Fruitvale Station, 2013

May, 2023 | ROSANNA RODRIGUEZ

Fruitvale Station is a true story about a young black man named Oscar Grant lll. On the morning of January 1st, 2009, Oscar was out in the city with his friends and girlfriend celebrating the new year. They took a train back and Oscar got into a fight with a guy. Although the fight had ended, the operator of the train had already called the police who then proceeded to interrogate everyone and asking them who was involved in the fight. Nobody would speak up, so the police officer chose people he thought were involved and one of them was Oscar. While Oscar was cooperating with the cops and asking questions as to why him and his friends were being detained, and officer responded with racial slurs and ended up laying his knee on Oscar’s neck.  Another officer held his gun and pulled the trigger, fatally shooting Oscar. He was then taken to the hospital and, unfortunately, did not make it. Fruitvale Station deals with a lot of ethical issues related to race, justice, and the use of force by law enforcement.

Virtue ethics focuses on the character traits that make someone a good person, not because they need to follow rules, but because they want to be this way. Fruitvale Station shows the life of Oscar Grant and how he is a flawed human but ultimately has a kind heart and wanted to do better. He was struggling with his own personal issues since he had just gone to jail and lost his job, but he was a kind person who showed acts of kindness throughout the film. For his mother’s birthday, he was able to provide the ingredients for the food his mom was cooking without having sufficient funds to even take care of himself. He helped a woman out at the grocery store without her having to ask him to, and he even begged a guy to allow a pregnant woman to use his bathroom that was meant for staff only. At the end of the day, he was just trying to be a better person for his daughter. The film also shows the police officer who killed Oscar Grant and how he lacked the virtues of empathy and restraint. The fact that this officer decided to use force when Grant was cooperating and was unarmed shows his failure to consider the impact that his actions may have on others, as well as his failure to uphold the moral character traits that someone in law enforcement is responsible for. Through both of these descriptions, the film raises questions on what it means to be a good person.

Kantian ethics is a theory that underlines the importance of moral duties and the morality in our actions. In Fruitvale Station this theory was challenged. The officer’s decision to kill Grant while he was unarmed, and cooperative can be seen as a violation of his moral duties as a police officer. Kantian ethics would argue that the actions of the police officer were morally incorrect because he decided to end the life of an innocent man instead of thinking of Grant who was worth something to other people such as his mother, daughter, and girlfriend, as an end in himself, therefore someone who should be respected. Another example in which Kantian ethics is portrayed in the film, is seeing how Grant was a flawed person who was trying to live a responsible and honest life for the sake of his daughter and girlfriend. Kantian ethics would support this and see his actions as morally right because he is motivated to improve himself for the sake of other people and not himself. He is a moral agent trying to figure out how to act morally, just like Kant recommended.

This movie depicts racism and bias in the police force. It is a fact that if Oscar Grant was a white man he would not have even been suspected as one of the people involved in the fights on the train. This is known because in the movie the guy that fought Grant was a white male and when the police officers were pulling out people who looked like they were involved, they pulled out all black men. If Grant was a white man who would have been treated with a lot more respect and would not have been treated the way, he was treated. If Grant was a white man, he would still be alive today taking care of his daughter. While Grant was being held outside of the train along the walls with his friends, he was voicing his opinion telling the officers that they did nothing wrong and that they should be let go. As an American he had all the right to freedom of speech as he was not disrespecting the officer in any way. The officer proceeded to be disrespectful to Grant and even blurted out a racial slur. Unfortunately, in today’s society it is very difficult to be a black man in America. Although African Americans are protected by the laws of the government, they do not have free will. It is difficult for a black person to come out of an interaction with a police officer alive. Law enforcement is no longer seen as something that is there to protect and serve citizens.