Words on the Verdict

So much is being said about the verdict in the Oscar Grant case, as well as the concurrent the Lebron James "Decision" that captivated the eyes of the nation at the same time. Here is only a tidbit:


Wanda Johnson, Grant's mom, and Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, Grant's uncle, immediately after the verdict was read. (Cut through the rest of the B.S.)

"We wrestle against spiritual weakness in high places." - Wanda Johnson
"We truly do not blame the jury but we blame the system." - Cephus Johnson

VIDEO of Grant family attorney John Burris reacting to the verdict.

"This is not an involuntary manslaughter case. This is a compromise verdict that does not reflect the facts." - John Burris


Young Black men are far too often the victims of (fatal) police brutality, yet the collective American public remains insensitive to the larger issue: Black life is not valued in our society. If an innocent Black man's videotaped murder (still) is not enough evidence for a full murder conviction nor elicit outrage from all races, then I'm at a loss to what must happen to affect our consciousness?!

It disgusts me that white citizens from Cleveland, Ohio were more outraged at a Black free agent's decision to head to Miami as opposed to an innocent Black man's murder.

--Dawnavette at Vitamin D blog


To convict on the higher charge of voluntary manslaughter, the prosecution would have had to prove that Mehserle's fear of Grant and his friends was "unreasonable." It decided the crime was involuntary. In other words, Mehserle's fear? That was reasonable. Fear is at the core of questions of justice involving the deaths of black people at the hands of the authorities in the United States of America, dating back to when Toussaint L'Overture put the fear of G-d in slaveowners by revealing that their "property" might someday rise up against them...

...Times change, but the radioactive fear of black people, black men in particular, has proved to have a longer half-life than any science could have discerned. This is not a fear white people possess of black people -- it is a fear all Americans possess. It makes white cops kill black cops, it makes black cops kill black men, and it whispers in the ears of white and nonwhite jurors alike that fear of an unarmed black man lying face down in the ground is not "unreasonable." All of which is to say, while it infects all of us, a few of us bear the brunt of the suffering it causes.

What's worse is that we don't just fear; we fear talking about it...

--Adam Serwer at his American Prospect blog


Oscar Grant will not be playing in Miami because he was murdered by a cop.

--Baratunde Thurston at Jack and Jill politics


As far as I am concerned, Johannes Mehserle did nothing wrong except pull the wrong weapon. If Oscar Grant had cooperated with the police, he would be alive today. The family will receive a large settlement from BART, which should be used to repay the merchants who suffered loses caused by Grant's supporters.

--Raymond Moreno, San Francisco in a Letter to the Editor in the SF Chronicle (A lot of people are thinking like this)


As a former defense attorney, I respect the jury system–it’s better than any alternatives. But jury trials can and do commit injustices. The jury captures both the wisdom and the folly of the community it comes from. This result shocks me from an evidentiary point of view (but certainly not from a socio-economic one). A trained police officer simple cannot be allowed, as a matter of law, to base his defense solely on a patently unbelievable claim that he mistook a yellow, unholstered, differently shaped and weighted Taser device for a holstered black firearm. A person of color would be laughed out of the Courtroom and given a Go Directly to Jail for Life card. You put on the badge, you’ve got the highest set of standards that will judge your conduct, not the lowest!

--comment on a ColorLines blog post cited at Post Bourgie


"We need more Muhammad Ali & Jim Brown type athletes. Imagine LeBron using his time tonight to speak up for for Oscar Grant."

--Hasan Salaam, on Twitter


"There's absolutely nothing 'involuntary' about pulling out your gun & shooting an unarmed man in the back."

--Jasiri X on Twitter