Riots broke out in Oakland, California last night following a peaceful protest over the senseless shooting of a black man by a white Bay Area police officer.
The officer, Johannes Mehserle, 27, quit the force yesterday rather than face questioning by the police internal review board investigating his shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant.
Routinely, police officers are required to face the board following incidents where deadly force is used. Mehserle’s attorney had asked the review board to postpone the questioning for a week but the board refused and scheduled the meeting for yesterday. Mehserle’s attorney and a union rep showed up without him and presented his resignation. The resignation was accepted and became effective immediately.
Here’s the problem: accidental shootings of blacks by police are rarely ever charged. The officer has not been arrested nor has he commented on the shooting which occurred in front of witnesses. By turning in his resignation he is not even required to give a statement.
Instead, he has been moved several times for his protection due to death threats.
It certainly doesn’t help the situation in Oakland to hear police investigators shrug off cell phone videos which clearly show Mehserle standing over the prone Grant and firing his service weapon into his back at close range.
Instead of swift justice, the police investigators offer excuses. The videos are grainy, they say. There are other mitigating factors to consider, they say.
The bullet from Mehserle’s sidearm passed through Grant’s body striking the concrete beneath him and ricocheting back into his upper torso, collapsing a lung. He died later at a local hospital. Grant leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter, a grieving family and a torn city left to wonder why.
I might disagree with you 95% of the time…but I definitely agree with you on this, and you wrote it excellently!
This story just tears me up. Something should be done to this former cop. There is no way he should be let go so nonchalantly.
This reminds me of the Rodney King era. So sad.
I will keep my hateful thoughts too myself, but this makes me soooooo angry, the cop quit instead of facing the internal review board, and they have that pig cop in protection who shot an innocent men wtf! What kind of consequences and repercussions is this cop gonna received? Nada nothing because he is protected bye his yt friends
@mizzdallas
Well I’ll SHARE my TRUE-FUL thought about this…
IF this young man WAS my distant cousin OR a friend of a friend of a friend AND I happen to live ANYWHERE NEAR CA…
Me and My Boyz WOULD find this Fool-Cop and WHOEVER is foolish-enough to be assigned to protect him…
And BLOW HIS WHOLE ENTIRE HEAD OFF from his body (TRILL)
I too am angry mizzdallas but also hurt and dissapointed in society. Lets hope this isn’t another Sean Bell case where the COPS aren’t held responsible and go free.
Officer Mehserle must face the consequences of his actions. Turning in your resignation and having your attorney and union representative speak on your behalf is a coward’s way out. You were man enough to shoot this father of one in front of several passerbys while he is face down on the ground in handcuffs (not to mention the world has you on camera), you can be man enough to speak on your behalf publicly. This man needs to make a statement. He MUST be interviewed/questioned about this incident. We don’t need nor do we want the city of Oakland to be burned down by angry citizens or any other indiviuals to be hurt or killed.
And for the BART representative to state the video feed from the camera phones are “grainy” and there is other video captures that a different perspective is bull. We aren’t idiots. In the video Sandra posted yesterday, it was CLEAR, perfectly clear, this man was shot in cold blood. You can’t even make an attempt to cover this up. And if they are SO concerned about the video, why not collect all the video feed and reconstruct a 360 degree reinactment of what happened? They have the video and the technology to do it.
I just don’t know what to say. In the words of DMX Lord give me a sign!
This is about to take on a life on its own if the Bart Police don’t rectify this situation quick. There is no excuse for this man to be sitting at home enjoying his wife and baby while another family grieves for their lost father who did nothing wrong!
@ Elove I usually don’t promote violence but I’m feeling you!
I just hope more people don’t get arrested behind this, SMDH.
Never ever understood the riot mentality!! I understand the anger but why burn down your OWN community.
As for former officer Johannes Mehserle, how can he not face the Internal Review Board?! He was an officer at the time of the shooting…he still has questions to answer whether he is still employed by BART police or not.
@iyonah- I am hurt too. when it was mentioned in the post yesterday that someone was coordinating a protest, I thought to myself “Please let this be a peaceful event”. Looking at the 3rd video, the protest did in fact start out peaceful. Protestors were marching together silently. It wasn’t until they got the intersection where the police were located that all hell broke loose. Someone started chanting, “No justice,No peace. Phukk the Police”. In my opinion, that chant alone got the crowd ampped up and tempers spiraled out of control.
@ YVONNE — I AM AT WORK AND CAN’T VIEW THE VIDEO, BUT IF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS TRUE … THEN YEAH THAT’S PROBABLY WHAT GOT IT STARTED. MY ISSUE IS THAT THEY REALLY GOING TO TRY TO SWITCH IT ROUND AND ITS CLEAR AS DAY THAT THE COP WAS IN THE WRONG, ANOTHER INNOCENT ONE PASSES – SO SAD. THAT’S ONE OF THE MAN REASONS I USPPORT FROM A DISTANCE, I DON’T WANT TO BE CAUGHT UP IN ANYONE’S RIOT … WHO SI TO SAY THAT WHILE CHANTING “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, PHUKK THE POLICE”, THAT SOMETHING MIGHT GO SNAP IN MY MIND AND ALL RATIONALITY OUT THE WINDOW.
