Mary Ratcliff, editor
SF Bay View

Personally and politically, I am REAL tired of hearing that J Mehserle was reaching for his taser and instead reached for his gun…

What is this wild, wild, west sh*t? Who did this clown think he was? John Wayne? Wyatt Earp at the OK Corral? Quick Draw McGraw of cartoon fame?

The powers that be put an alleged rookie cop (2 years in uniform) out in the streets with license to inflict deadly force and the weapons to do so, and this fool doesn’t know his left nut from his right nut?

His talking heads then assert that he pulled out his ‘weapon’ … and (allegedly) couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the weapon he meant to pull out – so he just fired it anyway?

Why? Just to hear the bang?

Yeah – right…The devil made him do it.

Just like Dan White’s ‘Twinkie Defense’ i.e. that “some unusual biological component factored into the causes or motives of an alleged crime.[citation needed] According to this defense, the biological factor should mitigate the defendant’s responsibility, and he therefore should not be held criminally liable for actions which violated the law, or the criminal liability should be reduced to a lesser offense.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie_defense

For those who don’t remember (or weren’t born yet) – On November 27, 1978, Supervisor Dan White assassinated SF Mayor George Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk @ SF City Hall, in their respective offices, in broad daylight & claimed that the twinkies he’d downed earlier in the day overloaded his system with sugar and sent him nuts enough to go on a killing spree. This got him a manslaughter charge, cushy privileges in county jail, and conjugal visits while passing through Soledad State Prison for 5 years, and 1 year of parole hiding out in protective custody in Los Angeles.

He later confessed not only to premeditated murder, but to the fact that he was ‘on a mission’ to kill Willie Brown, and Carol Ruth Silver as well…He committed suicide because he didn’t get to kill everyone he wanted to kill…

What? Next will we hear that not only did Mehserle not know what weapon he had his hands wrapped around, but that he was nutritionally deprived as well? And that maybe he’d had too many donuts that morning, while celebrating the incoming new year, so he just had to find an AFRIKAN to shoot?

Well, damn – BAD COP, NO MORE F***ING DONUTS, b**ch!

And further more, WIKIPEDIA…should be taken severely to task for posting that Mehserle ‘thought Oscar Grant III was ‘reaching for a gun.’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant

With both hands behind his back and 2-3 cops with their feet on his back and neck, what appendage was the brotha alleged to be using to reach for this mythological piece of hardware; while screaming that he was unarmed, and begging not to be killed so that he could continue to be a good father to his 4 year old daughter?

Particularly as the chief of police said in an interview that it was routine procedure to handcuff someone regardless as to injury – in this instance would that have been before or after Grant was hit in the face and then shot twice, in essence because the bullet rebounded and struck him again…

And if Mehserle was such a rookie, who (and where) was his commanding officer? He certainly wasn’t on that BART platform by himself. And for those who don’t know – BART stations usually have a steel gray door with a peep hole in it, behind which are cells – and no doubt, the technology to monitor what is going on in all areas of the station.

Most people who are attorneys and/ or who have worked with attorneys know what a Pitchess Motion is. It is generally filed to find out (and to obtain) records of a cop’s history of brutality. Maybe one should be filed for the entirety of BART – since they seem to work in concert with (and are trained by?) the corrupt OPD.

I hope someone thinks to check up on (and to name) all of the BART personnel involved in this incident (including any secret squirrels that were around) – and to also check on BART police jurisdiction.

I’ve seen BART cops out on the street backing up the OPD during the days of the Oakland Rebellion, busting people as much as 2-5 blocks away from the nearest BART stations on any given 7 day week, and showing off their (4 footed) canine units on BART train platforms during early morning commute hours.

War Without Terms,
m