Oscar Grant’s Family Heartbroken by Verdict
Los Angeles, Calif. — Anger. Rage. Disappointment. Pain. Heartbreak. These were some of the emotions expressed by the family of Oscar Grant after the verdict was read at the criminal trial of Johannes Mehserle, the White Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer charged with shooting and killing the Black man in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, 2009.
In less than a week the non-African-American jury came back with an involuntary manslaughter conviction of Mehserle for shooting the 22-year-old Grant in the back as he lay face down at a BART station in Oakland, Calif. Contempt for the verdict, which came down at the end of the day on July 8, came swiftly.
“It’s an injustice,” said Jack Bryson, whose son, Jack Bryson Jr., testified in the racially-tinged trial that received national media attention. “It was done to Sean Bell. It was done to Oscar Grant. There is no justice. This just gives them (law enforcement) a free pass to do whatever they want.”
GWOP MAGAZINE 