black…MYstory

Last August, a 21-year-old Nigel Haskett, an employee at an Arkansas McDonald’s, came to the aid of a patron who was being assaulted by her boyfriend.  He succeeded in getting the man out of the door and stood in front of it to bar his entry.  The man then went to his car, got a gun and shot Haskett several times.

Nigel Haskett fought for his life and survived.  He is now fighting McDonald’s for $300,000 in worker’s comp claims to cover his medical expenses.   McDonald’s claims that it is right to deny Haskett coverage because, as a part of their 30-minute orientation, McDonald’s employees are supposedly informed that they are supposed to only call 911 in emergency situations.  However, in many instances, courts have sided with “good samaritans” in cases like this, especially when it would result in good will towards the employer.

Clearly, a case like this could have generated some rather positive press for McDonald’s, had they played their cards right.  Instead, they are now looking like an evil empire for denying claims to an employees hurt while trying to protect a McDonald’s customer.

I think McDonald’s will soon realize that what they will lose in good will and lost opportunity will soon exceed $300,000.

Update: Here’s a video of the incident in question.

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Last month, I posted a story about Robbie Tolan.  Tolan, a minor league baseball player and son of form MLB player Bobbie Tolan, was shot in his own driveway in an affluent Houston suburb by a police officer who claims to have believed he was driving a stolen vehicle.

The circumstance surrounding the shooting, as well as the races of those involved. are raising clear questions about whether or not Tolan was racially profiled. Since that time, though not willing to come out and say that her city has a problem, the mayor of the suburb of Bellaire, TX, has already hired an outside consultant to look into traffic data in her town to determine if there is a pattern of racial profiling.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Robbie Tolan and his family will get a chance to tell their side of the story to the nation.  Tomorrow night, on HBO’s Real Sports, there will be a segment highlighting this incident.  Here’s some of what was discussed in that interview:

(Sgt. Jeff) Cotton “never said a word. He never said ‘shut up.’ He never said ‘get down’ or ‘stay down.’ He never said a word. He picked his gun, he took his gun and he just shot him,’” she said.

Robert Tolan told Gumbel that he found it difficult to return to the family home because “even though they cleaned it up, I can see the blood on the floor and on the concrete. I mean, I see everything that night.”

His parents remain critical of the manner in which the case has been handled by Bellaire officials and skeptical about their chances for a just resolution.

Referring to general comments by Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel in support of police, Marian Tolan said, “We’re residents of Bellaire. They didn’t serve and protect us. We weren’t passing through. We weren’t visiting. We’ve lived here.”

Real Sports will air Tuesday, February 17,2009.  Check your local listings for times.

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Okay, this story doesn’t have much to do with anything except that I was amused by reading it.  Stories like this make me wonder why so many people think that you have to be some smart or exceptional person to be a politician.

To set this up, the Senate contest in Minnesota is still not over.  The election results, after a recount, went in favor of Democratic challenger Al Franken.  However, as it is his legal right to do, the incumbent, Norm Coleman, is challenging the results in court, claiming, among other things, that some of the people who voted for him had their ballots tossed illegally.  In other words,  the challenges to their votes had no merit.

So, one would think that, if you were to bring in some of these voters as witnesses in this trial, they would clearly exemplify what you’re trying to prove, right?  It appears that concept escaped Coleman’s crack legal team.

Talking Points Memo gives us highlights of two witnesses that Coleman claims were disenfranchised.  Here’s one winner they picked:

One of the voters was Douglas Thompson, who admitted under oath that his girlfriend filled out his absentee ballot application for him, signing his name with her own hand and purporting to be himself. His ballot was rejected because the signature on his ballot envelope (his own) did not match the signature on the application (his girlfriend’s). The Coleman team’s argument appears to be that he is still a legal voter in Minnesota, as the signature on the ballot was his own, even if admitted dishonesty was involved in getting the ballot.

Errmm…okay.  He couldn’t fill out his own ballot application?  Now, walk through this with me.  You have my ballot application.  It’s filled out in my wife’s neat handwriting but, you have no reason to think that it’s not my handwriting and that I actually filled it out.  Now, you get my ballot and the signature looks more like a prescription.  You compare the two and determine that the two don’t match so, what do you do?  My guess: you follow Minnesota law, err on the side of caution and toss it.

Okay, so the team shot themselves in the foot with this one so, how do they follow up?  They shoot themselves in the other foot:

Another one of the voters, an older man named Wesley Briest, initially responded that he voted at the polls — not by absentee. Then Coleman attorney James Langdon showed him his absentee ballot envelope, reminding him that he did not go to the polls, too. Upon cross-examination by Franken lawyer Kevin Hamilton, Briest admitted that his wife, who served as the witness on his ballot, did not fully complete the witness section of the absentee ballot.

