Apr 25, 2008
New York detectives found ‘not guilty’ in shooting death of Sean Bell
Categories: African-American, Justice/Law Enforcement
Written By: Shawn Williams
Is anyone surprised? As reported by the New York Times, “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.” Hours before his wedding this young life was taken. And apparently it was nobody’s fault.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
We been covering Sean Bell’s case over at Highbrid Nation from the start and when I read today that the police officers were aquitted I was in serious disbelief. An unarmed man was shot 50 times and the people who did it are not responsible at all!? That’s crazy.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
The verdict is up at the Smoking Gun:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0425081bell1.html
I wouldn’t read too much into the “50 bullets” part. 31 rounds from one officer gives me pause, but that is still only one reload (I know, because I have put 35 rounds on target through my Glock 17 in under 7 seconds before, including the reload. And I’m not especially skilled.)
I don’t know how I feel about the manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges. If someone ran over my car, backed up, and then rammed me again, I would probably shoot at them until they stopped. A car is a deadly weapon. I don’t know if that is what happened, but if I was in that situation, that is how I would react, potential charges or not. Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.
I’m concerned about the waiving the jury trial. That’s smacks of a home-town deal. I’m not willing to accuse the judge of it, but he has to be aware of the perception, and I would have expected more justification in the verdict in light of that. I’m certainly not done with the situation. Nothing is settled in my mind by this.
Regardless of whether or not the state proved its case, though, I do have two things that I have brought out of it. One, undercover cops have no business running around clubs looking for hookers. And if they do, they sure as hell have no business poking into (and potentially provoking) arguments and fights. The cops should have never been there in the first place.
And two, whether it was criminal or not, they have no business on the police force. Not undercover, not on patrol, not riding a desk. Give them a nice job at the post office or in a call center or something, but get the badges off of them.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am
It is sad they died, but the facts remain that the police felt their lives were threatened. These guys aren’t role models for the Black community. It is a shame the police are being victimized by this.