Not to be a bitch, but...

Where's the tributes for the rest of the black men that were killed last year in Oakland?

Why is Oscar Grant's murder more important than other persons murders in Oakland?

Will there be extensive tributes for the four Oakland Police officers shot by homicidal soiciopath Lovelle Mixon last year?

etc...

I have yet to look through all these links in depth, and I will try to get through them later, but can there be some space here where the Oscar Grant fiasco is discussed with a bit more of a critical eye? The BART shooting was nothing but tragic and wrong, but the most visible public responses to it were fraught with all kinds wako-left opportunism, grandstanding and violence. Especially in the context of Oakland where black men kill each other all the time, it's hard for me to see how this continued focus on Oscar Grant's murder and Oscar Grant's murder alone is rational.

I know I'm not alone in thinking this.

Wagnerian, thanks for sharing your view. I agree that it is not right to highight one event--especially a tragedy with so many implications--at the expense of another, and yet I know you see the challenge in this as well since the death of Oscar Grant is emblematic of a larger set of problems for many people.

I agree with you that there is lots of improvement needed in how government--and our overall culture--treat people of color--raciscm and prejudice are not illusions (and I am not implying that people of color don't struggle with these issues, either).

To turn this to looking ahead, we'd welcome your suggestions and ideas on stories and issues we should be covering at Oakland Local--we're tracking all the public safety conversation that is happening, but we're not currently focusing on reporting crime ourselves, and don't plan to.  Your comments are intelligent and fair and if we had a chance to talk further, I think your views would help us improve what we are doing.

Best, Susan

Following the postings since Grant's murder, and knowing the woman who is the untiring force behind keeping him front and center for a year in countless emails and writings, is my basis for this:

The lady I know is the mother of a young man shot over and over again by SF police, years ago.  He was at the back of a theater, with his girlfriend, who had called SFPD to HELP him because he was in the grip of mental illness.  He held a knife.  SFPD officers were rows and rows away from him.  He was supportive of his disabled mother, kind, educated, handsome.  His name is, still, Idris Stele.  She has worked tirelessly since then to keep Oscar Grant and so many others alive, but obviously without total success.

His mother knows that "I am Oscar Grant" means not just that Oscar Grant died.  Because the world saw what happened to him, this movement is telling the world that men of color have been dying this way for as long as this country was a thought. 

He is not only the young man with a loving family who worked hard to take care of them, who was a mainstay of his church, and who strove to better himself.  He is the thousands of young men like him, with individual human lives and souls, who weren't given the chance to continue their lives as ordinary humanity and law should have allowed them to do.

I am a white grandmother with sons.  All it takes is a moment of imagining the worst experience a mother can have, and then knowing that not only have thousands of mothers gone through it but that, because their sons are black, millions of them live daily with those thoughts and fears on their minds. 

I live knowing one of my sons will die early, some day, of an illness he lives with.  It's incredibly painful, but not in the same universe with what families of color endure.

So--if it were Oscar alone, that should be enough.  But circumstances have created an opportunity to mourn and seek justice for all those you're speaking of and those in the future who, because of what is happening now, may live to see their own futures.

I reread this.  I know it's dramatic but this is about life and death, and pain and hope.  Nothing more important.  I registered here to say this.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment.

@boadicaea. Thanks for sharing the details about your sons. It can be difficult to open up about painful subjects and even more so to use that personal pain to effect larger social problems.  You're right, this is about so much more than Oscar Grant, this is about addressing the social conditions that allow for this kind of abuse to happen repeatedly.

And it's good to hear that you know Mesha Monge-Irizarry, she's a great woman and has been at the forefront of many of the community actions in the area for years.  

You might also want to check out Tony Coleman with Onefam:  http://www.onefam.org, the work coming from the East side Arts Alliance, http://www.eastsideartsalliance.com/ and the folks at the Ella Baker Center http://www.ellabakercenter.org (and there's Mesha's site here: http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/). They're all grassroots organizations  working to empower urban youth and stop the culture of violence from both sides.  

@Wagnerian. I think you're asking a lot of the right questions to get to the bottom of the problems this package hopes to address.

To your question of why is Oscar Grant's death more important, the answer is that it's not.  Oscar's death was a tragedy but it's one that's played out repeatedly across the country. So why the tribute?  The most basic answer is that Oakland Local was created because of the Oscar Grant case.  None of us had any plans to create a local news site but were driven to after this incident. So a partial reason for the package is to recognize that connection.

But the larger answer is that the Oscar Grant case is an entry point for the larger conversation. Like boadicaea says, police brutality, harassment and what's come to be known as "suicide by cop" are things that happen all the time in urban communities.  And a large percentage of young black and brown men who live in the inner cities, myself included, have experienced this on some level.  Ever hear the old NWA song "F*** the Police"? That song wasn't a coincidence.  Black and brown communities have been going through this for a very long time.  And as you look through the series you'll see that this is the point just about every contributer is making.  

When you get a minute research Idriss Stelley, Gary King, Cammerin Boyd, Casper Banjo and the Oakland Riders.  These are all cases were Bay Area police have used excessive, usually deadly force in very questionable ways.  On a national level check out the cases of Shawn Bell, Amadou Diallo, and of course we all know Rodney King.  There's also a partial list of black men who have died in the hands of police here http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=248958102&blogId=320541030 and the October 22 Coalition keeps a running list of questionable police killings along with case details and other information http://www.october22.org/. As of today that list includes over 2000 people. Mostly young men of color.

The series uses this incident to alert people of the larger issues. The slogan "I am Oscar Grant" isn't hyperbole, but a call to recognize that this is an ongoing problem that all of us-not just black people, not just brown people, not just low income people-have to accept responsibility for. The proverb says that "it takes a village to raise a child" and if you're in anyway concerned with this issue, which you obviously are, you're part of that village.

And the series is in part a critique of the existing media coverage.  Most of the contributors to this series are well known and respected community leaders who've been on the ground floor of community activism in the Bay Area for years, but if you look over the reporting surrounding this case you'll see very few of their names in print.  I understand your view that some of the comments and actions you've seen seem irrational. But I think an important piece of that is when you said "the most visible public response."  The media loves a good soundbite, and it's not necessarily the people who are most involved and knowledgeable about these cases that get screen time, it's the ones who give the most provocative interviews.  We wanted to give the people who were really in the know the opportunity to speak.  And if you read the series you'll see that the real conversations go a lot deeper than the 30 second video clips.

But also know that we're not cheerleading for any particular viewpoint, nor are we saying that all of the cases being protested are unjustified. But we are saying that there needs to be a deeper investigation into the issue and the public needs to hear from more than just the few media spokespeople and mainstream media outlets before they make any final decisions.

I'm interested in your continued thoughts on this.  Feel free to respond here are contact me via email.  

Thanks,

Kwan