Pigs Who Shot Sean Bell Aquitted Of All Charges
April 25th, 2008 | Posted in Stop The Madness
The three NYPD pigs that killed Sean Bell on his wedding day in a 50-bullet barrage were cleared of all charges Friday. The ruling sparked an outcry in the courtroom and anger in the streets. Here’s the scoop:
“The defendants are not guilty of all charges,” Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman declared. “The burden was on the people to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Each defendant was assumed to be innocent.” Cooperman said justification was used as a defense, he had to consider the “mindset of the defendants, not the victims. What the victims did, was more important to resolve the issues at hand than what was in their minds.”
Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, ignored the judge’s orders and ran crying out of the courtroom while shooting survivor Trent Benefield broke down in tears.
Bell’s parents, William and Valerie, sat in stunned silence while nearby an angry Bell supporter muttered, “This is bullshit.”
Oliver, who fired 31 times and reloaded once, and Isnora, who fired 11 times, had been charged with manslaughter, felony assault and reckless endangerment. They faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Cooper, who fired four times, faced up to a year in jail if convicted of reckless endangerment. None of the detectives testified, although their grand jury testimony was read out loud at the trial. Sean Bell’s father, William, said he would call on the feds to try the cops for violating his son’s civil rights if they were acquitted.
Bell, a 23-year-old father of two, was killed on Nov. 25, 2006 near the Queens strip club where he’d just had his bachelor bash. His friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were badly wounded when the cops opened fire on Bell’s car.
Two of the three pigs showed no remorse for their actions during the press conference. We hope they never wear a badge again. R.I.P. Sean Bell.
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Tags: Nicole Paultre Bell, Sean Bell
One Response to “Pigs Who Shot Sean Bell Aquitted Of All Charges”
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April 25th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Someone else used the tagline, No justice, no piece– couldn’t have said it better myself. I have some sympathy for cops in general, they have a tough job with tough calls, but this was just inexcusable. I have white, Latino and Asian friends backing us up on this, so this is hardly an unusual conclusion. This was, without any doubt, an awful act of manslaughter against a human being, and a decent one at that, taking care of his family.
Despite the anger we all justifiably have due to the injustice of the Sean Bell case, we need to harness this anger toward productive uses.
If things are ever going to improve for African-Americans, we have to redouble our efforts to gain social, political and economic power here.
Remember, time and demographics are both on our side. Whites now have a birth rate well below replacement in the USA, while the African-American population grows steadily both by natural growth and immigration from Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. Even some Blacks immigrating to the USA from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. (BTW if any of you can speak Spanish and/or Portuguese, please encourage our Black brethren in Latin America, especially from Brazil, to emigrate to the USA. There’s strength in numbers.)
I know Blacks and Latinos have often been at loggerheads, but we’re natural allies– both fighting against White oppression, with Latinos having been invaded in multiple wars by the Anglos in Florida, the Mexican-American War and Spanish-American War. Latinos lost half of Mexico when Anglos invaded in 1848, and were ethnically cleansed by Anglos so that they could start slavery in the conquered territories. Blacks and Latinos today are natural partners in the fight for social justice, both fighting for affirmative action and against discrimination. Spanish is an easy language to learn, and the more that we reach out to each other, speak some Spanish ourselves, and support our Latino brothers and sisters, the more our alliance is cemented.
I’d say if anything, the key for us is to gain political power, and to do that, it’s best to concentrate ourselves geographically a bit more in a few states, where we will soon be the majority. On the one hand, we need Blacks throughout the country to demand our rights, but on the other, a better geographical focus is the key to political power, as it is throughout the world’s democratic countries.
IOW, we need to have our own “North American Nubia” where we have a demographic majority and political power. Some Deep South States are obvious candidates– Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana for example, all of which will soon be Black-majority within perhaps a decade. This would be a core of our nation.
But we can have a second North American Nubia (or North American Africana, whichever name you prefer) in the Upper Midwest– Michigan is one of the Blackest states in the Union, and much of Illinois is also strongly African-American in demographics, culture and social importance.
Some of my homies from college have even urged conversion to Islam for African-Americans. It’s not something I’ve considered myself, though I’ll acknowledge that at least for many urban African-Americans, they’ve done quite well after the conversion. Many having been in jail or kept out of jail, they become more focused and disciplined, as fathers they take care of their Black children and care better for Black women, stay away from drugs and violence and so forth. (interesting link a friend sent to me– The Nubian Manifesto )
IMHO there are many different personal routes we can take for empowerment, but as a group, we must stay strong and focused and, again, have enough of a geographic concentration that we can gain political power. Just as we should ally with Latinos as they become the majority in their own homelands in Southwestern states and Florida, so should Blacks ally with Muslims in Michigan (who will soon be the majority in that state).
It’s obvious from our people’s history here, that we’ll survive only by standing up for ourselves. Political and economic empowerment are the central aspects of this.