Release of Johannes Mehserle sparks new outrage

On June 9, the Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, along with community supporters and other activists staged a protest at the corner of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards to condemn Mehserle’s exit from a Los Angeles jail early Monday morning.

Armed with signs reading “Stop Killer Cops,” protesters chanted “Killer cop Mehserle, we won’t forget, we won’t back down.” Jubilee Shine, of the Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, called Mehserle’s release “a travesty of justice. It is a perversion. The community has no confidence in the court system to protect us against abusive, violent police officers in California.”

A woman who identified herself as Lala, a member of the Black Riders Liberation Party, agreed, saying that change can only come through civilians who are fed up with officers “constantly terrorizing us. If we don’t stop this now, there are going to be more and more brothers and sisters being killed. What are we going to do? Are we going to continue to let them kill our people? Or are we going to do something about it? Black Riders is going to do something. It is up to the people to stand up and do something with us.”

The group reassembled Saturday for an emergency town hall meeting at the Southern California Library, and again Monday morning at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, where Mehserle’s trial was held. This was followed by a march to a nearby U.S. Department of Justice building, where demonstrators attempted to put pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder, who has initiated an investigation into the case.

“Mehserle has done less than half the sentence Mike Vick served for animal abuse,” Shine said. “We demand that … federal charges of civil rights violations be brought. We further announce the initiation of a campaign in Los Angeles to establish Community Control Over the Police in the form of an all-elected, all-civilian, police control board with full authority over the LAPD in all aspects, at all levels.”

In a letter to the Justice Department, Rep. Maxine Waters, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote, “I write with grave concern for the events and procedure surrounding the People of the State of California v. Mehserle. This case, involving a Caucasian police officer’s brutal shooting of an unarmed … African-American male, has further exacerbated tensions between California’s communities of color and law enforcement authorities,” she wrote to Holder, noting that she is in full support of Rep. Barbara Lee’s request for a federal investigation into the activities preceding and following the Mehserle verdict.

Civilian Police International employee pleads guilty to engaging ...

Ryan Scott McMonigle of Oklahoma, worked for CPI in Kabul. He admitted that he assisted in the solicitation of a kick back from a private security vendor involved with protecting USAID personnel and contractors under the AIRP contract.

Ironically, CPI’s website states; “CPI stresses discipline, integrity, accountability, ethics…”

Or should that read….”getting contracts no matter what is involved”.

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