BART shooting

I forgot to post something on the tragic shooting of Oscar Grant last week, but Radley Balko has done a fine job of summarizing my immediate thoughts after seeing the video:

Mehserle’s body language after he fires the shot to me indicates panic and confusion, not satisfaction at having just carried out a deliberate execution, as some local politicians have portrayed it. I find the explanation that Mehserle thought he he had grabbed his taser to be not only plausible, but likely.

When you watch the video, the officer looks wide eyed up, at the gun in his hand, and then down. He looks like a guy who doesn’t know what just happened.

Now, this doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get off scot free. He’s clearly guilty of, at the least, involuntary manslaughter. But this doesn’t look to me like it’s a case of outright police brutality or willful murder. Just incompetence. Equally sad; not equally criminal.