Don't Get it Twisted!

I make it a point to contain many of the comments I post on my Facebook page. Mostly because, I find it necessary to be a bit more PC there. But here on MY blog, I can say what I REALLY think. 

And so I will.

Some of the conversation and comments I’ve heard surrounding the Mehserle verdict and its aftermath last night are driving me crazy and at the same time making me sad.

Here we go again! When will it end? Will people who have no idea what it’s like to be black in America, never been racially profiled or been otherwise racially discriminated against, please stop telling us how we should feel and how we should act (or better yet, re-act) under circumstances such as this? I’m begging you because you sound utterly ridiculous.

And understand this - The case of Johannes Mehserle killing Oscar Grant is BIGGER than just the act of a police officer shooting an unarmed man. It’s a symbol of the ongoing police brutality that people of color suffer at the hands of law enforcement on a daily basis and a symptom of a broken system.

From what I’ve been hearing, many people seem more concerned about why the (ignorant and stupid – their words not mine) rioters were looting the local businesses than how a TRAINED police officer based his entire defense on the unbelievable claim that he mistakenly pulled his firearm (right hip) when he intended to pull his taser (left hip). 

And was it ever explained just why Mehserle needed the taser in the first place when Oscar Grant was already lying on the ground face down and cuffed??  The fact is, Johannes Mehserle k i l l e d an unarmed, handcuffed, 22 yr old young man, named Oscar Grant III, as he lay face down on the Fruitvale Bart platform on New Year's 2009. He murdered him with a gunshot to his back, while a crowd of onlookers with cameras stood by. And even with video (for all of the people who continue to make excuses for Mehserle’s actions use of excessive force - YouTube has more than one version of the shooting and murder), he got off with a slap on the wrist - involuntary manslaughter (because they had to scold him a little) 

Does that take the BIG balls or what? It also shows how callous Mehserle was and how just how deep his sense of entitlement went. Bad thing about it is...this scenario is not unusual. But just for the fun of it, let’s reverse this… black officer shoots and kills unarmed white youth. Shoots him in the back over a fight on a Bart train. You know what would happen?? Yep, Black officer, Go directly to jail….Do Not pass Go. Oh and we’re not looking at a few years. Try LIFE!  

One last thing, just why did they move this case from Oakland to LA anyway? They SAID, Mehserle couldn’t get a fair trial here. But what they really meant was, they couldn’t get Mehserle off here. You see, people in Oakland are apparently biased against people shooting an immobile person in the back for no apparent reason. The diversity of jurors was joke. In Oakland there certainly would have been at least some African Americans represented on the jury. In LA...not so much! As big as Los Angeles is, they could not find, ONE, single, solitary, qualified black person to be on that jury??? 

I hope people wake up and look at the facts! Don't get distracted by the sideshow. An unruly, group of mostly young people, egged on by outside instigators is not the question here.

I'm Just Sayin