He Wasn’t A Pro-baller So Maybe That’s Why You Never Heard of His Death: Injustice & Brutality

**The following piece is nothing sweet, and the injustice of it all is a spice none of us should ever bite!**

22 Year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back while restrained face down on the ground Jan. 1, 2009

Oscar Grant was murdered on January 1, 2009 on a BART platform in Oakland. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) officer, Johannes Mehserle fatally shot 22 year old Oscar Grant. Grant was restrained and laying face down on the platform. The bullet entered his back, pierced his lungs and ricocheted on the concrete below.

The venue for the trial was changed to Los Angeles, nearly 400 miles south of the murder. The Los Angeles jury had no African Americans on it. Some say that in itself is an injustice. Perhaps not, considering that in LA County, African Americans only make up about 10% of the population. The jury was made up of 4 men and 8 women.

Although the SENSELESS murder was caught on video, the footage wasn’t enough to sway this jury. The jury concluded that Mehserle lacked the necessary element of intent and therefore found that this wasn’t murder, and instead they convicted him of involuntary manslaughter.

Video Footage of Oscar Grant’s being fatally shot by a Policeman

Mehserle claimed that he confused his service weapon with his taser and that the murder was an accident. Mehserle received 6 hours of taser training. Although the taser weighs less than his gun, it was a different color and even had a different “feel”, he says he confused the gun for his taser.

As if the murder itself wasn’t outrageous enough, the 4 year conviction is beyond outrageous. It is indeed an injustice and deplorable.

I’m somewhat reminded of the March 3, 1991 beating of Rodney King. Although King survived the beating, he still lost because the officers involved were ACQUITTED of all charges!

Video footage of Rodney King being brutally beaten by Policemen

LA burned for Rodney King, but on July 8, 2010 Los Angeles the place that basically let Oscar Grant’s murderer go free is moving on like nothing happened yesterday in that courtroom. Perhaps if Oscar Grant was a ball-player there would have been an international media circus all over this.

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Because She Prayed For A Sister: A Sister’s Love

July 1, 2010

Good Morning Beautiful,

My beautiful most precious baby sister. 32 years ago it was the middle of summer I was nearing my 7th birthday. My mother had just married my stepfather a year earlier. We were the perfect little family. The most exciting day of my young life was about to occur. My mother was pregnant with a baby.  She was as wide as she was tall. We all wondered if the doctor was wrong and she was actually having twins. There was no way that only one baby was inside of her. She was absolutely beautiful as she waddled about preparing for her new baby. It had been a long time since she was the mother of a newborn.

As the days of June rolled through the summer solstice came and went. Then on July 1st a beautiful blue eyed baby was born to Aubrey and Yvonne McShay.  The family had a short lineage and so there was much anticipation for a precious baby boy to be born.  He would be the first McShay boy to be born in 7 years. But there was one little girl that prayed for a sister. And the Lord answered the prayers of that little girl. The phone rang and the announcement was made it was a Girl!! The little girl was ecstatic. All the things she could teach her precious baby sister. The Lord had given her the precious blue eyed baby girl!

And to this day she thanks the Lord for that awesome gift. There is no love as precious and unique as a sister’s love. I celebrate you daily if you know it or not. You are talent and beautiful. You are loud and thoughtful. You are poised and slightly clumsy. You cannot sing nor can you dance but you can definitely cook!

~Lisa

Presidential Beat Down…

**I needed this laugh, I hope you laughed too!**