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Johannes Mehserle, the Oakland California Police Officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on January 1st 2009, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison. Mehserle was credited 292 days of time served. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry could have imposed a much lengthier sentence by including a gun enhancement to Mehserle’s conviction of involuntary manslaughter. However Judge Perry chose not to, apparently due to the jury’s finding that Mehserle mistakenly used his gun, instead of his taser, when he shot Grant in the back at point-blank range. The Christian Science Monitor reports that involuntary manslaughter convictions usually receive sentences of at least 4 years. At the hearing, Mehserle asserted that racism was not a factor in his actions saying, “This had to do with Oscar Grant’s actions and my reaction to it.” When Judge Perry announced the sentence it is reported that Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, shouted in dismay, “He got nothing! He got nothing!”, after leaving the courtroom. Outside of the courthouse Grant’s uncle, Bobby Cephus Johnson said, “I do believe it’s a racist criminal justice system.” A demonstration in Oakland followed the sentencing, with a few hundred people marching to the Fruitvale BART train station, where Grant was killed. The San Francisco Bay Area National Lawyer’s Guild released a statement yesterday denouncing the Oakland police department’s reaction to the march and treatment of peaceful protesters. It accuses the police of arresting a Lawyer’s Guild Observer and an estimated 150 marchers, and holding them in violation of their rights.

GUEST: Thandisizwe Chimurenga, KPFK Programmer, and an embedded journalist with the LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant

Sign the Ella Baker Center’s petition to pressure Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute Mehserle in Federal Court: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/eric_holder_prosecute_mehserle_in_federal_court

Find out more about the case at http://wearealloscargrantcv.blogspot.com. Follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/weareoscargrant.

Follow our guest Thandi Chimurenga on Twitter at www.twitter.com/OscarGrantTrialLA