As a group of young men questioned why they were being detained on an Oakland, CA train platform, and grew irate when they saw a transit officer manhandle one of their friends, Oscar Grant tried to reassure them everything was going to be OK.

"'Just be cool,'" Jackie Bryson recalled Grant saying to him. "'We are going home tonight.'"

Grant, 22, never made it home. He was shot and killed by officer Johannes Mehserle, who worked for Bay Area Rapid Transit and has been charged with Grant's murder on New Year's Day 2009 reported the AP.

The officer who has pleaded not guilty claiming that he thought he was using his taser.

Grant was lying on his stomach handcuffed when he was shot. Grant's friend Bryson has testified that officer Mehserle stood up and said '(expletive) this' and then he shoots Grant."

It has been reported that Bryson may have tainted his testimony because he made it clear that he had a general mistrust for police and even prosecutors. The truth is that too many young black men living in America do have a general mistrust of the police.

The mistrust comes from stories like this one that spread throughout the black communities across this country when brothers are murdered by the police. It does not help when one finds out that the victim was face down on the ground with his hands handcuffed behind his back and the police obviously in total control of the situation.