The Movie Fruitvale Station Hit Hard, Left Me Emotionally Paralyzed

[FourScore]

Sat Jul 27, 2013 at 12:54 PM PDT
The Movie Fruitvale Station Hit Hard, Left Me Emotionally Paralyzed
by KwikFollow

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.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/27/1227038/-The-Movie-Fruitvale-Station-Hit-Hard-Left-Me-Emotionally-Paralyzed

[Schema Thing]

1. It is an amazing film; and it wrecked me as well.

I saw it yesterday, which is also the day my cousin was given 1st degree murder and 35 years for shooting a man who was coming at him with empty beer bottles in each hand. < that doesn't give the full story btw, but any way you look at it, my cousin had far more, it seems to me, claim to self-defense than George Zimmerman.


The weird thing is, that although my cousin is Black, I don't think the jury allowed race to color their conviction.... but. but but but... I can't help but wonder if, even with two Black people on the jury.... if maybe come sentencing time the life of a young, poor, black male just doesn't seem full enough of promise - societally - if maybe that is why they gave him so much prison time for a shooting that I thought he would get manslaughter or at most 2nd degree for?

[FourScore]

7. Oh, Schema Thing!! I'm so, so sorry!

This sounds devastating. Can he appeal?

[Schema Thing]

8. t/y FourScore

Yes, I think he can. What I saw of his lawyer, I was impressed. The lawyer is a Public Defender, but he'd been a prosecutor for many years.

I only saw about 5 hours of the trial, so I yet don't know exactly what the jury saw.

[FourScore]

11. Please keep us informed if things change for him. n/t

[liberal_at_heart]

2. we live in a desensitized society where death is not taken seriously until we have it shoved in our

faces or experience it first hand. Every single solitary loss of life is tragic. It sounds like this is a powerful reminder of that.

[stillwaiting]

10. The genius of our elite is that they have erased the capacity for empathy from far too many people.

It literally has to happen to them or their immediate loved ones for many Americans to "get it".

And even when they "get it" that there's a problem, our elite have flooded their consciousness with propaganda (i.e. scapegoats) to distract them from focusing their anger where it belongs.

Too many kick down in the United States. It's not very attractive to further punish and abuse those without any power. As a matter of fact, it's quite ugly.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. I need to see this...

I remember that video. Mistaken for a taser my ass. Why in the hell would you tase someone handcuffed and lying on the ground? Oh yeah- because you are a racist pig.

[Moostache]

4. For the exact same reason you would exit your vehicle (against police instruction) and pursue...

You do those things because you are deluded and a racist who see skin color as an external measure of value for human life.

We need to keep the light on this issue and not allow the human cockroaches like this scurry around in polite company...they should feel the light on them all the time and always be forced to scurry away like the vermin they are...

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Exactly. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. thanks for the review. i hope to see This movie

[etherealtruth]

9. I was not aware of the Movie

thanks to your post I now am.