tweeting about it. And I got a tweet from a friend saying, man, thank you for doing this work. Like you're giving me more on the ground information than CNN is. And sure enough, like, look at what CNN was doing there covering it from a helicopter. And so like metaphorically speaking, like I am on the ground, but also physically I am on the ground, like just telling you how it is as a walking human being living in this and also reporting on it. As news was circulating around, Pin, a young black student in his junior year of college, became a direct source for the people. But not even he could predict the magnitude of the moment he was part of. And what stood out about the Oscar Grant situation is how people organized and mobilized around his name. And without that, there's questions as if justice of any sort would have ever been brought forth. One of the people organizing in the town was Derika Blackman, who moved to Oakland from Detroit about 20 years ago. Derika, who started organizing in college, remembers vividly what happened on the ground after Oscar's murder. The first night after the Fruitvale Station rally, people started, you know, bus and windows, all cars setting things on fire. And somebody called me and said, you have to make a statement condemning that kind of action. And I did. And for valid reasons, a lot of people didn't rock with her statement. It was reactionary. And it discredited the righteous rebellions of people on the street. And that hit me really, really hard. But that's what Oakland is like, that it's not about your politics and your posturing. You will get checked by just about anybody in the bay on anything because it's grassroots here. And personally, I respect Derika for acknowledging this fault. Oftentimes you get folks taking action from a place of good intention, but they don't realize they're doing more harm than good. And in Oakland, you're going to have the OGs ready to let you know when you're wrong and you've got to be willing to acknowledge that and move differently. So help you God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. President. Nineteen days after Oscar Grant was killed, the U.S. swore in Barack Obama. And with this moment, what came with it was the white liberal facade of a post-racial America. It gave us the illusion of inclusion. And in reality, like presidents before him, Obama continued the neoliberal tradition and imperialist rule. So we had this, this conflict going on where black people were so happy and drunk with joy that America had finally gotten past racism. And we have selected a black man to represent this country. And yet we had Oscar, Adolf Grimes and Robbie Tollen, all three young black men, all shot within a 12 hour time period on New Year's Day, all shot in the back. Oscar dies, Adolf Grimes dies, Robbie Tollen lives. And no one seemed to really have focused in on how these shootings took place because a black man was now sworn in as the president of the United States. And now it's time for a segment on the show we call, let me put you on some. Black folks were manipulated by Barack Obama becoming the president. I know I was when I was younger. Obama's election, it triggered the emotions of black people. And that was done purposely so that the violence that Obama was responsible for could be swept under the rug. Whether it be all the bombs he dropped or the fact that during his tenure as president, he strengthened the U.S. Empire and was adamantly pro police doing things like writing letters and what she openly states, his allegiance with police efforts. Obama represented pseudo progress. It gave us false hope. In reality, our people were being killed by the police all throughout his presidency. According to a study done by the Washington Post from 2015 to 2017, while Obama was still in office, 2,935 people were killed by the police. Of those killings, black people made up about 24% of the deaths. According to a Henry A. Wallace police crime database study, since 2005, at least 140 officers have been arrested on murder and manslaughter charges. And only seven officers have been convicted of murder. Roughly 98% of the killings by police officers between 2013 and 2020 have not resulted in officers being charged with the crime. And even though we had black folks in positions of power during Obama's presidency, the masses of our people failed to get justice. I think about the death of Freddie Gray. There was a black president, black head of Department of Homeland Security, black mayor, black DA and black cops. In the result, Freddie Gray was killed by pigs, who the federal government declined to prosecute. And Obama, he went on to call protesters in the streets of Baltimore, thugs. And many people during Trump's presidency, so let's go back to the Obama years. As if the conditions that led to the starting of the Black Lives Matter movement wasn't during Obama's presidency. Under the leadership of a black president, you had the masses of black people in America, making