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Outrage in Oakland: Transit Officer Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter–Not Murder–in Killing of Unarmed Oscar Grant
Report from Oakland, filed by John Hamilton.
JUAN GONZALEZ: We go now to Oakland, California, where scores of people were arrested last night in protests over the verdict in the the Oscar Grant shooting. Grant was the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man who was shot dead by a white transit officer on an open train platform on New Year's Day 2009. Cell phone videos of the shooting show the transit officer Johannes Mehserle, pulling out a gun and shooting Grant in the back while he was lying face down on the ground on the train platform. On Thursday, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter, but he was acquitted on the more serious charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. The jury included eight women and four men. No African-Americans served on the jury. Mehserle will be sentenced on August 6th and voluntary manslaughter carries a penalty of two to four years in prison, but a sentencing enhancement for using a gun means he could face an additional three to 10 years behind bars.
AMY GOODMAN: Members of Grant's family expressed shock that Mehserle was acquitted of second-degree murder. Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, spoke outside the courthouse.
WANDA JOHNSON: That the system has let us down but God will never ever let us down. Though the system has failed us, though we fight continually, but you know what, one thing I know, that the race is not given to the swift nor to the strong but to the one who endures till the end. And as a family and as a nation of African-American people, we will continue to fight for our equal rights in this society. The Scripture tells us that the rich bribed the judges and certainly we have seen the judges be bribed. Certainly we have seen how this judicial system has worked on such a case as this. We couldn't even get six hours of deliberation. And we have a new juror who came in who had not probably even reviewed the evidence with the other jurors. But the jury had already had their minds tainted. And so I believe I still remember what Dr. King said that he had a dream. I believe that one day as a nation of people, that you guys will not look at us according to the color or content of our skin, but that we will be treated right as a people. And my son was murdered.
He was murdered.
He was murdered.
He was murdered.
My son was murdered.
And the law has not held the officer accountable the way that he should have been held accountable. And I look at this, and I just say like my brother said to any other family who goes through this, do not give up. Do not give up. Even though the system will fail us and let us down, God will never fail us nor will he let us down. And I will trust in him until I die.
AMY GOODMAN: Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant. The family's attorney John Burris also spoke to the media after the verdict.
JOHN BURRIS: Now of course, we feel that the involuntary manslaughter conviction is better than no conviction at all. We do recognize and appreciate that there are that there probably is some historical significance that I and my long history being involved in police matters since 1979 and well over 30 homicides involving the police, have never had a case where an officer was convicted of any crime against an African-American male. So in that sense, it is a small victory. But it does not in and of itself fairly and accurately represent that the system works. But it cannot work in a situation where a person is killed with his hands behind his back, with an officer over him, claiming that he has seen something come and that becomes an involuntary manslaughter.
AMY GOODMAN: John Burris, attorney for Oscar Grant's family. John Hamilton was in Oakland yesterday and filed this report.
JOHN HAMILTON: The streets and highways leading out of Oakland were packed with cars early Thursday afternoon as jurors announced a verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial was imminent. By 4:00 p.m. when the jury rendered its verdict, much of downtown Oakland appeared to be a boarded up ghost town. At the Alameda County Courthouse, District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said she was disappointed, but that the verdict was a partial success.
NANCY O'MALLEY: The jury also found true that Johannes Mehserle used his gun and that finding itself indicates to us that the jury completely rejected Mehserle's claim that he had been grabbing his taser. As you're well aware, that we believe that Johannes Mehserle was guilty of the crime of murder. We presented the case that way, we presented the evidence that way, and the jury felt otherwise.
CROWD CHANTING: No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace.
JOHN HAMILTON: A few blocks away near Oakland City Hall, a crowd of many hundreds gathered calling Mehserle's conviction on involuntary manslaughter charges far short of justice.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: I'm afraid, I'm scared. This is just another reminder in my life and my 29 years on this earth that my worth to this society is not that much. I'm saddened for the family of Oscar Grant and other families who have witnessed or been a part of or victimized by certain and similar violence because he's not the only one and unfortunately this happens in a lot of different circumstances.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: I think we kind of expected that something like this would happen because there's a long history of police abusing minorities of people that don't have much money, to put it frankly, and then getting slapped on the wrist. So when the trial got moved to L.A., we kind of figured something was gonna happen that would be more lenient than a typical murder charge.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: To hear involuntary manslaughter. It's a slap to me, it's a slap in the face to specifically African-American men in this country but also humanity in general. Michael Vick did two years for a dog being killed on his property. Johannes Mehserle is going to do two to four years for murdering a man execution style. There's something wrong with the picture in my frame of reference.
