Legal lynching: The blatant, boastful murder of Oscar Grant

‘Amerikkka rewards her killaz and eats her young’

Queennandi X Sheba, Poor News Network

poore28099s-fun-raiser-mural-painting-new-hq-011009-by-pnn, Legal lynching: The blatant, boastful murder of Oscar Grant, Local News & Views The execution of Oscar Grant was a painful reminder of the “legal lynchings” that have been taking place for centuries. It also was a reminder of the superiority complex that lies deep within the Western slavemassa that leads him to believe that it is OK to shoot an unarmed Black man lying face down, detained, and in the back.

It was an awakening reminder that even though we have President Barack Obama, there is always goin’ to be a racist cowboy pig who will remind us of “our place.” And even though history was made with our first African president, the message of the pig that murdered Oscar Grant was loud and clear: “Y’all niggahz betta not be gittin’ uppidy, either.” (I’m not knockin’ tha people but, realistically speaking, that’s exactly what that pig and his kind thinks of us.)

When I first heard of Brotha Grant’s murder, it just added on to the pain and resistance that I was born with. Me being a third (and more) generation survivor of police brutality, it was just another slap in the face and a failed attempt (again) to break the peoples’ spirit.

My mother, Carolyn X, was beaten and eventually neutralized for her role in the struggle and her love for tha people. My godbrother, “Tuggie,” was released from jail late at night, told to run, and was shot in the back.

I was slammed viciously on my 7-month-pregnant belly by two officers and was robbed of some of my firstborn’s shopping money. Reason: I had on a FUBU jacket, so I must’ve been a “drug dealer.”

My daughter, who was in my womb at the time of my beating, endured her fair share of the “criminal injustus system,” in which she was detained, called “niggah” repeatedly, taunted, robbed and threatened with a false case for rebelling against their abuse and protesting for her rights. My daughter’s cousin was detained with her but broke down and cried as he too was taunted and was afraid to say anything resistant.

I say that to say this: This is not a coincidence. The secret army (po’lice) have been trained to murder the African since and before we were stolen from the motherland. They have been trained to murder Africans in particular, poor people in general, thus becoming a part of the racially and economically motivated structure of population control and global domination.

poore28099s-fun-raiser-oscar-grant-mural-new-hq-011009-by-pnn1, Legal lynching: The blatant, boastful murder of Oscar Grant, Local News & Views If I was to have murdered someone on the job, intentionally or not, cop or not, I would have been fired and arrested – on the spot, no bail of course. God forbid my victim’s white! Hell, I would’ve had two cops at my door, with a do-it-at-home lethal injection kit and, before the victim’s family could dry their tears, my ass would’ve been “strung up.”

A double edged sword cuts us all. This system a lot of times is just like tha sword, sharp on one edge, to make sure it fillets Blacks and other comrades in the struggle. The other edge is for the rich and so-called rulers and their skin doesn’t even get broken! When tha pig who killed Brotha Oscar Grant was put on paid leave, it only validated what I’ve been feeling and saying for a long time: “Amerikkka rewards her killaz and eats her young.”

I and fellow Poor News Network staff Tiny, Phil Adams, Bruce Allison and PNN-TV producer Tony Robles re-ported and sup-ported the Jan. 7 Fruitvale BART rally and BART board hearing. And at the BART board meeting, I couldn’t help but to take a moment to tune into the pain of Oscar Grant’s mother, Ms. Johnson. My heart started to hurt so bad for her that my hot tears began to blind me.

As a mama, it is terrifying to know and see that our children are being shot down like homeless hamsters at any given time – without probable cause and with extreme prejudice. The blood that’s been POURED out all over any poor area or hood by killah kops bypassed the “alarming rate” a long time ago.

I cannot help but to ask US this simple question: How did we allow for this kind of brutality to continue to claim the lives of our African and La Raza brothers, sisters, children and other poor folks around the globe – through 2009!?

If we stayed resistant and consistent on killa pigs when the first unjust (documented) murder of a brotha was known to us, would brothas like Z. Shakur, Fred Hampton, George Jackson, Jonathan Jackson, Cammerin Boyd, Idriss Stelley and Oscar Grant still be alive?

Queennandi is a poverty scholar, welfareQUEEN and writer for Poor News Network, now in their new headquarters in the Redstone Building, 2940 16th St., Suite 301, San Francisco CA 94110, (415) 863-6306. Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at www.poormagazine.org.