The case has often been made here that ordinary people should not be allowed to carry weapons because they, unlike police officers, are not held to public account.
I've always thought that was a very poor joke:
Los Angeles (CNN) -- A former transit police officer convicted last year in the shooting death of an unarmed man on an Oakland, California, train platform was freed from prison early Monday morning, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
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Johannes Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison for the involuntary manslaughter conviction, but California law gave him one day of good conduct credit for each of the 365 days he served behind bars, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry said in a court order he signed last week.
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Violent protests erupted in Oakland last November when Perry sentenced Mehserle to just two years in prison, which meant he could be released after another seven months.
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Although his defense attorney argued for probation, Mehserle told Perry before sentencing that he would be willing to go to prison if the sentence made his city and family safer.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/13/california.subway.shooting.release/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 Let's see, we have a videotape of a cop shooting an unarmed man in the back. He admits he did it. There is public outrage. After the verdict, the convicted felon essentially gives the judge permission to send him to prison. The judge manages to sentence him to all of 2 years, and he serves 1 year.
Now let's imagine that you or I shot an unarmed man in the back, that the shooting was totally unjustified, that it was captured on tape, and that there was tremendous public outcry.
(If you think either of us could get out in one year, meditate on my sig line.)
Who's really accountable?
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