Oscar Grant 'moment' The Principal Contradiction of Racial Capitalism, Extrajudicial Police Murders, and Popular Self-activity

The Oscar Grant 'moment' was a period of intensified struggle in Oakland - starting just before Oscar Grant, a young Black man, was murdered by transit police officer Johannes Mehserle on January 1st, 2009, and lasting (at least) until November 5th, 2010 (when Johannes Mehserle was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter). Despite local news coverage, and subsequent popular cultural texts, few academic texts engage the Oscar Grant "moment", a moment rich for analysis as a number of social issues can be refracted and studied -- from resistance, to the expansion and militarization of policing, to gentrification, neoliberal multiculturalism in urban planning, gentrification, the 'non-profit industrial complex', to the repression of social struggles.