BART Cop Shooting Brings Echoes of Rodney King

by Randy Shaw via Beyond Chron

Thu, Jan 8, 2009 7:49AM

Thursday, January 8, 2009 : The videotaped shooting death of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer on New Year’s Day marks how far technology has advanced since the 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King. The cell phone video recorded by BART rider Katrina Vargas shows that Grant was unarmed, and that he apparently was not acting in a manner that would compel an officer to consider using a firearm.

Grant’s death was recorded by several other cell phone video cameras, and may have been recorded by BART security cameras. The videos were posted immediately on the Internet, where they were seen by thousands, if not millions of people before being picked up by the Mainstream News Media. The ongoing reporting of the Grant murder by everyday citizens armed with cell phones is a contrast to how the world learned of the King beating 18 years ago.

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