I was much moved by Fruitvale Station which is the name of one of the stations of the Bay Area Rapid Transit or BART as its known to the citizens of Oakland and San Francisco. On January 1 of 2009 among a group of crowded revelers on the BART train, an incident took place that cost young Oscar Grant his life.
Police shot young Grant and in this day of cellphone cameras which everyone but me seems to have it's impossible to get away with a lot of bad behavior. In this case the police shot Grant while he was cuffed and on the ground.
Oscar Grant is portrayed with deep insight by Michael B. Jordan and the film with some flashback sequences including one where he is in prison and has an incident that bears on what happened on 1/1/09, it's the story of his last day of life. We see a young man trying to turn his life around, a quite ordinary individual. Like in The Diary Of Anne Frank you are struck with just how ordinary young Mr. Grant was, just as the occupants of that 3rd floor attic.
I worked for several years at New York State Crime Victims Board before retirement and part of my job was to evaluate police work. I saw the gamut of work from truly heroic to unbelievably atrocious. The thing that always struck me was first assessment. Cops arrive on the scene and make an assessment immediately of who's bad or good. What happened on that BART train was nothing that Grant or his friends started, but cops on the scene, possibly as a result of prejudice made wrong judgments and that led to tragedy.
Fruitvale Station will get a flock of awards I've no doubt, maybe even in the big show with the Academy Awards. It's a fine film with lessons in it for all of us, especially those in law enforcement.
Police shot young Grant and in this day of cellphone cameras which everyone but me seems to have it's impossible to get away with a lot of bad behavior. In this case the police shot Grant while he was cuffed and on the ground.
Oscar Grant is portrayed with deep insight by Michael B. Jordan and the film with some flashback sequences including one where he is in prison and has an incident that bears on what happened on 1/1/09, it's the story of his last day of life. We see a young man trying to turn his life around, a quite ordinary individual. Like in The Diary Of Anne Frank you are struck with just how ordinary young Mr. Grant was, just as the occupants of that 3rd floor attic.
I worked for several years at New York State Crime Victims Board before retirement and part of my job was to evaluate police work. I saw the gamut of work from truly heroic to unbelievably atrocious. The thing that always struck me was first assessment. Cops arrive on the scene and make an assessment immediately of who's bad or good. What happened on that BART train was nothing that Grant or his friends started, but cops on the scene, possibly as a result of prejudice made wrong judgments and that led to tragedy.
Fruitvale Station will get a flock of awards I've no doubt, maybe even in the big show with the Academy Awards. It's a fine film with lessons in it for all of us, especially those in law enforcement.