3 cops acquitted of killing Sean Bell in NYC!

[Tim4319]

Not sure if you've heard the case of a gentleman being gunned down my NYPD, morning of his wedding! He was leaving his bachelors party at a stip club in the early morning hours of his wedding, with a few of his friends when the police fired upon him. He was killed, when the NYPD fired more than 50 bullets at him.

It is times like this that puzzles me when they say Rev Wright was out of line for his comments! These are the very same things he saw as a child and young adult. Authority doing what ever they want to black citizens, and not being held accountable for their wrongdoings. This is extremely frustrating!


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/nyregion/26BELL.html?bl&ex=1209268800&en=0f8a35dd4edbbafb&ei=5087%0A

<<snip>>
Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens.

[0007]

1. bttft and recommend!

[Jack Rabbit]

2. K/R

.

[Hugabear]

3. why do you hate America? Why are you a racist?

You must be - just look at that Boondocks avatar! :sarcasm:

We all damned well that Rev. Wright didn't say anything that hasn't been echoed here on DU numerous times.

[Matariki]

4. depressing. n/t

[PetraPooh]

5. My first reaction was as yours, but after reading numerous articles

things don't seem quite so cut and dried as they did before. Apparently one in the party had been in a heated argument in the club and some threats were made, then (apparently not realizing that it was a cop) the driver drove away knowingly side swiping the one cop who then fired at the vehicle, the other cops thought the gunfire was coming from inside the vehicle and began firing. It is wrong, and I am no cop lover, BUT I can understand that in the dark of early morning, with threats having been made, and a shot ringing out. . .well I can understand that the cops may not have been legally criminal in their responses. I do hope that the family gets farther with their civil lawsuit since it won't be looking at just the criminality of the situation, but the overall responsibility of police to do their jobs without so many mistakes.

[Tim4319]

7. 50 shots?

I can see 3 to 5 shots then assess the situation. But 50? A clip had 15 rounds in it. Between 3 cops that is 45 rounds. So that means on cop reloaded!

I understand where you are coming from. But, I am still trying to understand 50 times!

[PetraPooh]

8. I agree it seemed more than a bit excessive, plus they could have

disabled the car without killing anyone inside. I'm just pointing out that it was not quite as cut and dried as "cops shot unarmed man 50 times," there is a bit more to the situation. Back to the 50 shots, I also notice that there were 3-4 men in the car and in the dark, who knew who was firing those 50 shots, perhaps the cops thought some were coming from inside the car; but I find that hard to believe because in the dark don't guns create a flash(es) that wouldn't be occurring in the vehicle since no shots were coming from the vehicle? Anyway, I do hope the family is more successful with the civil lawsuit, which is the one that will actually compensate them, compared to the criminal one that would've only slapped the offenders.

[Tim4319]

9. I agree!

I hope that the family is properly compensated. Although I am more than sure to think they would much rather have Sean back!

Something else that puzzles me is, how come you don't ever hear about this type of killing happening in "Suburban America"?

[aquart]

6. Bench trial. No jury. Reasonable doubt.

Me, I reasonably doubt there is any excuse for firing fifty bullets into a bachelor party. Particularly since they were LEAVING.

This case will continue to stink. And I haven't seen one damn thing from my city that tells me it won't happen again.

And Reverend Wright certainly has the right to say anything about this country he pleases.

The question, since you brought it up, is about Barack Obama believing and embracing Reverend Wright's beliefs. Which leads us to the question of whose president he plans to be? Some white voters seem concerned that he will only be a president of the black minority. And I think his wife will be an eloquent voice for them, angry as she is. But Obama himself has only entered black communities as the "community organizer." He's the man in charge, not the man in the street. He's continually shown himself to be tone deaf to working class Americans of any color. So I have no idea what benefit the black community expects to derive from his presidency, except from a general racial pride which we are not allowed to call racist.

So, really, the Reverend Wright's rants don't matter a damn. Except for feeding Obama's sense of owed entitlement. And what's wrong with that?

[superkia]

10. You point out the reason I also am concerned with this decision...

there was no jury trial? Even ignoring the 50 bullets and anything else from the case, why was there no jury case here, the American system has always been tilted towards the wealthy and it seems it is only getting worse as our government takes advantage of the laws also. I just cant believe that most Americans have been dumbed down to the point to where we are a country of abused spouses that wont stand up to the guilty parties, we just sit back, complain and watch things escalate as time goes on. Our country will never head in the right direction if we the people, never stand for ourselves.

At least when Hitler when on his run, there were countries that stood up against him, I don't think there are any countries left able to help us and the rest of the world that our government is hell bent on destroying.

[spin]

11. You could require the cops to go back to revolvers...

Six shots and the cop reloads. Reloading a revolver is not quite as fast as a semi-auto.

You would have fewer incidents that involve 50 shots being fired at a suspect. Better press, less outrage.

Of course you might have more dead cops and more living suspects.

[petronius]

12. There needs to be far stricter rules on when undercover cops can use

their weapons, or engage in activities like stops and arrests. In a strip club parking lot, plainclothes guys with guns give too much opportunity for confusion, despite (perhaps) yelling "Police!" or wearing badges on necklaces. If the NYPD was watching this place, they should have had uniformed officers around to do the overt work.

Obviously I wasn't there, but I'd bet that Bell would have been more likely to stop if the guys pointing guns at him had been obvious police officers...