Tuesday, January 04, 2011

The shooting of John T. Williams by Seattle police officer Ian Birk

On August 30, 2010, a man from British Columbia was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer. 50-year-old John T. Williams "was a member of the Ditidaht First Nation, also a member nation of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth. The Ditidaht First Nation is a small, remote community on the west coast of Vancouver Island" (source). The police officer was Ian Birk. Here is Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt on the same day of the shooting:



A video taken from inside Birk's patrol car was released on December 17, 2010. Here it is (Williams appears at 0:51 and the audio begins at 1:03):



The two videos and their discrepancies speak for themselves, but I'll add that Williams was hearing impaired.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Marathon Quest 250 is over

Do you remember this post about the Albertan who planned to run 250 marathons in 2010 with hopes of raising $250,000 for Right to Play? Well, he did run number 250 on New Year's Eve, but fell a little short of his money goal. I am in awe of his accomplishment.