An act of bravery and sacrifice by NYC's finest- This makes my blood boil

[wolf]

NEW YORK - An angry crowd demanded Sunday to know why police officers killed an unarmed man on the day of his wedding, firing dozens of shots that also wounded two of the man's friends. Some called for the ouster of the city's police commissioner.

At a vigil and rally the day after 23-year-old Sean Bell was supposed to have married the mother of his two young children, a crowd led by the Rev.
Al Sharpton shouted "No justice, no peace."
At one point, the crowd of a few hundred counted off to 50, the number of rounds fired.
"We cannot allow this to continue to happen," Sharpton said at the gathering outside Mary Immaculate Hospital, where one of the wounded men was in critical condition. "We've got to understand that all of us were in that car."
Some in the crowd called for the ouster of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, yelling "Kelly must go."
The police officers' group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said it was issuing a vote of no confidence in Kelly over the shooting.
Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD, said Sunday: "We are continuing to look for additional witnesses to shed light on the incident, and assisting the district attorney's office with its investigation."
The five offers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, Browne said.
Community leaders planned a rally Dec. 6 at police headquarters.
The shootings occurred at about 4 a.m. Saturday outside the Kalua Cabaret, a strip club where Bell's bachelor party was held. The survivors were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition Sunday and Benefield was stable.
Relatives of all three men ? many of them stoic, and some crying ? attended Sunday's vigil but none spoke publicly.
At a news conference Saturday, Kelly said the department was still piecing together what happened, and that it was too early to say whether the shooting was justified.
The car, driven by Bell, was struck by 21 of the police bullets after the vehicle rammed an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan. Other shots hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no one else was injured.
Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun but investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.
It was also not clear whether the shooters had identified themselves as police, Kelly said.
Kelly said the confrontation stemmed from an undercover operation inside the strip club in the Jamaica section of Queens. Seven officers in plain clothes were investigating the Kalua Cabaret; five of them were involved in the shooting.
According to Kelly, the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club and one of his friends made a reference to a gun.
An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, the car drove forward ? striking the officer and a nearby undercover police vehicle, Kelly said.
The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. That officer had served on the force for five years. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.
Bell backed the car onto a sidewalk, hitting a building gate, authorities said. He then drove forward, striking the police vehicle a second time, Kelly said.
The police department's policy on shooting at moving vehicles states: "Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle."
In 1999, NYPD officers killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the entry to his apartment building. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges. In 2003, Ousmane Zongo, 43, a native of the western African country of Burkina Faso, was killed during a police raid on a warehouse where he repaired art and musical instruments. Zongo was shot four times, twice in the back.

[error]

And people wonder why I hate New York City.

[Kat Kanning]

That angry crowd needed pitchforks.

[error]

That angry crowd needed pitchforks.

In Manhattan, that's a recipe for getting yourself shot by the police.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Apparently more than enough.

[citizen_142002]

The media is picking up on these stories both NYC and Atlanta. Notice that these shootings involve plainclothes officers, who are involved in vice type squads. I'm betting the cops in NYC either failed to identify themselves as cops or failed to show a badge. I mean if someone in NYC told me I had to get in their vehicle because they were a cop, I wouldn't go unless they could show me that they were a cop, and if they pursued me I would use force. It's likely that Bell thought he was defending himself from a criminal.

If the cops wanted to stop that car they could have shot at the tires or the engine block, but they aimed at the driver, and the passengers aswell. Couple this with the police observation towers that they're putting up in NYC, and it's starting to look a lot like the Soviet Union.

[Lloyd Danforth]

The cable news outlets are Posing this as "We're The NY Cops Just Caught Up In The Moment?"

[KBCraig]

I did a lot of reading on this last night and this morning, just to see if they're going to be able to spin their way out of it. Conclusion: at least three of the five will avoid any criminal charges, because they were responding to the other officers. The officer who initiated the whole thing, and who fired the first shots, will continue to claim that he thought Guzman was reaching for a gun in his waistband; any charges against him might or might not stick. The fifth officer, who fired 31 rounds, could also face charges, and possibly be convicted of reckless conduct or somesuch.

All five violated policy, and will face job discipline ranging from suspension to termination.

Here's the basic chain of events:
- Two NYPD officers (one male, one female) were undercover in the club, to find evidence of drugs and prostitution. They were unarmed, in order to get past security at the door. Five plainclothes officers were outside the club, as a response team.

- The officers inside were drinking, in order to blend in. Policy allowed a two-drink maximum (policy also forbids shooting at cars; more on that later). They had been in the club for 3 hours before the shooting.

- The male officer --let's call him UC1-- overheard a bouncer tell a dancer that he had a gun. UC1 then left the club, armed himself, notified the squad lieutenant that weapons could be present, and returned to the sidewalk in front of the club.

