EX-BART COP TONY PERONE WANTS HIS JOB BACK

What: Press Conference & Rally
When: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
Where: Metropolitan Transportation Commission Building, 101 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Why: Predators like Tony Pirone have no business prowling our commons or neighborhoods. We demand accountability for all crimes committed by the police.
Whom: The Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant
Contact: Kim Rohrbach (415) 756-2896, Mario Hankton (510) 228-8471

Former BART police officer Tony Pirone—who, in the final minutes of Oscar Grant's life, verbally and physically abused Oscar and his friends and played a major role in escalating what should have been an unremarkable episode into the scene of Oscar's murder—wants his old job back. Pirone is said to be scheduled for arbitration this month. This follows an arbitrator's ruling in December reinstating Pirone's former partner, Marisol Domenici, to her job. Domenici has been implicated for making false statements about what went down on January 1, 2009; and, during former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle's preliminary hearing for murder, she infamously implied that Oscar was responsible for his own death.

Community members have sought to learn the details of Pirone's arbitration, but have been met with silence by BPOA and BART officials. It should be clear why the details of the arbitration have been kept under wraps: For a community already besieged by violent, racist, out-of-control cops, the prospect of Pirone's reinstatement is a menace and an insult.

The Department of Justice has hinted that Pirone may be under investigation for civil rights and other violations due to his actions on January 1, 2009. Yet, even at this late date, no charges have been brought. Pirone's actions include invoking epithets against Oscar's friends, accosting them with a Taser, and beating at least one of the youths. Pirone also punched Oscar, injured his skull, dug a knee into his neck (while Oscar lay face down yelling, "I can't breathe!"), and repeatedly call him "bitch-ass nigger". Just moments later, Mehserle delivered the fatal shot. At no time did either Oscar or his friends pose any threat to Pirone or the other officers on the platform.

Pirone was subsequently placed on administrative leave, although he continued to pull in a salary exceeding $100,000 before he was fired last spring. If reinstated, he may be eligible for back-pay. His arbitration comes on the heals of several equally outrageous developments and amidst a local pandemic of killings by the police—of which there have been at least six committed by the Oakland Police Department (OPD) since Mehserle's sentence was announced on November 5, 2010.

Earlier this month, arbitrator David Gaba ordered the City of Oakland to rehire former OPD officer Hector Jimenez, who, in the space of seven months (in 2007–2008), fatally shot two unarmed young men in the back. The City of Oakland was eventually forced to pay out $650,000 to settle a wrongful death suit with the family of one of Jimenez's latter victims, Jody Woodfox.

Also earlier this month, District Attorney O'Malley confirmed that the DA's office would not be pressing charges against Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz, the two OPD officers responsible for killing Derrick Jones on November 8, 2010. Jones was unarmed and in flight when shot dead. On a previous occasion, in July 2008, both officers fired their weapons on another victim, Leslie Allen.

On January 22, twenty-year-old Raheim Brown's life came to a brutal end at the hands of Oakland Unified School District (OUSP) police officers John Bellussa and Barhim Bhatt. Bellussa, prior to his transfer to the Oakland Unified School District police force from the OPD, had been named in at least three separate lawsuits on account of his use of unnecessary force. One plaintiff alleged that Bellussa shot him, without provocation, in the stomach and leg during a traffic stop.

Says Coalition Member Jesse Strauss, "We will not accept a status quo which promotes and rewards the wanton violence of those who operate with impunity as 'peace officers'."