JOHN HAMILTON: Much of Johannes Mehserle's defense centered on the contention that the former transit officer thought he was drawing a taser weapon rather than a firearm when he shot and killed Oscar Grant. Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan:
REBECCA KAPLAN: Well this horrible crime and horrible tragic loss of life occurred in part because people policing BART were carrying both tasers and guns. And guns in that kind of small, enclosed environment that you have in a BART car are very dangerous. I think is worth asking the question whether they really should be carrying guns or not.
JOHN HAMILTON: What made Thursday's verdict of involuntary manslaughter so hard to swallow for many Oakland residents were the multiple video cameras that recorded Oscar Grant's killing. West Oakland community activist and artist Cat Brooks:
CAT BROOKS: I cannot reconcile what I saw on the video with the verdict today. How many angles do you need to look at that tape to understand that was murder? There had to be least a thousand people out here tonight in Los Angeles, mobilizing tonight. We all know it's murder. Across the country we know it's murder. You know, but it's nothing new in America. Black and brown babies have been being killed by law-enforcement for hundreds of years. Before law enforcement, it was slave owners. It's the history of this country. What the miracle of this was, is that finally for the first time a police officer was put on trial, for murdering an unarmed civilian. The tragedy of it is is that black and brown people were told yet one more time their lives mean nothing in this country.
JOHN HAMILTON: As hundreds filed out downtown Oakland, many others remained shadowed by an increasing number of riot police.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: I would like people to express themselves but try to be peaceful about it.I don't think it helps us to break windows and small business owners in downtown Oakland. I know everybody is mad and a lot of people feel like it's not the right punishment, but we have to come together as a community on a regular basis, not just when something bad happens, not just when it's a tragedy.
JOHN HAMILTON: As the sun drew low, police put on gas masks and declared it an unlawful assembly.
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: 409 of the penal code prohibits remaining in present at an unlawful assembly. If you remain in the area, just described, regardless of your purpose, you'll be in violation of section 409.
JOHN HAMILTON: Soon, anger over the Mehserle verdict boiled over as demonstrators smashed windows and set small fires.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well the overwhelming majority of people behaved very appropriately. And you know it's unfortunate there were a handful of people throwing things. But I want to make it clear, the overwhelming majority of people here have been behaving peacefully and appropriately and deserve to be respected for this call for justice.
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Move forward. Move forward. Move forward and make a right. Move forward and make a right.
JOHN HAMILTON: At least one woman was injured when a police car backed into her. Dozens of downtown businesses had their windows smashed. A few suffered looting. Police made scores of arrests with an exact number yet unknown.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: We've been pushed back as far as we can go. You have some people back there who have been barricaded and trapped in and they're attempting to get us to leave. They're pushing us all. And they don't want us here because we're speaking truth.
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Get back, get back, get back.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTOR: Half these police officers don't even live out here. They traveled here. They traveled here, but we live here everyday. I live here everyday. I work here, I go to school here, take care of kids here. I ain't going nowhere. So they're going to have to break me down. Simple as that.
CROWD CHANTING: No justice, no peace.
JOHN HAMILTON: For Democracy Now!, I'm John Hamilton, in Oakland.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, the transit officer Johannes Mehserle faces two to four years in prison. But a sentencing enhancement for using a gun means Mehserle could face an additional three to 10 years behind bars. He will be sentenced on August 6th. This is "Democracy Now!," democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report.
61 Comments so far
Show AllWhat's new? Black folk have been lynched, gunned down and killed in every way possible, since we've been here. If we'd rather go along to get along, than to defend ourselves, then this is what we can expect. It's not like we can depend on the government apparatus to defend us.
True and now white people are getting a good dose of out of control cops. The police state is well on its way to being here.
The police state has been in effect for black people since before the Civil War. Shot in cold blood, caught by several cameras. Why are whites so blind to this? The level of injustice in this country is astounding. Blind injustice. It's a sick society.
