Well Folks, I know it’s been a while since I posted here, life has a way of getting a person involved in things and I’ve been involved, the summer is here and I’m enjoying it, but I have to say that I approached this 4th of July with a certain amount of caution.
Now why you ask, did I look at this 4th of July differently?
Because I was waiting, waiting on the verdict on the Oscar Grant trial.
Pontius Pilate asked of Jesus of Nazareth and Pilate’s own advisors a three worded question-----
“WHAT IS TRUTH?”
Neither Jesus nor any of Pilate’s advisors gave him an answer.
In the end Pilate asked of the near rioting crowd, whom should be chosen to be spared
They yelled out “Barrabas, give us Barrabas”, Pilate asked “what should be done with this other man” and the crowd yelled out “Crucify him”.
Now I’m not saying that either or neither man should be compared to Jesus or Barrabas, but I am commenting upon the Crowd mentality.
I’ve been asked by many friends to weigh in my opinion on this on my blog, since I had given it via e-mail to them, but they asked me to post it so they could have it to refer to their friends and nothing is lost in the “translation” so to speak.
No I’m not going to call it a murder trail as certain elements and people want to call it because although it did entail a death it was NOT murder.
So----“What Is Truth?”
To me Murder is when someone wantonly, deliberately goes out and with out compunction, consciously, deliberately takes another’s life. Like the situation in the death of O.J. Simpson’s wife----that is Murder pure and simple.
In Oscar Grant’s case it was a tragedy waiting to happen, Oscar and his friends got out of hand and didn’t comply with the Law to prevent an escalation of problems, but then Oscar had always been in trouble with the law before and his friends were not winners either.
No one deliberately set out to take Oscar’s life, he brought it upon himself.
In the O.J. Simpson murder case, one could see the situation brewing, the jealousy, the legal problems, which was a situation waiting to explode.
The Oscar Grant situation is a difficult one, it’s like the O.J. case in reverse, but the thing with O.J. is no one else could have killed his wife, and that was pre-meditated.
In the Oscar Grant case, it was not pre-meditated---it really was an accident that had a very tragic outcome.
Fact one---Joe Meserle really did not have adequate Taser training. That was a deficiency on the part of BART Police.
Fact two---the use of tasers is really much better in a highly emotional situation, because they do not kill people, and really are far better to bring a person out of control under control…
now there are people who will say that there are person’s who have died having been tased, but I can count that on the fingers of 1 hand, and the police officer has no way of knowing if the problem non-complying suspect has a medical problem, the officer is trying to get the situation under control without anyone being hurt.
Fact three---because of inadequate training Joe Meserle in a highly emotional state was not thinking clearly. I know because I’ve had that happen to me, so I can understand how one can have a sort of amnesia in a volatile situation.
This is something I have to watch out for with my Hunka burnin’ Love, he was a DOD police officer but long since retired and he has not had re-training since his Dept. of Defense Police days---I know his emotions will take over—and it takes all I can do to short of punching him in the face to get him to back down.
So constant re-training is vital whether it’s regular or BART police.
Fact 4—I do believe that the situation was elevated to a dangerous situation because Oscar Grant DID NOT comply by staying put. If he had stayed put, he’d be alive today.
Fact 5---if Joe Meserle did have proper Taser training, Oscar Grant would be alive, arrested for being drunk and disorderly and yelling in jail about police brutality and that he’s gonna sue.
If all Oscar Grant said to his pals---and you have to remember they were drunk and out of control and causing fights on the BART train something that the people forget----If Oscar just kept saying “Do what the officer says, just shut up and do what the officer says” then all they would have gotten is a fine and a few days in jail.
But you see Oscar Grant had been in and out of jail a number of times, and what happens is that you don’t want to go back to jail so you do everything to get out of being arrested even resisting and not complying---Grant was doing that.
Fact 6--You see in the video Grant getting up when it’s clear by the officers actions he’s being told to remain put.
Oscar Grant ignored what the officer was saying. That is important.
