Second officer used racial slur in BART killing
Published: June 29, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
A new bombshell may be waiting to explode in the case of Oscar Grant, the black man who was killed by a white San Francisco Bay Area Transit Authority police officer.
One of the police officers called Grant a “bitch ass n—er” before Grant was killed by another officer.
A videotape taken by a bystander shows one of the officers, identified by the San Francisco Chronicle as Tony Pirone, shouting “bitch as n—er, right?” twice, about 30 seconds before Grant was shot to death by fellow officer Johannes Mehserle.
Mehserle, 27, has been suspended and charged with murder. Pirone has also been suspended.
The new video was filmed by a rider at the Oakland Fruitvale Station early New Year’s Day.
Pirone and his attorney aver that Pirone was simply repeating a phrase Grant hurled at the officers. Grant’s voice, however, is not audible on the tape. A sound-enhanced version of the recording shows the officer slamming Grant with a “shoulder chop” which dropped him to the ground, and then uttering the racial epithet.
The tape emerged during the preliminary hearing for the officer who shot and killed Grant but has received scant attention.
Asked if he made the statement, Pirone testified in court: “I don’t remember, but it very well may have happened.”
“Is that something you would have initiated on your own, calling him names?” a lawyer asked.
“No, I don’t talk like that,” Pirone said.
The lawyer representing Grant’s family told the Chronicle that Pirone’s remarks were “shocking and disturbing” and that “Pirone was out of control, assaulting Oscar Grant and taunting him with racial slurs, and none of the other officers seemed to put him in check.”
As RAW STORY reported in January, “The officer who punched Grant in the face is the same officer who investigators say had his knee on Grant’s neck when the 22-year-old man was shot. Aside from Mehserle, no BART officers have been charged with wrongdoing.
“There’s no question in my mind that that’s vivid powerful evidence that he committed a vicious physical assualt, unprovoked on a citizen, for absolutely no reason,” said UC Hastings and Golden Gate law professor Peter Keane, who believes the officer should be fired and charged with assault. “That punch was totally unjustified… That officer is committing a crime.”
The East Bay Express points out that “Pirone has a history of not telling the truth.”
“For example, Pirone testified that Grant had refused to put his hands behind him, but then was forced to admit that videotapes of the shooting showed Grant doing just that,” Robert Gammon writes.
“Pirone also said on the stand that Grant had kicked him in the groin moments before the killing. But then Pirone admitted that he never told investigators about the alleged kick during at least two interviews in the days after the killing. Pirone said he only remembered the kick later, after viewing videotapes of the incident - which, it should be noted, do not show any such kick, just as they do not show Grant calling Pirone a ‘Bitch-ass Nigger.’”
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The Police are the new military. Full of completely disposable heroes.
The left newspapers might whine a bit
But the guys at the station they dont give a shit
Dispatch calls are you doin something wicked?
No siree, jack, were just givin tickets
Don’t know why you got so many thumbs down. Best use of a DK quote I’ve seen this year.
America is moving toward a civil war that will only flare up, higher and higher, as the economy deteriorates.
America already has its racist, right-wing death squads.
They’re called POLICE.
My own personal experience tells me that cops WILL lie, DO lie, and cannot be trusted to tell the truth under much of any circumstance. They are the supposed to be the “good guys”, but I’ve been treated with more respect by the crooks I’ve known over the years than by ANY cop I’ve ever had to deal with.
This cop obviously has major issues, and should NEVER have been allowed to be a cop. He is clearly a racist, and has no respect for anyone. He has shown that he is not above lying, even when confronted with video evidence that shows that he is lying. Not a lick of sense, and not an ounce of proper judgement. He has no business being a cop, he is more of a danger than a source of stability. Time for him to have his gun removed and never allowed in a position of power again.
This looked much more like an assassination than a racial beating.
They wanted this guy dead and it didn’t matter what he did or what color he was.
madtom–There won’t be any civil war. Like who’s going to start it? You pussy-assed Americans just sit there and take the shit that’s handed to you, and then you say “Thank You”.
What should have happened when Bush stole the 2000 election is exactly what the Iranian people are doing now! Yeah, the great Worldwide defenders of Freedom, Democracy, and Justice just sat there.
Well, the truth will out. Pirone needs to be charged with murder, if not accessory, at least. What a mess.
I hope both those cops are locked up in a black-only prison wing.
Fkking Christ! He beat a man to the ground that hadn’t been charged with anything. Then held him while his partner murdered him with a pistol, and he hasn’t been charged with anything. Haven’t they heard of accessory to murder in the Bay Area? It really makes no difference as they will both go free get transfered to a better job! Guatanteed
Meanwhile, both these sacks of shit walk around California as free men. . . .
Your logic is wrong tomreinke, if a black man shoots a white man no one cares, then blacks wouldn’t have the racism problem that is in this country. The racial slur just adds more against the “I didn’t do anything wrong defense”. If it was a heated racial tirade that was going on, it could have helped them to shoot the black suspect as a way of saying “yea, how do you like that N****r”. When confronted with this stuff and questioned the man never said anything about making a racial comment or being kicked or anything else. Once he saw the tape, then he brought up the kick (wasn’t on the tapes) the racial slur being said by the black victim (which wasn’t on the tape) etc. etc.. Cops only tell the HALF TRUTH, when they are confronted with evidence that contradicts them.
I think the problem with alot of people is that they think cops are without sin. They don’t know that almost all police are hired off the street from the society they are in, sometimes they go to academy sometimes they don’t. So if a person has issues with certain people or women or is a bully etc. etc.. Why do you think that they still wouldn’t have those issues once they become a police officer.
“bitch ass nig*er ” and “bitch ass nig*er, right?” are two different things. I think it’s probably like his attorney essentially said, that he was mocking Oscar’s own words. Not that cops have any credibility with me whatsoever, it’s just the words aren’t right. I’ve been around tons of racists; white racists wouldn’t call a black person a ‘bitch ass nig*er’, they’d just say ‘nig*er’ or ‘coon’ or some other vulgarity. I think you’d be hard pressed to find any racists or even a plain ol’ “I’ve got black friends” white oinker for that matter, that uses the words ‘bitch ass’ in any context.
Bad Cops, Bad Cops, whatcha gonna do,
Whatcha gonna do when we come for YOU?
You thug PIGS have lost the trust and support of the public for ALL cops.
The time is coming soon when you pigs will regret this, greatly.
well, if he goes to prison for murder, he’ll be someone’s special bitch, and then he’ll be a “sore ass nigga”
More cops need to be sent to prison.
They will learn a valuable lesson.
Their colleagues will likewise learn a valuable lesson.
The public will be reassured that the police are NOT above the law.
Putting more bad cops behind bars — in general population, please — will help to create a better police force and a better society for all of us.
“White man calls a black man a nigger the world goes crazy.
Nigger calls a white man honkey or any other racial slur no one cares.” - Every person I’ve ever know that was ever even one tiny little bit insulted by the laughable ‘honkey’ has been a member of the Aryan Nations or some other form of organized cry-baby-dom.
When black racists I know make white people jokes, it’s about how they dance bad or how leave-it-to-beaver their family is. When white racists I know make jokes about blacks it’s always more along the lines of, “Q. how long does it take a black woman to take a shit, A. 9 months”, and disgusting comments related to rape, murder and torture.
Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t think so.
Furthermore dick face, this is about a policeman shotting an unarmed young man, and race probably did have something to do with it. Thanks for doing your part to perpetuate that with your whining.