NEW YORK - They waited for hours, singing spirituals, praying and chanting for justice. In a flash, the crowd gathered outside a Queens courthouse Friday erupted in anger and grief.

Men cursed and shouted. Women wailed and covered their faces. "Oh, no! No!" they yelled as word spread that three police officers had been cleared of all charges in the 50-bullet shooting that took Sean Bell's life on his wedding day in 2006.

Trent Benefield, a friend of Bell's who was wounded in the hail of gunfire, staggered down the courthouse steps with a look of angry disbelief on his face, a friend's arms tightly wrapped around his shoulders.

"Not guilty. Not guilty. It's real," Benefield said, while dozens of people wearing Bell's face on hats, T-shirts and buttons burst into sobs.
3 NYPD detectives acquitted in groom slaying

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If they get investigated by the fed hopefully justice will finaly be served. But there is a great lesson to learn and the cops are not the only ones to blame in this and other tragedies like it. I found this article by a black man that looks at it from a reality perspective and it makes a lot of sense. See what you think.


Friday, December 08, 2006

The real tragedy of the Sean Bell story



(Caution: This is a very long winded post, and it might as well be since it will take a while for me to post again.)

Last weekend, I was in New York on business with one of our offices, and I was confronted head on with this tragedy. I haven't been able to do much blogging but like a Siren calling to lost sailors, the story was beckoning to me. It was only until I came across a comment made by Last Son of Krypton, that I've been moved to write on this. Come to think of it, I must write about it. There are three sides to this story. The side of the victims. The side of the plainclothes officers. And then there is the side of the Truth. Time will tell.

As a black man, I must say that the shooting of Sean Bell is beyond the term of "bad judgement". Here it is a young black man, that is defying the stereotype, and trying to do the right thing by marrying his fiancee and be a father to his children is suddenly cut down ... hours before his wedding. And all there is out there is a lot of assumptions and allegations. Not good enough. Especially since it cost the life of someone's son, someone's fiance and the father of two children. Seriously, there has to be serious repercussions. Wrist slaps no longer apply. To attempt to justify this by bringing up any criminal records (if there are any) of the three victims is just as bad as blaming a rape victim for wearing tight fitting or revealling clothes. Stop it.

As a fledgling member of the law enforcement/national security community, I have to say to most that if you are not in it then don't be quick to judge it. In a high tension situation there is very little room for second guessing. For the most second guessing could simply mean death. It seems as if the lessons from the Amadou Diallo case has not been learned. Thirty-one shots pumped into a man reaching for wallet. And now fifty bullets fired at three unarmed citizens from what was deemed as a possible threat. Nine or twelve bullets is one thing. Fifty is overkill. Even enemy combatants in war are afforded a better death despite the tons of bullets flying through air. I'll go even further to say that if it took five soldiers to lob fifty rounds at three enemy combatants, then that is what, my firearms instructor, would call ineffective marksmanship. Which also translates to ineffective soldiers. Get what I am saying here?

So who's to blame? The cops. Or the victims. Time will have to tell on this one. But the blame does not stop with cops or the victims. Surprise. There is a lot more of it to go around. It gets really "controversial" and politically incorrect beyond this point.

Firstly, the criminal elements of the black community. I know, not exactly the most shocking. The Bloods, Crips and all the other shitty groups out there that have nothing to offer but chaos and destruction have, over the years, helped fostered an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia when it comes to dealing with black males. I almost laughed, last weekend, when I heard that the Bloods and Crips were coming together to form a protest in support of Sean Bell. Wait a minute, didn't these clowns form a "truce" in the 90s with the Rodney King incident? Gee, I wondered what happened. And this is the irony that smacks me in my face and yet begs me to love it. It is all a big pantomime, for if the Crips and Bloods really wanted to show their support there would be no Bloods and Crips in the first place. These are the very folks that run around spreading the notion that the cops that patrol black neighborhoods are like an occupying force. Hate to break the news, but when I was growing up in South Jamaica I was more fearful of these so-called "freedom fighters" than the very cops that patrolled the neighborhood. Oh did I mention that some of these "freedom fighters" were actually selling destruction to the very neighborhood that they commanded respect from. Hmm, seemed more like insurgents to me. The Bloods and Crips announcing an alliance in the time of injustice on a black person is an empty gesture. The only time it really matters is if it leads to a disbandment of the gangs or gang members strapping lead weights to themselves and jumping off a cliff into the Marianas Trench. Either it would mean a good start in the right direction for the black community. Any short of those two extremes are not more than a sick appeal for the spot light.

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When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

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When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

We need some vigilante justice to rid the streets of renegade cops. In Chicago, there was a cop that beat the shit out of a female bartender for refusing to serve him because he was drunk and another cop that beat a man shackled (feet and hands) to a wheelchair.

Both cops were suspended WITH PAY going on two years.

Then there's that suburban cop, I'm sure you heard of him, Drew Petersen whose fourth wife has been missing for several months and his third wife suspiciously drowned in a bathtub, which they just recently ruled a murder and not an accident as previously reported.

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Renegade cops and gang members. These guys make it realy hard on good cops.

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When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

They fired FIFTY ROUNDS????????????????????????? SOB's need to learn to shoot.

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Although it sounds excessive, and it does, my uncle's a cop and he said when you shoot someone in a situation like that you aren't counting either yours or your colleagues shots. Which is obvious, but I mean if you think he poses a serious threat you'll probably unload on them, so will your colleagues, they can't just rely on someone else taking them down. You have to be sure that you've taken them down. This is actually quite common, the only reason this made such a big noise in the media is that the perp was innocent.

THE COPS COULDN'T SHOOT, AND TRIED TO MAKE IT UP WITH VOLUME. A hit to the head, or spine, will end a fight with one shot. What the the Cops were doing is 'Spray, and pray.'

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Gun control WORKS! That's why it is so safe to walk the streets of L.A., Chicago, and D.C. at night.

Your point is what?

First and foremost, prayers to the family.
Second, fortunately it won't become a race issue.
But I did see Al Sharpton on the news tooting his horn.
Still Dizzy; I completely Agree.
I wonder if they had tazer capabilities?

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