Now I saw other videos from different angles and Grant is on the ground, he is trying to get his knees under himself to stand up, when it’s clear he’s being told to remain flat on the ground---he’s still resisting.
He would not put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed---if he complied he’d still be alive----I saw in an enhancement that he did put his hand under his body but in a way not to push himself up but to reach down to ‘something’---any officer would take that as a potential dangerous situation, is it a knife, a gun? You don’t know, but you have to take action to protect yourself and your fellow officers and any innocent bystanders.
Fact 7---Joe Meserle saw Grant trying to grab something, Grant was resisting, Joe Meserle said I’m going to tase him (Grant), the other officers moved back because that is what you do if someone is going to be tased, you don’t want to get tased either…. it happens in the blink of an eye, but instead of the bang of a taser, it’s a gunshot.
Fact 8---the look of shock and disbelief on Joe Meserle’s face is real, it was never his intention to shoot with a gun, Oscar Grant. An accident not murder.
An accident brought upon by a highly volatile situation, by people resisting arrest, by inadequate training.
Much like Dick Cheney shooting his friend by accident while they were hunting, fortunately his friend wasn’t killed, but his friend moved into the line of fire---an accident. And Cheneys’ friend said so.
But because someone was killed and considering the highly emotional charge of the situation, to find Joe Meserle not guilty of all charges would have had Oakland, Calif. burning down to the ground, we would have had 3 days of riots like in the Rodney King case, with innocent people hurt, African American businesses destroyed by other but lawless African American’s and everyone distrusting everyone.
But Joe Meserle did no seek to shoot Grant, the situation did not qualify for 1st or 2nd degree murder---it didn’t even qualify for voluntary manslaughter---in was involuntary.
I know that if someone broke into my house, and I felt threatened by that person and shot him to save my life, if that person did not have a weapon in hand, even though I did not know if they did or did not have a weapon, I would be charged with involuntary manslaughter and would have to prove my innocence that I felt I had no choice. What would make my case different is that I would be protecting my life and my home during a break-in.
Personally, if I was on that Jury, I would have found Joe Meserle not guilty of any criminal charges but would hold him accountable of the involuntarily taking a life, and sue him for “damages” in a civil court, I would hold BART accountable for their lack of proper training and hold BART accountable also in a civil court. Much like Nicole Brown Simpson’s family did with O.J.
Recently a mother received an award of 5 million dollars from P.G. & E. because one of their drivers fell unconscious and his truck rammed into the daughters car burning the daughter to death. P.G. & E. said they were not responsible, but a jury thought different, this mother said it was murder, but I say it was an act of negligence for which P.G. & E should be held financially accountable and that new laws need to go into place so that P.G & E does not do that again and are always held accountable for their employees actions and health, despite what the law says about employers not discriminating for health reasons..
Now why do I say I would find Joe Meserle not guilty---because much of it was acerbated by Oscar Grant---he placed himself in danger by not complying---and Oscar Grant was no prize package either---he had been arrested and charged 6 months before because of criminal behavior. It doesn’t matter to me that his mother claims he was turning his life around for over a year---he Was arrested 6 months prior to the New Years Eve event.
And what he was doing on New Years Eve according to neutral witnesses was that he was just as much of the problem and frankly that does not indicate that he was turning around his life.
Sad to say it is the old Mamas’ cry of “My Son is a Good Boy” when he’s been found guilty beyond a doubt that he Did indeed commit the crime.
I do not make Oscar Grant a Martyr. Now If Oscar Grant was white, it would be BART and BART Police facing a law suit and not criminal charges, and we would not have had the volatile community problem in
.
I’m sorry if my analysis sounds cold, or prejudice, believe me I’m not---I’m going only by the facts and strictly by the facts.
