involuntary manslaughter Options

[*futura*]

A jury found former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty Thursday of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that he did not intend to kill train rider Oscar Grant when he shot him in the back on New Year's Day 2009 but acted so recklessly that he showed a disregard for Grant's life.

The verdict was an all-but-unprecedented instance of a police officer being convicted for an on-duty shooting. But it deeply disappointed Grant's relatives, who said the video-recorded shooting was a murder and that Mehserle deserved a sentence years longer than the one he is likely to receive.

"My son was murdered," said Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse where the trial was moved to escape heavy publicity in the Bay Area. "He was murdered and the law has not held the officer accountable."

The jury also found that Mehserle, 28, had used a gun during the crime. In all, he could be sentenced to five to 14 years in prison.

[full story]

Anyone have thoughts about this?

[Matsumoto]

Well yeah you can get pulled over for not keeping up with traffic because you risk an accident by driving too slow.

I hate cops that do unnecessary shit. I got pulled over once from a cop that was driving the opposite way as me, jumped the median and almost slammed into the drivers side door. My friend has a motorcycle and was followed and almost run off the road by an undercover cop even though he was driving perfectly. He had to go to court and the cop ended up getting into a lot of trouble for it though. I also hate when cops use their sirens just to get through traffic or red lights and then shut them off when they should just wait.