Why "blind" injustice? These folks, from hooded thugs to cops are doing this deliberately and countless other white folks in a myriad of ways, on a daily basis also contribute--they need to get a grip and see what they are doing if it isn't conscious. Yes, this is a sick society now what are we going to do? How do we make common cause? I think a good start is to recognize a common enemy and the historic wrong done to both blacks and natives.
And hundreds of hispanic Americans slaughted during a early 1900's land grab committed by proto texas rangers.
Growing up in DC, then moving to Richmond, VA in 1980 was major culture shock. That's when I really woke up to my white privilege, pointed out to me as an aspect of my inadvertent racism witnessing overt in your face racism. Then I moved to rural Wisconsin where most folks fall into two camps, white proud of it racists and in complete denial Whites that think, 'Well I'm not racist, so it's not a problem in America anymore." So even though I'm more aware than most, a couple of years ago it got kicked up a notch.
See, on a Fri night, middle aged me(driving completely lawfully) and my two teen sons(passengers) were traffic stopped for a trumped up violation(driving w/ brights} when passed by trooper heading opposite direction. In Wisconsin, driving w/ brights is not a violation on a divided highway. We were issued no warning or citation. What he really saw that made him want to pull us over was three persons sitting across the front seat with no occupants in the back of our sedan. We fit a profile they supposedly don't use, teens on Fri. night. Ever since then, I don't trust the police. Not really. I still have interactions with them from community and work, but that unlawful stop based on profiling is always in the back of my mind now. That is what any wise person of color (and now the rest of us)(Thanks Reinhold Niebuhr) conveys to their children and what Louis Henry Gates forgot. I no longer mourn the US I thought was lost, as Presidents Reagan onwards dismantled the Progressive reforms. I now understand thanks to Howard Zinn and others, that it really never existed. That was the night that I personally saw how deep a police state, of which I was already aware and active against politically, went. If I'm that traumatized from that one 'low level' incident, think what persons of color feel historically and institutionally all the time. I makes me really sad but motivated and determined as I work with children and as I parent to take all the teachable moments I can now. And I still have way too many opportunities most days.
Wow, can't a cop make a mistake? I guess that's impossible for you to fathom.
Grant and his thuggy friends were fighting on BART that night, terrorizing the passengers. Did you ever consider the REAL factors that led to the shooting that night?
a) Grant chose to go out and fight
b) Grant chose to stand up when told to sit down
c) Grant chose to shove his hands into his pockets instead of showing them, which could be perceived as going for a weapon
d) pistol grip of a taser is similar to a 9 mil
e) it was 3am and many cops were working double shifts
But just like a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, you watch a video and think you know everything. If Mehserle really was a cold-blooded killer, then he'd probably have a complaint history of brutality against blacks, which there is not. He'd also not shoot blacks in the back with 100 witnesses.
If Mehserle really was such a killer, then he'd be prepared: a "weapon" would magically appear in Grant's hand. It was just a simple, tragic mistake, and Mehserle's paying for it.
Blind injustice. Whatever.
You construct as follows:
c) Grant chose to shove his hands into his pockets instead of showing them, which could be perceived as going for a weapon
d) pistol grip of a taser is similar to a 9 mil
As if Mehserle pulled the gun when Grant put his hands in his pockets. You forget what happened between c) and d): Grant was face down on the floor, with his arms on his back. THEN Mehserle shot him, ostensibly confusing his gun with his taser. What on earth did he need the taser for, when Grant was already on the floor?
>>>We wrote: What on earth did he need the taser for, when Grant was already on the floor?
Maybe he always wanted to use the taser while on duty, so he could go and brag to his girlfriend or his loser buddies?
If you watch the video of the tasering incident at the Vancouver airport, that's the question that will come to mind: why the hell did they have to use the taser in the first place, when the police outnumbered the unfortunate victim by at least 4 to 1? The victim had a stapler in his hand, but was clearly complying and backing off when confronted by the cops. (Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died).
In another incident involving cops and tasers, also in Canada, an 82-year old man (a former heart bypass patient) was tasered while at the hospital because he was behaving erratically, the hospital staff called the cops, and they tasered him 3 times because he had a knife in his hand. But this man survived. He later said, ""I was laying on the bed by then and the corporal came in, or the sergeant, I forget which it was, and said to the guys, 'OK, get him because we got more important work to do on the street tonight,' "And then, bang, bang, bang, three times with the laser, and I tell you, I never want that again."
