Todd Mehserle's Angry Internet History
Todd Mehserle, whose son Johannes is the BART officer who was captured on film shooting Oscar Grant as he lay unarmed and facedown on a subway platform, seems to have a long history of participation on internet message boards. Using information found on what appears to be Mehserle's Myspace page, we uncovered five years of his online commentary. Based on these statements, it seems that Mehserle is an outspoken conservative with a history of anger management issues.
There is a Myspace page for a Todd Mehserle from Napa that was last updated in 2007. Age, location, and family info shown on the Myspace page all match the known facts about Johannes Mehserle's father. This Myspace page was created using the username "tjsails1." A quick google search reveals that the "tjsails1" username was also used to make 21 posts on the Netscape NewsForum in the months surrounding the 2004 elections. In one of these posts "tjsails1" identifies themselves as coming from Napa Valley, further linking the comments to Todd Mehserle.
On the Netscape NewsForum "tjsails1" got into heated arguments with liberals whom he described as "cry babies" and "red diaper doper bab[ies]." His posts are riddled with poor spelling and sexual comments about Bill Clinton. If these posts are indeed the work of Todd Mehserle, many of them give insight into his worldview.
In one of his posts on the forum, "tjsails1" reveals his support for authoritarian regimes:
"A Big Brother is what we need in this country with all of you having your heads so far in the sand about the real dangers this country is facing..."
In another post, "tjsails1" compares inner city violence to the war in Iraq while discussing his opinion of President George W. Bush, whom he describes as "like Johnny appleseed of democracy [sic]:"
"There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of January..... In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January... Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!"
Todd's Myspace also contains a photo album that appears to feature several pictures of Johannes as a young boy. The photo album was created on Slide.com using the username "tmehserle." Based on the location info, it seems that Todd Mehserle also used this username to post on various Bay Area sailing sites and to create a profile on ebay. This username was also used to respond to a post on a Hollywood Gossip blog about the execution of Saddam Hussein with a comment saying that "Sadamm was a piece of human excrament [sic]." Interestingly, the posts attributed to "tmehserle" on the sailing forums lack the spelling errors that run rampant in all of the political commentary that can be linked to Todd Mehserle.
The most revealing statement we found online isn't linked to any of the usernames connected to his Myspace page. A poster who identified themself as "Todd Mehserle" responded to a comment thread on the website for the Fox News show On The Record With Greta Van Susteren by describing his experience with anger management therapy:
"I am the beneficiary of a year (52 classes) of anger management that took two years to complete more than 15 years ago. The class and my efforts saved our marriage. We have three wonderful grown children and I am lucky to have a wonderful wife who gave me the time to grow(up).
It is true that for the first period of time one wonders how the class will help. Denial is easy early into the class. At 30-40 weeks it all began to come clear and by the last few classes I saw who I was now and who I used to be, by looking at the new entrants who truly needed to be there.
All it takes is a responsible facilitator for the course and the participant to be able to tell the truth about what hurts them inside. That and learning all the steps to violence is liberating. Stuff doesnt just happen! That said we must always be viligent to remember our lifes lessons."
It's impossible to say with absolute certainty whether or not this post (or any of the others for that matter) is from the same Todd Mehserle whose son is involved in the BART shootings, but the name and number of children match up. Obviously, Todd Mesherle's beliefs and temperament don't necessarily reflect on his son, but since Johannes Mesherle hasn't been called in for questioning and so little information has been released about him, we did some digging. We have attempted to reach Todd Mehserle to discuss this post via email and telephone, but his cell phone and land line seem to be disconnected. As of this writing, Todd Mehserle has not responded to our emailed request for comment.