…As soon as Michael and Oscar stepped off the train, they were hammered. Pirone lunged at Michael, grabbed him by his dreadlocks, and slammed his head, face down, on the concrete, leaving a large cut on the bridge of his nose. Michael’s friends started to yell, “why are you doing that?” “What did we do?” Then Pirone grabbed Oscar and hustled him to a wall. Soon other cops came and threatened more youth with their tasers, yelling “nigger” at the young men, calling them “motherfuckers.”
When three of Oscar’s other friends got off the train they too were held against the side of the train by Officer Marysol Domenici who thrust a taser at each one, tapping one between the eyes with it.
Videos also show that neither Mehserle nor any of the other six police were “stressed out,” horrified, or regretful about having murdered Oscar. As Oscar’s friends, still handcuffed, yelled for the police to help Oscar, the cops told them to “shut the fuck up” and said if they weren’t silent, they would not call an ambulance. No cop moved to administer first aid.
Instead a video clip shows them flipping Oscar over, jerking him up and down, handcuffing him, and leaving him to bleed out on the platform.
The cops were not in shock or disarray: they immediately began a cover up. No cop radioed that a shooting had occurred. Pirone ordered the train operator to leave the BART station, taking all the witnesses away (instead of getting their names). As the train departed, Domenici ran after people, threatening them and trying to grab their phone cameras.
After the shooting, five of Oscar’s friends were detained in the BART police station for more than five hours. Sources close to the families say that the youth heard BART police laughing, saying, “We got a good one tonight.”
All this points to the reality that such brutality is ROUTINE for these pigs, including trying to cover it up afterward, and that murdering one of the people can be a cause for laughter and celebration. —Indybay: by Revolution writers
Shortly after these disgusting events, I had wondered aloud to Noble if anybody had heard radio chatter. “Where’s the radio chatter?” Surely someone heard something, maybe even recorded it. This article of course answers that question. There was no radio chatter. The fuckers didn’t radio it in. They didn’t radio it in because they were already in cover-up mode. They made that switch seamlessly, almost as if it were second nature. I agree with the writer of the article, that this—and other events—does seem to show that this is more routine than most ppl would allow themselves to entertain.
These are cold, bloodless, aconscience people. I’ll take my chances with a serial killer before I’d call 911. At least with a serial killer I might have a chance at getting mercy.
Polly on 
Lucas on 
Steven on 
The young woman who posted the first youtube said the officers were grabbing people’s cell phones, which at the point of the report had not seen light of day. She slipped onto a train and when one of the officers pounded on the window and pointed at her phone, she shook her head. Fortunately several others also got away with their phones, which the police had no right to take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_K0PISpxx4
Here’s a good article on your rights to keep a cell phone. It’s not “evidence” allowing for immediate seizure unless it was itself an instrument of a crime.
http://carlosmiller.com/2009/01/21/do-police-have-the-right-to-confiscate-your-camera/
Videos also show that neither Mehserle nor any of the other six police were “stressed out,” horrified, or regretful about having murdered Oscar. As Oscar’s friends, still handcuffed, yelled for the police to help Oscar, the cops told them to “shut the fuck up” and said if they weren’t silent, they would not call an ambulance. No cop moved to administer first aid.
Okay, now, I couldn’t make it out in the one video I’ve seen, but I heard a report that one of the other officers shoved the shooting officer. Not true?
In reference to your first comment, thanks for sharing those URLs. I had posted some snippets of The Photographer’s Rights Guide in another post about this. So yes thanks for that article, people really need to know this stuff.
But you know what? Oscar had a camera. At least, this is my opinion. I think he had a camera and I think when Punchy Pirone noticed it, he became enraged.
If you go here:
http://ultravioletgarden.com/2009/01/05/videos-of-oscar-grant-being-shot-in-the-back-by-a-cop/
It’s the first video. You (kind of) see Oscar with something in his hand, he seems to be taking pictures or otherwise recording the situation.
You can hear the people on the train when they noticed Oscar had a camera. You hear:
“My man’s takin’ pictures n shit!”
And someone else said, “You got to nowadays” or something like that. I’m not positive but I think that’s what caused him to be singled out by Pirone. I think Oscar was “taking pictures” because he had just witnessed them beating the guy to Oscar’s left. (You can see a bit of that going on in the video as well.)
Lots of folks on the train were taking pictures. So why would the people on the train think it’s noteworthy that anyone on the _train_ was “taking pictures”. But it does make sense if the person being “detained” were recording it. Hence, the comments you can hear from the train.
If it helps close your eyes and just listen. That’s how I first noticed it.
What do you think? I think, and this is just speculation, that they were alREADY trying to confiscate cameras because improper conduct on their part that had already been witnessed. So when they saw the gall of this ruffian to dare take photos, they were pissed. P. I. S. S. E. D.
So they lost their tempers again. They’re like a pack of kids, without any self-control or self-discipline whatsoever.
I haven’t seen where an officer shoved Mehserle. If it happened I’d have to have someone point it out to me because I don’t see it in the videos. I’ve noticed some disinfo out there now, about the video.
One person posted a video showing Pirone’s open hand on Oscar’s face, saying that this proves Pirone did not punch Oscar. The thing is, it wasn’t even the section of video that we were/are all talking about when we say we saw the punches.
So I’ve a different interpretation of THAT video: it seems to be a section of video either between punches or after punches; when Oscar fell forward Pirone evidently held him up, by his face. That’s why we see his open hand on Oscar’s face. Whether my interp is true or not, it certainly doesn’t counter the parts where we clearly see him punching Oscar. But for many, it doesn’t need to. To them, a screenshot of Pirone’s open hand on Oscar’s face really does cancel out the actual sections that show the punches.
If Oscar did have a camera, we’ll NEVER see the footage he got.