UPDATE: (12/01/11) Mehserle walks again in the 2008 case of alleged police brutality.
Beginning in 2009, ColorOfChange members mobilized in response to the killing of Oscar Grant, the young father who was shot dead by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer while lying facedown on an Oakland, CA train platform. In an act of police violence that was captured on camera for the world to see, BART officer Johannes Mehserle fired one round into Grant's back. Mehserle later claimed he thought he was firing his taser-- one of many unbelievable missteps that occurred that night at the Fruitvale BART station.
Just 11 months after being taken into custody, Mehserle was a free man. Many of us recognized this injustice as systemic, which is why we were not surprised to learn that Mehserle is currently standing trial for a separate case involving another incident of alleged brutality and misconduct he participated in while a member of the BART police force.
According to recent news reports, Mehserle is charged with using excessive force during the 2008 arrest of Kenneth Carruthers, an African-American man, at a BART station. Carruthers alleges that officers overheard him describing the BART police force as "useless" after he found that his car had been broken into at the station. In retaliation, Mehserle and his fellow transit officers allegedly punched, kicked and eventually hog tied Carruthers. According to court filings, on the way to the hospital Mehserle turned to Carruthers and said, "Well, have you learned not to mess with police officers?"
So just two months before Mehserle killed Grant, he was practicing the same dangerous tactics with impunity. Carruther's attorney is also drawing this parallel, presenting his client's case as an ominous forecast for Grant's death.
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