OAKLAND -- A few hundred protesters marched peacefully through Oakland on Sunday on the eve of the release from jail of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed train rider Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009.
The rally began at BART's Fruitvale Station, the site of the shooting, before protesters walked to Broadway and 14th Street near City Hall, where they blocked the intersection.
A few nearby shopkeepers had boarded up their windows, and several had closed early, but protest organizers urged the crowd not to resort to violence.
Demonstrators hoisted signs, chanted "We are Oscar Grant," carried a coffin in a mock funeral procession, and busted open a piñata in the shape of a police cruiser. During the march, Oakland police detained a person suspected of spray-painting graffiti, a department spokeswoman said.
Among the protesters was Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother. She was with Grant's 6-year-old daughter, Tatiana, who received a $1.5 million settlement from BART.
"She was robbed of her father and I was robbed of a son," Johnson said. "I'm so grateful there's so many people here supporting us."
A judge sentenced Mehserle, 29, to two years in jail after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in July by a jury that rejected a murder charge.
Mehserle shot Grant while trying to handcuff him as he lay facedown on the Fruitvale Station platform. Another officer had ordered his arrest, saying he was obstructing the BART force's investigation into a fight aboard a train that had involved Grant.
Mehserle said he intended to subdue Grant with a Taser, but accidentally pulled and fired his pistol.
Mehserle's trial was moved to Los Angeles County, and he has been in jail there since he was convicted. When he is released today, he will have served 365 days in jail, including time before his conviction, and earned another 366 days of credit for good conduct.
Grant's family members, police watchdog groups and others do not believe Mehserle accidentally shot Grant. They say Mehserle's sentence was too lenient, though it was one of the heaviest punishments ever handed to a peace officer in the state after a fatal, on-duty shooting.
The activists say racial profiling contributed to the incident, which was captured on video by other BART riders, and that the shooting reflected a larger problem of police brutality against young men of color. Mehserle is white, and Grant was black.
While most protests related to the Grant case have been peaceful, some have escalated into vandalism and looting in downtown Oakland.
After Mehserle's conviction, his supporters also held public rallies to say he was being unfairly vilified for making a mistake while doing a dangerous job.
Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, whose legal fund paid for Mehserle's defense, said Sunday that Mehserle never received special treatment and his sentence was fair. More than two years after the shooting, he said, the protests are "accomplishing nothing."
"These people are trying to keep something stirred up that doesn't need to be stirred up," Cottingham said. "I know that Johannes is remorseful for what he's done."
E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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