LOS ANGELES — A white former transit officer was sentenced to the minimum possible prison sentence of two years Friday for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform, angering the victim's family and friends, who demanded a much harsher punishment.
The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence that many thought was too light.
Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, shouted, "Oh my!" when Superior Court Judge Robert Perry issued the two-year sentence. She burst out of the courtroom saying, "He got nothing! He got nothing!"
Grant's uncle, Bobby Cephus Johnson, said outside court: "I do believe it's a racist criminal justice system."
Still, he said the family was reacting calmly but added he could not comment for others.
"I have no power over what people feel their matter of expression should be," he said.
Some of the dozens of people who gathered outside Oakland City Hall for a tribute to victim Oscar Grant broke into tears when they learned of the judge's decision. Outside the Los Angeles courthouse, a small crowd that had earlier shouted "No justice, no peace" reacted relatively calmly to the sentence.
Well Does the justice system really work for your average guy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment