Mehserle's claim that the shooting was accidental may be plausible, he said, but Grant is dead and someone needs to be held accountable for that. If the shoe were on the other foot, and the victim was a white guy, regardless of the cop's race, someone would surely answer for it, Reeves said.
Tears don't convince
The former police officer's teary-eyed explanation from the witness stand last week did nothing to change Reeves' opinion of the case. If anything, it only hardened his well-founded cynicism toward the justice system.
"I've seen a lot of brothers who offered tearful apologies," he said. "They weren't cops, and they received the maximum sentence."
Oakland not villain
For scores of people in the Bay Area, the videotaped killing of Grant is the Bay Area equivalent of the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. To them, the Grant video is the latest in a pattern of African American residents being abused by government authorities who are sworn to protect them.
Still, while there will almost surely be some public reaction to the Mehserle verdict on the streets of Oakland, about the only thing more discouraging to some than absolving the former officer of blame and responsibility would be to vent that anger at the struggling city of Oakland and its residents.