The Absence of Justice for Oscar Grant & The Short Film, "The Battle - Casual vs Saafir"

(HKR-01-12-21) We speak with Uncle Bobby (Cephus Johnson) who is the Uncle to Oscar Grant. We talk about the family’s attempt to get Alameda County district attorney Nancy O’Malley to charge officer, Anthony Pirone, in the murder of Oscar Grant III. During the initial trial, Pirone was spared prosecution because he promised to be a key witness. During the trial he flipped the script and plead the 5th and didn’t testify.

Pirone was terminated following an internal investigation of the death of Mr. Oscar Grant III in 2009. There was a special report put together by the law firm Meyers Nave that detailed the horrific level of brutality he unleashed on Grant. The report shows that Pirone, broke bones in Grant’s face after slamming him face down onto the station pavement. He put his knee on Grant’s neck and called him a bitch ass n– 3 times.

The Meyers Nave Report was hidden from the Grant family and their lawyers for almost 10 years. New laws in California allowed the report to surface, but many of the charges that could’ve been levied on Pirone had expired because of the statute of limitations. The Family is pushing for Pirone to be charged with murder.

Later in the show, we speak with Oakland filmmaker Shomari Smith about his new movie that chronicles the iconic rap battle between Hieroglyphics and Hobo Junction, It’s called “The Battle – Casual x Saafir” and it comes on the heels of Smith’s award winning documentary ‘Til Infinity’ , which lays out the history of the group Souls of Mischief.

During our interview, we talk to Smith about the backstory behind the infamous battle and the how he went about bringing Saafir of Hobo Junction and other key players involved to the table to tell their stories. He talked about how and why it was important to make sure their perspectives were represented fairly and accurately. We also get Smith to weigh in on how that battle helped bring attention to Bay Area and west coast Hip Hop.

We talk to Smith about his role as a filmmaker and why we need to hear more of these types of Hip Hop stories which don’t always get highlighted in the mainstream, but are very important and even transformative on a local level…