the plea that their lives matter. Just a quick moment. Don't forget that the Tales of the Town album is out now. Make sure you go and stream. All proceeds from the music go towards supporting people's programs. Here's a snippet of Black Jacobins by Fully, Jay Styling and Corrine Streets. Now let's get back to the story. Two years after his death, the movement for Justice Frosker Grant was continuing to build. There were meetings in Oakland and Berkeley and Hayward and all over the Bay Area, strategizing on how to get Justice Frosker's family and the community. Here's Uncle Bobby again. You know, I would go to as many meetings as I possibly can and could because there was some meetings that were talking about tactics that, you know, we as a family didn't, you know, necessarily agree with. And then there was meetings that was talking about tactics that we agreed with, you know, the Bay Area community definitely embraced us as a family. They stood with us, they prayed for us, they cried with us. In 2010, a year after Johannes Mejali shot Oscar Grant, Mejali was tried for second degree murder. The trial was moved to L.A. And according to Uncle Bobby, this was an attempt to keep the Oakland community away from the hearings. But Oakland, as we always do, showed up for our own. Uncle Bobby tells us what it was like inside the courtroom. You know, our first day in court, Judge Robert Perry told us that if we don't make that L.A. crowd outside go away, he'll make our case last five, seven, 10, 15 years or longer until they all go away because he stated he wasn't intimidated by the crowd. But at the same time, when we're going to go out and tell the crowd to leave and so we didn't. So of course, you tried to minus just for that, but you know, you could do what you want. It's not our responsibility to tell the crowd to go home. What's even worse, bruh, is that the trial only got uglier from there. The judge said Oscar was resisting arrest, even though eyewitnesses saw Oscar laying face down with his hands behind his back. Uncle Bobby also recounts the racist things the judge said. And of course, on the very last day of the trial, he looked at us and said, I don't know why you keep trying to make this about black and white. My God, we just gave you a black president. You know, and so these are the statements and experiences that we as a family had to endure while we was in that courtroom dealing with the trial for Oscar's murder. In the end, Johannes Measley was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and only ended up serving 11 months in county jail. It was the first time in California State history that an officer was arrested, charged, convicted and sent to jail. We tied back in with Derricka Blackman, who we heard from earlier. She reflects on the significance of the movement for Oscar Grant. Oscar is just one of many examples that we can all name of black people that were killed by the police for no reason. And I think if anything, he was a symbol of the use of technology to capture that story. Part of what Oscar represents as a symbol was that moment when people even outside of our community were like, nah, like we saw what happened and we got the video to prove it. But for Oscar's family and his community, this wasn't really a victory. It hit Derricka the hardest when she heard Wanda Johnson, Oscar Grant's mother react to her son's death. I think it was her story of him the most that touched me because she wasn't in it for the movement, right? She lost her kid at one point. We were talking about justice and she was like, what is justice? Right? Like it's not going to bring my son. None of this is going to bring my son back. After the verdict was called, protests popped off across the bay area and California. People was hella angry and the chant I am Oscar Grant echoed across Oakland. We all are Oscar Grant. We all are Oscar Grant. The whole damn system is guilty. We all are Oscar Grant. And Oscar Grant, he became a cultural symbol for black liberation, not only in Oakland, but across the so-called United States. Some years later, his story was commemorated in the feature film Fruitvale Station. Directed by my cousin, an Oakland filmmaker, Ryan Couglou. Shots fired, Fruitvale. We're trying to get home. What is next stop Fruitvale Station? If you remember listening back to our first episode, we interviewed my great granny, Charlene, and Ryan actually ended up filming most of Fruitvale Station in her house. And at the time, it was the biggest set I'd ever been on in my life. And I'm shooting on my block, like down the street from my grandma's house. Yeah. I'll never forget, like, like, like I'm on my way to work, the A.D. drive. And he's like, are you going to go to base camp first? And I'm like, what's base camp? You know what I'm saying? And he's like, well, that's what we're going to park the cars. So he parked the cars and we get another car. And I'm like, well, I'll be getting in this car. I'm down the street, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know, I know, there's nothing like the back of my hand. And they're like, stop putting me in these cars. You feel me? Penn remembers what it was like to watch Fruitvale Station when it opened up in Oakland at the Grand Lake Theater. I ended up getting a seat that's one or two rows behind Oscar Grant's family. There's a couple of scenes in that film, man, that are just just gut wrenching, just in general. But I just, you know, couldn't hold back. Grand Lake Theater has seen me shed a few tears, but that was one of the more powerful experiences. Oscar Grant means so much to Oscar's family, but also to the people of Oakland. I'm so deep in the weeds now of writing about the criminal justice system. Every so often I look up and I'm like, well, how did I even get started on this? And it's literally Oscar Grant. I could see myself in somebody who the system had failed. And when I saw that, I wanted to write about Oscar Grant because I felt like that could be me. Penn says that the murder of Oscar Grant is how we got started in journalism. Little did Penn know when I was in high school, I was reading his coverage of the case. He even put together an album with rapper Young Gully, where Penn narrated what happened to Oscar. But sometime I get the feeling my people are blind to see what they want to see, but we got to take a stand. How can I respect a cop or even shake his hand when they saw against us? It's like calling a snake a friend, giving policemen immunities. What you ready to plan? Shit is crazy. And it just amazed me how we get treated, but I never let the system break up. This album definitely helped shape my mind as a young black high schooler at the time. An Oscar's death, it woke me up to the reality of what it meant to be a black man in the U.S. This is similar to how the culture of music was shifting in the black power movement. As consciousness in the streets was rising due to the killing of Oscar Grant, Young Gully's music shifted to tell the story of the time. And for Penn, it was an opportunity for him to contribute more to the cause. So a lot of people of my generation, that was the first example that we saw of documented evidence that police do brutalize people. Do I think that's true for all people? No. I think there are some people who've experienced it in their personal lives or maybe have experienced other stories. There's so many cases that have happened since then and before then that have catalyzed people. But I think for a large swath of people that Oscar Grant video changed their lives. And it's still mind blowing to me to like listen to a big crit album. And he mentioned Oscar Grant and I'm like, oh, dang, all the way down to an artist from Mississippi. Okay. And for Uncle Bobby, the death of his nephew is what pushed him to organize. And I remembered how blessed I was to have text Oscar before he was murdered. And it was from there that I realized that my anger wasn't to be acted upon in a destructive way, but my anger was to be acted upon in a constructive way about getting justice for Oscar. When the community here in Oakland chanted I am Oscar Grant, it created a movement that is carried on today throughout this nation. And Oscar's family has continued to be a part of this nationwide movement. For example, Uncle Bobby ended up creating an organization called the Love Not Blood campaign, which supports and provides resources to families who have been victims of police killings. As hundreds of people have been killed by the police since Oscar's death, it's clear that the work that Uncle Bobby and others is doing is of necessity. But we must take preventative measures so these police killings stop for good. And this is why we have to get in our communities and organize because we must love, support, and protect each other from white supremacist violence. On the next episode of Tales of the Town, the fight to get police out of Oakland Unified School District. Our ultimate goal is to successfully implement police free schools and then also be a blueprint for everybody in the nation and possibly internationally to do the same thing and to not silo this work to just Oakland, but to really be able to impact our school system and how we educate everywhere. That's next week on Tales of the Town. Tales of the Town is hosted and executive produced by me, Delincy Parham, and Abbas Mutukeen. Our senior producer is Maya Quava, fact-checking done by Danya Suleiman and Bashira Mack. Mixing and sound design is done by Padman C.D. Miller and Lauren Neuson. The theme song was produced by Cheyenne G and Kerry Lin. The artists featured from the Tales of the Town album on this episode are Fully, Jay Stylin, and Karan Streets. Special thanks to Pandarva Tarshaw and Derika Blackman. We also want to give a special thank you to Uncle Bobby and the Oscar Grant family. Be sure to support the Love Not Blood campaign. If you like this show, please be sure to subscribe, give us that five star review and tell your friends.