Johannes Mehserle – the (now former) BART cop who was caught on video by several people on New Year’s Eve shooting an unarmed man in the back whilst another cop was kneeling on him – has finally been arrested. I wonder why it took them so long to arrest him? I mean really… an unarmed man, being knelt on by another cop, shot in the back, caught on video? It shouldn’t have taken two days let alone two weeks to have decided that under those circumstances charges should be brought. They’re sure as hell quick enough when it’s a member of the public. John Doe would have been locked up in seconds.
It will be interesting to see what his defence is. Defending the indefensible is something lawyers in the US are good at. I hope for all our sakes that justice is done here. It could just as easily have been your father, or brother, or uncle, or whatever, that met up with one of the thin blue line.
Johannes Mehserle is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. It’s a pity he didn’t extend the same courtesy to Oscar Grant.
I think there were actually some riots because of this. It’s hard to blame people for that.