Julianne Hing

In Oscar Grant Case, Who Doesn’t Want the Oakland DA Gone?

The murder case against Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who shot Oscar Grant to death on a BART platform, is going to pre-trial on Monday.

Mehserle’s attorneys want the Oakland District Attorney Tom Orloff cut off from the case because they claim Orloff’s office bungled the case after, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, police improperly questioned Mehserle while was in custody. Good going, Orloff. The case would then move up to state court and be taken on by Jerry Brown.

But that’s actually what Oscar Grant supporters have been calling for all along. At the protests in the days and weeks after Oscar Grant’s January 1st shooting death, people on the streets, angry at the total inaction on the part of BART, public officials and especially D.A. Orloff, repeatedly called for his resignation. People wanted answers, action, an acknowledgment of their accountability and a promise to install checks on the BART police, who have had a hard time kicking their nasty habit of shooting Black men in Oakland.

It is a disgusting irony that Mehserle, who denied Grant his constitutional rights and any sort of due process (and, you know, took away his life while he was at it), is going to try to wiggle his way out of this case by claiming his own due process rights were violated. Legal machinations are legal machinations and he will do whatever he can to get off but really? Really? You gonna try to pull that here? When we all saw the footage of you shooting Grant in the back?

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to his murder charges.

The Community Council for Justice for Oscar Grant is asking people to stop by
Alameda County Courthouse (1225 Fallon St. 12th/ Oak St. Oakland) on Monday, May 18. Proceedings are supposedly scheduled to last all day.

Posted at 10:08 AM, May 14, 2009 in Police | Permalink | View Comments