Oscar Grant's Killer Arrested on Murder Charges
Wednesday January 14, 2009
Related: The Shooting of Oscar Grant
Joe Mehserle, the Oakland police officer who executed 22-year-old Oscar Grant during a New Year's Day subway raid two weeks ago, was arrested today on murder charges after fleeing to Nevada:
Now Joe Mehserle is in jail awaiting trial--just like any other killer. And he will no longer be able to duck the question of why he chose to shoot an unarmed man in the back.
Joe Mehserle, the Oakland police officer who executed 22-year-old Oscar Grant during a New Year's Day subway raid two weeks ago, was arrested today on murder charges after fleeing to Nevada:
BART officers had detained Grant and several other passengers at about 2 a.m. Jan. 1 as they investigated a fight aboard a train from San Francisco. Passengers with cellular phone cameras captured footage that shows Grant lying facedown when he was shot.While the district attorney did the right thing by pressing charges, it's uncertain that he would have done so had activists not gotten involved. Were it not for Katrina Vargas' smuggled cell phone video of the shooting, the media might still be unaware of the incident. Were it not for subsequent protests, including an Oakland riot that led to 105 arrests, it's possible that the incident would have been swept under the rug. And were it not for the recent specific focus of civil rights groups such as ColorOfChange.org on the district attorney's delay in pursuing Mehserle, it's possible that the entire shooting might have been handled by internal affairs officers.
In the videos, Mehserle appears to be trying to put cuffs on Grant, and Grant appears to be struggling, when Mehserle suddenly pulls his service weapon from his holster and fires one shot into Grant's back.
Mehserle declined to speak to BART criminal investigators after the shooting. Then last Wednesday he resigned rather than answer questions from BART's internal affairs division.
Now Joe Mehserle is in jail awaiting trial--just like any other killer. And he will no longer be able to duck the question of why he chose to shoot an unarmed man in the back.
Comments
If you actually watch the video, you will see that Grant was not struggling in the least. The notion that he was is malicious disinformation introduced to try and cast blame on a victim of execution. As an aspiring journalist, you should be ashamed of yourself for perpetuating this falsehood.
This is good news. Too often, these killings do get swept under the rug. I once had a discussion with someone who claimed that these types of incidents are not racially motivated, but when I asked him to name a single incident where an innocent, unarmed white man was shot and killed by police, he couldn’t think of one.
Justin, the “struggling” quote isn’t mine; it comes from the San Francisco Chronicle.
D, well said. It’s almost exclusively young black and Latino men who fall victim to this.
Finally justice…now let’s EXECUTE his ASS!!
Good because I don’t want him killing me. HAHA!!
I’m afraid most people are missing a trick here. The officer has been charged with murder, not manslaughter or anything less. I suspect this has been done in the full knowledge that he is more likely to be acquitted of the stronger charge. My guess is that they have already sewn this one up. They prosecute the killer on a strong charge making a case just too weak to secure conviction. Justice has certainly not been done–yet.
The next step will be to delay the trial to allow public anger to dispel.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think they are serious about convicting this criminal.
We are not hearing the other side of the story. Why isn’t the video posted here?
Joe Mehserle is a cold killer and he have to receive justice – the death chamber. Actually that will not happen. The whole case will be cover up by the police the policeman and his familly will be brought to another location under new names and will live as is nothing happend. So works the nowadays system. They called it a civil public, a organized system of laws that keep us safe, but nothing is secured as we’ve been steadily monitored, observed, controlled. So there is nobody above the law only god, but god doesn’t exists, his substitution is the government with his executive and operative power – judges and policemen. Its sad that people are less inteligent than animals
Killers