Oscar Grant

Two thoughts on the case of Oscar Grant, the unarmed man who was shot and killed last week by a BART police officer in Oakland:

-The notion that the officer meant to reach for his taser seems unlikely. I say that because, as the Oakland Tribune reports,

The department does not have enough of the stun guns to equip every officer with one, Gee said. When officers do carry Tasers, he added, they are kept on a separate part of their belts from their service pistols.

"They keep those Tasers on the opposite side of their gun hand, or in the middle, pointed the opposite direction so you have to turn your hand to get it," Burris said. "No movement (on the videos) suggests (the officer) was reaching for anything other than the location where the gun was."

-The D.A., or some authority, ought to say publicly why it is going to take possibly another two weeks before any charges are pressed. Perhaps there's good reason that it will take them that long to determine the appropriate charge. As the Oakland Tribune's editorial argues, this can't just be treated like any officer-involved shooting. The public is understandably eager for justice. The Tribune also says that the D.A. allocated more extensive resources to the case -- after the public outcry began.