Granted---the Jury only did 6 ½ hours total of deliberation----Grants family and the family lawyer are claiming that the jury had already pre-judged the outcome---what they don’t say (and I have been on the jury for a murder trial) ---is that the alternates also see the same evidence, hear the same witnesses and hear the same arguments by the lawyers at the exact same time as the selected jurors. The only thing is that the alternates cannot sit in with the jurors when they are debating the case in the jury room. They are left with their own thoughts.
When an alternate is brought in that alternate is brought up to speed on what the jurors have debated so far, then the alternate can ask of the juror’s questions on things that maybe those jurors had not thought of. But it seems that independently the alternate was on the same page as the remaining 11 jurors.
That is why the verdict came in so quickly. And the jurors felt that although they may have wanted Joe M. to go free---if they did that---they would be targets, and Oakland, L.A., S.F., Berkeley, Alameda and the whole Bay Area would have burned worse than the Chicago Fire and the Fire of the 1906 S.F. Earthquake.
The Jury had to find “What is Truth?” but they knew that if they did not find Joe Meserle guilty of something there would be a riot on their hands, so the Jury Gave Barrabas (Oscar Grant) to the crowd and acquiescing to what the crowd would do, gave a verdict to crucify Joe Meserle.
When I heard that the case was finally with the Jury, I meditated what would be the outcome and my thoughts told me involuntary manslaughter. I realized it was for the best, but Joe Meserle may get killed in prison, he may not live long, because it will be some criminals’ idea to get “Back at the Man”.
I’ve got cousins that are in the Police Force, and one or two friends, besides my Hunka Burnin’ Love---I know what they go through, once Hunka and I were stopped by CHP. All we did was have our hands were the officer could see them and asked the officer exactly what he wanted us to do. I did have to tell the officer that I have arthritis and it would be hard for me to fully comply but I’d do my best.
Well it seems that someone had falsely reported us as having a gun. We told the officer and his fellow officers they were welcome to go though the car. Of course the skeleton hanging from the side window was a bit off-putting and the fact that Hunka’s license plate holder had a cemetery reference on it.
I even asked one of the officers if I could sit on a fire hydrant because I have arthritis in my hip joint, they saw the aluminum cane in the car so they let me sit. We even had cuffs put on us; we were not arrested but told it was for everyone’s safety, we had no objections.
Once Hunka explained to them about the license plate and the stickers on the back, and they did not find a gun, they removed the cuffs, and were very apologetic and explained what had happened. We told them about the idiots that had cut us off a mile back, I even had the license plate number and description of the car---it was the one that called in a false report on us. So instead of bringing them to us to id us, they ran the plates and the ID’s of the people in that car and found that they had warrants.
Because we complied, and followed directions, the officers began to relax and gave us concessions. And the original arresting officer was black, we do not see color---we see either police blue or CHP khaki
And that is where Oscar Grant made his fatal mistake---he and his companions did not comply.
But what really burns me is the lawyer for the family of Oscar Grant making statements to incite riots---that man should be removed from the BAR. He was not part of the prosecution team---he was an outside lawyer. And I felt he tried hard to fan the flames for rioting. And that is wrong, ten kinds of wrong.
I’m sorry if my words seem strong, but I’m trying to see everything from all sides, but I cannot deny the facts. It was a very, very tragic accident.
I’m not seeing this as a black vs. white situation. When I think on the facts the images are simply gray, without color, no race or ethnicity.
The big mistake is that people (not all, but a number of people) try to play the race card, they shouldn’t, it does not move anything forward especially in understanding things. It only promotes more hatred, and that is wrong too.
And what is so very sad is that the crowd decided to not ask the hard question of themselves “WHAT IS TRUTH?” and instead yelled for Barrabas, a criminal, a person who committed crimes against the state---granted the state was the Roman Empire, but Barrabas was a known criminal who after being freed, disappeared to never be heard from again.
I’m very tired, I’ve had a long hard week, and things have been playing havoc on me because of the volatile emotions that have been flying. It’s times like these that I want to just curl up into a ball and say to the world, go away leave me alone---give me chocolate to drown my misery and nobody gets hurt.
Mean Kitty signing off, claws out in defense.
