SAN LEANDRO COP BEING PROSECUTED FOR BAD TACTICS

by Bob Walsh

I lived in San Leandro (CA) for 20 years.  I grew up there.  I liked it but it was an odd place.  It is right next to Oakland but it was either a White enclave or a White ghetto depending on how you looked at it.  It isn't that way now, but it was for many years.  The ten years I went to school there there was one Black kid in my school (not my class but the whole school) for 1/2 of one year.  That was it.  Nobody would sell houses to Black people to live in San Leandro.  Be that as it may.

On April 18 of this year Steven Taylor, 33, who is Black, was shot to death by a San Leandro cop in the Walmart there.  The cop is being charged with manslaughter.

California law now requires that peace officers may "use deadly force only when necessary in defense of human life."  That has been true since Janauary 1, courtesy AB392.  The law also states that offices "shall use other available resources and techniques if reasonably safe."

Fletcher was in possession of a baseball bat that he refused to drop.  Officer Jason Fletcher shot him about 40 seconds into the encounter, just as back-up was running thru the front door.   Officer Fletcher had lit Taylor up with a Taser, with limited effect.  He did NOT drop the bat.

Fletcher is the first cop in Alameda County to be charged criminally in an on-duty shooting since 2009 when BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot Oscar Grant to death when he drew his handgun instead of his Taser, allegedly by accident.  Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Officer Fletcher's lawyer has pointed out that the new law does not require that police officers allow suspects to beat them to death and further pointed out that a baseball bat is without a doubt a deadly weapon.  The lawyer, Michael Rains, is well known for defending police officers in use-of-force cases.