Wednesday, January 14, 2009

BART executioner arrested

Johannes Mehserle arrested for murder in Nevada, currently being held with no bail for extradition to California. It's a first step towards trying this man in a court of law rather than in the court of public opinion. But it's only a first step. We'll have to see whether the criminal "justice" system actually does its job here and actively prosecutes Mr. Mehserle as vs. going through the motions for PR purposes. I have my doubts.

Still, given what usually happens here in the Bay Area when a cop shoots a minority in the back and kills him (i.e., nothing), this is highly unusual. I've never seen this happen in the SF Bay Area, in fact. So I have just one question for you: Do you really believe this would have happened if not for days of protests and rioting in Oakland?

I swear, our leaders make it hard to be non-violent these days. It seems that violence is the only thing they understand, the only thing that'll make them do the right thing. Which is not a good thing for the nation at all, since if violence is the only way for people to make their will known to their supposed representatives, violent people will be those who have the most power in our new "Mexico North"...

-- Badtux the Non-Violent Penguin

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1 comment:

  1. James F. Elliott14/1/09 11:43 AM

    Short answer: Probably not. I had a professor in grad school who was at USC during the Watts riots. She said, "Do you think those people would have the services they do now if they hadn't burned that fucker to the ground? That's what's wrong with your generation: you need to learn some constructive violence and stir some shit up if you ever want to make some change."

    She may have referred to my generation as a "bunch of pussies," actually, but I can't recall that part of the conversation accurately.

    Hell hath no fury like an angry 4'11" Latina.

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