Reply to Black_Anarch
To paraphrase a patriot of the human species,"Those who are not willing to use violence to defend their rights, do not deserve those rights." I totally agree with you, Brother. I am a 56yr old militant leftist radical (Anarcho-Syndicalist flavor), oh, I'm white. I'll carry a sign now & then but I always carry a gun and I've left a smoking ruin here & there. If the shit hits during my life time I would be proud to stand by your side at the barricades & make every round count.
Equal to all & superior to none! BC
PS Too bad my wife has passed away. She was more militant & a better shot than I!
Yes sir! You got it. Someone needs to tell these milquetoast, weak-willed, soft arsed "progressives" that. They sit around and wonder why the Tea Baggers get so much press when they won't even allow bricks at their fashionable protests. LMAO!
What's important about this case is that there was video evidence. So what would have been the verdict if there had been no video?
How many times do police resort to their guns and tasers even when they outnumber the victim? If the person they are confronting is indeed violent (but has no weapon), and they cannot physically subdue him even when they outnumber him by 2 to 1 or sometimes 4 to 1 or more, why become a cop in the first place?
The real outrage is that most whites refuse to see what's going on, even when there's a video. We will become even more of a police state because of things like this. And it doesn't have to be this way.
I don't know what the answer is. (??)
There probably isn't an answer, and probably never will be, even a hundred years from now.
(I am a white middle-aged man, by-the-way.)
I HATE racists, and this court's lenient sentence is despicable.
Yes, America is quickly becoming a police state, and that is HORRID.
I agree with almost everything that radio host Thom Hartmann believes/says and he is one who talks about America becoming a police state, and how very wrong American society is for allowing this.
(PLEASE listen to Thom's show.... everyone! It can be heard online at ThomHartmann.com)
In conclusion, people who are VERY Liberal (Left-Wing) are decent and hate racism and don't view race as anything much different than some other visual difference between people, such as hair color. On the other hand, there are MANY rotten Right-Wingers who are just horrid and have such a hatred toward much of humankind.
Nothing new here: remember the Rodney King video?
The lesson here is, if you are black and are thinking of committing homicide, enroll in the police academy first and you can work out your aggression with little or no consequences.
I'd like to know what exactly is "involuntary" about shooting someone. Did the gun fire itself?
People dont kill people, guns do.
Isn't the whole problem related to the probability that white kids wouldn't have even been arrested in similar circumstances? That basic inequality opens the door to all the rest of this ...
Go ahead and believe your assumptions. Grant and his thug friends chose to fight on BART that night. Passengers were so terrified, the cops were called. If you've ever been on a BART train with violence happening, it's terrifying (I have, I ride BART every day to work and back). You PRAY for cops to come. It makes no difference who the violent suspects are.
If they were white kids and they acted exactly the same way, by
a) swarming the cops as they started their initial detainments (watch the full video)
b) standing up and shouting at cops when told to stay seated (Grant)
c) not showing their hands when told to do so (Grant)
then the Tase procedure would not have been put into effect. If you have a problem with the tase procedure (which is well-documented on the web), that's another issue.
It was 3am and many cops were working double-shifts for New Years and Mehserle was probably tired. Also, the pistol grip of a taser is the same as a 9 mil.
Put all these factors together, and it's reasonable to conclude that a combination of them led to nothing but a tragic mistake, which Mehserle is paying for.
As for white kids, if they were not thugs, but just happened to get into a fight on BART, I doubt they would have done a, b, and c above, which contributed to the shooting.
I've ridden BART frequently, and prior to BART, I rode NYC subways for over 20 years, day and night. I've seen what you refer to. I also know that on special occasions like New Years Eve, Cops would normally just try to quiet kids down, and then move on without arrests if at all possible.
I suspect Mehserle did make a genuine, unintended error, and that the system will be only too glad to make him carry the full blame for it, rather than admit some responsibility, and institute some simple reforms.
It's sad that in democracy with a Constitution and Bill Rights, the killing of folks of color continues without re-dress of law?? It appears that 'Justice' is only an idea and not real for folks of color. My Natives brothers and sisters understand injustice very well. We are going to need more Dr. Martin Luther King's Jr., Gandhi’s and even Michael Moore to speak/show truth to the dreaming...The many signals of injustice should move us to gain our humanity. Now that white folks are being treated the same and feel/see the injustice, we may begin to have justice. I am not looking for a perfect world...But please JUSTICE.
