You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Lurid Crime Tales-
BART Officer Who Killed Unarmed Man Gets 2 Years, Oakland Riots
2010-11-06
Police made more than 150 arrests as a crowd rioted against a Los Angeles court decision to sentence a white former transit officer to the minimum term for fatally shooting an unarmed black man in the back while he was face down on the ground.

The shooting was captured on video by several train riders.

The unrest was the latest in the case against defendant Johannes Mehserle, which has provoked periodic racial strife in Oakland since he shot and killed Oscar Grant while trying to arrest him on an Oakland train platform nearly two years ago.

The protests erupted hours after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry sentenced Mehserle to a two-year prison sentence, from which he will likely only serve six or seven months, provoking immediate anger from the victim's family and friends who demanded a much harsher punishment.
The video is pretty damning: officer stands up, pulls gun from holster, points it as suspect's back while the suspect is being restrained, fires it once, and returns it to his holster.
Apparently he claimed he thought he was grabbing his taser instead. If the judge believed him, that would explain the minimal sentence. How well trained are transit officers in comparison to regular police?
I wasn't aware that the proper response, faced with a man who is trying to grab your Taser, was to shoot said man in the back ...
My apologies, I phrased that badly. Transit officer Mehserle thought he was taking out his own taser, but reached for the wrong thing. Instead of electrocuting the victim on the ground, Officer Mehserle shot bullets into him. Look at Mehserle's body language in the last seconds of the video linked above. In the video linked in the comment thread below, the reporter says Mehserle was "a two year veteran", which I presume means he'd been a transit officer for only two years. There's a big difference between making a mistake that results in death and deliberate murder.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#9  well someone is about too get paid.
Posted by: chris

In Germany it would be the Polezei, in the form of a bonus or paid time off.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-11-06 18:28  

#8  well someone is about too get paid.
Posted by: chris   2010-11-06 18:24  

#7  Pretty clear Grant should've done what he was told. Also pretty clear this so-called officer had no business carrying a deadly weapon. In my experience that is the case with too many (not 'most', but still 'too many') police and pseudo-police. Petty people with power is a bad combination.
I wonder how Mehserle will hold up during his remaining months of incarceration - may need solitary in order to survive.
As for the rioters - what kind of drunken fool burns down his own liquor store? Next liquor store will be Korean-owned, and belligerants will be picking out buckshot for a year, if they're lucky.
Posted by: Glenmore   2010-11-06 15:57  

#6  Certainly cured the "scuffling" and reluctance to be cuffed. Note to other recalcitrants, Keep your mouth SHUT and do what the police tell you to do!
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-11-06 14:39  

#5  and the citizens of Oakland are entitled to riot like animals?
Posted by: Frank G   2010-11-06 14:31  

#4  Video I mentioned above. I moved it here because it screwed up the formatting above. I apologize -- I'm still not very good at technical things. The reporter's comment about the "two year veteran" is at 2:17.

Posted by: trailing wife   2010-11-06 13:47  

#3  There you go - that's the insight I lacked. No excuses for this, but a failure beyond this officer given the others present and the obvious melee.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division   2010-11-06 13:44  

#2  My impression is that this is an "addle-brained anger response", which means the critical information could be found if the officer was given a blood test right after, which he probably wasn't.

Narrow this down to either alcohol, drugs, or steroids.

I don't believe the "confused gun with Taser" excuse for one minute. Holster, weight, shape, feel, color, are all very different. He even has difficulty drawing his gun from its holster, giving him more time to tell the difference.

So the big questions, found in testimony should be, "Did he appear angry? Did he curse?" If he was in an addle brained anger mode, any weapon would do.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2010-11-06 12:27  

#1  Moose, from your highlights I have a related police procedure question. I confess complete ignorance, so bear with me.

Why would anyone using a firearm shoot in the position shown here? Basically straight down at very close range.

That's why the taser claim makes sense, but if you're that close to a target, don't you forego a firearm and use brute force - hand to hand/taser/billy club/tire iron/whatever is handy?

That's why I never understood the presumed intent here.

Sure, he's responsible for the results of his actions, and sure the "crowd" is entitled to its reactions, but the initial facts just don't quite add up.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division   2010-11-06 11:43  

00:00