The Mehserle Trial
Söndag 18 Juli, 2010 kl. 1:00 fmThe manslaughter verdict returned against former BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop, Johannes Mehserle, for the videotaped murder of Oscar Grant, sent hundreds of protesters back into the hot streets of Oakland, California, Grant’s hometown.
The corporate media scratched its collective head, essentially asking ‘Why protest when the guy was convicted?”
The protesters knew, however, that the court system bent heaven and earth to return the lightest verdict possible; involuntary manslaughter’ and that Mehserle faces a possible sentence of probation to a maximum of 4 years in prison.
They knew that Mehserle got a non black jury, hundreds of miles from Oakland. They knew that each of those hundreds could’ve been Oscar Grant, unarmed, shot to death on tape and the same thing would’ve happened.
Of course, the corporate media doesn’t get it.
Consider this: If Oscar Grant were the aggressor, and charged with killing Mehserle; would he have been able to leave the state (Mehserle fled to Nevada days after shooting Grant)? Would he have been able to transfer his trial hundreds of miles away? Would he have been able to select an all-black jury -- or one from which all whites were purged?
Would he have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter -- in the face of videotaped evidence?
Everyone who considers these questions honestly knows the answers. What does that say about the system? What does this say about the courts? What does this say about our supposedly ‘colorblind’ present?
It says, quite loudly, that there’s one law for some; another law for others. It says that life in dark flesh is not equal to life in white flesh- and those hundreds in Oakland’s streets knew this in their blood.
/Mumia Abu-Jamal
Från Konfliktportalen.se: Anders_S skriver S:t Petersburgsvenskarna – Nobel, Odhner med flera, loaderrorready skriver Veckans Varning, Vida Latina skriver Aborter i farozonen, dagspendlaren skriver Planka.nu-rap, luklof skriver Heby kan få Upptåg
För mer vänsterbloggar besök www.konfliktportalen.se.