What are you talking about? No redress of law? Excuse me, but Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. You think that's a picnic? He could get several years for a tragic mistake. Grant was not shot because he was "folks of color". The accidental shooting was brought about by several factors:
a) it was 3am and Mehserle was working a double-shift on New Years and he was tired
b) Grant CHOSE to go out and fight on BART that night instead of staying home with his kid.
c) Grant CHOSE to stand up after he was told to stay seated, which led to cops taking him down.
d) Grant CHOSE not to show his hands and put them behind his back, instead shoving them into his pockets, which can be perceived as a threat.
e) police procedure is to tase suspects who have resisted arrest, and still do not follow commands.
f) a taser has a pistol grip just like a 9 mil handgun.
Everyone looks at the video and think they know everything. They see a black man on the ground, "in control" and then they see a cop stand up and shoot him in the back.
Looks bad, right? But consider:
c) Pirone stood up at the same time Mehserle got up and grabbed what he thought was a taser. Witnesses corroborate Mehserle's claim that he said, "I'm going to tase him". That is why Pirone got off Grant's back (otherwise he would feel it).
d) Mehserle looked genuinely surprised after firing his weapon. If Mehserle was a cold-blooded killer and wanted to just take Grant out, he's either a good actor, or incredibly foolish to do this with hundreds of witnesses around.
As abhorrent as the crime was, facts matter.
IANAL but Homicide requires intent. The question here wasn't whether or not the cop killed Oscar while he was face-down on the concrete.
The question of law that the jury had to deal with was whether or not the cop intended to kill him.
Obviously, they found the argument that he didn't intend to fire the gun persuasive.
There are many valid points to be outraged about.
- Why would a cop need to pull a taser on a compliant man who was face down on the concrete, surrounded by 4 cops?
- Why would the cop immediately squeeze the trigger on what he thought was a taser while standing over a compliant suspect.
- How did the cop, in what appears to be an 'in control' situation fail to realize he was pulling a gun rather than a tazer? They're both pistol-gripped but far from identical.
Yes, this would have been a case of police brutality if it were a taser. However I don't supsect this was the question put to the jury.
The question was.. did the cop intend to shoot him with a gun or shoot him with a taser? THAT is why he got manslaughter rather than homicide.
As much as I'd like him away for 20 years.. I could see how I might vote my conscious and render the same verdict depending on how the evidence was presented.
I don't know that the jury failed Oscar.. It's just how our laws are structured.
And this illustrates the deeper problem. Oscar Grant was probably arrested for the "crime" of "public partying while black". While a harsh punishment for Mehserle may make the next cop think twice about this, it might also allow the system to claim the "problem" has been dealt with when it hasn't.
Any arrest is a serious matter, with chances for deadly errors. We need to minimize the arrests, not just lash out at the results when deadly.
For that matter, would actual taser use have been justified if carried out successfully? That's a pretty harsh policy in its own right, and that's probably what they're trained to do.
The cop pulled a taser on Grant because that was police procedure. Grant was NOT compliant. Stop thinking that you know everything by watching grainy video.
Grant was ordered to put his hands behind his back, but what did he do? He shoved them into his pockets. That could imply there's a weapon. If the cop grabbed his hand by force and pulled it out, a weapon could come with it. So the procedure is to tase when that happens.
The cop "immediately" squeezed the trigger on what he thought was a taser because he gave a warning to Pirone that he was going to tase. This is why Pirone got off Grant's back (otherwise he would feel it too). He knew he wanted to tase Grant, so why wait? But of course, at 3am with little sleep, all pistol grips can feel the same.
Your assumption that this is police brutality if it was a taser displays your ignorance of police procedure. Perhaps the procedure to tase should be re-vamped nationwide? But Mehserle did not come up with the procedure. Look, if Grant had showed his darn hands when ordered to, instead of shoving them into his pockets, (which is threatening), he would not have been accidentally shot. If you look at the whole video, you will first see Grant standing up when he was already told to stay seated. Thugs can use ploys to grab weapons, by getting into a different position where cops can't see their hands, and pulling a weapon. Would you have preferred it if Grant had a weapon, and Mehserle allowed his fellow officers to get shot? It was a tragic mistake, that's all. Grant, by not following police orders:
a) standing up when told to sit down
b) shoving his hands into his pockets when ordered to put them behind his back
contributed to his own death. He increased the chances of something bad happening to him that night. Let's not forget that he and his friends were also fighting on BART that night, too, terrorizing the real innocent ones...the other passengers.
