BART Shooting Videos Result in Riots, Arrests, Death Threats Against Officer

The family of Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant New Year's Day on a subway platform, has received so many death threats and other terroristic threats that they have had to move out of their Napa, California, home. According to the Associated Press, Mehserle, 27, was caught on video pulling his pistol and shooting the unarmed Grant as Grant was being restrained by another BART officer. Oscar Grant was fatally wounded.

Too make matters worse, Grant was shot in the back. He was unarmed.

But at least two videos were taken of the incident and have since made their way to the internet, being viewed and downloaded millions of times. The videos have run continuously on television news programs since the shooting.

Johannes Mehserle and his family have been receiving threats since the videos went public.

It looks like an execution.

Mehserle resigned from the BART police force shortly after the shooting. He has not spoken with investigators to date. His lawyer refuses to make a comment concerning the incident.

An incident that happened on January 1.

Public officials and concerned individuals spoke out against what appeared to be use of excessive force and demanded justice. Authorities have yet to charge Mehserle and the slowness with which they have reacted to what was and has become a very public shooting has led to protests and accusations of police brutality and excessive force. People in the San Francisco Bay area have been demanding justice.

A lack of answers led to frustration at the way BART officials and local authorities were handling the situation. Instead of talking with investigators, Johannes Mehserle resigned. Authorities have been unable to get him to talk or cooperate with the investigation. The Alameda Country District Attorney Tom Orloff said Thursday that he would make a decision within two weeks on whether or not Johannes Mehserle would be charged with a crime in the shooting incident. BART officials at a press conference on Friday said that a board committee was being formed to look into future incidents.

Johannes Mehserle was placed on paid leave until his resignation. He has yet to be questioned about the incident. Nor has he been charged.

Meanwhile, public outrage in the Oakland area led to demonstrations. The demonstrations turned to riots on Wednesday night. Images of young people jumping up and down on vehicles, including a police car, and setting at least one car ablaze have were shown on CNN. Acts of vandalism and destruction of property were videotaped. Police arrested 105 people and confiscated cameras and cell phones, the images from which are being used to build cases against protesters.

A 20-year-old Merritt College Student, Andrew Lewis, was arrested for breaking a window of a McDonalds restaurant and felony possession of cocaine. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that they could replace the window but they could not replace the life of Oscar Grant. "It was worth it," he said. "To be honest, more vandalism should still be going on right now. I would have no problem doing the same thing again. I would do it again in a heartbeat. There can be no justice, because he can't get his life back."

Lewis' statement is indicative of the mood flowing through the Bay area over the shooting. The lack of investigatory alacrity has only exacerbated the tension.

Protests Thursday night were far more muted. Only one person was arrested.

But calls for justice have not quieted.

Nor will they. Because of the viral videos of what looks like the unconscionable, unjustifiable and needless shooting of Oscar Grant, the people of the Bay area, especially citizens of Oakland, feel that not only were Grant's rights violated but justice has been denied. Publicly criticized for its inactivity in the matter, the Alameda Country District Attorney's office did not open a formal investigation into the shooting until Thursday, January 8, seven days after the shooting.

Justice delayed. A District Attorney that seems unwilling to do anything about the shooting, even as a show of effort toward justice, and offers only the possibility of charging the shooter. Justice delayed further and perhaps even denied.

And as the horrific image of an unarmed restrained man being shot in the back is shown again and again without anything being done to at least bring the shooter in for questioning, the outrage of a public denied even the façade of a slow justice system continues to grow. One can only imagine what might be unleashed if Johannes Mehserle is not brought in soon by the District Attorney's Office.

Or, worse, should he not be brought in at all.

The people of Oakland should not have to find out...

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Sources:

Associated Press

SFGate.com