Oakland was tense after Johannes Mehserle, a former white BART police officer who shot down unarmed black youth Oscar Grant, got off easy with just a seven months sentencing to jail.

Johannes Mehserle was to be tried for murder but the case was watered down to one of involuntary manslaughter. Judge Robert Perry of the Los Angeles Superior said that the 28-year-old cop had bungled his gun with his Taser , and when he thought he was aiming the Taser at Oscar Grant he actually shot him in the back. Hope the cop swallows a grenade thinking it is food.

Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson was gutted by the verdict which made a mockery of his nephew’s death and let off trigger happy cop Johannes Mehserle. He termed the court a sell-out and said it was a totally racist and unjust judicial system.

The move is sure to add unrest to the Bay Area which is seething with anger at justice being denied. The white transit officer gunned down Oscar Grant on a train platform, and critics say that the officer had a criminal disregard for human life if he used guns instead of Tasers “unwittingly”.

The police was called in during an incident of rioting, but instead of showing restraint to make peace prevail, their gun rage cost a life. Poet Benjamin Zephaniah was scarred by a similar incident when a mother called in the police to bring her son under control but the preventive measure went awry. She watched in horror as the police arrived and shot down her son like a rabid dog.

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