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| Johannes Mehserle-Oscar Grant |
Do you
remember Oscar Grant, the central figure in the recent film “Fruitvale
Station”? Grant, 22 years old, was fatally shot by a San Francisco Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) police office as he lay face-down on an Oakland train platform in
2009. No African-Americans were chosen for the jury, which was composed
of 8 women and four men. Seven of the jurors were white, three Latino, one
Asian-Pacific Islander, and one declined to state race. The jury found the
police officer guilty of involuntary manslaughter despite a number of video taped
recording of the crime and numerous witnesses.
Johannes
Mehserle, 28, testified that he struggled with Grant and saw him digging in his
pocket as officers responded to reports of a fight at a train station. Fearing
Grant may have a weapon, he said he decided to shock Grant with his Taser but
pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead. Mehserle pleaded not guilty to murder
and resigned from the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency after the shooting. Defense
attorney Michael Rains contended the shooting was a tragic accident. Mehserle
had no motive to shoot Grant, even though he was resisting arrest, the defense lawyer
argued. Mehserle was sentenced to two years of a possible two to four year
sentence. He served 11 months of the two year sentence and received unsupervised parole with no conditions.  |
| Oscar Grant's daughter |
Grant’s
family and friends filed multimillion dollar lawsuits against the transit
agency. Grant’s mother received $1.3 million dollars in settlement from the BART agency
and five friends will split $175,000 in settlement from their federal lawsuit.
The Black community continues to be outraged and frustrated at the lack of
responsiveness from the criminal justice system.
Young Black men are murdered and justice closes a blind eye. And the drama continues.
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