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Recent Comments
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Date: April 29th, 2008
Name: William C. Thompson Jr., NYC Comptroller
Subject: Sean Bell Tragedy
Comment: I along with many New Yorkers was shocked by last week’s disappointing court decision regarding the Sean Bell shooting.
Today’s visit by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and his meeting with the Bell family was an important step to restore confidence in our justice system.
I was proud to stand with Chairman Conyers, Chairman Rangel, Congressman Meeks and other public officials to announce our joint efforts to seek federal recourse and am hopeful that the Justice Department’s review of the case will be thorough and objective and finally provide justice to the Bell family and the other victims of this tragic incident.
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Date: April 28th, 2008
Name: michelle fuller
Subject: pressure governor paterson
Comment: Get the latest copy of the Amsterdam News and read Alton Maddox's column. He suggests that Governor Paterson has the power to place the NYPD under receivership since they are not protecting African Americans. Email, telephone or write his office and demand that he stand up for African Americans in New York State OR ELSE....
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Date: April 28th, 2008
Name: Lenora Fulani
Subject: Fighting Racialism
Comment: My name is Lenora Fulani and I represent hundreds of thousands of independent New Yorkers – black, white, Latino and Asian – who believe in fairness and justice for all people. We are deeply saddened and angry over yesterday’s verdict in the Sean Bell case.
There has been progress in this city, under the firm leadership of Rev. Al Sharpton, with respect to issues of racial justice. His voice has been passionate and consistent. He has done more to take us out of extreme polarization and recurrent racial violence than he is ever given credit for. But, as the verdict in the Bell case shows, there is much more to do.
Even as we give expression to our rage – through civil disobedience and other actions Rev. Sharpton calls for – we must continue all efforts for the fundamental cultural changes required to eliminate the racialism that permeates our institutions.
No police department, no judge, no court of public opinion, will be fair until we can bring about the cultural and human development that takes us beyond race-based biases that are deeply rooted in them. This is a painful truth for the black community and for all who seek justice. But we must face it and act accordingly. Even as we follow Rev. Sharpton’s lead in protest, we must be sure to keep our eye on the long term prize.
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Date: April 27th, 2008
Name: Jennifer Hall
Subject: Voicing my opinion about Sean Bell
Comment: I give my deepest sympthy to the wife and family of Sean Bell. There is no way ever you can let a person in life walk free after shooting a person 50 times for nothing. I truling feel that the judge should have file for retirement a long time ago because he is too old. Deep in my mind there were something going on underhanded between the Judge, District Attorney, and the Defendeds. It maynot come out now but on down in it will {dark comes to light}.
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Date: April 27th, 2008
Name: Chris Owens
Subject: Police Brutality And Accountability
Comment: Chris Owens, President of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), criticized the acquittal of three police officers who fired 50 shots at Sean Bell and three friends in November, 2006, killing Bell on his wedding day and wounding his friends. None of the victims were armed and the moments surrounding the shooting were confusing and panic-laden for the victims and the shooters.
"People of good will share in the outrage and disappointment of the family and friends of Sean Bell at the acquittal on all charges of three New York City police officers who fired 50 bullets, murdering the unarmed Bell and injuring his friends. We have seen this movie before; we didn't like it then and we do not like it now. There is a theme of racial and ethnic prejudice that ties together outrageous police shootings in New York City over many decades. The toxic brew of prejudice, apprehension and incompetence has killed unarmed youths, dazed grandmothers, mentally ill individuals, immigrants unfamiliar with our criminal justice system, and many more. And beyond the killings are the countless individuals traumatized by the behavior of the police.
Many of us were not surprised by the verdict, though we had hoped to be. The courts are biased in favor of police officers as individuals allegedly "doing their job." We hope the United States Department of Justice pursues a case against these officers on the grounds that Bell's civil rights were violated. We also hope that the failings of our entire criminal justice system in the Bell case are legally challenged. We hold both the NYPD and the court system accountable for this outrage. While efforts and improvements have been made to the Police Department by a series of leaders, serious issues remain. The oppression of demonstrators during the 2004 Republican National Convention was only the tip of the iceberg. It is the murder of innocents that must stop. A full and public investigation of all practices involving the use of force must take place and ongoing oversight by our elected officials must dramatically increase. We salute the officers who do their job well, but our tax dollars should not employ individuals who kill innocent people, nor should tax dollars be given to a police department that has not made every possible effort to prevent the use of deadly force.
It is also our burden as citizens of America and residents of New York City to step up and change the law enforcement environment. Our votes allow Governors, Mayors, Police Commissioners, District Attorneys and judges to perpetuate the deficiencies of the status quo. We need candidates committed to directly addressing the issues within our Police Department and our courts. We need candidates who are focusing their eyes on the full meaning of justice. And, to support such candidates, we need voters to take the anger and frustration to the voting booths time after time after time again and again and again."
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Date: April 26th, 2008
Name: Philo Veritas
Subject: Once Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment: This is not about a Black man at a stripclub or about folks reloading a gun to fire 50 shots!!!!!This is about the Black community(since Eleanor bumpers), reduced to a state of complacency,
that they have become maleable pawns and serfs to the oligarchy, and that not even 20% have the collective, outrage that any other racial, ethnic, or religious group in NYC would have after years of abuse.
