Sean Bell

MSNBC Story: Hundreds march after NYPD officers cleared in 23-year-old man's shooting

The Sean Bell ruling shows a unique quality of the American legal system despite its flaws and the frequent criticism that is lobbed against it.

First let me start out by clearly stating - the police were wrong to fire 50 bullets at the car and thus result in the death of Mr. Bell. From my understanding of the scenario an undercover police man who is thus not clearly in a police uniform should show much more restraint as it is a likely scenario that an individual, assuming that he might be in the middle of a robbery attempt might flee the threat by driving away. If indeed a thug is likely to fire shots into the fleeing car which poses no risk to his person because he is attempting to render the consequences upon his robbery subject for escaping his clutches......indeed the police should have their actions far more confined by PROCEDURE.

Let me be clear - after having watched plenty of episodes of "Cops" and "Police Videos" where the dash cam shows individuals who are straight up attempting to kill the cop that is standing in front of the car - I will be the first to support the use of deadly force in attempting to stop the driver who is aiming his car directly at the uniformed cop. I would even give leeway to an undercover cop with his badge clearly in view...as long as he is in the direct path of the car. It seems, however in NYC these cops while having to move out of the way of the car were in no danger of being ran down as they fired their guns.

The fact that 50 shots were fired with one cop reloading with a new clip sounds more like "consequences" being rendered. There needs to be clear procedures drilled into these undercover cops.

At minimum these men should never be allowed to wear a badge again.

At the same time our justice system that protects the rights of the defendant has rendered a judgment upon the defendants - in this case the cops. From my understanding they cannot be tried again for this same indictment upon which a judge stated that the prosecutor did not provide sufficient evidence for conviction. I assume that the cops waived their right to a "trial by their peers" and instead chose to have a judge hear their case.

The next course of action is for the state and/or the feds to impose a 'Civil Rights' violation case against these officers. Now we all know that the Rev. Al Sharpton is no friend of the Bush administration and vice versa. I strongly suspect that Rev Sharpton, instead of assembling a compelling case for delivery to the US Justice Department and drive them to move via a series of meetings with them to make his case, will instead begin to ATTACK THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION hoping that in breaking out enough windows with his rocks that he will get their attention.

Hurricane Katrina showed us that no amount of incompetence of the local liberal government will shelter "evil Bush" from taking a hit when Black folks and our associated "justice" are the central issue under discussion. Providing Al Sharpton with a "twofer" - pursuing his claim for "Justice" for Sean Bell AND skewering the "racist, uncaring" Republican administration for the benefit of the Democrats - what more can he ask for?

These are the type of cases where Republicans are tarnished the most by Black operatives seeking to do so. Where as the "paragons of justice" would shudder at the notion of DOUBLE JEOPARDY where an ordinary BLACK MAN upon being found INNOCENT AS CHARGED is ran through the ringer of "justice" until a favorable verdict is rendered would drive the left wing critics to triple their annual donation amount to the ACLU in their attempt to purchase justice.....the fact that the defendant/enemy is OF THE STATE - a police officer, throws out all of the normal rules of engagement and demands that "any means necessary" be used to render their form of justice. Indeed the most open minded "Free Mumia" liberal who wears the t-shirt saying "it is better that 10 guilty men go free than to have one innocent man denied his freedom by the government" will say "Fuck the formalities! Lock them up!!"