Does anyone else have an answer?

As to nonh’s comments, I think s/he should consider that perhaps there is a vicious cycle with the police and the black community. Certain cops have biasies about blacks and certain blacks have biasies about cops. When each does something to ‘confirm’ this bias, the cycle continues.

So what’s the answer then? I say start looking at people as individuals instead of cops, blacks, or any other group.

As one commentator say here recently: “It takes two to dance…” so why are you whistling Dixie when we’re sitting down for serious discussion? Paranoid?

Gungho – There’s alot of Bay Area dynamics in this case that make it different from ordinary police operations. It was a BART police officer, not an Oakland police officer.

real life, there is MUCH less police presence in the very bad areas of town. patrol officers who (are not crooked or looking for sex/drugs) would much rather ride around the better parts of town. mind you, the police you DO find in the bad parts of town are ready to rough you up.

It takes two to dance.

The Black community has a unreasonable high crimes against races other than Blacks. Many of these crimes never or hardly committed by other groups. These crimes require police to identify, arrest, and put to rest those who are danger to the general population.

Imagine when you have 10% of the population commit more than 50% of the crimes in this country. The tax payers have to pay police time, resource, and risk their lives and money to locate these criminals. How would you feel if 50% of the other groups commit crimes against your people and your people hardly commit crimes on them?

Well, not just Whites alone complaint Blacks are trouble in our society. The Hispanics, Arab, Indian, Native American, Asian, Pacific, and other Americans. Read the news, just acknowledge it. You people just need to behave, take care of your problem, povety, disease, crimes, and blames. Don’t just point finger and start think how to contribute to this society than taking in such as welfare, corruption, disruption, society unrest, anti-social, anti-government, anti-police, and stop saying people discriminate Blacks. You create discriminations based on the behaviors, results, problems, and back impression or images created on society and other people’s mind.

Did you know many of U.S.’s cities or certain part of cities are ran down by Blacks either w/ crimes, drugs, illegal, prosititution, pimp, and violent neighbors. Don’t you think people hate those? Don’t you think these people should have be legi and start their business, go to school, be scientists, doctors, lawyers, working professions but . . .

Hey, look at the mirror and reflect yourself. Should Oscar Grant and his group not fighting and causing disburance on and off the train, the police didn’t have to come, nobody has to spend the money to go court, public resource to clean up the mess of the riots created mostly by Blacks, and the cop doesn’t have to go to jail or his career or life not messed up. Because of thugs, he is over as far as his career and on going suffering down the line. We are living in a modernzie society and Grant and his group/gang made the police stress and caused accident. Hey, who’s fault? The other groups are doing things like this and create this friction.

I’m an East Bay resident. A friend of mine was on the Bart on New Year’s Day, when Oscar Grant was killed, and there were many other events. Criminals were running through the trains with guns. It was chaotic and insane, as the area is on holidays. I tend to keep it mum on New Year’s and July 4 for that reason.

Despite the initial ruling of 4 years, another charge was added on. Mehserle is going to get 4-15 years in prison for this. He’s going to be in prison around criminals who will know exactly who he is. His life is not going to be easy.

Last, all the notes about the case are accurate. From class/ethnic tensions to economic distress, all sorts of extraneous emotions were added on to this case. Those may have been a factor in Mehserle’s mind, who knows.

I’m thinking the best thing that a journalist could honestly do is to find and interview Mehserle a year or two from now, when the story is no longer at front and center and he is serving a sentence. With nothing to lose at that point, honesty may bear itself.