Oscar grant-police shooting-oakland riots

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4. No Political Discussion at all.
No Jokes, no flash animations, no political signatures, nothing.


I thought I'd share my thoughts here since tankers are good responders! I live what is known as the east bay in the SF bay area. For those of you that live nearby or follow the news, on Jan. 1st a 22 year old african american father of a four year old kid was handcuffed and facedown on the floor after an altercation on our subway (BART) system. It seems he and his friends and some others got into a fight that warranted the police for the subway being called on scene. As he was being detained he was somehow shot by an officer.reports are sketchy that the officer was reaching for his taser and instead grabbed his pistol.Since then the officer has resigned. Now the city of Oakland is up in arms after the funeral, so much that riots have begun.
My thoughts:
1) why was this kid in handcuffs and on the ground to begin with, i mean what happened in the train for him to be of the few singled out? having been in a position of being cuffed, you dont get there unless something happened.

2) who can blame a cop for being jittery when it comes to
encounters with african americans when all we see on the news
are what is going on right now in oakland, leading us to see the
black people as violent people??

Im not trying to offend anyone and i apologize if i did so..im just frustrated that it always seems like a loop. Sad.

First of all, I'd have to see all the evidence and hear both sides of the story before making a judgment. But being black has nothing to do with anything, unless the cop is racist. And there are instances of police using too much force, so just because a man is in handcuffs doesn't mean he shot someone or committed a violent act. We need more info before we can even begin to speculate.

Originally Posted by gi49er

I thought I'd share my thoughts here since tankers are good responders! I live what is known as the east bay in the SF bay area. For those of you that live nearby or follow the news, on Jan. 1st a 22 year old african american father of a four year old kid was handcuffed and facedown on the floor after an altercation on our subway (BART) system. It seems he and his friends and some others got into a fight that warranted the police for the subway being called on scene. As he was being detained he was somehow shot by an officer.reports are sketchy that the officer was reaching for his taser and instead grabbed his pistol.Since then the officer has resigned. Now the city of Oakland is up in arms after the funeral, so much that riots have begun.
My thoughts:
1) why was this kid in handcuffs and on the ground to begin with, i mean what happened in the train for him to be of the few singled out? having been in a position of being cuffed, you dont get there unless something happened.

2) who can blame a cop for being jittery when it comes to
encounters with african americans when all we see on the news
are what is going on right now in oakland, leading us to see the
black people as violent people??

Im not trying to offend anyone and i apologize if i did so..im just frustrated that it always seems like a loop. Sad.

Wait a kid in handcuffs was shot?

Originally Posted by Tanksmasher

But being black has nothing to do with anything, unless the cop is racist.

I think that's what they are getting at. It's not like a racist cop is unheard of or anything.

Originally Posted by gi49er

2) who can blame a cop for being jittery when it comes to
encounters with african americans when all we see on the news
are what is going on right now in oakland, leading us to see the
black people as violent people??

call me crazy, but you could, oh i don't know...talk to a black person.
I'm sure it wouldn't more than thirty seconds to realize that they're all not "violent people"

I think the worst part of the story is a cop mistakenly grabbed his pistol instead of his tazer and shot at a person.
Cops in canada don't mistake their firearms. Our cops KILL people with tazers.