Los Angeles, CA —The trial of Bay Area Rapid Transit cop, Johannes Mehserle has been removed from Oakland to be tried here. Mehserle is the young cop who shot and killed Oscar Grant on a transit platform on New Year’s Day in 2009. Grant was being subdued and handcuffed by several officers when Mehserle removed his service weapon from its holster and shot Grant in the back. It sounds so simple but it’s not. The shooting of Oscar Grant was a YouTube Sensation because several people in the hostile crowd pulled out cell-phone video cameras and captured the incident. They quickly posted the videos on YouTube with their own misleading and incendiary commentary. In the past 40 years police agencies all over have experimented and deployed all manner of non-lethal gizmos and sprays as an alternative to force that will seriously injure or kill. Quite popular are the Tazer stun guns with police administrators and local politicians. I have taken exception to this device for a lot of reasons. Th...