Posted on 07/08/2010 4:26:35 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A white former transit officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform in a 2009 encounter that set off days of rioting in the city.
The jury deliberated more than six hours over two days to convict Johannes Mehserle in the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot to death as he lay face-down.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
A cop mistaking a gun for a taser has happened before. I will link the article if you wish. It won’t change anyone’s mind though.
The judge will find as a matter of fact that he used a handgun in commission of a felony in controversion to Penal Code 12022.5. Otherwise known as a gun enhancement. He is looking at at least another three years to be run consecutively with his existing sentance and could get up to 10 more.
I think it is a fair resolution. I have been to many train stops in large cities and they attract some really bad people, bums, and thugs. They usually all carry weapons. These are not easy patrol areas. Not an excuse but I can see where you can be on edge at these areas and make a knee jerk mistake.
The cops need to learn to do mind melds and an appropriate neck pinch.
A cop mistaking a gun for a taser has happened before.
In all likelihood it has. Most cops have a bad habit of styling themselves as gun "experts" because of a few hours of training at the police academy. It breeds a dangerous and deadly hubris that causes them to neglect basic gun safety rules that even most novice gun owning civilians know by heart.
Yep, riots tonight, hotter tomorrow.
You are right no one minds will be changed.. I just wonder... He may have made that mistake. We will never know.
Who is this asshole talking like a moron with a painters cap?
“I have no power over anyone, even the dissenting juror who feels they have been slighted, etc, etc, etc.
What a jackoff.
Sorry for the loss of that kid but if he were a truly responsible citizen he would have given a short statement and skipped the questioning.
I hope it happens, but I’m not holding my breath. Judges have a bad habit of inventing “exceptions” to gun enhancement upgrades for cops...except when they are border patrol going after illegal immigrants.
For reference, Live Audio from Alameda Co. (Oakland):
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=5375
It's not the first time in California. In 2002, Madera Office Marcie Noriega shot Everardo Torres through the heart with a .40 Glock that she thought was a Taser. Torres was handcuffed in the back of a police car. He was trying to kick out the car windows. His BAC was 0.15. Officer Noriega was not charged.
It's not clear how the two cases differ.
Pretty sure he forgot the obligatory “/S” and thought it was implied.
Are you listening to these guys?
They are absolutely ratcheting it up!
For the last 18 months, we have heard nothing around here except how this was a WHITE Police Officer killing a poor, innocent "African-American" male. Nothing about the near riot on the BART tracks that the officers were responding to, nothing about the sheer numbers of people involved, not a DAMNED thing except how this was a racial incident.
I'm sorry if it insults your sensibilities that these people have no agenda save to make me ashamed that my skin isn't very dark. These people that purport to heed the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. seem to have forgotten his greatest comment, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I hope I'm wrong about Oakland burning, I really do. But I'm enough of a realist and have seen enough of the local news lately to know that my chances of being wrong are not great.
For one thing there was a video tape of this incident.
>> I’m asking you to keep your baggage to yourself and either add something relevant and intelligent or shut it.
And just who the hell are you to make a statement like that?
Did you hear him pleading with his fellow rioters to NOT destroy the businesses with signage supporting the victim?
Live radio feed for oakland fire and TAC riot squad?
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=183
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