@kci
THIS is when Gang-Bangers AND Street-Gangs show just how much of PUNKS that they are… Those L.A. GANGS should be able to find, locate and Tear THESE FOOL COPS apart Piece-by-Piece
STRAIGHT COWARDS… ALL OF THEM (Every Single ONE !!!!!)
IF YOU don’t STAND-For-SOMETHING, YOU will FALL-For-Anything
@iyonah- I am with you! I support at a distance too. I don’t do crowds. Don’t tell anyone but I have a slight temper (shhhh). To make sure I don’t go off, I need to be tucked away in someone’s building answering phones or something. I’m too cute to be in jail pretending to be someone’s girl, being traded for a carton of cigarettes
IF YOU don’t STAND-For-SOMETHING, YOU will FALL-For-Anything
That’s my motto, and I completely agree.
all i can do is shake my head to all of this. i hope that this young man’s family gets the justice and the peace they deserve. these cops now and days are losing their emma effing minds.
I can’ handle this story without tearing up! Being from California I’m so glad I left in 94′. This is a horrible situation. If the officer quitting doesn’t make him look guilty then our system is useless for a black man!
I intentionally turned on CNN last night because my fiance had not heard about the shooting incident. There was no mention of it and I assumed it was old news. Then I watched CNN this morning before work as usual and there was no mention of the riot. What’s up with that? Why are they not reporting more on this?
This is a very unfortunate situation for Oscar’s family and friends (my cousin is married to a cousin of his). The protest started off peaceful but out of frustration (1 too many police cars, 1 too many officers, SWAT trucks and breaking up peaceful marches) turned into a riot. The family will continue to protest this morning at BART headquarters in Downtown Oakland (which I happen to work around the corner from). Talks about beefing up security have already been mentioned on the news which can only lead to more frustration and MAYBE more riots. BART has been doing a lousy job covering up for this officer’s action by offering stupid excuse after stupid excuse.
@ Bird
maybe cuz they don’t want to stir racial unrest a couple weeks before innaugaration…..idk…thats just my guess…or its just the media doing what they do best…..not reporting real news……
@ for this story…..I don’t support violence at all, but i understand. When those sean bell cops got off, there was nothing like that in nyc. It was almost like, another shot in us……another defeat. People were sad, and they were angry, but it seemed like they were more defeated. I gotta admit, i respect the people of oakland, and california in general, cuz when ish like this happens out there, they let it be known, they are angry, not just with words.
And what does uncle al, and cousin jesse have to say about this. I have heard anything from thing…especially Al….i’m surprised……
That’s SO sad…wouldn’t it have been crazy if the bullet passed back through again and hit the officer who fired it?
I was there last night and it was really heart breaking to see a group of young brothers attacking a black cab driver. They hit up stores that are their community..WTF were they trying to prove? oh wait…just using horrible event as an excuse to just tear shit up.
Don’t let your anger be an excuse to hurt your own people. No respect whatsoever
I told you yesterday that people were LIVID.. So, last night it “went down in the town”!
Oakland is not NY, and we won’t stand for the West Coast Sean Bell incident! It’s real hyphy right now.
It probably would’ve been a peaceful protest, if BART or the cop would’ve provided some answers to common sense questions..
It’s been 7 days, and everyone involved in the case is MUTE!
NOTHING FROM ANYONE.. NO ANSWERS, NO STATEMENTS, NADA!
Johannes better head to Wyoming or another state most people forget about.. Cuz, if they catch him it’s CURTAINS!
@ 10
It is actually policy that they only have to talk to IA if they want to keep their job. If he’s no longer an employee they have no reason to interview him. It’s not a criminal investigation, so they can’t detain him. He’s lawyer’d up with someone from the POA so he knows this.
As far as a criminal investigation he can be arrested and questioned but he has the same rights as us as a regular citizen so he can plead the 5th and may never make a statement about what happened at all
I’m glad to see Oakland stand up for our rights, but I’m also troubled thinking about why Oakland wasn’t rioting for the 100 murders committed in 2008 by black on black crime!
We want the D.A. to prosecute the cop, but a few of my female friends innocently lost their lives just being in the wrong place/wrong time.. No protests for them, or any of the other almost a hundred homeboys I’ve lost!
We kill each other, it’s cool?! Others kill us, not cool?!
Let’s protest for every life innocently taken!
This tragic death needs to be addressed quickly and swiftly but the rioting is not going to bring that man back.
You can demand justice without tearing up your own neighborhood and risking injury or even death to yourself or some else.