 Oscar Grant Photo courtesy of Johnson family |
The murder trial for Johannes
Mehserle is set to begin in Los Angeles on June 10. Mehserle is on trial for
second-degree murder in the shooting of Oscar Grant. The jury of 12 people will
not contain any African Americans. Of the approximately 50 potential jurors,
three African Americans were excluded by the defense during the jury selection
process.
On New Year’s Day 2009, Grant, a
22-year-old African American man, was shot and killed by Mehserle, who worked
as a BART police officer at the time. Grant was shot in the back while lying
face down on the ground with his hands behind his back. The execution-style
killing, which happened in Oakland at the Fruitvale BART station, was captured
on video and sparked outrage and militant protests in the surrounding
communities.
The exclusion of African Americans
from the jury is another example of the racist nature of the legal system in
the United States. Even before this latest development, the courts have sided
with the accused murderer by granting a change of venue from Oakland to Los
Angeles. The “logic” presented by the defense was that a fair and impartial
jury could not be chosen due to the widespread news coverage of the event in
the San Francisco Bay Area.
However the elimination of all three African Americans
from the Los Angeles jury shows racism is an underlying factor in the defense
strategy. The irony here is that it is the institutionalized racism of U.S.
society in general and police agencies in particular that has led to a long
history of killings and beatings of unarmed Black men by police. Whether it is
the killing of Oscar Grant or Amadou Diallo or Idriss Stelley, or the beatings
of Rodney King and Abner Louima, the police act with impunity against the
nationally oppressed communities.
Shouldn’t the legacy of racist police brutality and
the participation by those who have been victimized by this history be a
requirement for the trial? A change of venue is an effort to deny the community
justice in the case of this one death.
If the legal system was really
about justice, the trial would be held in Oakland, where the police routinely
harass and abuse young people of color. The jury would be composed of the peers
of Oscar Grant and the community that is regularly terrorized by the cops.
However, the legal system exists to protect the rich and punish the poor. It
provides coverage and impunity for racist killer cops like Johannes Mehserle.
The Party for Socialism and
Liberation calls on people to join the Grant family and their supporters at the
courthouse during the trial to demand justice for Oscar Grant! Jail killer
cops!
