but we are angry about injustice.
I was reading an LA Times Report on arrests made last night of people in Oakland protesting the slap on the wrist given to the BART police officer Johannes Mehserle who murdered Oscar Grant.
At the bottom of the article, the first comment made by a reader was this one from "Linda"
"All animals. Its sad that society here allows for this here. This is not venting...its criminal activity. This ALWAYS happens when these animals are allowed to supposedly "protest."
I repeat - no, people (not animals) are angry about the murderer of an unarmed young man being given a two year sentence, with most of it as "time served".
See Quiet Observer's diary:
Former cop Johannes Mehserle sentenced to less than 2 years for killing Oscar Grant
Yes, protests sometimes end up not being peaceful.
I'm been in quite a few of those myself over the years, and in peaceful demos too.
But this same old story gets repeated over and over and over again here in the US. White cop, black or latino - dead.
While lot's of folks here is focused on Keith Olbermann losing his job, and I understand that - I'm askin' where is the passion about this travesty?
Where is the Justice?
Ask Oscar Grants mom, Wanda if this was justice.
Look her in the eye and tell her that killing dogs get's you more time in the U.S. than murdering her son.
Mehserle sentenced to 2 years, including time served
From a ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Oscar Grant III, was sentenced this afternoon to two years in prison. The sentence, from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry, will include credit for the time Mehserle has already spent in jail.
"I want the whole world to know that this is wrong and that we’re not settling," Yolanda Mesa, the sister of Oscar Grant’s fiancé, told news cameras in Oakland. "We want 14 years." The light sentence was a surprising development in the civic and legal drama that has roiled Oakland for the nearly two years since Mehserle shot and killed Grant on a BART platform in the early hours of New Years Day 2009. Mehserle faced up to 14 years in state prison, but the length of the sentence was at the discretion of Judge Perry.
The two-year sentence is the lowest possible for a conviction of involuntary manslaughter, which ranges from two to four years under California penal code.
Video of the protest:
Video of the murder of Oscar Grant with sound:
I understand the outrage. We had the same reaction here in NY over the killing of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, and the brutalizing of Abner Louima.
Same story. Same ending.
No Justice. No Peace.