Winds of Change?

Oscar Grant, a 22 year old man and father of a four-year-old daughter, went out to celebrate the New Year's like millions of others across the globe. The difference between Oscar and everyone else is that Oscar was shot in the back and killed by a Bay Area police officer while lying handcuffed, face down on the platform of a BART metro. He died in the early morning hours of January 1st, 2009.

While raw footage and eye-witness accounts of the shooting point towards the officer murdering Grant, BART authorities are still investigating the shooting:

There has been speculation that Mehserle [the officer who shot and killed Grant] may have believed he was reaching for his Taser to stun Grant rather than reaching for his gun to shoot him. To Burris [civil rights attorney for the family of Oscar Grant] such a distinction is not that important.

"If the officer had a Taser and he thought he was pulling it, to me that's still a criminal act," Burris said. "It means you're negligent, as opposed to knowing you pulled your gun." That, he said, would be "murder."

"I don't want to believe that an officer would just kill someone this way," said Burris, who called on BART officials to say whether Mehserle carried a Taser. "On the other hand, I'm not going to disbelieve my eyes either."

Grant had been celebrating New Year's Eve in San Francisco and was heading back to his East Bay home on a BART train when a fight broke out between two groups of riders about 2 a.m.

BART police met the train at Oakland's Fruitvale station and ordered passengers -- including Grant -- onto the platform.

Video taken by spectators with cellphones shows a chaotic scene, with uniformed officers pulling riders out of a train and then shoving one man onto the ground. While that man is face down, an officer stands over him, pulls his gun and shoots...

...According to the claim filed Tuesday, Grant was unarmed "and offered no physical resistance" to BART officers.

Here is the video of the shooting. Please be cautious, as the video could disturb some viewers.

The family of Oscar Grant is currently filing a $25 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency. For more information, please click here to view the article by the LA Times.

For updates, please click here.

Headlines, 9-25-08

"Obama calls on McCain to keep Friday Debate Date," LA Times.

Either McCain has the worst campaign manager ever or he is afraid to debate Barack Obama or he truly wants to lose the election. Or, all of the above.

"NYPD investigates two officers in Taser death of naked Brooklyn man," Daily News.

The NYPD lieutenant who ordered the second officer to Taser Inman Morelas was stripped of his badge and gun and assigned to desk duty. Yet another example of persistant problems with NYPD officers' aggression towards minorities.

"Energy Drinks can cause caffine intoxication," LA Times.

Lay off the caffine. From the LA Times, "Caffeine intoxication is a recognized clinical syndrome. It is described as nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremors, rapid heartbeat, restlessness and pacing. In rare cases, caffeine intoxication can cause death."

"Judge Orders Mistrial in P2P Piracy Case," PCMag.com.

From PCMAg.com, "Jammie Thomas, who was ordered to pay $222,000 to a group of music labels for allegedly pirating songs using the Kazaa peer-to-peer service, has been granted a new trial...The key word and definition was 'distribution,' which both the labels and Thomas' lawyers disputed. Both sides agreed that the only copying of files in the case was by MediaSentry, a firm hired by the labels to seek out pirates. The lawyers for Thomas had argued that a copyright holder or its agent, MediaSentry, can not infringe its own copyright."

"Johnny Depp Signs on to bring back Captain Jack in 'Pirates 4,'" MTV.

Oh, please. Give it a rest. The man is 45 years old and his most famous role is a pirate with make-up and the movie is based off of a roller coaster. Time to move on.