I sat motionless as uncontrollable tears rolled down my cheeks as the credits rolled after the new movie Fruitvale Station. I literally couldn't move or stop bawling as the impact of that film hit me to my core. All I could do was sit there paralyzed by emotion thinking: "Why do WE have to go through such unnecessary sh!t?"
For those who don't know, this film is based on the true story of Oscar Grant. An unarmed 22-year-old black man who was laying face down when shot in the back and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer on January 1, 2009 at BART's Fruitvale Station. Grant and his friends had been going home on the train after watching New Year's Eve fireworks in San Francisco.
The officers were responding to reports of fights on the train and Grant was one of the suspects pulled off the train and being questioned. At some point, amid the chaos and confusion one of the officers pulled out his gun and shot Grant. Several people videotaped the incident with cell phone cameras. The video, which climaxes with the sound of a single gunshot--went viral.
Ultimately, the shooter--who claimed he thought he was about to taze Grant and mistakenly pulled out and fired his pistol--was only convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served only 11 months in jail for taking Grant's life. There were varying accounts of what happened and the videos were inconclusive, but the officer, of course, claimed Grant was aggressively resisting arrest.
I think the reason this film hit me so hard is because it made me think of Trayvon Martin, who was also innocently on his way home before being accosted, shot and killed by another in-over-his-head, overzealous idiot.
The film didn't portray Grant as an angel or a monster...just more or less a regular guy trying to make it through life. But I'm sure there are those (like Bill O'Reilly or Larry Elder) who will say the real-life Grant was a convicted felon...a trouble-making, pot-smoking thug, and just a bad person who caused his own death. Isn't that pretty much what many George Zimmerman apologists are saying about Trayvon Martin? Makes me wanna holler!!
According to an eye witness, among Grant's last words were, "I got a four-year-old daughter!" Those don't sound like the words of a bad human being to me.
What a powerful, powerful movie. It reaffirms the need for every black parent to have that "talk" with their young sons. I know I did.
According to a story in the Los Angeles times, while attending the film's recent premiere in Oakland, Grant's mother--Wanda Johnson--was asked why she's reliving the tragedy via the movie? She answered: "I have to. You know why? Because I wouldn't want you or anybody else to go through it," she said. "If I don't do it, then I'm always going to have that on my heart."
Ms. Johnson, what happened to your son and too many of our young men is on my heart, too--my very heavy heart, which was laid bare and fully exposed by the end of this magnificent film.