It’s the night of April 4, 1968.  A 9 (and almost 1/2) year old boy is watching a program on a black and white television set in his home in the mid-town area of Memphis, Tennessee.  Suddenly, the screen changes to the Civil Defense logo and he hears a voice saying:

Will all members of the National Guard please report to the Armory and all police and fire personnel please report to their stations.

Normal programming resumed.  Then, all of the sudden, or so it seemed, President Lyndon Baines Johnson came on the television saying:

I come to you tonight with a heavy heart…

And everything changed.

Back to the present…

A white former transit officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter yesterday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform.  That 2009 encounter set off days of rioting in the racially polarized city.

Prosecutors had sought  a murder conviction for Johannes Mehserle in the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot as he lay face-down.

Mehserle was handcuffed and led away after the verdict. He faced his family and mouthed, “I love you, guys.”  His parents cried when the verdict was delivered.  Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, stared at the jurors and appeared upset.

As the jurors were polled on their decision, one female juror wiped away her tears with a tissue

Police in riot gear were deployed on the streets of Oakland on the east side of San Francisco Bay.

A crowd gathered near Oakland City Hall moaned  and cussed in disappointment as they heard the verdict.   A dozen people formed a semicircle to pray.

 Amber Royal, 23, of Oakland commented:

It’s not real, it’s not real. Where’s the justice? He was killed in cold blood.

Grant family attorney John Burris said the family was “extremely disappointed”.

Burris said:

This verdict is not a true representation of what happened to Oscar Grant and what happened to him that night. This was not a voluntary manslaughter case.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put out a statement urging Californians to remain calm and not resort to violence.  Schwarzenegger informed Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums the state was well prepared to assist in maintaining order.

The jury had to make a choice between murder and lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

The jury consisted of eight women and four men.   There were no black jurors.   Seven were white, three were Latino, and one was Asian-Pacific. One declined to state their race. They were escorted from the courthouse under tight security.

Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of two to four years. The next hearing was set for Aug. 6.

The New Year’s Day incident was videotaped by at least five bystanders.  It turned into one of the most racially polarizing cases in California since four Los Angeles officers were acquitted in 1992 in the beating of Rodney King.

The trial lasted three weeks during which prosecutors played videos by bystanders, and witnesses gave their testimonies about hearing the frightening gunshot that killed Grant.

28-year-old Mehserle testified that he struggled with Grant and saw him digging in his pocket as officers responded to reports of a fight at a train station.   Afraid that Grant may have a weapon, Mehserle said he moved to shock Grant with his Taser but pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead.

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein’s closing argument was that Mehserle let his emotions get the better of him and intended to shoot Grant with the handgun without justification.

Jackie Bryson, one of Grant’s friends,  testified that Mehserle said “(expletive) this” before he fired the fatal shot.

Defense attorney Michael Rains painted the shooting as a tragic accident. Rains argued Mehserle had no motive to shoot Grant, even though he was resisting arrest.

Rains also said Mehserle told one of the other transit policemen before the shooting: “Tony, Tony, Tony, I can’t get his hands. I’m going to tase him.”

Mehserle pleaded not guilty to murder.  He resigned from the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency after the shooting.

Fallout from the shooting arrived quickly in Oakland after the videos were shown on television and the Internet. The shooting itself and the fact that it took nearly two weeks to arrest Mehserle, caused a horrendous riot in the city.  Downtown businesses were damaged, cars were set ablaze and clashes erupted between protesters and police.

Grant had recently been released from jail   He had been sentenced to 16 months for a gun possession charge.  During his arrest, he ran from police and was subdued by an officer with a stun gun.

Grant became a martyr of sorts in a city where more than a third of residents are black. His image has been painted on buildings and storefront windows just like that of slain hometown rapper Tupac Shakur.

Grant’s family and friends have filed multimillion dollar lawsuits against the transit agency.  Only the mother of Grant’s daughter has reached a settlement.

Peaceful protests changed to violence after the sun went down as some people looted stores, smashed car windows, and threw powerful fireworks at police and lighting fires in trash cans.

Hundreds of police made more than 50 arrests, but they expected that number could double.

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts proclaimed in a televised news conference:.

This city is not the wild, wild West.  This city will not tolerate this activity.

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