But but but, Obama's election proves that racism no longer exists. Post-racial.
G~d, I hear that one all the time. I just point out it doesn't let us off the hook to combat our society's pervasive institutionalized racism as well as overt racism at each and every opportunity we have personally. I'm not so sure his election is that much to be proud of, his policies have mostly continued Bush and priors. Obama is (depending on one's viewpoint) the exception that proves the rule, (some call that 'tokenism') or the one I hear disappointed alumni from my DC high school express, an 'Uncle Tom' or 'house negro' or "high yeller". If we elected him,then, for the perceived content of his character, all well and good but disappointing now as his true intentions are revealed.
ps rfloh,I realize you were being tongue-in-cheek ;)
Bring America Back !!!!
***This was the officer who said he was reaching for his
tazer or his pepper spray, but gee whiz it was his gunny, and then the jackboot just had to fire off some rounds.
***Let us hope this jackboot finds peace and justice in prison, duh, geeze I was just reaching for my salad fork.
Jackboot? Nice. A jackboot is a long boot. Mehserle was wearing...shoes.
Nice try to villainize a cop ("jackboot thug" as like a Nazi or fascist) trying to do his job at 3 am dealing with violent thugs. The real thugs were Grant and co.
I'm sure you would never make such a mistake, right? Sure. You'd probably be so gentle that you'd let Grant reach for a weapon and shoot your colleagues. Grant did not show his hands, and Mehserle, according to procedure, stood up to taze him. Grant was digging his hands in his pocket. If Grant would have followed the officers instructions (and not stood up in the first place), he would not have been accidentally shot. Grant was a 2-time loser whose own foolish actions that night increased his chances of something bad happening to him.
Those of us who were at Broadway & 14th St. in Oakland last night know that the vast majority of us did not act out our rage and anger.
Instead we made raised our voices loud and clear at a speak-out. We called out for justice and pledged to continue fighting for it. There were many hundreds there.
Few of those arrested committed any crime, other than failing to disperse immediately when the cops ordered it. For example, Walter Riley, a distinguished civil rights attorney, dressed in jacket and tie, was arrested.
I was standing with Walter during the speak-out. There is no way Walter did anything other than exercise his right to be there.
There were those who acted out. Many speakers urged them not to - that it is not the most effective way to fight for justice. They were small in number and did little damage. It is unknown at this time if there were police agent provocateurs among them.
Organizers of the rally had to overcome a protracted, well funded, and extremely well organized campaign of fear mongering. The City and a number of non-profit NGOs were complicit in this propaganda. This, together with an overwhelming police presence downtown, beginning a week ago, sent out pervasive messages that coming to the protest was dangerous.
Oaklanders were warned that "outside agitators" were coming in to cause trouble and bust up our city.
It was a simple variation of the divide and rule strategy. It tried to shift people's main concerns away from demanding justice and towards the potential for property damage. Away from out of control police and towards potentially violent protesters.
Far to many "progressives" fell for the fear tactic.
Nevertheless, as many as a thousand were not dissuaded and attended a multi-racial, multi-generational speak-out that the City of Oakland can be proud of.
Thank you for being there. All of the things you cited as speak out precursors from the authoritarian complicits no doubt made the exercise of your conscience that much more difficult. Thanks for sharing the experiences, I will be mindful of them, thus remembering I'm not really standing alone, just singly very often in my current setting.
I didn't follow this particular case, but every time an authority figure uses excess force and gets away with it, and when our military promotes someone who said something as outrageous as "You go into Afghanistan,.....it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." (Mattis was reprimanded and told to choose his words more carefully) When a frustrated border guard can shoot a kid in the face from across the border with the excuse they had been throwing rocks, when an 86 year old bed ridden lady is tazered and man handled by a number of burly policemen (and if the threats she supposedly made were true at all, it could only be attributed to possible dementia...but again SHE WAS BED RIDDEN all they had to do was wait her out and talk to her. There have been many children who were tazered (as young as six that I know of) as well as at least one visibly pregnant woman during a routine traffic stop and another who was tazered repeatedly and then arrested leaving the children alone in their family minivan for 40 minutes in freezing weather....
