Oscar Grant’s killer on trial again for police brutality—23 November, 2011—Former San Francisco BART police officer Johannes Mehserle is on trial this week, and if his name and affiliation rings a bell, there is good reason: Mehserle was found guilty of killing Oscar Grant, an unarmed transit rider, during a 2009 incident. As luck would have it, that wasn’t the first time that Mehserle went a little overboard. Less than two months before he executed Grant at pointblank range in an Oakland, California train station, the ex-officer allegedly used excessive force and violated the constitutional rights of Kenneth Carrethers at a separate Bay Area Rapid Transit hub.

Carrethers’ attorneys say that on November 15 2008, their client was angry over the BART cops’ lack of help in a case of vandalism that targeted his car. Carrethers says that he called the police force “useless,” and from there Mehserle and a handful of other offices became irate. According to court filings, Mehserle used a leg sweep to take Carrethers to the ground, then punched and kicked him while he was on the pavement. The complaint continues that cops tied up Carrethers’ arms and legs before hauling him away.  "Well, have you learned not to mess with police officers?" Mehserle allegedly asked him. Carrethers was initially charged with resisting arrest, but six weeks later a cell phone camera filmed Mehserle executing Oscar Grant while the unarmed black man man laid face down in a BART station. A civil case was filed by Carrethers a month later, but was put on hold while Merhselrs waited behind bars during his trial for the Grant incident.

A jury went on to find the ex-officer only guilty of involuntary manslaughter and mobs rioted the streets of Oakland, California. Johannes Mehserle only served 11 months for killing Grant. To RT, a family member of Grant said that the sentence demonstrated "just how racist this criminal justice system is." Mehserle, a white man, is once again being charged with using excessive force on an unarmed black man. Five officers in all are on trial for the beating of Carrethers, 43, as well as attacking him for exercising his freedom of speech. Mehserle is expected to testify on his own behalf.—rt.com 

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The right verdict in Mehserle case—Involuntary manslaughter might seem an unsatisfying outcome for the killing of the unarmed Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009, but it was consistent with the evidence that could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt against former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle. Anything less would have been an injustice. Anything more would have required conclusions about Mehserle's state of mind that were not sufficiently supported in trial. .  .  .  Mehserle, 28, claimed it was an accident, that he thought he was firing a Taser instead of a handgun at the detainee. The explanation stretched the bounds of plausibility, given the difference in weight, feel - and position on his holster - between the nonlethal weapon intended to immobilize and the Sig Sauer P226 pistol that is used to kill. He clearly was negligent. It was a crime, not an accident. The other two conviction options available to the jury - second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter - would have required the jury to find that Mehserle meant to kill Grant. The evidence indicated the officer's state of mind was contradictory at best. His reaction immediately after the shooting suggested disbelief at what he had done. Yet his explanation of having mistaken his gun for a Taser did not emerge for several days. In other words, there was reasonable doubt about his intent, which was the standard the jury needed to overcome, even if that will not fly in the court of public opinion. SFGate

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Operation Small Axe

By Jean Damu

The Oscar Grant case and its tumultuous response has received much national attention from print and electronic news outlets but few have attempted to put this case into a broad social context to the extent a recent film, Operation Small Axe, attempts to do. Oscar Grant was the black youth shot and killed by Oakland Bart police officer Johannes Mehserle in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009.

The Oscar Grant case is a child of the cell phone revolution because had the shooting not been recorded by numerous Bart passengers on their cell phones and those videos being replayed and replayed by local and national television outlets the outrage over the shooting never would have escalated to the point it eventually did. Nevertheless Small Axe does a wonderful job reflecting the long simmering hatred that exists between the disenfranchised, nearly totally alienated black youth in Oakland and the armed occupation forces that masquerade as police and public transit protection forces.

Small Axe Director Adimu Madyun has his hands full keeping this film on point and even though the overall impact of the film is powerful, compelling and revealing, a film everyone needs to see, it’s not clear he succeeded.

Part of the problem is revealed as the final credits scroll downward. J.R. Valrey, a long time Bay Area journalist and activist is the film’s Executive Producer. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with J.R. Valrey producing a film except that most of the film is about him. What? I thought the film was about the Oscar Grant shooting? Well so did I, but now I’m not so sure. See the problem?

With further reflection I think the film really is about J.R. Maybe the title Operation Small Axe refers to him and the work he’s engaged in the black communities. The confusion is typical of some of the controversy surrounding Valrey. He promotes himself as a journalist but invariably he becomes the story. Fifteen to 20 minutes into the film one asks, “Hey, what about justice for Oscar Grant?” Later for that, we’re focused on Valrey’s case now.

One of the more interesting scenes plays out at the scene of the march, 2009 Lovelle Mixon-OPD shoot out. Huge kudos to Madyun for connecting the Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon shootings. The interviews with the neighborhood people following Mixon’s killings of four Oakland police officers and his killing would open many closed eyes.

But the interesting portion of this scene is Valrey interviewing a white woman. She identifies herself as a reporter and refuses to reveal how she feels about the shootings. Valrey won’t accept her attempt to be neutral and finally accuses of her working for the police and making the situation quite uncomfortable for her. It was not a pretty scene and is indicative of how easy it is, with the righteous certainty that only you are correct, to alienate potential allies. It is also a political sectarianism that allows him to place listener supported KPFA radio, on which he airs his Block Report, in the same class category as Associated Press. He defends this as “aggressive journalism.”

The totality of Operation Small Axe is overwhelming. Madyun and Valrey have done a great job reflecting the anger and alienation, primarily of black youth (but others as well) with a society that many see as sending in occupation armies to firmly plant boots on the necks of the unemployed and unemployable.

One thing missing, especially in regard to the Lovelle Mixon incident was any reference to the commission report analyzing the OPD’s actions. The report tries to put a friendly face on the police response but ultimately it was an indictment of what took place and the decisions made. Reference to the report would have validated the feelings of many of Mixon’s neighbors.

Finally, we owe Madyun and Valrey another round of thanks for introducing us to the aunt of Deondre Brunston, Keisha Brunston.

Brunston relates to us how her nephew Deondre was machine gunned to death by Los Angeles County police in Compton in 2002. This is the most unbelievable portion of the film and it should have aired much closer to the beginning.

According to Brunston, and as we witness from the video, Deondre is sitting on a porch communicating with police. Suddenly a police dog charges him and police open fire. Brunston was hit 22 times and flopped around like Bonnie and Clyde in the Sam Peckinpah film. By mistake the police also shot the dog. The police then rushed upped, embraced the dog and rushed it to a helicopter and flown to an animal hospital where it later expired. Meanwhile, steam rising from his chest Brunston is ignored, not even examined.

It is the ultimate statement on blackness and whiteness in America. A dogs life is worth more. See this film.

Operation Small Axe can be obtained on DVD from 339 Films or Block Report Radio.

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