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From The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday April 02, 2009 The BART strategy is unfolding and it spells a grim future for the Oscar Grant case and potentially even more unrest. The BDP reports that BART lawyers are saying Oscar Grants own actions contributed to his murder. I find that hard to swallow and it's a terrible message to have released into the public given the existence of the cell phone videos. BART continues to make PR blunders one after the other.

More at Oakland Tribune : “OAKLAND — The family of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old man shot and killed by a BART police officer early New Year's Day, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit for $50 million against BART in federal court Monday. The shooting prompted massive public outcry and protest in Oakland, and Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who resigned in January rather than submit to questioning in BART's investigation of the shooting, is charged with murder in the incident. "This is the most egregious police shooting case that I've been involved in," said John Burris, the attorney representing Grant's family who has been involved numerous high-profile police-misconduct cases. Burris filed a $25 million tort claim against BART and Mehserle in January. He said he increased the dollar amount after learning more about what happened before and after the shooting, as well as learning more about the officers who were at the scene and about Grant and his family.” -- A

This week I posted a vlog on Oscar Grant and what my source claims is an autopsy where crack cocaine was found in his body. Here is an update and what happened when SF Chronicle's Phil Bronstein picked up the story. First my source said the following: 1) The shooting was an accident, and not a racist hit. There are officers who have taken such actions but not like that. They would make it look like a random murder. 2) My source thinks that what happened to Grant was shameful, contrary to what some commenters have written. The vlog was picked up by San Francisco Chronicle Executive Vice President and Editor-At-Large Phil Bronstein on his "Bronstein At Large" blog, and who focused on the idea that drugs may have been planted on Grant. My source insists that was not the case; they were there in Grant already. For some reason, Bronstein's post was removed and when I emailed to learn why got a response from Zoe Stagg , the star of Citizen Sugar, who told m

A well-placed source reported to me that BART Shooting victim Oscar Grant was found to have Crack Cocaine in his body, and planted through his buttocks. My source also accuses KTVU TV (Oakland, CA) News of delaying video release. My source is a long-time law enforcement official who has seen cases like this more often than not -- but this case given the video evidence, is different.  My source originally tipped me off to the extense of a third KTVU video of the Oscar Grant shooting by BART Police Officer Johannes Mesherle.   He said that  the video showed that another BART officer was clearly on Grant and beating him.  The source said that KTVU was withholding the video because they did not want to start a race-riot. The second tip regards the Crack Cocaine matter.  He claims that the autopsy, which is to be completed by March according, shows that the drugs were stuffed in his body via his buttocks.   My source holds that this is why -- he contends -- Grant's behavior was

At the election for the 16th District Democratic Delegates on January 8th, I talked with Oakland Activists Pam Drake Mike Colbruno Sean Sullivan Vicky Kolkaski about Oakland, elected officials and the BART Shooting. Pam Drake is a long-time Oakland activist who has worked as an assistant to then-Oakland City Councilman and now Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, and was recently head of the Lakeshore Business District Association. Mike Colbruno is the chair of the Oakland Planning Commission. Sean Sullivan ran for the District Three Council seat currently held by Nancy Nadel. Vicky Kolkaski is very active in the Oakland LGBT community.

I thought there wasn't going to be a bail set, but now I'm interested in why this turned to a bail hearing. OAKLAND TRIBUNE - OAKLAND— Bail for former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, accused of murdering a 22-year-old Hayward man while on duty early New Year's Day, was set at $3 million Friday by an Alameda County judge who said Mehserle was both a danger to society and a flight risk. Noting that the crime Mehserle is accused of is serious and the officer's account of the events that led to Oscar Grant's death seems to contain contradictions, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson said he was forced to set bail according to state law. However, Jacobson ruled that the bail amount is high enough to ensure that Mehserle will not skip town if his parents are somehow able to find $3 million to free their son

Documents point to Oakland police cover-up - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — There is "strong circumstantial evidence" that police covered up the 2000 beating of drug suspect Jerry Amaro III, who died a month after suffering broken ribs, according to confidential city documents obtained late Wednesday. Two other people also arrested in the same drug sting and put in a police car with Amaro later told investigators Amaro was "complaining constantly that he was in pain, and wanted to see a doctor and that (he) was sweating profusely, consistent with a painful injury," the document states. Amaro was denied immediate medical care. The FBI is investigating Amaro's death, and police last week suspended a senior officer, Capt. Edward Poulson, with pay as his role in the matter is probed. Poulson is suspected of kicking Amaro and then ordering subordinate officers to lie about it. Administrative charges against Poulson were sustained for interfering in an internal affairs