Well, it should be glaringly obvious that if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!
A sick society it surely is, but it has always been sick and when Jesus walked to his death the people of his time proved it. The history from that time till now has been more of the same. Governments of all sizes and shapes are inherently evil and that evil comes from greed and fear.
This white policeman knows that his government cares less about poor foreign or American lives and promotes a whole lot of killing of poor people world wide, and he allows his fear to turn to hate and pulls the trigger.
For years when America was doing dirty deeds around the world and to her own poor people as well, white Americans turned a blind eye and lived well. At the same time we were brainwashed into believing that we were the good guys and we helped the world. Nothing was further from the truth. We there taught by Mother England to rape in a dignified manner and we did and do! What else is new?
WANDA JOHNSON: "The Scripture tells us that the rich bribed the judges and certainly we have seen the judges be bribed."
I think she is hinting here that this injustice - and most others regarding the police - is a rich-poor thing, and not a black-white thing.
If America's white middle class find themselves living in a police state in the next few years, it will be because they have become poor, and not because they have become black.
The oppression and socially accepted poverty of blacks just rendered them the canaries-in-the-coal-mine of fascist business tyrants.
Yes, the "fascist business tyrants", is right and the same could be said of the Gulf spill.
Right on. Jesus was right,"what ever you do even unto the least of these, you do unto me." I don't remember who said this but to paraphrase, if you wish to be a progressive of any ilk, if you're comfortable you're not doing enough to advance the agenda. I discussed, educated, contributed time and money to the advancement of Progressive ideals but that profiling stop woke me up to I was still too comfortable.
Now I'm a editorialist, sloganeer with t's, bumpersticks and posters as well as out of town rallies and events. When my youngest graduates high school next year, it'll go up another few notches, right here in my small town where I live and work. Don't know how yet but I'm growing.
Sure, he couldn't tell the difference between his taser and his gun. That's the dumbest excuse ever and the dumb jury bought it! Anyone that stupid shouldn't have a taser or a gun or a job where he can hurt someone and get away with it.
Why is that so implausible? They both have pistol grips, and it was 3am and the cops were working an extra shift. What's more implausible is to assume he wanted to shoot the suspect in cold blood, right there on the platform for all to see! Even his reaction was a dead giveaway that he knew he made a mistake. I think the jury "bought" the most plausible explanation. Also, the fact that the other cop immediately got off the suspect's back at the time Mehserle stood up is evidence that Mehserle gave a warning that he would taze the suspect, which is police procedure when the suspect does not show his hands. In the end, Mehserle didn't "get off" at all. He will pay for this mistake. To assume he's some racist, murdering cop is way off base and is not supported by the facts. He does not have a history of police brutality complaints. It's responses like yours that make liberals look like bleeding heart dopes. I ride BART, and there's nothing scarier than a gang of youths taking over the train. For all we know, the death of a 2-time loser like Grant that night could have saved lives in the future. I'd rather sit in a train full of donut-eating cops than baggy-panted thugs like Oscar Grant. But I can see your liberal outrage, if you never have to face such violent thugs. The Bay Area hills are filled boutique neighborhoods for white liberals who talk big, but never live where blacks and whites really mingle.
The mother cannot even quote King properly. The "content of our skin"? It's "not judge us by the color of our skin, but the content of our character." As for Grant, a 2-time loser thug who chose to fight on BART that night instead of staying home with his family and child, I'd say his character was judged pretty well that night. If he didn't behave so stupidly, then he would not have been the victim of a cop mistake. Those who make this out to be any more than that are just race-baiters. I ride BART, and I sit next to blacks all the time. But blacks who act like Grant and his friends allow their "character" to be judged quite quickly when they act like thugs. Why don't you watch the video and see how Grant and his friends start "swarming" the 2 cops making an arrest?
They brazenly walk right up to these cops while they are making an arrest. Know anyone who would do that? Not me. Only
thugs behave in such an intimidating, foolish fashion. Grant should not have been shot, but it was a mistake, and Mehserle's paying for it. Justice has been served.
God, all you people assuming this was a racist or racially-motivated event have your heads up your butts. You act as if Grant was some innocent passenger that night, who was singled out by cops because he was black, thrown on the ground and shot in the back for the hell of it.
Get real.
First of all, Grant was a 2-time loser who, instead of staying home with his kid, chose to go out on New Years and party and then get into a fight on a train with his thuggy friends.
