I get it about the "police community" not expressing sympathy for Oscar Grant. As you know, there is a culture among police (and lots of other people in uniform) of being very careful about what is said in public. This is sometimes referred to as a "consipracy of silence." Breaking ranks is considered high risk in the police or the military.

That said, police (or military) are essentially no different from other folks. They have feelngs; they can be compassionate. They are outraged when someone does something very wrong (often a motivation for someone to become a cop).

So I don't think it's very useful to condemn cops in general. No doubt there are some who always take the side of other cops. Also no doubt there are many who think Mehserle's action was at best negligent, possibly criminal, certainly way-out-of-line. It's just that cops don't talk in public about what other cops do. Just like most folks in the 'hood don't go around saying how much they appreciate cops.

 

 

 

 

 

I am not sure whether or not Mehserle pulled his service pistol with the intention of killing Oscar Grant. I believe that the idea of pulling ANYTHING---Taser or pistol--while Grant was lying on the ground, face down, occurred to Mehserle BECAUSE Grant is black, and never would have entered his mind if a young white man were lying there regardless of his hand wavering on its way to its position on the young man's back.

I believe that being afraid of a person who was lying on the ground, face-down, with another cop's knee on the back of his neck, would not have happened if the person were white. Because Grant is black, Mehserle pulled a weapon instead of thinking of any other possibility other than there was a gun somewhere--we don't know what Grant's hand was actually doing but he was under great duress and his arm could have easily moved around before finding its position on his back.

I think that pulling a pistol rather than the Taser--and that HAD to be purposeful, the two actions are so different--was also because of Mehserle's fear, based on Grant's race. Based on stereotypes, training (yes, I really think so), and Mehserle's lack of experience with the black community (like a lot of city cops who just drive patrol cars through communities of color).

So the fear was race-based, and the shooting was race-based. I am totally convinced of this. And if Mehserle gets off easily (for shooting a man in the back) it will be because his fear is seen as "understandable," even reasonable. And that will be race-based as well.

"I believe that the idea of pulling ANYTHING---Taser or pistol--while Grant was lying on the ground, face down, occurred to Mehserle BECAUSE Grant is black, and never would have entered his mind if a young white man were lying there regardless of his hand wavering on its way to its position on the young man's back."

I don't know how you can know what was going on in Mehserle's mind. That's called mindreading and it's not generally recognized as being very accurate.

On the other hand, I think Mehserle was wrong, and should be criminally culpable, for pulling out anything, taser, gun, or Snickers candy bar, in that situation where there was no evident risk to anyone's personal safety. I also think that the BART Board of Directors is criminally culpable for whatever deficiency of training Mehserle had, and/or their deficiency of judgement in setting the guidelines for the hiring of someone like Mehserle.

I don't doubt that racism still exists, but I think it resides much less in the minds of most people than in our institutions.

 

It is disturbing when there is no official public voice of protest against this death, that they all side with the police. BART's lack of co-operation... This situation really required pro-active movement to find a way to deal with this.

I'll never feel resolved about this, as the case hinges around what was going on in Mehserle's mind, and because I, myselft, will never know what was going on in his mind. Even without the shooting, it's really disturbing. Even if it was a tasing. He wasn't even resisting arrest, or so it looked to me. The only thing that sort of makes sense is that Mehserle just totally snapped, and pulled out his gun. There is no way he was going for his taser. The actions are just so totally different.

Either way, regardless of the sentence, the lack of even the most remote attempt for the publically elected officials to look at the larger issues is a set back for Oakland. It feels even more like war out there.

Having attended the BART meetings and demonstrations, I saw and heard Desley Brooks and Keith Carson at all of them. I would have liked to have heard more from the mayor, but it's not true that there was no public response by any of our elected officials. In fact both of them have taken a lot of flack for responding as they did-sort of a damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't situation.

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