ipl-logo

Summary Of The Oscar Grant Case

1186 Words5 Pages

The key issue of the Oscar Grant case is the argument that institutional racism was the reason behind the crime. This is “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.” (Macpherson 1999 pg. 350). It can be portrayed through the attitudes of individuals, which results in discrimination. This can be through racist stereotyping that leads to the disadvantage of ethnic minorities. (Macpherson 1999). Many new manifestations of racism could be cited as evidence due to the definition that was given by Macpherson. Purposely discriminating an individual on the grounds of “race” was not seen as basic evidence as discrimination was becoming more …show more content…

Videos were made by the witnesses at the train station where Grant was killed. In the recordings, Grant is seen sitting on the platform in-between his companions. A police officer was guarding them from the front, and the supposed “fight” had been controlled. Suddenly two police officers approach Grant and throw him face down on the floor. (Martinot’ 2013). At 1:49am, an officer planted his knee on Grant’s neck, which caused him to struggle due to the pain. He was seen resisting arrest; however, Grants hand were pinned down in front of him and he could not move them. Whilst Grant was being restrained, officer Johannes Mehserle stood over him and shot him in the back, which resulted in the murder. The officers excuse was that he was reaching for his Taser. “His Taser was on the left side of his body and the gun on the right.” (Martinot’ …show more content…

The officer should not have used force on the victim, as this started the chain reaction of violence. As Derrida (2003, p.g.99) stated, this is the “law producing the exact same thing they are trying to repress”. There could have been many variables that could have effected Mehserle’s decision making in this situation. One extra-legal variable that can be applied to this case is the role of demeanour. It “focuses primarily on the effect of situational status characteristics.” (Bonner 2015, p.g.495). Westly (1954) had stated that respect is a very important norm for the police force. Officer Mehserle could have felt disrespected by Grant when he was trying to handcuff him. The officer most likely considered Grant’s act of ‘disrespect’ was simply an affront, which means that the officer felt that his authority was being taken as a joke by Grant and his peers. (Van Maanen

Show More
Related

  • Dr. Charles Kinsey Case Scenarios

    591 Words  | 3 Pages

    As he follows exact instructions, police are still leery of him. While on the ground with his hands in the air, Dr. Charles Kinsey is shot in the leg as an armed policeman, Jonathan Aledda, fires for no apparent reason. To make matters worse, Florida police vet of sixteen years, Emile Hollant, is suspended because of misleading statements during the investigation. The actual officer

    Read More

  • Oscar Grant Murder Case

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both peaceful and violent protests of police actions took place in the following days. On January 30, 2010, Alameda County prosecutors charged Mehserle with murder. The officer resigned his position and pleaded not guilty. The trial began on June 10, 2010. An entire month later, on July 8, 2010, Johannes Mehserie was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

    Read More

  • Brutality In Fruitvale Station

    963 Words  | 4 Pages

    During their conversation, a former inmate that Grant use to go to jail with noticed him and a fight breaks out. The conductor notifies the BART police station. Out of the travelers that the BART officers tried to arrest, Grant was one of the people who was restrained by officers Ingram and Caruso, and was minutes later shot in the back by officer Ingram. He was urgently transported to the hospital, where he ends up dying in surgery. Officer Ingram told his partner and the judge that he was reaching for his taser and not his gun.

    Read More

  • The Purpose Of The Royal Commission On Donald Marshall

    1857 Words  | 8 Pages

    Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution Background When considering the purpose of the Royal Commission on the case of Donald Marshall Jr., it can be said that this Inquiry was not just to help the one individual but rather to prevent cases with systematic racism in the criminal justice system from happening again in the future. This is done through the commission’s detailed list of the findings on how the criminal justice system failed Donald Marshall, Jr. during the course of his arrest to the time of his acquittal and their recommendations on how to remedy this for this particular case and for the future. It was in 1971 that Marshall was convicted for murder and began his ten years in prison until 1983 when he was finally

    Read More

  • Summary Of Ther Violence By Police By Rebecca Griffin

    470 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rebecca Griffin in “Why Don’t White People Believe People of Color About Racism?” discusses how racism is affecting today’s society. Griffin feels there is a lot of police violence toward the colored communities and also feels there is such a thing as white privilege. Griffin also includes in her article that whites cannot or will not believe that the African Americans are being victimized by the government and police because of systemic racism caused by some notion of white privilege. While many may agree with Griffin’s ideas, in the end, she is incorrect because we need to take a look into the bigger picture in this essay and realize it is not only just about one race that is experiencing these issues. The first issue with her article is that Griffin states

