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Arrest Made in Oscar Grant Murder

Cara

Johannes Mehserle, the BART Police officer who was filmed fatally shooting the unarmed Oscar Grant (left) execution-style while he was lying face-down on the ground, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff’s office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Mehserle was arrested in the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder, and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.

You know, I highly doubt that I’m the only one who expected no action whatsoever to be taken in this case, regardless of how publicized it has become since the riots that occured in protest over the killing.  I can’t and won’t say that I’m pleased that the police actually did something that resembles their damn job, nor can I believe that this means anything at all about a new found belief that the lives of black people mean more than the “right” of white police officers to pull their triggers — but I will say that I am relieved. Surprised, and relieved.

Now it’s up to the prosecution to do their job, and to the question of whether or not a jury will convict a white police officer of executing a black man who posed no threat whatsoever.  Here’s to hoping.

h/t Feministing

26 thoughts on Arrest Made in Oscar Grant Murder

  1. Now it’s up to the prosecution to do their job, and to the question of whether or not a jury will convict a white police officer of executing a black man who posed no threat whatsoever. Here’s to hoping.

    Considering recent history……that hope isn’t too promising….

  2. While it’s encouraging that the District Attorney charged Mehserle with murder so quickly after receiving the BART investigative findings, it leaves us with more questions than answers.

    If the findings were so conclusive, as the DA stated in his press conference today, why is it that BART officials were saying previously that the video evidence their officers confiscated from witnesses that night were all inconclusive. Was it an attempt at cover-up or was it a matter of evidence tampering, either would be valid for criminal charges and further investigation.

    There are some other questions too, and while it is encouraging that instead of waiting two more weeks and letting Mehserle go further than Nevada, it’s still a matter that shouldn’t be let up on yet.

    Thank you for covering this case, it’s an important one to cover since it is so rare that the public actually sees evidence of a police-involved shooting that should have never happened. If that video was never released, it’s likely the officer would never have been charged, and that’s the injustice that remains to be addressed even if Mehserle is ultimately convicted… which as you rightly say, is far from certain.

  3. okay this has gone beyond legitimate coverage and into the relm of anti-police hate propaganda. Hundreds of police are killed every year while in the process of “doing something that resembles their damn jobs”. When does this website ever post any pictures of them or give them any attention? Where is your sympathy for them?

  4. Do you have a point, Ohio9? Because it doesn’t seem like you do.

    I know, it’s rough when police brutality is a huge problem and that problem actually gets some coverage. Should I be jumping up and down and giving the police a cookie because they arrested someone who should have been arrested? You know, doing something that resembles their damn job? Or just not discussing police brutality without also discussing the fact that sometimes cops get killed, too — like how I’m not allowed to talk about huge numbers of women are raped without mentioning that not every man is a rapist?

  6. My point, Cara, is that the man responsible for killing Oscar Grant is not, in any conceivable way, representative of law enforcement in this country as a whole, and it is absurd (and hateful) to act as though he is

    It is also absurd to focus only on people unjustly killed by cops while ignoring cops unjustly killed by citizens. Just days after Grant was killed, Dallas Police officer Normal Smith was murdered in the line of duty while serving a legitimate arrest warrant (you know, doing something that resembles his damn job).

    http://odmp.org/officer/19730-senior-corporal-norman-smith

    I see multiple articles on Grant, but no coverage of Smith. Gee, I wonder why.

  7. I see multiple articles on Grant, but no coverage of Smith. Gee, I wonder why.

    And the fact that you think social justice blogs should focus on police getting killed in the course of their job just as much as they focus on police killing civilians for no damn reason — and think that failing to do so is equivalent to “police hate” rather than legitimate rage over oppressive and institutionalized violence — is why I can’t even bring myself to bother with you right now.

  8. So it’s just coincidental that you only bash cops and not those who kill them? Deep down you have some hidden respect for cops that you never feel like posting about?

    Yeah right. If you have ever posted anything depicting law enforcement in a positive light, let’s see it. You make it seem like this is about justice for Oscar Grant, but it looks more like a convenient exscuse to all demonize law enforcement in general.

  9. Actually Ohio9, you’re right. I talk shit about law enforcement on a regular basis. For reasons like calling rape victims liars, committing rape themselves, beating up transwomen or gay people, beating up women in their custody just ’cause they could, shooting unarmed black men (all things I’ve actually posted about). Clearly, I’m a bad person who “bashes cops.”

    I never claimed that I love cops. I don’t. I think there’s way too many bad ones, they uphold oppressive systems, have way too much power, and all around scare the shit out of me. Even though, as a white, straight, middle-class cis woman, I’m much more unlikely than many others to have a violent run in with them myself, I’m a nutty liberal who cares about her less-privileged friends and shit. Clearly, you think that means I hate all cops and think they’re all evil, and I don’t care enough about what you think to try to dissuade you otherwise.

