CA - Oscar Grant, 22, fatally shot by BART officer, Oakland, 1 Jan 2009 *GUILTY* *Reopened in 2020*

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Jury has the case now. Officers are preparing for riots!
 
Ladybass0711 said:
Jury has the case now. Officers are preparing for riots!
Click to expand...

I heard a report that stated if a verdict was reached today, they would hold it over until Tuesday before announcing it, so everyone could have a quiet holiday weekend.

It's sad that the city of Oakland has to be held hostage to no-good thugs who couldn't care less about "justice" but are simply looking for an excuse to damage and destroy.

L.A. police had better also be prepared. It could get ugly here as well.
 
jury now have the case, and are deliberating, if no verdict today they will be back on Tuesday to continue

and a happy 4th of July to everybody
 
gitana1 said:
I have also been following the case closely. My brother lives in Oakland. The cops there have a reputation for brutality against blacks there, but it is usually not caught on tape. The officer has just been charged with murder. From reports I heard earlier, the young man was trying to tell his companions to do everything that LE said. He also begged them not to taze him. Perhaps that gave the officer the idea? The guy seemed scared of the cop. I heard no yelling from the crowd on the tapes I have seen, at all, until after the shooting. I can see that the young man would be nervous if LE there is notrious for police brutality. The tapes are grainy and it all happens fast. I did not really see a look of shock on the officer's face. It went too fast and it was too grainy to make out but narration accompanying one of the vids states he looked shocked so I think that puts that impression in people's minds. He stood up, took out his gun, aimed, and shot at the guy. He then looked at his fellow officer for one second and then you could not see his face. The guy killed has a four year old. The officer who killed him just had a baby. It looked like an assasination to me. It's a tragedy for everyone involved but this officer does need to go to jail, IMO. Otherwise, how can LE maintain the public's trust? He could have mistaken it for a taser as some are saying, but they do have a different weight. If this is really what happened, then there needs to be some serious changes in the use of tasers, the type they use, if they can be used, etc. I read a report that the introduction of tasers has increased the incidents of police brutality. What a sad, sorrowful mess.
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FWIW, it is true in general about police brutality in Oakland, but I don't believe that to be the case here. First of all, the officer was a BART officer, not Oakland P.D. I've read that the victim was taunting the officers and resisting arrest. I really think Mehserle didn't intend to kill him and mistakenly drew his gun, rather than his taser. I hope the verdict comes back for involuntary manslaughter...
 
fran said:
Ex-BART officer says he mistakenly pulled gun

Friday, June 25, 2010 at 9:42 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — A former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer has testified that he mistakenly pulled out his handgun instead of a stun gun when he shot and killed an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform last year.


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<more at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/25/ex-bart-officer-says-he-mistakenly-pulled-gun/



FWIW, I actually believe the guy that he THOUGHT he'd pulled his stun gun. From the very beginning eye-witnesses said after the gun discharged, the officer looked stunned. I immediately thought he'd meant to pull the stun gun rather than his hand gun.

I don't know if it'll make any difference. Too bad an innocent young life was lost because of a 'mistake.':(

JMHO
fran
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I also think it was a horrible mistake. I've felt that way from the beginning.

Imagine what this was like for the BART officer: it's 2 a.m. on a riotous holiday night--New Year's Eve--his wife is due to give birth very soon and he's faced with this unruly bunch of people, something that happens only rarely on BART (IMO). In fact, Oscar Grant did say "Don't taze me, don't taze me" and I wonder if that also made Mehserle subconsciously reach for the wrong weapon? NOT saying it was the victim's fault! It just seems like a combination of factors that created "the perfect storm"...horrible.... The whole thing is just too sad.
 
fran said:
Ex-BART officer says he mistakenly pulled gun

Friday, June 25, 2010 at 9:42 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — A former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer has testified that he mistakenly pulled out his handgun instead of a stun gun when he shot and killed an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform last year.


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<more at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/25/ex-bart-officer-says-he-mistakenly-pulled-gun/



FWIW, I actually believe the guy that he THOUGHT he'd pulled his stun gun. From the very beginning eye-witnesses said after the gun discharged, the officer looked stunned. I immediately thought he'd meant to pull the stun gun rather than his hand gun.

I don't know if it'll make any difference. Too bad an innocent young life was lost because of a 'mistake.':(

JMHO
fran
Click to expand...

Hi Fran!!!!!!!!! I love ya' but I must disagree. His gun was on one side of his hip and his stun gun on the other. Also, he had to flip a tab from his holster before drawing it, IIRC from LA Times coverage, which is different from the stun gun. Their holsters are made so that it is harder to quickly pull the gun out. Yeah, he looked shocked but I don't think that was because he made a mistake with which weapon he chose.I think it was because he was shocked that he actually shot someone, probably for the first time. Also, the whole reason this incident was being taped was because bystanders noticed LE treating these young men very badly, yelling racial epithets, etc., and using force when the men were not fighting back. They saw something bad going down and decided to record it in case it got worse. It did.
Sometimes young cops view all suspects as the enemy, animals, etc. They can also have hot tempers and believe they can do whatever they want. My friend's husband and his buddies were kind of like that when younger (Anaheim LE). Nice guys but swaggering when they first became cops and I remember one telling me, "You know that "E" on our license plate? It means were exempt from the law. We can do whatever we want."
I think when you get young guys without tons of experience out there acting as beat cops in bad neighborhoods, the power can go to their heads sometimes. There was definitely a racial component here as well, IMHO.
 
I've watched this video several times and I just can't see how one could reasonably reach the conclusion that this was an intentional shooting. At the time of this shooting, the BART police had only been issued Tasers a couple of weeks earlier, and it appears Mehserle was unaccustomed to using his. IMO there's no question that in the heat of the moment Mehserle had a deadly brain fart and someone died as a result. I would have no problem with him being convicted of manslaughter and serving a year or two, but I'd consider it a miscarriage of justice if he is convicted of murder. I literally can't imagine how the prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this was murder.
 
If they don't bring in a verdict today - apparently they will have to start deliberations all over again tomorrow as one of the 12 jurors cannot serve past today. You'd think they would have taken that into consideration when picking the jury wouldn't you?!
 
Geez--I"m not liking this at all...I have to wonder if they had to declare a mistrial if they would even retry the case...what do you think?
 
I'm listening to KGO talk radio and their legal talking head, Royal Oakes, has apparently called in to them saying that there are "indications" that a verdict has been reached. Awfully quick if so...
 
Confirmed - verdict reached. To be announced at 4:00 Pacific time today...
 
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