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Will a Manslaughter Conviction in the Mehserle Case Head Off Unrest?



Wednesday Night in LA’s downtown criminal court building, Judge Robert Perry
offered jurors a variety of possibilities if they vote to convict Johannes Mehserle of some kind of crime in relation to the shooting of the unarmed Oscar Grant as Grant was lying face down on an Oakland subway platform.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Jurors in the trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserlee will be given the option of convicting him of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter or nothing at all, a judge ruled Wednesday on the eve of closing arguments

This is considered a victory for the prosecution. The defense wanted the choices to be murder or nothing, betting that the jury would not be able to wrap their minds around first degree murder in this case.

Thankfully, Judge Perry went a different route.

Both law enforcement and community leaders in Northern California, particularly Oakland where the shooting took place, worry that so much outrage has built about the case, with its disturbing eyewitness videos and racial overtones, that a not-guilty verdict may set off civil unrest.

Although, the case has been far less high profile here in Los Angeles, I’ve gotten calls from several community activists and also from someone involved in law enforcement, who have expressed the same worry about possible unrest in LA.

It has been the consensus by many of those following the case closely that the defense was guessing right: Given an either/or choice between murder and acquittal, a jury is likely to acquit Mr. Mehserle—who says it was never his attention to shoot Oscar Grant, that he was reaching for his taser and accidentally pulled his service weapon.

While the taser idea seems far fetched to many, Mehserle’s body language on the videos the instant after he fired the fatal shot suggests a man who is horrified by his actions.

And, as one law enforcement expert reminded me, juries do not tend to convict police officers.

But a manslaughter conviction, which seems far more possible, also carries with it a substantial prison sentence.

So if that is, in fact, the outcome, will it be enough to satisfy those who see the killing of Oscar Grant as painfully symbolic of a larger pattern of injustice?

It is hard to say. But we need to keep having these discussions in our communities, No Cal and South.

20 Comments

  • Wouldn’t civil unrest in LA be nothing more than an excuse for “thugs” to be “thugs”? As you’ve noted L.A. doesn’t really care about the case so why would any rioting (civil unrest my ass) be on anyone but a “thugs” agenda?

    He should be convicted of manslaughter, no doubt, but this certainly didn’t seem to rise to the legal level of a murder. “Thugs” wouldn’t care though, they just want an excuse to be “thugs”.

  • Hopefully there is some kind of conviction, Celeste. Anything that sends cops the message that the “i thought it was my taser” excuse is not going to fly when they cap a citizen who’s face down on the concrete and unarmed will be justice. A not guilty verdict would send the American people the message that police can kill you and get away with it.

  • I’m kind of troubled by the notion that a jury should be influenced by anything but the facts of the case as they see it – the fact that some people may riot shouldn’t factor in.

    However, Rocky’s right that a lot of people especially in the black community, would “read” a not guilty verdict as a whitewash of whatever cops do, and a young man WAS killed unnecessarily, in circumstances that got out of control by the transit cops (largely Mehserle’s partner, Pirone, who is the one who will get off scot-free while his under-trained partner will pay for both of them).

    Meanwhile, I’m concerned about a less “glamorous” because it’s not tinged in broad racial strokes, case of the teen who was killed by undercover Sheriff’s Deputies in Studio City, right on Ventura behind a popular fast-food mall, for allegedly trying to run down an undercover cop who was roughing up a friend of his – whom the undercover cops claimed was casing cars. BUT this teen was a top student, nice middle class kid who may have just assumed his friend was being assaulted (the cops WERE undercover) by a thug, and raced over to help. This is getting no MSM coverage, just on a couple of blogs – and this sounds to some, like a case where Sheriff’s deputies are getting away with whatever story they put out there (that the youth and his friend were planning burglaries and tried to run down a cop), just might have killed a young man under circumstances of mistaken identity all around. But because the victims were white and middle-class, in a middle-class neighborhood, this is getting no traction other than from classmates and friends, who don’t buy the LASD’s version.

  • sbl, I’m working on that studio City shooting and will be posting about it late tonight for tomorrow.

    It was going to be today, but I’m taking one more run at the Sheriffs for additional info. It’s unbelievably heartbreaking. Honestly, I can hardly stand it.

    And Rocky, I agree. I hope there is some kind of conviction. But from what I’ve seen, a straight murder conviction simply isn’t righteous.

    “… Mehserle’s partner, Pirone, who is the one who will get off scot-free while his under-trained partner will pay for both of them…”

    Another interesting point, and an illustration of why a case like this one is so complicated.

  • SBL is right, the death of the honor student named Zac Champommier is receiving no press, other than the police statement. Zac Champommier was a cello player in his High School Orchestra, with no criminal history.

    If Zach had been a young mexican or black gang member with an extensice criminal record “who was on the verge of turning his life around” before being killed by police the story would be all over the news and blogs.

    Some “thugs” from the Granada Hills Orchestra need to orchestrate a Civil Unrest, until Zac’s story is heard.
    “No Justice No Peace” !!!!!!!!!

  • Something I have found rather grotesque in some of the coverage of this is that the Bay Area TV stations have been hyping the possibility of unrest in a way that suggests they may actually want it to happen.

  • sbl, do you honestly believe that the majority of verdicts are based on the facts of a case alone? 90% of criminal trials are poor people, many cases repeat offenders, being tried in front of juries that make their decision the minute the judge describes the case. Let there be one lib in that jury who tries to question the arresting officers’ testimony and the other jurors will do every thing short of kick his ass. They just want to get back to their day to day lives and if the defendant is someone who fits the profile of a “thug” to them (poor, black, or latino), fuck him. If he didn’t really do it, he’ll do it eventually. That’s how they see it. Now the shoe’s on the other foot. And, in this instance, instead of there being a vast pressure to hang the defendant, there’s instead a burden of preventing a full scale riot. Then there’s the fear of being a juror who puts a cop away forever on a murder conviction, wondering if a modern day law enforcement culture that has access to your entire flippin livelihood thanks to the patriot act, would exact revenge on you. So, the perfect way to split the middle would be to convict on a lesser charge. Can you blame them? Put yourself in their shoes. It’s easy for us to be ideologues in the comfort of our living room on our lap tops, but put yourself in their situation.

