LESSON #1 – Don’t take the authorities for granted.  Do whatever is necessary for you to survive an encounter with the Legal Matrix! Comply, swallow your pride and hopefully that will be enough.

Example: 1

Oscar Grant, 22, was shot in the back and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California.

According to Officer Mehserle, a call about a fight on a crowded transit car came through in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009. BART police officers detained Oscar Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station.  Grant and another man ran back onto the train after being detained, but Grant voluntarily returned to the platform when Officer Tony Pirone grabbed the other man and dragged him from the train.  Pirone handcuffed Grant’s friend, angering other riders who were yelling adding to an already chaotic situation. Pirone then lined up Grant and two other men against the wall.

Grant, upon hearing that he was under arrest, attempted to stand up to his feet. He was forced back to the ground face first. Both Officer Mehserle and Officer Pirone attempted to restrain Mr. Grant and to seek his compliance by ordering him to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but Mr. Grant resisted and refused to submit to handcuffing. Officer Mehserle was pulling at Mr. Grant’s right hand and arm, which remained under his torso near his waistband. Mr. Grant had not been searched by any officer for weapons, either prior to his initial detention or after being seated near the wall. Again this is Officer Mehserle’s account of the events.

A cell-phone video broadcasted on television nationwide showed what appeared to be Pirone rushing towards Grant and punching him in the face several times two minutes before he was shot.  Pirone’s attorney stated that Grant provoked Pirone by trying to “knee the officer in the groin and by hitting Officer Marysol Dominici’s arm when she attempted to handcuff one of Grant’s friends.” Witnesses testified that Pirone was the aggressor during the incident.

Additional cell phone footage showed Pirone standing over the prone Grant before the shooting and yelling: “Bitch-ass nigger.” Pirone and his attorney say he was parroting an epithet that Grant had said to him.

The most damaging video footage showed Mehserle, who is white, firing one round into the back of Oscar J. Grant III, who was black.  Grant was lying face-down on the Fruitvale Station platform when he was shot.  Officer Mehserle stood, drew his gun and shot Grant once in the back. Grant was unarmed.

The shooting immediately triggered rioting and, more recently, more than 150 demonstrators were arrested in Oakland during protests over the TWO-YEAR prison sentence handed down to the former police officer.  Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry said that the evidence in the racially charged case showed that the shooting was an accident caused when Mehserle mistakenly reached for a firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon he meant to use.

The sentencing followed a tearful apology from Mehserle, who, handcuffed to a waist chain over his orange prison jumpsuit, insisted that the shooting was unintentional.  “I want to say how deeply sorry I am,” said Mehserle, 28.  “Nothing I could ever say or do could heal the wound I created.”

LESSON #2 – The Legal Matrix Has a Mind of Its’ Own.  ONE MAN GETS 2 YEARS FOR KILLING ANOTHER PERSON, ANOTHER MAN GETS 5 YEARS FOR LOOKING AT CHILD PORN.  Instead of spending too much energy fighting the system, PLAY THE GAME – It is what it is!

Example 2: It is what it is!
A former Democratic state assemblyman, who championed legislation to fight child pornography, was sentenced November 4, 2010 to a five-year term for viewing nude images of underage girls.

LESSON #3 – The Legal Matrix Does Not Discriminate.  If You Break the Law You Are Risking your Freedom.

Example 3: Everyone can go to jail!

Neil Cohen, 59, who represented Union County for 17 years, will serve a 5 year term in prison or a mental hospital after he plead guilty in April to endangering the welfare of a child (distribution of child pornography). He could be eligible for release and placed under intense supervision in several months. He resigned from the legislature after his July 2008 arrest.

The five-year term was negotiated as part of the plea. The former lawmaker admitted viewing images of young girls on computers in his legislative and law offices. 34 images of girls in stages of undress were found on the computers. Authorities matched some of the images to photos on the list of Missing and Exploited Children.


Keep these lessons in mind and, until next time, “Begin with the End in Mind” = Finish First!