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Date: April 26th, 2008
Name: Nicasio Martinez
Subject: Police Brutality
Comment: While demonstraing at the 1964 NY World's Fair I was arrested, thrown into police van, and remember clearly; "I should have killed you while I had a chance!" Joining the Harlem Rent Strikers, led by Jessie Gray, as a member of NY Core, I had made a vital decision to leave the demonstration because I saw what I believed to be a staged disturbance between a policeman and a woman. My attempts to dissaude fellow demonstrators from getting caught up in the false drama failed-- so I tunred to leave. "Take him;" someone in command shouted. About six officers grabbed and carried me horrizontially from the scene. "Don't kill him!" Hearing those words and receiving a glancing blow to the crown of my head-- I played possum, went completely limp. When I was a child, my grandmother who raised me repeated many times; "One day you will understand. I beat you to keep a policeman from killing you!" I wish this was a short story and but it is not-- this is just but the tip of the iceberg of what I know and experienced at the mercy of NYs' Finest. I was born in Spanish Harlem. My mom was Afro-American, my dad Purerto Rican.
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Date: April 26th, 2008
Name: Dr. William figueroa
Subject: Verdict
Comment: I was not suprised by the verdict as much as I was watching incredulous at the police response and the general media. The police was out in force expecting violence. And all the field reportors, keep repeating was how quiet and the apparent lack of response. The next few days will demonstrate to ourselves and to the outside world . What if any lessons we have learned from the past. If nonviolence protest and boycott are our course of action . We will have broken the mold...
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Date: April 25th, 2008
Name: Dr. Ben Chavis
Subject: Police Brutality Not New
Comment: Statement from the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network President/CEO
The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network expressed today its profound dismay in the wake of the not guilty verdicts for the New York City police officers who were involved in the killing of Sean Bell. Hip-hop is an inclusive cultural phenomenon that represents the highest aspirations of all youth of the human family. The injustice that is so evident in the case of Sean Bell reminds us of the old America at a time when millions of young people are raising their voices and votes for a new America. Police brutality is not a new phenomenon, but unfortunately, the system of justice, particularly in New York City, appears to be incapable of rendering equal justice without the taint of racial bias and prejudice. The anger and disgust that the hip-hop community certainly feels today should not be permitted to develop into anything negative, as a response. Sean Bell's death will not be in vain, to the extent to which millions of youth work even harder to demand equal justice, and to fundamentally change the current system of injustice.
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Date: April 25th, 2008
Name: Mark B. Gibbs
Subject: We Need Peace Not Violence
Comment: You write We doubt that “Justice� Cooperman will have the last say on this matter.... This is very dangerous. Are you trying to provoke violence? We have to respect the justice system whether we agree with the verdict or not
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Date: April 25th, 2008
Name: Grace Karenzi
Subject: The temple of justice was raped
Comment: Police officers muders an innocent Black man, they get prosecuted and finallly the judge acknowledges how black the victim was and dislikes the race, and since he calls himslef justice, he frees the muderers. This shows that if he ( judge ) comes accross a black man he would do the same. We all know that one would rather set 99 criminals free than convicting an innocent man. The question is, were the police officers really innocent? One of them recharged his gun, and fired again into Bell`s car.....
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Sean Bell’s Assassins Acquitted |
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Black Star News Editorial
04-25-08
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Sean Bell and his fiancee |
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[Black Star Editorial]
Police officers who kill unarmed Black men are untouchable.
Once again, the so-called justice system has proven that the life of a Black man has no value. First it was Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Black man, killed in a hail of 41 bullets.
Now, the three police officers who fired more than 50 shots and killed Sean Bell, 23, on the morning he was to be married in November 2006 have been acquitted of all charges.
Bell, on the day he was to be married to Nicole Paultre, was unarmed and was inside his car, attempting to get away from three armed men who approached him, wearing civilian attire, without badges displayed and without identifying themselves as police officers, by most accounts. They must have appeared as menacing thugs to Bell.
Anyone in his right mind would try to drive and get away from men approaching in such a manner early in the morning, at 4 AM, after a night of partying at Club Kalua to celebrate an impending wedding.
How can the judge who ruled on the case justify the firing of more than 50 shots into a vehicle? One of the officers admitted that he did not even realize he had emptied his magazine and loaded another clip and continued to fire into the vehicle. This means the officers did not even know what they were firing at--which also means they could not have known whether they were in danger or not. Bell’s friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield were both wounded in the shooting, with Guzman taking in 16 bullets.
The three officers most likely were drunk, and additionally possibly high on drugs, having spent all night at the club drinking while staking out the club. They supposedly went looking to prevent trouble; instead they committed the ultimate transgression--they murdered an innocent and unarmed man, likely because they were drunk, frightened and unprofessional.
Ironically, the Black Star News columnist Donald Winkfield predicted that this would be the outcome of this “trial” in his article two days ago.
Like the assassins of Amadou Diallo, these three killer cops, “detective” Michael Oliver, who reloaded his weapon and fired a total of 31 times, and “detective” Gescard Isnora walk away from charges of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment; “detective” Marc Cooper also laughs all the way home, having been acquitted of reckless endangerment. “Detective” Isnora fired 11 times, and “detective” Cooper, four times.
Justice Arthur Cooperman claims he found problems with the Queen’s County DA’s case, and that some prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves; he also reportedly cited prior convictions and incarcerations of witnesses.
Question to “Justice” Cooperman: What’s the relevance to the critical facts of the case? The officers fired with reckless abandon into Sean Bell’s car without even knowing whom they were firing at considering there were three people, all unarmed, inside the vehicle. Once the first officer started firing, the others, all presumably drunk, also opened up.
So this is standard police operation now.
We doubt that “Justice” Cooperman will have the last say on this matter.
Bell is survived by fiancée, Nicole Paultre, and daughters, ages five and one.
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