Racewire Blog

Daisy Hernandez

Oscar Grant Update: Bail Set for Cop

Bail for the cop who killed Oscar Grant has been set at $3 million.

According to court documents, the defense will be that BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was going for his Taser. But as prosecutor Creighton said: “If he intended to pull his Taser and pulled his service weapon by mistake, why would he say to another officer after the fact, ‘I thought he was going for a gun’? Why wouldn’t he say, “Oh my God, Tony, I meant to pull my Taser,’ or something to that effect?”

A friend said to me last week: there's no way the defense is going to be "I saw something that looked like a gun" because we have so many videos showing Grant face down, unarmed and with a second cop on his back.

But no. It's the "I thought it was a gun" defense all over again, which makes me think we need a name for this... the same way that we have the "twinkie defense" and the "trans panic" defense in the LGBT community. Could it be the "Black panic" defense?

And about Tasers, check out this new report from Amnesty International. The final verdict? Tasers kill too.

Posted at 4:39 PM, Jan 30, 2009 in Permalink | View Comments


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