I spent a few hours this afternoon crafting the RE:NEW project semi-monthly newsletter, and just as I was getting ready to send it out my twitter feed started lighting up with news about the impending verdict in the Johannes Mesherle trial. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year and a half since the tragic shooting death of Oscar Grant, while in handcuffs, at the hands of a BART police officer.
At the moment of this writing, the community’s response has largely been peaceful and restrained. Many are disappointed in the verdict of involuntary manslaughter, believing that it was a failure on the part of the justice system. Regardless of whether it’s right to do so, this trial and the subsequent verdict have quickly become a referendum on the American justice system and its’ relationship with the African American community, specifically young black men.
I’m not prepared to issue a statement favoring either side of the debate. I don’t know the evidence in this specific incident, and I can’t get inside the head of Mesherle or the jurors to know what really happened leading up to this moment. I do, however, wish to state what I believe will always be the case when a people is faced with moments of historical consequence: that our response is very much a part of the event to which we are responding, and that a prayerful, prophetic dedication to peace for all will pierce the darkness of injustice far more effectively than angry reactions ever could.
This unique kind of resistance – the nonviolent activism championed by Dr. King and Gandhi – will always be the best response because it powerfully shines a light on the futility of violence. It is a beautiful, prophetic dissonance – a peculiar, strange chord that plays like a genius jazz riff against the ugly and monotonous drumbeat of war.
Do you want to make a difference? Take a stand for justice? Turn the other cheek. Fight injustice with love. Speak the truth with tenderness and conviction. Love your enemies and pray for the people who refuse you justice.
Pray for the peace of Oakland. Pray for justice.
