I lifted this motif directly from Posada. The first time I saw one of his pieces, showing a person being directed by devils to do violence, I thought of the videos of Oscar Grant’s death:
Three BART officers kneel on him for a long time, face down, handcuffed, exchanging words and handling him with roughness. Then one of them unholsters his pistol and fires it into Oscar’s spine. Immediately after the shot the officers seem to break out of their trance and notice what has been happening for the last several minutes. They stand dazed, looking around groping for some kind of comprehension.
This is what Posada meant when he depicted devil possession. A person losing control of his mind. Obviously, there are no actual external demons but there is a kind of devilish possession from within that can and does take hold of us sometimes. The distinction is that these devils are us. We have a choice about how much we want to be influenced and driven by them.
