No Justice No BART Reaches Out to Public at MacArthur Station, Oakland, 4/2/09: photos

Kristian Williams recently spoke in Oakland on related topics:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/01/18585333.php

BART police officer Fred Crabtree shot Jerrold Hall, who was unarmed, in the back of his head with a shotgun at the Hayward station in 1992:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/23/18580918.php#18580925
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/17/18571372.php

BART police officer David Betancourt killed a naked Bruce Edward Seward at the Hayward station in 2001:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/10/17/16999221.php

BART has been caught lying about these murders and no one was ever held to account.

For a flashback on the cover-up of the murder of Oscar Grant, here's what BART was reporting to the media on January first, before video of the actual murder surfaced: "A young man allegedly involved in a fight aboard a BART train was shot to death by a BART police officer on the platform of the Fruitvale Station early New Year's Day, in the midst of a brawl.... BART spokesman Jim Allison said the victim was not restrained when the gun discharged." Note that it was in the "midst" of a brawl, they said, that Oscar Grant was not restrained when he was shot (in the back), and that the gun innocently "discharged." Once the video went public, Chief Gee had the gall to say that he found the footage to be inconclusive and that the public should just be patient while they investigated. Despite the fact that BART had video footage of Tony Pirone striking Grant just minutes before he was shot, BART did not initiate any investigation into Pirone's actions until after that footage was aired on TV three weeks later. Director Dorothy Dugger then remarked that it was a "new allegation of unreasonable force."

Now BART has one supposed investigation into the officers on the platform that night (none of whom called for medical assistance or even reported a shooting after Grant was shot) and another looking into if BART even needs a police force, but these "investigations" are being conducted by people BART itself chose without public input. Knowing even a glimmer of BART history, there is little reason to expect anything more than whitewash and self-justification from these investigations without sustained public pressure.

A former BART employee talks about BART's long time racial profiling here:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/23/18580918.php#18580933

Stay tuned for No Justice No BART's next move...