Police Brutality is Legal; Photographing It ISN’T

This seems to be some people’s “reasoning.”  The infamous Rodney King beating by the LAPD would have been their little secret if the entire incident hadn’t been videotaped from somebody’s apartment window.  At the time, there were jokes going around that the L.A. city council wanted a 3-day waiting period before you could buy a video camera.

These days it’s not even a joke.  There are already a few state and local laws prohibiting citizens from videotaping police officers during an arrest.  Leonard Pitts, Jr. writes about it in this column, Give Thanks to Citizens With Cameras.

He tells about a woman in Rochester, NY who was arrested for videotaping a traffic stop from her own yard.  In Miami Beach, a man was arrested, beaten by police and had his cell phone stomped on — how convenient — after he recorded an officer-involved shooting.

The recent pepper spraying incident art UC Davis would have been nothing more than a rumor if the incident hadn’t been captured on a cell phone.  Same with the police execution of an unarmed handcuffed suspect on an Oakland BART train (New Year’s Day 2009.)  The executioner, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, is already out of jail after serving a shorter sentence than most people would get for shoplifting.  But if the murder hadn’t been caught by somebody’s cell phone, the police would have come up with an official story that the murder victim — Oscar Grant — had fallen and hit his head; pulled a gun and had to be shot; or something.

About ten years ago (give or take), the San Francisco Police Department filed a libel suit against a woman whose only “crime” was giving a sworn statement about what she had witnessed during an arrest.

Just as you don’t need a weather man to tell which way the wind blows, you don’t need a court ruling to know that these laws against videotaping police officers are clearly unconstitutional.  Every one of these laws should be suspended immediately by the federal government until the courts can come to the obvious conclusion.

Judges Wanted. No Experience Necessary. Low IQs Welcome

MYTH: In order to become a judge, you have to be intelligent and have a thorough understanding of the law.

FACT: You can be dumber than a sack of maggotshit and still be a judge. That’s the only possible explanation for why Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry ever made it to the bench.

Two years in jail for shooting an unarmed person pointblank while he’s lying on the ground?!?!?!?! Hopefully this case will be appealed, like the Rodney King verdict was. This case needs to be decided by a judge who has two brain cells to rub together.

In case you haven’t been following this case: On New Years Day, 2009, Johannes Mehserle — a transit security officer — was called to a train station in Oakland, CA because of a fight on a train. Mehserle and several other officers arrested several suspects, including Oscar Grant, who was black. Oscar Grant was lying face down on the ground — as he’d been ordered to do — when Johannes Mehserle shot him in the back.

Mehserle claimed he thought he was reaching for his stun gun but mistakenly grabbed his revolver instead. As unlikely as that explanation is, there was no way to disprove it. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter instead of murder. (The trial had been moved from Oakland to Los Angeles.)

The average sentence for involuntary manslaughter is four years. With a gun enhancement, the maximum sentence is fourteen years. Judge Robert Perry sentenced Mehserle to two years, with credit for time already served.

So now the City of Oakland, where the murder took place, is being torn apart by demonstrations. And the most violent protestors marched into a modest residential neighborhood to do their damage. WTF???

Now if they could find out where Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry lives, and take their protests to HIS neighborhood…

Oakland Murder Case to be Reviewed by Federal Prosecutors

During the 1960s and ‘70s, civil rights cases were routinely tried in federal courts because redneck juries kept acquitting their fellow inbreds of arson, lynching and other good ol’ boy fun.

In 1992 the feds had to take over the Rodney King case because California jurors acquitted four LAPD misfits of clubbing Rodney King 56 times in 81 seconds.

And now federal prosecutors are investigating the involuntary manslaughter conviction of an Oakland transit police officer who shot and killed a suspect pointblank. The more things change…

On New Years Day, 2009, Officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant as he was lying face down on the ground (as Grant had been ordered to do, by other transit officers). I did a post on it at the time; the linked article and YouTube video aren’t available any more.

Mehserle claimed he thought Grant was reaching into his pockets for a weapon, so he fired what he thought was his Taser. Only it turned out he was firing his gun instead. WTF??? Does that police department have an IQ test for new applicants?

There was some rioting in Oakland (and Tacoma) after yesterday’s involuntary manslaughter verdict. (Nothing like the L.A. ‘92 riots.) Referring to the protests and riots, the Oakland Police Chief said, “This city is not the wild, wild West.”

Really? Trouble is, on January 1, 2009, Oakland WAS the wild wild West.

Maybe, someday, police departments will get tired of having federal prosecutors coming in and cleaning up after them. They might even raise the qualification standards for new applicants. HINT: a low IQ and a quick temper are NOT enough.

What’s The Difference Between a Revolver and a Stun Gun?

No, this isn’t a riddle. Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers can’t tell the difference. Or at least that’s the excuse they’re using.

On New Year’s Day there was a fight on a BART train in Oakland, CA. One of the people involved in the fight, Oscar Grant (unarmed), was forced to the ground by transit police officers. While he was lying face down, officer Johannes Mehserle drew his gun and shot him in the back, killing him.

Mehserle quickly resigned from the police department before he could be questioned. Some people are speculating that Mehserle thought Grant was armed (he wasn’t). Others are speculating that Mehserle thought he was firing a Taser and not a revolver. DUUUHHH!!!

As of this writing, Mehserle hasn’t yet been charged with a crime. And meanwhile Oakland is being torn apart by riots.

This wouldn’t be the first time a crooked cop has slithered away untouched. There was a similar case a few years ago in nearby Richmond, CA, another city with a high crime rate and an unaccountable police department. An off-duty Richmond cop shot and killed somebody during a bar fight. Prosecutors couldn’t (or wouldn’t) touch him because he was a cop. The police department couldn’t touch him because he was off duty. And off he went.

Here’s a link to the YouTube video that shows the BART shooting. And here are some more links to the shooting incident.

Since we seem to be reverting to frontier justice: Wanted, Dead or Alive — Johannes Mehserle.

cross-posted at Bring It On!