Just Us

Here in Oakland, we sit quietly, awaiting a verdict from a courtroom in southern California. Closing arguments will be given this week in the trial of former BART police officer, Johannes Mehserle, who is accused of murdering Oscar, whom he was trying to arrest on New Year's Day 2009. That incident set off several nights of rioting in downtown Oakland, and subsequently the venue of the trial was changed. At this point, it's hard to imagine that any verdict won't bring some sort of tumult. Oakland's city officials are advising residents if possible to park cars in a secure location, remove large trash bins and report any vandalism or destruction once a verdict is announced.
These would be the same city officials who, last week, decided to lay off eighty officers from their city's police force. I don't claim to know what the proper verdict should be in the Mehserle case, nor do I have an answer to the crushing budget woes that create no-win scenarios like the one Oakland is currently facing. In Mayberry, the city council struggles with issues like whether or not a woman should be allowed to run for a seat. Their sheriff doesn't even carry a gun, and the deputy keeps his one bullet in his breast pocket to avoid any sort of comical misfire.
But we don't live in Mayberry. Just down the road, a man who was put in jail for offering to sell his baby daughter for twenty-five dollars in front of a Salinas Wal-Mart. Overnight, he was badly beaten by other inmates. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He wasn't from Mayberry. Let's hope he knows what he's talking about.