The Militant - April 20, 2009 -- Bay Area judge orders delay in killer cop’s trial

Vol. 73/No. 15 April 20, 2009

Bay Area judge orders
delay in killer cop’s trial

BY ERIC SIMPSON
OAKLAND, California—In the wake of the killing of four Oakland cops, an Alameda County judge ordered the delay of a pretrial hearing for the cop charged with killing Oscar Grant, an unarmed young Black man on New Year’s Day. At the March 23 hearing the attorney for the cop argued that under the circumstances antipolice passions might be inflamed by his plan for an “aggressive defense” of his client.

In the week leading up to the funerals for the four cops, government officials have blanketed local newspaper and television coverage with statements mourning the deaths and calls for support to the cops.

Grant, a 22-year-old apprentice butcher, and several friends, were taken off a Bay Area commuter train by transit cops while returning home after celebrating the New Year. He was struck by one of the cops and thrown face down on the transit station. With police lieutenant Anthony Pirone kneeling on his neck, Officer Johannes Mehserle stood above Grant and shot him in the back. After weeks of protests, the Alameda County district attorney ordered Mehserle’s arrest January 13. He is free on $3 million bail. No charges have been filed against the other cops who were present.

“I don’t want this to get put off over and over again,” Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, said outside the courtroom after Judge C. Don Clay granted a delay. “I think that justice needs to be served.” Family attorney John Burris said the hearing “will be based on the evidence that’s heard by the court… . We should have gone forward.” The hearing, which will determine whether Mehserle goes on trial for murder, is now scheduled for May 18.

Grant’s uncle, Daryl Johnson, told a local TV station, “He shot him in the back. There’s no defense for murder. Everyone sees it, everybody knows it. This is a joke.”

The postponement came at the request of Michael Rains, Mehserle’s defense attorney, whose firm is under contract to the Oakland Police Officers Association. Rains said he was unable to prepare for the hearing because of the shooting deaths of four Oakland cops two days before. Rains said he was personally close with two of them. “I don’t want to stumble or fumble through this case,” he stated.

Rains said the police department was not prepared to handle protests that might result from aggressive defense of his client. “To say that members of that department are not hard-pressed right now is an understatement,” he asserted. The prosecuting attorneys did not oppose the postponement.

The capitalist news media and government officials have taken advantage of the opportunity created by the killing of four Oakland cops by Lovelle Mixon, who was on parole, to portray them as heroes. Mixon, 26, was killed on the scene.

A featured column appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Oakland—it’s time to back the badge” encouraged people to attend a candlelight vigil for the cops at the site where two of them were killed. It also called on those who have protested the killing of Grant to join in or “nothing they have said or done to seek justice for Grant will amount to a hill of beans.”

The funeral for the cops March 27 was attended by thousands of police officers in uniform from around the country and broadcast live on local television. A delegation of Royal Canadian Mounted Police attended from Canada. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, state attorney general Edmund Brown, Jr., congressional representatives, and other politicians addressed the 19,000 people reportedly in attendance in front of the four flag-draped coffins. President Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence. The U.S. Congress on April 1 passed a resolution “honoring” the cops by a vote of 417-0.

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