    This conversation is over; if you continue to derail the thread, which is exactly what you’re doing, you’ll be banned. End of story.

    This thread is about Oscar Grant and his tragic murder. From here on out, that’s what comments here should be discussing.

  10. They won’t get a murder conviction here. The best they can hope for is some sort of manslaughter charge. The defense will claim that it was an accident, that he meant to taser the guy, and it will be difficult to prove intent otherwise.

  11. A lot of us here in the Bay Area are still waiting for all of the people who simply protested Grant’s murder to be released from jail. Taking someone’s life? Wait for the “internal investigation” to be finished before making an arrest. (Allegedly) Take a brick to a (nonhuman) window, no mercy for you.

  12. Cara, good luck with this guy. Is he including the fact that the majority of officers who die onduty die in car accidents? The majority of those shot die at their own hand through suicide? That the average officers lives for eight years after they retire? Their own culture is killing them, faster than anything else out there.

    The guy will get acquitted, maybe a lessor. The jury will make an announcement probably through the foreperson that if they convicted him of murder, no one would want to go into law enforcement.

  13. The jury will make an announcement probably through the foreperson that if they convicted him of murder, no one would want to go into law enforcement.

    Because it would be a huge loss to our law enforcement to not have those folks who worry that in an attempt to commit an act of violence against someone in custody for no reason they might pull the wrong weapon and kill said guy on accident. Of course, the sad thing is that you’re probably right.

  14. Last I read, Cara, Mehserle wasn’t going to be eligible for execution because the likely charge was going to be either manslaughter or 2nd degree murder (at least, thats what CNN was reporting yesterday). Beyond that, California has had an effective moratorium on the death penalty since 2006 when their death penalty statute was determined to violate the 8th amendment.

  15. Ohio9, are you accusing Cara of being “policist?” I’d laugh except an innocent person is dead and his killer is probably going to get off.

    If you have a problem with how people view cops, you need to take it up with the cops. Cuz they really aren’t helping your cause.

  16. Last I read, Cara, Mehserle wasn’t going to be eligible for execution because the likely charge was going to be either manslaughter or 2nd degree murder (at least, thats what CNN was reporting yesterday). Beyond that, California has had an effective moratorium on the death penalty since 2006 when their death penalty statute was determined to violate the 8th amendment.

    Well I oppose the death penalty anyway, so I can’t say that I’m broken up about that particular aspect. I am broken up about the expectation that he won’t be charged with 1st degree murder (and that many of the reasons for doing so — fear of a jury being unwilling to convict — are valid). But mainly I’m just confused about where this comment is coming from, because I don’t think i said anything about the death penalty?

    Ohio9, are you accusing Cara of being “policist?”

    LOL. I do believe that was the gist of it . . .

  17. The jury will make an announcement probably through the foreperson that if they convicted him of murder, no one would want to go into law enforcement.

    Because it would be a huge loss to our law enforcement to not have those folks who worry that in an attempt to commit an act of violence against someone in custody for no reason they might pull the wrong weapon and kill said guy on accident. Of course, the sad thing is that you’re probably right.

    I quoted that from a jury member in the Elio Carrion attempted murder case. The deputy in that case was videotaped shooting Carrion, while Carrion was obeying his verbal commands. The jury was truly worried that a conviction (and possibly prison sentence) against Deputy Ivory Webb would chill recruitment into law enforcement and that anarchy would take over the streets as a result. The feds won’t commit to announcing if they will file civil rights charges in this case (they won’t) and the civil case just got a tentative trial date. Webb was fired and the sheriff said he didn’t think he would want his job but that was before Webb said he would be interested on the Today show. I saw Webb while walking near the administrative headquarters for our city and county LE agencies. I wondered if he was applying for jobs at either one or both.

    I saw one shooting death trial and after that one, I’m even more doubtful that a murder conviction is even possible. In that case, the evidence for first degree was actually quite strong (no video but videos aren’t really effective at getting convictions at all) but the jury went with involuntary manslaughter on some weak defensive argument. They just so wanted to believe no LE officer would commit first degree murder. It had to be an accident.

  18. The jury was truly worried that a conviction (and possibly prison sentence) against Deputy Ivory Webb would chill recruitment into law enforcement and that anarchy would take over the streets as a result.

