In other words, while it’s clear that Oscar was innocently killed, it’s hard to tell if Mehserle is a bad guy or was criminally inept. It’s hard to tell if he’s a product of a racist system or an isolated racist – or even a racist at all. It’s hard to tell exactly what caused Mehserle to fire the gun, and exactly what it means – and thus, exactly what should be done about it.
And even if Mehserle is “evil,” what would justice be? To execute him? To jail him for life? To pay Oscar’s family $25 million in restitution, as they’ve sued for? Will it be working to prevent this from happening again? And how will we do this? By firing the police chief? By dismantling the police force? By outlawing guns? By working with the community? How, specifically, do we fix the conditions in which Oscar was killed?
Unlike Slumdog, the social ills that Oscar’s shooting exposes can’t be solved quickly and easily, by an appearance on a game show. While we should hold tight to the hopeful idealism which makes Slumdog such a wonderful film in such hard times, while we should strive for a more just world that Obama's election represents, we should also not ignore the gritty realities we face, realities which Oscar's death push in our face. And as we strive for that more just world, let’s make sure that we are just in the face of this injustice.
This historic week, let's consider what Martin Luther King in “Justice Without Violence,” asked us: “How will the struggle for justice be waged?”
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