Thread by @caitoz

The following is my husband Tim's account of witnessing the police shooting of Oscar Grant on 1/1/2009. #BlackLivesMatter

The weirdest thing about it was how unsurprising the actual shooting was when it happened. That's how far the police had already escalated things by then. /1

My family and I were on our way back from a New Year's concert in San Francisco when the train stopped, then we heard cops screaming and cursing. One came into our car, shoved past passengers and grabbed a young black guy who'd come in from another car, screaming and cursing. /2

The guy (not Oscar) provided no resistance, but the cop was extremely rough with him, dragged him out of the train and shoved him hard against the wall. Other cops were doing the same thing roughly dragging other young black men off the train, absolutely RAGING the whole time. /3

One of the young men was being restrained by multiple cops, with the most aggressive cop on the scene using the same knee-on-neck position that killed George Floyd. I later learned that man's name was Oscar Grant. /4

The atmosphere was so full of rage at that point that I was already thinking "please nobody take out a gun". When I saw a cop draw his gun I thought "please don't-".

Then he did. It was not surprising. The cops had escalated things so far by then. Someone was going to die. /5

I was in the window closest to the shooting. Oscar was not resisting at all. The cop later said he'd meant to tase him (bullshit), but there was no reason to tase him. The only ones displaying aggression were the cops.
People took videos. Cops tried to confiscate their phones. /6

The train left before we could find out what happened. There was a girl crying. Her significant other, a white guy, was loudly saying in this overbearing, dismissive tone that the man hadn't been shot. He said it was just a taser. /7

I lived in Fremont, which was the final stop. When everyone got off, the white people went one way, and the black people went another way. No words exchanged between the two groups. We all knew what we'd just witnessed. Whether we admitted it or not, we knew. /8

I went online the next day to find out what happened, and when I described what I'd seen on discussion forums about the story I was mobbed by people telling me I was a liar, that Oscar was a thug and the cop was just defending himself. As a white guy it was very educational. /9

I've seen claims that police brutality and racism are being blown out of proportion by the media, but anyone who's witnessed it up close knows this is bullshit. If you don't believe this urgently needs fixing it's because you've been lucky enough not to have experienced it. 10/10