    Read More

  • Racism In Gareth Evans's 'Road To Hell'

    1127 Words  | 5 Pages

    Summary The case "Road to Hell" by Gareth Evans made us reevaluate our views towards racism issues in modern society. Often enough these issues can not be fully covered by standard legalistic approach and need a deeper research to prove that racism has been a cause of the major problem within a community, organization or a whole society. CRT has helped us justify our position that unintentional racism by John Baker caused the conflict within the organization and resignation of one of the key employees, Matt Rennalls. I used three characteristics of racism in the analysis of the characters ' behavior including One group believes itself to be superior, That group has the power to carry out racist behavior, Racism affects multiple groups.

    Read More

  • Tatum's Theories Of Racism

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.

    Read More

  • Sammy Yatim Case Analysis

    1126 Words  | 5 Pages

    In today’s modern society, many feel that is okay for a police officer can kill a man armed with a harmful weapon at any cost. On many news channels, there are various amounts of articles and reports about a police officer committing this act. Even though a police officer has the right to take action against an armed man, this could be argued in many circumstances. In the 2013, Sammy Yatim was a young adult with a mental illness and was armed with a weapon on a streetcar in Toronto. Yatim was confronted by Const.

    Read More

  • Tamir Rice's Argumentative Essay: Police Use Of Force

    528 Words  | 3 Pages

    One common opinion is that officers should not use more force than is necessary or reasonable, and even then, that force should be used only as a last resort. “Police use force to affect civilians’ conduct. On a day-to-day basis, they do so most often by employing the least degree of force available to them, their mere presence. Cops wear uniforms and drive distinctly marked cars so that, without saying a word, they may have an effect on citizens’ behavior” (Fyfe, 38). When an officer’s presence fails to fulfill the desired conduct, the next course of action for said officer would be verbalization.

    Read More

  • Should The Police Kill African Americans

    208 Words  | 1 Pages

    Oscar Grant was shot by Johannes Mehserle on New Year 's Eve. The police are killing innocent blacks. This is how the police are killing African Americans. The police should treat them equally.

    Read More

  • Walter Scott's Music Analysis

    872 Words  | 4 Pages

    1. When watching the dash cam footage of the stop that led to the shooting of Walter Scott, one initial reaction of the viewer might be that the officer should turn his radio down when stopping cars. His lights prompted the beginning of the video. Even prior to turning on his lights, when he notified dispatch that he was stopping the car, the officer’s mind needs to be completely focused on the task at hand. The playing of the radio in the background gives the officer’s behavior an air of unprofessionalism. The music also makes it difficult to understand the interaction between the Scott and Slager.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Timothy Foster Case

    577 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1987 an African-American male, Timothy Foster, was convicted of murdering a Caucasian female in Georgia and was sentenced to death (Vogue 2016). The prisoner’s appeal process worked its way up to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that he was convicted because of racial prejudice (Vogue 2016). Notes obtained from the prosecutors of the case revealed that they did not select certain jurors because they were black and that the jury was all white (Vogue 2016). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Timothy, which was in accordance with the already established anti-discrimination precedents set by the 14th amendment and the 1986 Supreme Court decision in Batson v. Kentucky (Vogue 2016). This case is important for several reasons.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast: John Allen Muhammad Vs. Nidal Malik Hasan

    704 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the chase of a wounded soldier, a female police officer started to fire upon Hasan. While they both were drawing fire upon each other, the female soldier got hit two times and fell wounded on the ground. Later a civilian officer named Todd shouted at

    Read More

  • Annotated Bibliography: The New Jim Crow

    1343 Words  | 6 Pages

    Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Police Brutality

    892 Words  | 4 Pages

    Law enforcement agents are should behave to a standard that is greater than the average civilian. Police brutality comes from an abuse of power granted to the police. Police brutality is often drawn on by overreaction in certain situations drawn on by panic. Police using excessive force in the United States is a crucial dilemma and must be stopped.

    Read More

More about Summary Of The Oscar Grant Case

Open Document