Now, here, you have a man complaining about a challenge to his absentee ballot but can’t remember that he voted absentee.  It later is discovered that the witness portion was not completed so, the ballot gets tossed, per the law.

Basically, the Coleman team gets unintentionally owned by their own witnesses.  I hate to put it like this but, given this display, the people of Minnesota might want someone with a scant more intellectual prowess as their Senator.

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If you were like me, you were horrified when you saw the footage of the killing of Oscar Grant III on the morning of New Year’s day at the hands of a police officer in an Oakland, CA train station.

The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, abrubtly resigned right before he was to speak with internal affairs regarding this incident.

The latest on this case is that  Johannes Mehserle has been arrested in Nevada on a fugitive warrant.

The charge: suspicion of murder.

From my perspective, it seems pretty clear what happened but, as we know, what the public perceives and what happens in a courtroom are separate and distinct things.  However, in this case, I hope that justice prevails.

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Once again, we have a case of a young black man dying under suspicion circumstances in an encounter with police.  This time, it was in New Orleans, Lousiana, in the early morning of January 1, 2009.

Adolph Grimes III had relocated to Texas with his fiancée in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He rushed back to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve of this year, along with his fiancée and 17-month-old son, to ring in the new year with his family.

According to his father, Adolph Grimes Jr., his son made it with just seconds to spare.

The family was celebrating at Adolph Grimes III’s grandmother’s house.  At approximately 3am, Grimes walked out of his grandmother’s house and was waiting in his car for his cousin when 9 undercover cops drove up and surrounded the car.

Next, there was a barrage of shooting.

Police are saying that Grime started the shooting but, police shot at Grimes a total of 48 times.  Grimes was hit 14 times, with 12 of those rounds hitting him in the back, killing him.

Grimes did have a handgun on him which, according to family members, was legally registered.  He also had a shotgun and some rounds in his trunk.  Grimes had no criminal history and had graduated from one of New Orleans’ most prestigious high schools.

A lot of questions need answering.  First of all, 9 undercover, plain-clothes officers surrounded the vehicle.  Did they identify themselves as police officers?  Secondly, do they have ballistics test showing that Grimes even fired his weapon?  If so, how are we to know if he indeed fired first or simply fired back?  Thirdly, how did Grimes go from being inside his vehicle to dying block away from his grandmother’s?  Perhaps, could he have thought that he was being carjacked as opposed to being arrested. Did he run for that reason?

My questions, obviously, are only speculation.  By some of the comments I’ve read on the articles above, there are people who want to blame Grimes because he owned a gun, something that many white men in this country do, often in even greater abundance.  The fact is, there seemed to be no reason for those officers to approach that vehicle in the way that they did.

Some are comparing this killing to that of Oscar Grant III but, I actually compare it to the killing of Sean Bell.  In both instances, you have the shooting victim encountering plain-clothes, undercover cops, who may not have identified themselves as such.  In both instances, these men died in a hail of bullets.  In both instances, these men were apparently doing nothing illegal And, in both instances, these men left fiancées, children, a host of family members and a lot of unanswered questions behind.

Let’s hope that, unlike the Sean Bell case, truth and justice prevail.

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Today, IndyMedia released new and clearer footage of the shooting of Oscar Grant.  This video was taken at a much closer range and shows, in much more detail, what transpired in the moments before, during and after, the killing of Oscar Grant III.

Thanks to RawStory.com for the video.  It can be viewed below:

 

 Oscar Grant Shooting - New Footage: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Fortunately, today, Robbie Tolan is still alive but, his potential baseball career is in jeopardy.  On December 31, 2008, Tolan and his cousing were returning to the family’s home after making a late-night run to get some food. They were driving Tolan’s parents’ SUV and had pulled into the driveway when they say a man with a gun and a flashlight approached them.

According to the two men, the officer did not identify himself.  The officer and his partner had both men on lie on the ground.  In the meantime, Tolan’s parents heard a commotion (it was in their own driveway, after all) and came out to see what was happening.  Police will only say that an “altercation” occured.  The family says that Tolan’s mother was pushed up against a wall.  The family says that when Tolan tried to lean up to see what was happening, he was shot in the chest.  The bullet went through his lung and lodged in his liver.  Tolan, the son of former Major League player Bobby Tolan, is currently recovering in a Houston hospital and the officer in question, Sgt. Jeff Cotton, and his partner are on administrative leave after the shooting.

