BART officer to be charged with murder

It’s been a while since Oscar Grant’s execution, but it appears that Johannes Mehserle will be charged with murder for shooting the man in the back while another officer knelt on his neck.

Apparently, his defense is based on the premise that he intended to use his taser instead. “I didn’t mean to kill him, your honor, I was just trying to punish and humiliate him while he was completely under control by another officer.”

Below is video from the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Fruitvale station in Oakland, CA.

There was allegedly a fight on the train and several young men were pulled off and ordered to sit against a wall by police officers.

By the end of the night, one of these young men, Oscar Grant, would be dead from a gunshot fired by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

This happened two weeks ago. I assumed the video was being kept under wraps because it would be evidence in the case, but in this era of portable technology, several people captured images with their phones and posted them online. I’m a little late in talking about this, but I think this needs as much exposure as possible. The officer was just arrested for this incident. The police confiscated at least one of the videos, but for some reason, the officer was not taken into custody for 12 days after this incident.

In the video, you’ll see several young men seated against the wall. Oscar Grant is second from the left, blocked from view by the bald police officer. 45 seconds into the video, the bald officer begins to confront Grant, pulls him up from his seated position, then he and Mehserle throw him to the ground. The bald officer eventually is kneeling on the back of Grant’s neck, then at 1:21, Mehserle draws his gun and fires the shot within 6 seconds, all the while, Oscar Grant is immobilized on the ground. People have reported that he was then handcuffed.

In an ideal world, everyone would respect the golden rule and we wouldn’t need police officers. But we don’t live in that world. The police provide a necessary service to protect the public and to investigate crimes. They are crucial to our safety and I don’t want to imply that they are an evil force, but music has always served to express the frustration that people feel when police fail to follow the laws they enforce.

Bob Marley:

Sheriff john brown always hated me,
For what, I dont know:
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grow

Ice Cube/NWA:

…Young nigga got it bad cuz I’m brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority

KRS-One:

The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off patroling all the nation
The overseer could stop you what you’re doing
The officer will pull you over just when he’s pursuing
The overseer had the right to get ill
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill
The officer has the right to arrest
And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest!

I’m not going to put in a bunch of commentary about moral outrage or tell you how you should feel about this. Just watch the video.