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metonomiaI don't know that many people outside California - or even outside the Bay Area - know about the Johannes Mehserle trial. I honestly don't know tons about it.
But the bare facts are - last year on New Year's Eve, BART officer Mehserle shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant. I do not know what caused him to do so, what the defense is, or any of the extenuating circumstances - actually, I just looked it up, and Mehserle says he accidentally fired his service weapon instead of his taser. I do know that Mehserle is white, and Grant is black, and that Oakland is in utter uproar. Tonight Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter - Oscar Grant's family wanted second-degree murder (and 'wanted' is a horrid word. They want to not have to go through this. They want for their son to not be dead.) - so he's going to jail for awhile.
Riot police are out, stores are being broken into, and people are raging mad.
I...don't know what the point of this post is. Mostly I'm just really really sad. I know nothing near enough to offer judgement. An innocent man is dead and a lot of people are deeply sad and deeply angry. I'm mostly just praying that things will not escalate to a point where more people die.
Also I'm sad over feminism fail. And not even feminism, because genderfail is a subject of humanity, not just feminists. I'm sad that there is so much death and hurt and anger hanging over life, and that it has such an easy way of sucking us all into obsessing over it and arguing over it and thus extending the reach of the badness.
And now I'm going to go finish watching the LWW commentary because those kids are adorable and hilarious and happy.
But the bare facts are - last year on New Year's Eve, BART officer Mehserle shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant. I do not know what caused him to do so, what the defense is, or any of the extenuating circumstances - actually, I just looked it up, and Mehserle says he accidentally fired his service weapon instead of his taser. I do know that Mehserle is white, and Grant is black, and that Oakland is in utter uproar. Tonight Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter - Oscar Grant's family wanted second-degree murder (and 'wanted' is a horrid word. They want to not have to go through this. They want for their son to not be dead.) - so he's going to jail for awhile.
Riot police are out, stores are being broken into, and people are raging mad.
I...don't know what the point of this post is. Mostly I'm just really really sad. I know nothing near enough to offer judgement. An innocent man is dead and a lot of people are deeply sad and deeply angry. I'm mostly just praying that things will not escalate to a point where more people die.
Also I'm sad over feminism fail. And not even feminism, because genderfail is a subject of humanity, not just feminists. I'm sad that there is so much death and hurt and anger hanging over life, and that it has such an easy way of sucking us all into obsessing over it and arguing over it and thus extending the reach of the badness.
And now I'm going to go finish watching the LWW commentary because those kids are adorable and hilarious and happy.
