Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by BART Police Jan. 1, 2009.  Grant was not only unarmed, but was also in handcuffs at the time of the shooting.  Demonstrations on Wed., Jan 6 started peaceful and then turned violent with downtown windows breaking, cars on fire, and automobiles damaged.

FACT:  As suggested by available national data concerning traffic stops, excessive force is
disproportionately used against people of color across the U.S. For instance, a recent
investigation revealed that use of force by officers in San Francisco police department– defined
as any physical restraint causing injury up to shooting a person to death – was alarmingly high,
and that 40% of cases in which force was used involved African Americans, who make up less
than 8% of the City’s population. (www.ushrnetwork.org/files/ushrn/images/linkfiles/CERD/9_Police%20Brutality.pdf)

Police brutality has been a persistent problem faced by African Americans. The failure of government to protect Black people from lawless law enforcement officers forced Blacks to act in their own interests.

FACT: During the 1930s, the National Negro Congress organized massive rallies against this form of terror. In Washington, D.C., over the span a few months, the NNC collected 24,000 signatures protesting abuse by the D.C. police department. The Black Panther Party was created to stem the tide of police abuse. In the 1970s the Congress of Afrikan Peoples sponsored the “Stop Killer Cops” Campaigns. (www.monthlyreview.org/301brc.htm)