Nightmares of Oscar Grant's Death

On the night Oscar Grant was murdered, his assailant, a BART police officer – Johannes Mehserle, walked away from the scene without being detained, interrogated or anything. He holed up for several weeks in Nevada until major protests in Oakland forced the local government to do something. Recently, a deputy sheriff in Oklahoma, virtually repeated Mehserle’s act and then claimed he had mistaken his gun for a taser. Another black man (Eric Harris) dead. In this case, the deputy sheriff was charged with manslaughter. Of course, in the “law and order” state of Oklahoma, the deputy will be allowed to leave the country with his family for a vacation in the Bahamas with the trial pending. Now, in Baltimore – Freddie Gray is dead in an apparent police murder by either intentional infliction of violence or gross negligence. Again, the six police seemed to have gone on without detention. Another skip and jump in the so-called American justice system. Anyone with the slightest sense of justice is offended. Many take to the streets in protest. The Mayor of Baltimore calls them thugs. What about her own police? Sounds like maybe she should be calling them thugs – but that’s not the way it works with the disconnected leaders of local government who pander to police unions and the elite segments of their communities.

Just because a person wears a uniform and works for the “government,” they apparently are eligible for a whole different system of justice than is reserved for the rest of us. Mehserle spent about two years in prison. Imagine if Oscar Grant had accidently shot Mehserle (maybe in self defense.) Would the system of government let him walk away from the scene or serve a couple years in prison – of even give him a chance to make it to court? Not in the American justice playbook.

Recently it comes to light that the Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker has failed to provide adequate representation at police arbitration hearings. Work would be left to the last minute or unassigned. Many, many violent and abusive cops in Oakland have been reinstated with back pay. This is a gross dereliction of duty and Barbara Parker should be brought up before the California Bar Association for gross negligence in the performance of her duties. The citizens of Oakland have not been served. But it makes one think that maybe this is all part of the game. As the mayor, city council members or city attorney tell the public they are going to do something about police corruption and violence – they are winking, nodding and smiling at their police cohorts. The fix is in.