Oscar Grant III is a young black man living in the Oakland area trying to make ends meet. He works at a grocery store, but due to being late and losing his temper, he loses his job. He used to be a drug dealer, and he served some jail time a few years back. After facing some temptation to get back into the drug game, he decides that it's not worth losing his relationship with his girlfriend Sophina and their daughter Tatiana over it. While going about his daily routine, he sees a dog get hit by a car, but the person in the car never stops to see if the dog's okay. Oscar runs over to try to save the dog, but it's too late: the poor creature is dead. He picks up his daughter from school and heads to a meal with his family; it's New Years Eve, and instead of going out with his friends, he's opted to eat a home-cooked meal at his mom's house with the whole extended family gathered together instead. After the meal, his mother encourages him to go out with Sophina to celebrate the new year in San Francisco. They take the BART to the big city and enjoy their evening, but on the way back, someone Oscar fought with in prison recognizes him and a fight breaks out. When the BART police show up, they target the black men involved, and when a particularly vicious cop fires a gun into Oscar's back, it doesn't look like Oscar will live, leaving his family with the question of how to proceed.
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