News

No Charges Against Cop Whose Conduct Led to Oscar Grant’s Death

According to the New York Times, O’Malley released a report saying that Pirone, who was removed from the BART police force in 2010, will not be charged because he neither killed Grant nor aided and abetted Johannes Mehserle, who was convicted of manslaughter in a Southern California court in 2010.

Published

5 years ago

January 16, 2021

Kiki

Oscar Grant Mural at Fruitvale BART station

The family of Oscar Grant was disappointed with the decision by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to decline to press charges against the former transit police officer whose conduct led to Grant’s shooting death on New Year’s Day in 2009.

Nancy O’Malley, who had agreed to review the conduct of officer Anthony Pirone in October and perhaps file charges against him, made the announcement on Tuesday morning in response to pressure brought by the Grant family last month.

“Although Pirone’s conduct was aggressive, utterly unprofessional, and disgraceful, it did not rise to the mental state required for murder,” O’Malley said in a statement.

It was Pirone who responded to a fight on a BART train carrying passengers from New Year’s Eve celebrations. Bystanders recorded the encounter using their cell phones and witnesses also described Pirone’s encounter with Grant. Pirone pulled Grant from the train violently, struck him for no reason and was heard using racial epithets while kneeling on Grant’s neck as Grant lay face down.

Once Grant was able to place his hands behind his back, Mehserle shot him and claimed the shooting was an accident having intended to use his Taser to restrain an already cooperating Grant who died a few hours later. His death set off mass protests in Oakland.

“In view of everything we have considered — and reconsidered — we conclude that we cannot prove Pirone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” O’Malley said. “We condemn Pirone’s conduct but we cannot charge him with murder or any other crime.”

The family of Oscar Grant had hoped for justice because the report about Pirone had recently been released after nearly 10 years.

That report placed much of the blame for Grant’s death on the “actions of Officer Pirone,” which “started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant.”

A misdemeanor charge of assault under the color of authority was also ruled out now because the statute of limitations had expired.

Oscar Grant’s mother, Rev. Wanda Johnson, and other family members had hoped for a different outcome, given the revelations of the report. “My son laid on the cold concrete with that Officer Pirone’s knee on his neck,” she said. “My son’s head was smashed against the wall and he was kicked and he was pushed. Pirone still walks around free today.”

BART board members and Oakland City Council members also did not take the news well, condemning O’Malley’s decision and calling upon her to reconsider.

“I want to be clear that Nancy O’Malley has failed, yet again, to do her job,” Simon said at a Tuesday morning news conference. “And that job was to ensure equal justice under the law.”

Simon, Bevan Dufty, Janice Li and Rebecca Saltzman planned to urge the full BART board to file a resolution urging O’Malley to charge Pirone.

“The D.A. could have a change of mind and the BART board should go on record that there cannot be justice until Mr. Pirone is held accountable for his violence and creating the chaos that led to Oscar Grant’s murder,” Dufty said.

District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor planned to introduce a resolution calling on O’Malley to charge Pirone. It was co-sponsored by City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, and councilmembers Carroll Fife and Treva Reid.

Grant’s family will also continue to pressure O’Malley who did agree to a meeting next week.

“We will leave no stone unturned,” said Grant family attorney Charles Bonner. “We will go to the state Attorney General and we will also go to the federal justice department to seek federal criminal prosecution for civil rights violations, and we ultimately will go to the voters if Nancy O’Malley does not do the right thing.”

The Root, New York Times, Bay Area News, Bay City News, Associated Press, KTVU-News and Miami Herald were sources for this report.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke