09 November 2010
By
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):
Whether the venue is
Occupied Palestine
or
America's West Coast,
one of the most consistent themes of unjust systems of
governance is that those entrusted with the duty of
maintaining the "rule of law" are often held to a very
different standard of "justice."
When Israeli soldiers viciously and deliberately
attacked [American]
Rachel
Corrie,
23, and [Britian] Thomas Hurndall, 21, in March 2003,
they were sending a message to all
ISM volunteers (including those from western
countries) that their lives would be no more
sacrosanct than the miserable lives of Palestinians
trapped within Zionism's fabled "democracy."
To this day, the IDF soldiers responsible for the
deadly assaults on Corrie and Hurndall have yet to
face any modicum of "justice."
Fast forward to New Year's 2009, when a white
transit police office
in Oakland, California, fatally shoots a young black
man, by the name of Oscar Grant, in the back for
"not cooperating," and
ends up being charged with
involuntary manslaughter.
After being found guilty, the former officer receives
a sentence that amounts to a slap on the wrist.
In Rachel's case, the Israeli government's claim
is that the soldier - operating the specially-made (in
the good ol' U.S.A.) Caterpillar bulldozer - didn't
see Rachel; and that it was
her fault
for being where she wasn't supposed to be!
In Oscar's case, the offending officer thought his gun
was a tazer! (And compounding this assault on reason
is the fact that both the jury and the judge
chose
to buy this defense.)
What both cases reveal is not only the disparities of
justice
over there, and over here
- but a timeless truism from the French philosopher,
Voltaire:
"Those who can make us believe absurdities, can also
cause us to commit atrocities." Mehserle verdict: Johannes
Mehserle sentencing stuns Oscar Grant supporters,
sparks riots in Oakland Oscar Grant supporters cry foul
and take to the streets after Mehserle verdict. The
Johannes Mehserle sentencing of two years was shorter
than it would have been if the gun enhancement law had
been applied. Demonstrator Eden Jequinto covers
his face during a demonstration after the sentencing
in Oakland, Calif., Friday, of former BART police
officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle was convicted of
involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of
Oscar Grant at a BART station on Jan. 1, 2009. Los
Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry sentenced
Mehserle to two years in prison. - Paul Sakuma/AP By Chris Richardson,
CSMonitor.com / November 5, 2010 Former cop Johannes Mehserle was
sentenced Friday to two years in jail for the death of
Oscar Grant – much less than he would have incurred
had the judge applied California's "gun enhancement"
law that normally mandates heavy sentences when
firearms are used in a crime. The jury found, however, that
there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Mr.
Mehserle, a former BART police officer, believed the
weapon he was using to subdue Grant was a taser, not a
gun. Mehserle had been called to the
Fruitvale station of the BART system in the early
hours of New Years Day last year with four other
officers to look into reports of a fight on a train.
Mehserle tried to arrest Grant but reported that Grant
was not cooperating. Grant was on his stomach when
Mehserle shot him in the back. The shooting was caught
on video by another BART passenger and quickly went
viral on Youtube. RELATED: Five memorable
Washington political protests The jury deliberated Friday on
whether Mehserle had intended to kill Grant. They
acquitted him on second-degree murder and voluntary
manslaughter, but convicted him on charges of
involuntary manslaughter. Though involuntary manslaughter
usually carries a four-year prison sentence, Los
Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry
sentenced Mehserle to two years in state prison with
292 days of credit for time already served. The trial
had been moved to Los Angeles because of concerns over
media coverage in the Bay Area. The case focused largely on
whether or not to instate the gun enhancement law,
which could have increased Mehserle's sentence to 14
years. The gun enhancement law
automatically increases a sentence if a firearm is
used in commission of a crime. The jury decided
Friday, however, that Mehserle may have mistaken his
gun for a taser, and therefore did not intend to fire
a gun. Because the jury believed this to be the case,
Judge Perry chose not to enact the gun enhancement
law. That decision stunned Oscar Grant
supporters. A rally to honor Oscar Grant drew hundreds
outside Oakland City Hall Friday, and banks,
businesses, and City Hall boarded up windows and doors
in anticipation of possible riots. UC Oakland
evacuated buildings and courts closed early. Outraged by the Mehserle verdict,
Grant's uncle compared the sentencing to Michael
Vick's conviction when he said Friday, "if a man goes
to prison for killing a dog and he gets four years,
then of course two years is not enough." Mehserle will be able to apply
his 292 days of credit to the two year prison sentence
and could be released from custody in as little as
seven months. As night fell in the city,
protests against the light sentence turned violent.
The Oakland PD reported that an officer had been hit
by a car, another officer's firearm holster had been
taken from him, and numerous windows had been broken.
More than 50 people were arrested after police subdued
the crowds. Comments 💬 التعليقات |
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