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Video Shows Second Officer Punching Grant

by ORGANIZE OAKLAND (ORGANIZEOAKLAND [at] YAHOO.COM)
OAKLAND, Calif. -- New questions are being raised about an exclusive cell phone video obtained by KTVU of the New Year's Day fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer
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The video shows a BART police officer leaving one suspect on the ground and walking over to an area where a female officer is talking to three other men. The officer then appears to punch one of the men in the face.

"That was quite a shot," says Peter Keane a law professor with University of California Hastings College of Law. "That's a pretty brutal punch, knocks his head back, sends him to the ground."

After the punch, Oscar Grant can be seen putting his hands up. The two men flanking Grant sit down as the same officer appears to point a taser at them. The video then stops. Two officers arrive and that is when Johannes Mehserle shot Oscar Grant in the back, killing him.

Mehserle now faces a murder charge.

Investigators say the officer who delivered the punch and who had his knee on Grant's neck during the shooting is not charged with anything, something Peter Keane disagrees with.

"If the district attorney is saying he's not going to charge any officer except Mehserle in my opinion, he's not doing his job," said U.C. Berkeley law school professor Franklin Zimring. Zimring also said the district attorney may be focusing on the shooting first, and "he may need that officer's testimony."

John Burris is representing Oscar Grant's family. He says he knew about the punch and believes it escalated the incident."His (the officer's) aggressiveness then caused the other officer to be aggressive, I believe," says Burris. "And that aggressiveness then ultimately led to the shooting, if you didn't have that level of conduct I don't believe the shooting would have taken place."

Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff wouldn't comment Friday on potential criminal charges about the BART police officer who threw the punch.

http://www.ktvu.com/video/18554358/index.html
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apparently DA Orloff thinks this is acceptable behavior for police officers. how many other cops does he know have treated citizens like this and he looked the other way? time has come to recall DA Orloff now!!
Oakland PD crooked in beating death and search warrants; FBI investigating

Police Chief Wayne Tucker laughably claims, "The men and women who put on the uniform and represent the city are held to high standards of ethical conduct and performance," while a man murdered by OPD almost 10 years ago still has seen no justice and cops are caught falsifying requests for search warrants. The FBI is investigating both. How many more police crimes like these are not being investigated by the FBI, internal affairs, or anyone at all for that matter? How many murderers, liars, and thieves with badges are out there right now?


given that statement by the Police Chief and the crap swirling around OPD now (not to mention BART cops), it's probably time that Wayne Tucker be sent packing too?


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