Johannes Mehserle, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer (pictured), has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the case of Oscar Grant, whom he shot and killed on a train station platform in Oakland, Calif., on New Year's Day 2009. The shooting, captured on a cell phone video, quickly circulated online, leading to riots in Oakland.

The jury also attached a gun enhancement charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. This would be served consecutively after the involuntary manslaughter sentence, meaning that Mehserle could serve 14 years.

Mehserle claims that he mistakenly shot and killed Grant when he pulled out his firearm, believing that it was a Taser.




Although there is some victory in that an officer has been found guilty at all, the verdict is still a travesty. Many of us saw the cell phone video of the shooting that has circulated online since the event happened. We saw what happened that fateful day. We saw Grant lying face down on the floor, posing no threat to the officer. We saw Mehserle reach to his hip, pull out his gun and shoot into Grant's back.

While I can't say that Mehserle intended to kill Grant, the fact is that he did actually kill him. The two- to four-year sentence that will be handed down for that event itself is totally inadequate for taking the life of a young unarmed man.

There are a few perplexing issues surrounding this case, ones that require deep inquiry by law enforcement agencies and lawmakers. First, it is highly problematic that a trained officer of the law is unable to tell the difference between a Taser and a real gun. According to reports from the trial, in the month prior to Grant's shooting, Mehserle attended a six-hour Taser training session in which officers were shown how to handle them properly in order to avoid mixing them up with guns.
Unfortunately in the heat of the moment, the training made little difference.



In Britain, where I am from, police officers do not carry guns at all, and I have always been uncomfortable with the fact that officers here do. I don't believe that it is necessary, a point that I believe is reinforced in cases like this.




Second, the sentencing laws are a cause for concern. Michael Vick was sentenced to two years in prison for dogfighting. Mehserle may serve two years for killing a human being. In fact, his sentence may only be longer because he added an enhancement to his gun, not because he took a life. How does this work? And how does this stop police officers from making such expensive and destructive "mistakes"?



Third, the way in which officers react in the heat of the moment, particularly in incidents that involve people of color, also requires addressing. There's no doubt that being a police officer is a stress-inducing and emotional job that results in surges of adrenaline and other intense brain chemicals in the heat of the moment. Perhaps when faced with black people that surge of chemicals is higher. I don't know, but too many black people have been killed by police officers who seemed to lose control in the moment. Aiyanna Jones. Sean Bell. Oscar Grant. Those are just three people.

Perhaps officers feel more threatened when they are involved in incidents with black people, particularly males. One thing is for sure: W e rarely hear of white kids being shot accidentally by police officers. And this is not because white people do not commit crimes.




Whatever lies behind this, it is clear to me that police training should require the ongoing exploration of both the subconscious and conscious feelings about people of other racial groups to avoid repressed or unexamined feelings surfacing in times of pressure and resulting in highly unfortunate events such as these.


We need police officers to protect us, and the relationship between the public and the police is vital to the effective functioning of society. That relationship, which is already precarious in many black communities, is further undermined when it appears that not all lives are considered to be of equal value by law enforcement officials, nor in the eyes of the law itself.



I'm also not naive enough to believe that Mehserle himself is not suffering. It cannot be easy to sleep at night knowing that you killed someone. But still, justice -- real justice -- is required for Grant. If that does not happen in this case, I pray that lessons are learned and that we will never have to see these kinds of headlines or hear about such cases again.