Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant
As I sat down to write my review of Fruitvale Station, hundreds of people were marching past my building, drumming, cheering, and chanting, among other things, “Justice for Trayvon.” They could have just as easily been chanting, “Justice for Oscar.” Fruitvale Station is the story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man from Hayward who was killed by a white police officer while being held at a BART station in the early morning of New Year’s Day, 2009. The police officer claimed it was an accident, and he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter; both the killing and the light sentence he received led to both protests and riots in Oakland.