However, this incident has sparked serious concerns about this being a case of racial profiling. The family resides in the prominent, mostly-white suburb of Bellaire.  Police officials deny that race was a factor but, many are asking what prompted the officers to suspect that the vehicle was stolen.

Both men were unarmed.

The family has retained legal counsel and is asking that charges be filed against the officer.

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Yesterday, it was announced that Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle resigned from the force, right before he was to interview with internal affairs investigators over the shooting death of Oscar Grant III.

Grant was shot and killed by Mehserle early New Year’s day.  At the time, Grant was face-down, pinned by another officer when Mehserle stood to his feet and fired the fatal shot that entered Oscar Grant’s lower back, ricocheted off the pavement and entered his lungs, killing him.

Grant was a 22-year-old supermarket worker and father of a 4-year-old daughter.  It is not clear if Oscar Grant was even involved in the fight to which BART police were responding.  His shooting death was captured by various citizens with cell phones.

Mehserle’s resignation means that he will not have to speak with internal affairs investigators however, his legal defense will continue to be paid for out of a statewide fund for police officers.

In the meantime, the Alameda County D.A. will be deciding soon as to whether or not criminal charges will be pursued.

On a related note, yesterday,  a protest over the shooting turned into a “mini-riot” when a small group broke away from the protest and vandalized police cruisers and storefronts.  A total of 14 arrests were made.

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In my lifetime, I have read many headlines like the one I posted.  Whether it’s Timothy Thomas or Roger Owensby from Cincinnati, Ohio; or Sean Bell or Amadou Diallo in New York; or, now, Oscar Grant III of Oakland, CA.

Video has surfaced showing what appears to be an arrest of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, at approximately 2am on New Year’s Day 2009.  Police responding to a call on a BART train.  It is not clear if Grant was involved in this fight.  However, citizens with camera phones captured video of Grant’s arrest.

Just prior to his death, Grant is held down face-first by two officers, with other officers nearby.  There appears to be a struggle and one of the officers stands up, draws his weapon and shoots Grant in the back.  Apparently, the bullet, after going through his lower back, ricocheted off the ground and struck him in his lungs, killing him.

It is still unclear why the officer chose to shoot Grant.  Grant had no weapons and police had him pinned to the pavement.  But, instead of grabbing his cuffs, the officer reached for his gun.

Oscar Grant III leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter.

His family is seeking answers and has filed a $25 million lawsuit against BART’s police department and is asking prosecutors to consider murder charges for the officer who who Oscar Grant III.

The video of the shooting can be viewed here.

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The past week or so has given the country a close-up look into the world of Illinois politics.  We saw the arrest of the governor, Rod Blagojevich, alleging that he tried to personally benefit himself by “selling” Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.  Next, we saw Jesse Jackson Jr. being named as the “Senate Candidate #5″, who was said by Blagojevich to be offering to raise large amounts of funds for him (allegedly in excess of $1 million) in exchange for Jackson being appointed to the seat.  We then saw Jackson come out with both barrels blazing, denying he did any such thing.

The latest wrinkle in this story gets even more interesting.  This from today’s Politico:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s office confirmed Tuesday that the son of the civil rights leader has been providing information to federal authorities for the past five years about his “personal knowledge” of apparent corruption by Illinois government officials – but not Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempts to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat.

…

His spokesman, Kenneth Edmonds, refused to elaborate on what Jackson told prosecutors or the nature of those conversations – but insisted Jackson was not an “informant,” merely someone who at times passed on information.

The Associated Press reported that Jackson told authorities that Blagojevich refused to appoint Jackson’s wife as the state lottery director because Jackson refused to raise $25,000 for the governor’s re-election campaign.

In any other light, a congressman coming forward to shine a light on the seedy practices of government corruption might make him seem like a victim of corruption, or even a hero.

But the revelation of Jackson’s conversations with authorities could instead highlight his ties to the Illinois political culture – which already have weakened his chances of being appointed to Obama’s Senate seat, one of his top political goals.

From where I stand, this looks like Jesse Jackson Jr. just became a political outcast.

On one hand, this makes him look like he might be knee-deep in some of the same muck as the governor of Illinois now finds himself in.  On the other, he also looks like an informant who might “rat out” political insiders.

Note, the key word above is “look”.  We clearly don’t know the details.  This is why there are investigations.

Nonetheless, in the political world, appearances matter.  Because of this, I would say that Congressman Jackson may find himself alone and out in the cold.

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