Hey all:
This is not going to be my usual all inspiring post. I am extremely disappointed, possbily because of a night of heated discussions with friends of mine, while on vacation. Topics that ranged from a young man being arrested for an incident that started with him wearing sagging pants, to the recent Terrell Pryor mayhem, to gentricfication, education etc. It was interesting because normally our conversations are never up on this level, we spend more time catching up than debating anything. But it put me in a mood. Here we are ranging from our early to late 20s about to embark on huge changes in each of our lives and we're having debates that have perplexed many for years.
One of the conversations that came up was the recent release of Johannes Mehserle- the former BART Officer who shot and killed an unarmed Oscar Grant on NYE 2009 in Oakland California. Johannes Mehserle was covicted of involuntary manslaughter a charge that would give him 2 years in prison, and eventually a coviction that he ultimately served less than a year for. It's disappointing because there are countless shootings that happen by the people that are supposed to make sure the rest of us are safe and whether or not he intended to kill Oscar Grant, Mehserle DID kill him. Here we are "making an example" out of Michael Vick (who killed dogs, not people), Plaxico Burress (who shot himself), but a man who killed an unarmed person, by a gun shot to the back is able to not only walk with a slap on the wrist, but also not serve his full sentence.
I know stories like this put the activist in me on a tight line that I have to be careful of what I say and how I say it as I do not want to discredit my beliefs in the past or in the future, but it is during times like this that you do have to take a look at what you think and sort of evolve in thought. I am well aware that there is a system in place that favors people of a certain race, or financial background. It is frustrating to me that Another young Black man is dead at the hands of "justice" and yet it seems to me that justice was not at all served. But if the roles had been reversed if Oscar Grant was Mehserle the book would have been thrown at him.
And now there is another complex layer being added to this story. Which I still think only continues to highlight the disparities amongst the way we treat our convicted felons etc. I read an article this morning in the online source "Color Lines" the article titled " Former Transit Cop Johannes Mehserle has retail dreams" . Any article with his name in it automatically peaks my interest- especially given that I made my return to the Bay the very day he was released from jail. Anyways, the article does comment on the short sentence and the crime for which he was charged, but what was really interesting was that the article highlights an issue that I think is very telling of our society. It takes on the perspective of "Re-entry" in terms of prisoners into society. The purpose of jail as I had grown up understanding is that it is a place for rehabilitation- there is a reason why these men and women are being locked up and kept away, and being in jail or prison is a way to correct that reason. To be able to rehabilitate these people into the society that they left. That by the time the are released it should be as if they had never left. What the world is starting to see and what I have been reading however is the concrete jungle is a lucrative business, it costs much more to keep a person in jail than to educate them, but the money that is made through the prison system is like no other business venture here in the US. The system is set up to essentially return these criminals back into the jails and priosns they left. Having a felony on your record doesn't make it easier for you to find a job- even though you aren't supposed to be discriminated against because of it. Which is what this article focuses on. Having a criminal record is a stigma , a blemish and something that takes years to get away from. It is something that prevents a lot of released convicts from being able to remove the stain of their crime from themseleves. It prevents them from being able to earn a job, it prevents them from having some of the luxaries that those of us "non-criminals" get to enjoy everyday. I'm not saying that this is something that needs to be changed, because at the end of the day you are a criminal. But when we talk about "rehabilitation" what are we talking about? Because while the criminals are learning how to become re-acclimated to their previous lifestyle, we are constantly pushing out ways to "send them back." Johannes Mehserle has dreams of going into sales- retail, and he should the likelihood of him getting this job and "moving on" with his life is prtty high. And he should be able to- he was sentenced of a crime, and did his time (unfortunately not the full length of his time, but he did it), so rehabilitation if established correctly would mean that Mehserle will be able to move forward and "re-enter" society as if he never left. The truth is he'll have an easier time to do that than others.. But don't take my word for it.. read the article and tell me what you think...http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/06/johannes_mehserle_released_from_jail_wants_to_find_a_job_in_retail.html
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