  • Agreed, btw, that the local news stations typically give more air time to minority victims of police brutality than white victims. But the justice system is another story.

  • Sounds like Rocky spent a lot of time in the prison library and at Cop Watch meetings. The only people who need to put themselves in the place of a repeat offender is a like type “thug”. You know, the kind of person Rocky admires. According to this amazingly brilliant post of his all juries are corrupt, liberals will get their ass kicked if they speak up, all cops have access to all your personal info and are bent on revenge and of course because this certain defendant was a cop..he should be “hung”.

    Kind of brings bake memories of what happened to blacks in the deep south. Rocky shows his own bigotry and racist style of thinking in just about everything he writes. Now if a conservative had written what he put up people here would make the connection in a flash, leave it to the conservative to make the point when nobody else will when it’s a far left goon spouting this bigoted view.

  • Oh, and he endorses rioting which would i’m sure includes arson, theft and hell, even murder.

    This poster Rocky is pure scum, always has been.

  • In my neighborhood there’s concern about this if you talk to people, but frankly if there’s “unrest” it will be sparked by factions who aren’t about neighborhoods but ideological and ultra-“activist” cliques that love to exploit tragic and/or absurdly unjust events to give themselves some false feeling of power or “taking action.” The last time there was unrest, it all happened downtown and the mood in my neighborhood was “WTF? These kids are making things even worse.” The neighborhood is cool and will probably be untouched – albeit a mix of younger folks (“hipsters”, etc.) and working-class, mostly black folk who are in general very disturbed by the apparent facts of this case. But if there’s unrest, the liklihood is there’ll be many more interlopers engaged in random, crank acts of “revenge” from Berkeley than actual residents of West Oakland (the events took place in East Oakland, for what that’s worth, but could as easily have happened at our BART station.) We have too much respect for local merchants and entrepreneurs who are revitalizing the area to want to see anything even resembling riots.

  • Incidentally, my understanding of the last “trashing” episode was that there was a fairly large peaceful march, which a handful of anarchist and maoist types broke loose from when it got downtown and did their best to turn it into havoc. Hopefully the organizers of peaceful protests, if they occur, will have a better plan for handling this and the cops will act rationally. But these things are difficult to contain if you have a sub-group committed to their own agenda. But that’s the danger – not some kind of mass rioting.

  • “Kind of brings bake (sic) memories of what happened to blacks in the deep south.”

    Yeah – a cop in LA can’t get a fair trial and will might be lynched like the bad old days for black folk in the deep south. Good insight from a guy with lots of that valuable street experience. How would we find our way through these difficult issues without an insider’s psychological and political map of the reality that the rest of us dumbasses just can’t see.

  • For the record, I was accused by someone in here of endorsing riots. Allow me to say that I endorse no such thing, and never have. I would ask this person to quote me on the exact sentence where they think I implied any such thing, but it would be giving too much attention to someone who feels that making false accusations toward people they disagree with is a stimulating way to carry on a discussion. I don’t want to feed them. So instead I’ll get right to my reason just as to why I hope there are NOT riots. I believe we have a fringe right wing movement in this country backed by some wealthy people, and that one of their goals is to bring racism back into the mainstream. They would love nothing more than to see poor minorities rioting just two years after America elects its first black president. What’s my prognosis for a not guilty verdict? Simple. I don’t have one. I don’t know what will happen. But I do not, nor have ever, endorsed riots. I don’t want to see anything that would bring a smile to the face of extreme right wingers like Joe Arpaio and Sarah Palin. They don’t deserve happiness. Kill them softly with peace.

  • I’m sorry Reg but I’m leaving the blog because it distracts me from other pursuits. That goes for all blogs I’m on and social websites, just no time to waste dealing with fucking bitches like you and Rob anymore. You are a bitch Reg, my bitch. Don’t kill nobody that punks you in the future, you know like you want to deep down.

    You’re truly a fucking prick Reg blindly following a thug president with no true understanding of what he’s doing to this country, or maybe an sctual understanding but your heads so far up that old wrinkled ass of yours you just don’t fucking get it. You’re a fucking clown Reg, not any male dna present in you at all.

    Robbie/Rocky Cop hater Troll, fuck you and all people like you.

    Yeah, I love free speech as well.

    Feel free to correct any of my spelling mistakes Reggie.

    Celeste, thanks for letting me post here but I promised my wife I would do this and she convinced me I’m losing a lot of time, better used elsewhere, with the blogs I participate on.

    Sorry I vented a bit but those two guys suck. if you delete this i won’t know or really care, hopefully the two assholes will see it first.

    Good luck.

  • Wow ! Heads explode on the playground. “My bitch???” Uh…I don’t think so, you sorry, crazed punk. I’ll add that fantasy to the list of your blatant pathologies. Weak.

  • The more I think about it, I hope it’s a guilty verdict for murder. Imagine if we give cops the message that if they shoot someone, all they have to do is say they were going for their taser, and it’s automatically reduced to manslaughter. Bad precedent. The bottom line is, a nice young man with his entire future in front of him, and who’s also a father, was killed senselessly, and even if it was an accident I think Mehserle has to face the harshest form of justice possible to send police a stern message that the citizen is above them, and that they must use the utmost caution when detaining citizens for any reason.

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