Fruitvale Station Reflection
Fruitvale Station, directed by Ryan Coogler, is a film adopted from the real incident of the death of Oscar Grant, a 22 years old black man who was killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale district station of the Bay Area in 2009. While many audiences might focus on the racism and abuse of the police power after they watch the film, I found something else that deserves more attention.
In the scene that Oscar Grant is arrested by the police, he takes out his cell-phone and tries to record what the police are doing. His attempt is stopped by the police as if the latter are afraid of their doings being recorded and possibly disseminated. Certainly they concerns are correct. They know that their treatments to the black suspects are over-violent, and it will evoke social disputes if the video is spread out. However, they continue their wrong doings and order Grant to put down his phone. It is irony that the police fear cellphone, a gadget, more than they do suspects. In another scene that a female witness on the train is recording the shooting scene by her cell-phone, the way she holds her phone is like holding a gun. When a policeman approaches the passengers and tries to stop the chaos, the witness firmly holds her phone in front of her and points to the policeman as if the phone is a weapon/shield that can protect her. This shot appears to be one of the most impressive ones for me, for the fact that a media gadget can be so powerful that it has become a significant tool that people can rely on to protect themselves.
Not only do media gadgets protect people through holding the evil-minded back in concern of their wrong-doings being exposed, but also gadgets are more powerful, weighty, and sometimes decisive for legal decisions. The fact I learned when searching for more information about the film is that in the real incident, a few people who witnessed the incident recorded it by their cell-phones or video cameras. Their recordings, after going viral on the Internet, spurred an ever-increasing dissents and anger of the masses, which functioned as an essential evidence for the case. To certain extent, digital media certainly promote a solution to improve the situation of racism.
