Los Angeles activists rallied outside of the criminal courthouse this morning where a judge ordered the early release of Johannes Mehserle. The former Bay Area transit officer was released moments after midnight from a private exit at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown LA. He served just over 11 months of his two-year sentence.
Mehserle was convicted last July for the involuntary manslaughter of unarmed Oscar Grant on an Oakland BART train platform on New Year’s Day 2009. The Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant along with Grant’s family and friends held a vigil outside of the jail last night with the hopes of confronting Mehserle. They say justice was denied them in what they call a racially charged incident which led to unrest in the Bay Area. Pacifica’s Ernesto Arce files this report from Los Angeles.