The Oscar Grant Killing

It was 2 a.m. on New Years day 2009, when 22 year old Oscar Grant (African American), was shot in the back and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit Police. At the time Grant was shot, he was unarmed, restrained, and handcuffed. Grant and several others were pulled from a train by BART police after a report of a fight. The train was held, while police detained all of the suspects involved. Three of the suspects were already handcuffed, while Oscar Grant wasn’t. He was cooperative with police officers as reported by witnesses, and as even seen on camera footage. Three officers pulled Oscar Grant from a seated position on the train station wall, to a face first position on the floor. As one officer held Grant by his neck to the floor, Officer Johannes Mehserle (who was on Grant’s back) pulled out his gun, took a step back, and fired a shot right into the back of the restrained Oscar Grant. The bullet entered Grant’s back, went through him, ricocheted off of the concrete floor of the station and punctured his lungs. As Grant lay there choking on his own blood, the police continued to handcuff him, and threatened passengers as well as his friends with arrest. The officers eventually called the ambulance, but it was too late. Oscar Grant died on the way to the hospital. The Officer, who fired the shot, clearly had no reason to even pull out his weapon; let alone fire it. There was even one point in the incident when Oscar Grant held his hands in surrender to the Officers who surrounded him.
What is even more horrific about this situation is that the police tried to confiscate all cell phone videos taken during the shooting, and initially claimed security cameras didn’t record the incident. It would seem that the guilt of killing an innocent man would be enough to convict any sane or rational person, but to try and cover up an obvious wrong with lies and deceit places this matter in an even greater level of unethical, unjust, and diabolical behavior done against another human being. It seems that despite of all the progressions of justice we make as a society, there are even greater strides made to produce an unjust society. The sad reality is that in many cases, those strides of unethical/unjust achievements are made by those placed in power as well as authority to protect and serve the people. What does a society do when angels become demons? What does a world do when the executive branch of the law or government has failed the people and when the protected needs to be protected from the “protector?” These questions really present a challenge of moral decline, and hopelessness in our world. Oscar Grant and so many others are the victims of such moral sin and iniquity committed by those who feel they are above the law, simply because they carry a badge. When we observe the character of our nation, we as people of faith are urged and pressed to pray, stand, and fight against every act of injustice from the police department toward our innocent brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered at this very moment. At this very moment, a four year old daughter is left without a father, due to the actions of Officer Johannes Mehserle on that New Year’s morning. Any police officer, who betrays the people he should protect by taking his or her life, belongs behind bars with all of the other murderers that our nation has claimed to protect society from.