Only ten days after a jury found former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of Oscar Grant on New Years Day 2009 BART and Oakland police officers killed Fred Collins who was wielding a knife and threatening the officers near the same Fruitvale BART station where Grant was killed.

While the official story from the BART and Oakland Police Departments is that five police officers, two from BART and three, from Oakland killed Collins after he was reported to have two knives near the station, a witness says there may have been as many as ten officer shooting multiple bullets into Collins.

Unlike the shooting of Oscar Grant there were no video cameras at the scene and the killing has received relatively little press.

Following a 911 call the BART police were the first on the scene. They chased Collins and unsuccessfully attempted to taser him on at least two occasions. When they were unsuccessful and when Collins turned towards them with the knives they shot him multiple times and killed him.

What I don’t get is how five or more police officers armed with guns and tasers cannot stop one man, carrying only two knives, without killing him. Even if the man was attempting to commit suicide by cop as one witness reported there were enough police available to surround him and force him to drop the knives. Police, if sufficiently trained (and the BART pollce are notorious for not being well trained), can talk a man into surrendering his weapons. Certainly there was no need for multiple shots. In the worst case, if a man is threatening me with a knife, and I am genuinely afraid that he will kill me, I move myself out of arm’s distance if I am that close to him and either talk him into surrendering the knives or I shoot him in the leg. If he is shot in the leg he will fall over and be unable to stab me. There is no need for multiple fatal shots.

Johannes Mehserle was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of unarmed Oscar Grant III who was lying face down on the platform floor at the Fruitdale BART station on New Years 2009 by a Los Angeles jury. The trial was moved to Los Angeles due to fear that Mehserle, who at the time of the shooting was a BART police officer would not get a fair trial in Oakland where he shot and killed Grant after being called to the BART Station to deal with unruly passengers. The killing was recorded by BART patrons on cell phones and widely spread over the internet.

Prior to the beginning of the jury deliberation the judge dismissed the first degree murder charge.

But the judge did instruct the jury on second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and voluntary manslaughter. Unlike first degree murder, second degree murder does not require premeditation. All of the evidence indicated that on the spur of the moment in an effort to detain Grant Mehserle shot him. There was no evidence of premeditation. Both first degree murder and second degree murder require an intent to kill. There was no question that Mehserle killed Grant using his gun. If the district attorney proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mehserle intended to shoot Grant with his gun the intent to kill would be shown.

But Mehserle’s attorney, Michael Rains argued that he accidentally pulled his gun and shot it. His intent was to use his Taser. If this was the case and the jury apparently believed it or at least did not believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Mehserle intended to kill Grant, he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder.

California law defines manslaughter as:

the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. It is . . . :
(a) Voluntary–upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
(b) Involuntary–in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to felony; or
in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection. . . .

Thus it is likely that the jury found that Grant was killed “in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection.” It is pretty clear that the jury found that Mehserle acted “without caution and circumspection by pulling his gun out of his holster and shooting grant instead of pulling this Taser out and shooting grant with the Taser.

Assuming that Mehserle is not granted probation, the penalty for involuntary manslaughter is two, three or four years. The jury also found that Mehserle used a gun in the course of killing Grant. For this he can get an additional three, four or 10 years. Thus at sentencing on August 6th Meherse is facing up to 14 years in prison.

A jury of eight women and four men was selected in the Los Angeles murder trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle for the New Years Day 2009 Oakland murder of Oscar Grant. The trial was moved away from Oakland where racial tensions are high over the shooting by the white BART police officer of the African American youth. The jury includes seven whites, four Hispanics and one East Indian.

The shooting which was caught on a number of cell phone cameras gained nationwide attentions after the videos were distributed through the internet and television.

It is outrageous that no African Americans are on the jury. Los Angeles was chosen, in part, for the trial because, like Oakland, it has a high percentage of African Americans. Even if the jury is fair it gives the appearance of a set up. Remember the trial in the Rodney King case where the trial was moved to a nearly all white suburb of Los Angeles. Whether it is true or not it makes it look like the prosecution is in collusion with the defense to throw the trial.

Oakland, California voters, last week, overwhelmingly imposed a 1.8 percent gross receipts tax on medical marijuana dispensaries according to an article in the Huffington Post. Eighty per cent of those voting approved the tax. Oakland is the first city in the county to pass a local tax on marijuana. The tax is in addition to the state sales sale paid by marijuana purchasers. There are four medical marijuana dispensaries in Oakland selling marijuana to people who qualify under the state’s medical marijuana statute. The measure which was proposed by the dispensaries as a way to give back to the community and help fill the gap in the city’s budget is expected to raise $294,000 for the city in its first year. The measure takes effect on January 1.

The medical marijuana community hopes to use the tax to promote further legalization of marijuana. One study showed that a statewide tax on marijuana currently pending in the state legislature could raise 1.3 billion dollars.