Photo du Jour 516
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Tiger Woods In "Serious" Condition After Car Crash
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SFist Interviews: John Ortved, Author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
Former Bart officer Johannes Mehserle was back in court today in order to ask a judge for bail. If you recall, the 27-year-old disgraced cop pleaded not guilty to the murder of Oscar Grant. He is currently residing in the clink. Oscar Grant, as you all know by now, was shot and killed at the Fruitvale Station platform on New Year's Day as he was cuffed and pinned to the ground. Then, people rightfully freaked the fuck out, white college students feverishly fetishized the plight of black people, somebody erroneously claimed that "we are all Oscar Grant," and Cindy Sheehan presumably shed crocodile tears about horror of it all. But the good news about all of this, if any, is that Bart police have claimed that they will sharpen their sloppy police force. According to a Chronicle report, Bart botched the Grant investigation. Big time.
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You misspelled "intentionally sabotaged."
Somos todos bored shitless with all this hysteria.
He was in uniform at the time. He was responding to a call of a disturbance at the time. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Once the circus atmosphere, moral indignation and chest pounding subside he will be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, gun license revoked, 3 yr suspended sentence and maybe a few months in jail for window dressing.
If he's already sitting in jail he will get time served and move his family far away from here and spend the rest of his life in therapy.
That's a pretty reasonable assessment.
But how about we move away from concentrating on the circus of foregone conclusions. What about O. Grant's family, their grief, their settlement? What about Bart's police force? What will satisfy this community?
Anything less than what OJ has endured will be a travesty.
That only solves the Mehrsele portion of the issue.
BART is systemically flawed when it comes to their internal police force. I cannot count how many times I've seen 3 BART cops at the Coliseum Station standing around together downstairs while there are roaming gangs on the platform harassing passengers and travelers (great first impression for those just arriving into OAK trying to get to SF). As with any systemic issues, they need to do a house cleaning, create policies with teeth and then enforce them.
Same thing goes for MUNI, SFPD, Oakland PD and any other governmental agency that has stuck its head in the sand instead of facing the ills that face it and addressing them head on.
BART has plenty of 6 figure smart people who are paid to address these issues. It's time they earned their fat paychecks and step up or step aside and let people like me fix it for them.
Willingness is 99% of the problem here. BART senior management has to have the will to change what needs to be changed or nothing will be done.
Don't you mean "disgraced ex-cop"?
Why are Cindy's tears "crocodile tears?"
She's one of the most genuine people I've met. Give her a chance.
Really? No mention of Sfist's initial reaction to this whole fiasco, as being just some sort of fatal misunderstanding between a cop and innocent? Nothing? huh.