    And in other cases (one in particular related to medical marijuana comes to mind), juries who have refused to convict on these sorts of grounds, grounds that go beyond simply “ruling on the facts of the case,” entire juries have been held in contempt and even jailed. Gee, I wonder why the judge didn’t do so this time, even though juries are not technically supposed to weigh in on the justness or applicability of the law? I believe in jury nullification personally, but it’s disgusting when nullification is allowed to happen in such a blatantly lopsided manner.

  19. Cara, when I was reading this thread this morning and writing my response I was doing about half a dozen things and I’d read your last sentence as

    “Now it’s up to the prosecution to do their job, and to the question of whether or not a jury will execute a white police officer for killing a black man who posed no threat whatsoever. Here’s to hoping.

    Sorry for the confusion. The fact that a lot of the stories I’ve read have expressed outrage over the fact that the cop in question faces no chance of suffering the same fate he inflicted probably had something to do with my misreading too, as does the fact that in most jurisdictions killing a cop for any reason is automatically a capital offense and virtually nowhere is the opposite true. So yeah, full disclosure of my biases and all that. At this point I just hope they don’t give Mehserle administrative segregation or protective custody if he’s convicted.

  20. Ah, that makes more sense now, William. And I definitely agree that there’s a huge problem over the penalty for killing cops being so steep, but the penalty for a cop killing a civilian being so little (if existent at all). I just don’t think that the death penalty should be on the table at all, for anyone, for a huge number of reasons (that I think I covered in my posts on Troy Davis).

  21. I believe in jury nullification personally, but it’s disgusting when nullification is allowed to happen in such a blatantly lopsided manner.

    Personally I blame the voi dire process for garbage like that. Its next to impossible to get an educated or critical jury in this country, and a lot of judges and prosecutors set up perjury traps for potential nullifiers. The end result is that we get juries packed with people who are either too stupid to get out of jury duty, who have nothing better to do with their time, or who like the idea of getting to judge their fellows.

  22. It’s lopsided like you said. In cases where the prosecutor suspects nullification might take place, they issue a jury instruction warning against it. That didn’t happen in this case but it always does in many civil disobedience/protest charges cases.

    They nullified in the case of former Marine Sgt. and former police officer in my city Jose Nazario, the first former military person to be prosecuted in civilian court (federal) for war crimes. They basically said, “not guilty” and we support our military and can’t question what they do. The case was filed too quickly and wasn’t strong. There were no bodies found so no remote possibility of presenting the case as involving humans at all.

    He’s trying to get his job back and is in background now. The NCIS wants to sit in on his polygraph so whether or not that discourages him from proceeding, I don’t know.

  23. Cara, yeah, I’m definitely opposed to the death penalty these days too, but cases like this make me conflicted. Like a lot of libertarian leaning folks I started out as a big fan, but over the years I’ve come to realize that its just impossible for that power to be used properly or fairly by the government (Troy Davis and Corey Maye being two very good examples). That doesn’t change the fact that it is a reality in our society and if we’re going to be killing people for crimes, cold blooded murder on fucking film really ought to fit the bill. Its very difficult to separate my intellectual opposition to the death penalty from my very emotional desire to see this animal get put down. I know better, and I know where that kind of power leads, and I know why its wrong, but its still there, you know?

  24. I know better, and I know where that kind of power leads, and I know why its wrong, but its still there, you know?

    Yes, I know. Despite knowing better, I think the same things, for example, whenever John Lennon’s murderer comes for parole every two fucking years. :/

  25. I’m I the only person in the world who knows that police can’t just go around tasering people whenever they feel like it? A taser is considered excessive force if none of the officers involved are in physical danger. You can’t just taser someone because they are squirming around while several officers have their knees on him. This cop is screwed even with the taser confusion excuse because it’s very clear from video and eye witnesses that the situation didn’t require a taser. Any half way decent lawyer will be able to convict him of at least voluntary manslaughter, but I honestly think a very good and determined prosecutor can get him on murder 2. You don’t have to prove he intentional pulled out his gun and shot him with the intent to kill. All you have to prove is he used reckless and excessive force with malice and that led to the death of another human being.

  26. I can’t believe what happened on New Year’s Day was legal!!!! IT WAS NOT, IN ANY SENSE OF THE WORD, LEGAL AT ALL!!!! This cop who shot Oscar Grant deserves to be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison “In a living grave”, to quote an Atlanta mother who lost her son to a senseless shooting, not by a cop, but by his fellow man. When Can we as a country and a society see that things need to get better. Oscar Grant did not deserve to die and should be here spending time with his daughter.

    Oscar grant’s death should serve as a wake up call to everyone to stand up for what is right, fair and decent!!!!

    WITHOUT JUSTICE, THERE CAN BE NO PEACE

    I end with a quote from the great Martin Luther King, Jr. :

    “Injustice anywhere Is a threat to justice everywhere”

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