Fruitvale Station (2013) is based on the real-life events leading to the death of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer on New Year’s Day 2009 at the Fruitvale district station in Oakland, California. The film depicts the final day in Oscar Grant’s life, interspersed with flashbacks from his past, which together provide a richly layered picture a young man whose life was tragically cut short. The film was written and directed by Ryan Coogler (in his first feature film), and stars Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant, Melonia Diaz as his girlfriend, and Octavia Spencer as Oscar’s mother. Fruitvale Station not only provides a moving account of Oscar Grant’s final day, but also presents a chilling indictment of police violence and the role that race still plays in perpetuating it. I am joined by Professor Michael Pinard of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Professor Pinard is a nationally recognized expert on criminal law, race and the criminal justice system, and the challenges faced by individuals with criminal convictions when reintegrating into society.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
4:18 Impressions of the film when it came out and today
7:23 Living in the shadow of the criminal justice system
9:25 Bystander recordings and their impact
13:14 The challenges of prosecuting police violence
17:17 The humanity of Oscar Grant
18:53 How white and black people perceive law enforcement differently
21:40 The fleeting nature of life for many black and brown Americans
24:58 “The talk”
26:45 What’s changed since Oscar Grant’s death, and what hasn't
33:44 The need for a film about the school to prison pipeline
37:09 The parents of the incarcerated
Further reading:
Cummings, André Douglas Pond, “Reforming Police,” 10 Drexel L. Rev. 573 (2018)
Fan, Mary D., Camera Power: Proof, Policing, Privacy, and Audiovisual Big Data (Univ. Cambridge Press 2018)
Pinard, Michael, “Poor Black and ‘Wanted’: Criminal Justice in Ferguson and Baltimore,” 58 Howard L.J. 857 (2015)
Schwartz, Joanna, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (Viking 2023)
Simonson, Jocelyn, “Beyond Body Cameras: Defending a Robust Right to Record the Police,” 104 Geo. L.J. 1559 (2016)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
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