Tag: Johannes Mehserle

The murder of a 22-year-old unarmed Black man, Oscar Grant, by a transit cop in Oakland during the early hours of New Year's Day sparked national indignation. Onlookers captured the shooting on cell phones, and their video footage was transmitted to millions via the Internet and TV.

A victory in the campaign for justice for Oscar Grant III was celebrated today after the presiding judge, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay, concluded the preliminary hearing in the trial of Johannes Mehserle by ruling that the former BART police officer will stand trial for murder. June 18 is the date Mehserle is scheduled to appear back in court and declare his plea of guilt or innocence before the full trial begins.

The female BART officer that was on that platform even stated in her testimony that she supposedly feared for her life, and she just knew that she was going to have to shoot somebody or kill somebody that night. Those were her words in court. The judge said: "Hold up. Wait a minute, who were you going to shoot first?"

On New Year's morning BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fired his gun at point blank range into Oscar Grant's back, killing him as he lay face down on the train platform, hands behind him. A preliminary hearing is now underway to determine whether Mehserle will be charged with murder or whether the charges against him will be lowered.

"Our success here to secure justice for Oscar Grant will no doubt be that line in the sand that will say to all police officers, ‘If you kill or break the law, you will go to jail,'" wrote Oscar Grant's Uncle Bobby, Cephus Johnson, in a message of thanks to supporters. Watch Davey D's video on the week's events. Oscar Grant's family asks supporters to return to the courthouse next week.

Supporters of justice for Oscar Grant gathered Monday morning outside the Alameda County Courthouse while the preliminary hearing inside dealt with Johannes Mehserle's defense attorney Michael Rains attempting to reduce charges from murder, to move the venue to a less diverse county, or to otherwise stifle Mehserle being held to account for murdering Oscar Grant.

Build the new civil rights movement to stop police brutality. Rally Monday, May 18, 8 a.m., at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, 12th Street and Oak, near the Oakland City Center and the 12th Street BART Station.

Johannes Mehserle's trial begins Monday, May 18, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Oak Street, in Oakland. A strong community presence has been requested by the Oscar Grant family and allies. A teach in to prepare for the trial is Sunday, May 17, 1-4 p.m., at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. And wish Tatiana Grant happy birthday. She turns 5 on May 16.

Everybody out Monday, May 18, 8am-5pm, when the cop who killed Oscar Grant goes to court at 12th & Oak, Oakland, and Thursday, May 21, for Minister of Information JR Valrey's next hearing in the trumped up felony arson case from Jan. 7, when he was covering the first of three Oakland Rebellions protesting the police murder of Oscar Grant.

Shout out to First Lady Michelle Obama, who presented the bust of Queen Mother Sojourner Truth, a woman who experienced first hand the hardships of slavery, yet emerged strong, so strong she had to remind America she too was a woman, a woman deserving all the respect and honor reserved for privileged white women.

"It's a civil war, us against the authorities - if you get pulled over, you're so afraid for your life that you're going to react as someone would react in war. A random traffic stop is life or death now." - Mistah F.A.B., interviewed by Davey D

On March 21, Lovelle Mixon, 26, was murdered by Oakland police after allegedly killing four of them on MacArthur Blvd off of 73rd Avenue in East Oakland. Listen to JR's Block Report interview with his family - his mother, Athena, his wife, Amara, and her sister, Alicia - broadcast March 30 on KPFA's Flashpoints at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/49609.

Submit your creative expression - poem, photo, artwork, music, graffiti etc. - to the Oscar Grant Memorial Arts Project. Details follow the poems. Deadline is March 21

No Justice No BART announced that on Thursday, March 5, we will shut down the Fruitvale BART Station during the evening rush hours as part of a campaign of protest actions targeting BART in order to advance community demands in the wake of the police murder of Oscar Grant.

While charges have been dropped for many of those arrested in recent Oakland protests over the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office is moving forward with six or seven cases, at least three of them felonies.

Imagine this: If the roles were reversed, that is, if bystanders had footage of Grant shooting Mehserle, would the media be suggesting a defense for him? Would Grant have been free to roam, to leave the state a week later? Would he have made bail?

The place was the historic Black Dot Café in West Oakland; the event, a "Town Bizness" town hall meeting hosted by the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) with the presence of Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.

RIP Oscar Grant III. You, unarmed, pleading for your life as a young father, at the tender age of 22, while a rogue Bay Area Rapid Transit cop Tony Pirone punches you, then crushes your neck with his knee, shortly followed in his enthusiastic, racist, vicious rage by Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shoots you in the back, murdering you.

In the first month of 2009, we put a Black man in the White House with our votes and convinced a DA to charge a white cop with the murder of a Black man with our rebellion. Don't miss MOI JR's next Town Bizness Townhall Wed., Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine, West Oakland, featuring Ch. Fred Hampton Jr., Martina Davis, Min. Keith Muhammad and more, and come with me to the BART board meeting Feb. 12, 9 a.m., 344 20th St., Oakland.

Jan. 23 the movement for justice for Oscar Grant III kicked into high gear at the Prisoners of Conscience Committee's Town Bizness Town Hall Meeting. Follow up by packing the courtroom at Johannes Mehserle's bail hearing Friday, Jan. 30, 2 p.m., at 1225 Fallon St., Oakland. Don't let the cops outnumber us.