72 Days Later

[Trigger warning for police brutality, violence, murder.]

Former police officer Johannes Mehserle, who executed Oscar Grant, an unarmed young man, two years ago, was convicted of manslaughter, and subsequently sentenced to 72 days plus time served, is now a free man.

In related news, Oscar Grant is still dead.

Injustice always makes me angry—but this case, this perfect microcosm of the whirling clusterfuck that is the US' fascistic empowerment of its police, its enthrallment by and privileging of authority, its fetishization of weaponry, its disdain of empathy, and its deeply ingrained racism, gets under my skin deep.

It isn't right! my every cell screams in rage and horror. It isn't right!

And I fear that this story isn't over. I fear for Johannes Mehserle, upon whom I wish no good will, but no violence, either. I hope he is allowed to live with a present mind a very long life, each day of which brings thoughts of the life he took, of the life that Oscar Grant was not allowed to live.

RIP Oscar.