Secondly, when the cops detained Grant, he would have been JUST FINE if he had complied with their demands. But what did he do? He stood up and started mouthing off to the cops, instead of remaining seated. This led to his being taken down.
Also, Grant was told to show his hands and put them behind his back. Did he do this? No. This is why Mehserle got up to tase him (which is SOP, look it up), but as we all see, Mehserle grabbed his gun instead of his taser.
The pistol grips of a 9-mil and taser are almost identical (look it up!). Many cops were working double shifts that night, so Mehserle was probably very tired at 3am.
Add all this up, and it was just a TRAGIC MISTAKE. No racism here. Mehserle does not have a history of brutality complaints against minorities. And Mehserle got involuntary manslaughter, which is no picnic.
If the victim was white, latino, Asian, it would be the same.
People watch the video and all they see is a man getting shot in the back, and they conclude they know everything. That's how 9/11 conspiracy theorists think, too.
Just a wild guess...you wear a government issued costume to work and bully and shoot brown skinned people for a living.
dboylon, that's a good one: "government issued costume". If these uniformed bullies have to resort to their tasers and guns in situations that can never be justified, you might as well call their uniform a costume.
If they are "bullies", it's because it's actual policy for them to be that way. The police force is not independent of the system behind it, but reflects its values ...
Ain't funny how easily a conscience can be bought and/or appeased? All I can say is that I hope next time, they do it to your own kind. We'll see if you'll defend the indefensible then, K9 Man.
gsp9 keeps saying:
"It was 3am and many cops were working double-shifts for New Years and Mehserle was probably tired. Also, the pistol grip of a taser is the same as a 9 mil."
Some others have commented that the grips of tasers and guns are virtually the same, thus defending the involuntary manslaughter verdict.
So why are we not asking WHY tasers and guns are not only made with the exact same grips, but are secured so closely together on a cops belt that he/she could actually make a lethal mistake so easily. What ethical, safety-first "public servant" would put his gun and taser on his person in such a way, knowing the possibility of a split-second reflex in extreme stress would be deciding which grip his hand chose?
Surely cops are not that stupid...right?
One more thing: if the cop had time to say "I'm going to taser", and the other cop had time to move off the perp so he (said cop) wouldn't get tasered himself, wouldn't the shooter cop have at least a second to visually check which weapon he had in his hand? Wouldn't he actually have trained and practiced for exactly this kind of situation, given the huge risks of a "mistake"?
Just sayin'.
Brilliant observation. If the gun and taser manufacturers, community,Mehserle and BART act on these current belt, gun, taser configurations alone then this would be working towards an appropriate consequence and restitution of some sort. Maybe Grant's family could help it along by a wrongful death suit citing these circumstances but that's up to them. His mother's attitude is beautiful and I think will help in healing much of what went horribly wrong.
The cop? F. him. Give him 30 or more in the slammer-hard time.
He skipped town. Did any of his right wing apologists notice that? Yes, he went to Nevada for two weeks.
The wimp didn't have the b.... to face the music.
Whatever he gets is too little.
What is the ratio of dead citizens to dead cops? 10-1? Who has the 9mm's? Who has the clubs? Who has Tasers? Who has the shotguns?
Involuntary my a.. The cop did just what he intended to do. Shoot him with bullets. If he doesn't have brains enough to tell the difference between a gun & a Taser, he shouldn't be a cop.
The gun vs. tazer argument is bogus to begin with. Tazers can kill just like guns can or at the very least inflict great bodily harm if the voltage is high enough.
At the point where Grant was shot, Mehserle had no justification to pull out ANY weapon, gun or tazer. He elevated the situation and put Grant's life at risk by his own overreaction to the situation.
Even though I felt the jury went too light on Mehserle, involuntary manslaughter is a verdict I can live with if he does not get away with a petty sentence. I just can't stand the dismissiveness and blame-the-victim attitude many people have towards Oscar Grant as a person. He gets shot in the back, faced-down on the concrete and his death is treated as just another "Oops" excuse cop killing of a black man.
There seems to be no attempt to humanize what it must have felt like to be squirming on the ground with a bullet in your back, knowing that you are about to die. All of the sympathy goes to the pure and poor confused cop who did not know what he was putting into his hands AND "accidentally" pulling the trigger.