Cops in three cities gun down Black men

By Larry Hales

Jan 16, 2009

In the early morning of the first day of the new year, as celebrations around the country were waning and millions were clinging to a hope of change coming soon with the first African-American president, the police of Bay Area Rapid Transit demonstrated the brutality of the capitalist state in Oakland, Calif.

In fact, within a 24-hour period, from New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day, three Black men in three different cities were shot by cops. Two were killed. Although some things on the surface may change, the racist nature of the bourgeois state—the apparatus that protects the capitalist system—remains the same.

New Orleans cops kill young father

In New Orleans at around midnight, as a fireworks display illuminated the sky, Adolph Grimes, who had evacuated during Hurricane Katrina and settled in Houston, arrived back in his home town to visit his family.

According to his father, Adolph Grimes Jr., “He made it at 12 o’clock exact, with a second to spare.” (nola.com, Jan. 3)

The time the family would get to spend with Adolph Grimes III would be short. Three hours later he was brutally gunned down by nine plainclothes cops, supposedly part of a drug task force.

Grimes was in his car waiting for a cousin when he was surrounded by cops. The end result was that Grimes, 22, married and the father of a 17-month-old son, was gunned down in a hail of 48 bullets. He was shot 14 times, 12 times in the back.

Police allege that Grimes shot first, but even cop superintendent Warren Riley admits that Grimes probably did not know the men in plainclothes were cops.

Grimes had a license to carry a handgun. Whether he had one or not, however, he had the right to defend himself from a perceived robbery or worse.

The onus falls on the police who provocatively approached the vehicle, most likely because a young Black man was in it.

Texas cops shoot ball player

On the same night, in the city of Bellaire outside Houston, which is at least 95 percent white, white cop Jeff Cotto shot Robbie Tolan, son of Bobby Tolan, who played professional baseball for 15 years with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The young Tolan, who played baseball for the minor league Washington Nationals, and his cousin Anthony Cooper were

followed by a police car on their way home from a fast food restaurant around 2 a.m.

Tolan and Cooper had exited Tolan’s SUV and were walking toward the house when they were told to get on the ground. According to Cooper, “He was saying ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’ We were saying ‘Why? Why?’ We didn’t know he was a police officer.” (cbs11tv.com, Jan. 7)

Tolan’s parents came outside, and his mother was pushed against a wall, which reportedly elicited a response from Tolan. He was then shot, and still has a bullet lodged in his liver.

The cops said there were reports that vehicles were stolen in the area. Mike Morris, an uncle, said, “This is a classic case of racial profiling, I think.”

Family attorney Geoffrey Berg said of the city’s response, “I think the city would have done well had it said it was sorry that it happened—if the city had expressed some regret that a member of its police force shot a member of a family—the only African-American family on the block.”

Oscar Grant and family.

Killing in Oakland caught on video

Anger in response to the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant on the platform of a train station in Oakland has reverberated across the country. The brutal tragedy was captured on a cell-phone camera by a passenger inside a waiting BART train. The video was aired on KTVU on Jan. 6.

The person with the camera can be heard in the background saying, “Baby, I’m fine, I’m just recording.” Someone responds, “You gotta take pictures of this shit.”

In the video several men are seen sitting against a wall and one is on the floor in handcuffs. Three cops are standing. The passengers on the train are very vocal in response to the over-aggressive attitude of the cops.

Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant.

A person later identified as Oscar Grant, who is handcuffed and on his knees, moves and is pushed down onto his stomach. One cop has a knee in his back, another a knee on his neck.