- Around 4 a.m., Bell, Guzman, and Benefield (the groom and his friends) were leaving, and engaged in a verbal altercation with a group of other patrons on the sidewalk. One of them allegedly said, "Yo, go get my gun!" The three of them then left, with UC1 following closely behind on foot.

- When the three got in Bell's Nissan Altima to leave, UC1 claims he showed them his badge, identified himself, and ordered them to put their hands up.

- NYPD hasn't yet found a witness to support the claim that UC1 identified himself. All other witnesses, including Benefield (the conscious survivor), say UC1 did not identify himself as a police officer.

- Benefield said they were about to pull away, when "a guy dressed just like us pull(ed) a gun." At that point, Bell pulled away quickly, allegedly brushing UC1.

- At the same time, the backup team arrived in an unmarked minivan. The van turned the corner quickly, into the path of the Altima, which struck the front of the van. Bell reversed, crossed the sidewalk and hit a gate post, then pulled forward and hit the van again.

- At some point during this, UC1 began firing. Four other officers jumped from the minivan and also began shooting. The fifth officer in the van ducked behind the dashboard.

- UC1 fired 11 rounds. A 12 year veteran emptied his pistol, reloaded, and emptied his second magazine, for a total of 31 rounds. Another officer contributed 3 rounds, and two others fired five rounds between them.

- Of the 50 shots fired at close range, only 21 hit the car. The other 29 hit other vehicles, houses, and building walls, broke windows in an elevated train station, and broke a lamp in a house.

- Guzman, the apparent target, was hit by 11 shots as he sat in the front passenger seat. He had 17 entrance and exit wounds. He has undergone surgery and is still listed as being in critical condition.

- Bell, the driver, was shot three times, including twice in the neck. He was DOA.

- Benefield, in the back seat, was shot three times in the legs. He is still hospitalized in stable condition, but has spoken with reporters.

- Police and union officials are claiming the car was being used as a deadly weapon, but NYPD policy is clear: "Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle."

To sum up: an undercover officer, who had been drinking for three hours in a strip club, overheard a verbal argument, then followed three men who were leaving the argument. Dressed in street clothes, he attempted to stop their car while pointing a gun at them. Confronted by an apparent hood with a gun, the driver tried to get away, only to crash into an unmarked police van that swerved around a corner to block them in. The undercover officer began shooting, triggering "sympathetic response shooting" by four other plainclothes officers.

And by now, I'm really sick from reading all of this. 

Some of the more informative links I used:
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/16102235.htm?source=rss&channel=journalgazette_nation
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/474738p-399340c.html
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_331125515.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/475222p-399744c.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/28/nyc.shooting.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
http://wcbs880.com/pages/132800.php?contentType=4&contentId=247130

[KBCraig]

I forgot to add one of the relevant reports, that of an eyewitness.

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=5731068
- A dancer at a Queens strip club where an unarmed man was killed by police over the weekend says officers "jumped out shooting" from their vehicle.
- Trini Wright tells the New York Daily News there was "No 'stop.' No 'freeze.' No nothing."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061127/groom_police_061127/20061127?hub=TopStories
- But Trini Wright, a dancer at the strip club where Bell's bachelor party was held, told New York's Daily News a different account of what happened.

- Wright said she was going to a diner with the men and was putting her makeup bag into the trunk of their car when the police minivan appeared.

- "The minivan came around the corner and smashed into their car. And they (the police) jumped out shooting," said the 28-year-old. "No 'stop.' No 'freeze.' No nothing."

[Kat Kanning]

The government put itself on trial and found itself innocent.  What a surprise. 




3 NYPD detectives cleared in wedding-day shooting

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Three detectives were acquitted Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower. ADVERTISEMENT



Scores of police officers surrounded the courthouse to guard against potential chaos, and as news of the verdict spread, many in the crowd began weeping. Others were enraged, swearing and screaming "Murderers! Murderers!" or "KKK!"

Inside the courtroom, spectators gasped. Sean Bell's fiancee immediately walked out of the room; his mother cried.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The case ignited the emotions of people across the city and led to widespread protests among those who felt the officers used unnecessary force.

Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren't charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.

The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo — an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration.

Though emotions ran high, there were no immediate problems outside the courthouse Friday, where many wore buttons with Bell's picture or held signs saying "Justice for Sean Bell." Some people approached police after the verdict was read, but they were held back and the jostling died down quickly.

William Hardgraves, 48, an electrician from Harlem, brought his 12-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter to hear the verdict. "I hoped it would be different this time. They shot him 50 times," Hardgraves said. "But of course, it wasn't."

The officers, complaining that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury.

The judge, Justice Arthur Cooperman, indicated when he delivered the verdict that the officers' version of events was more credible than the victims' version. "The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified" in firing, he said.

Hours later, the officers appeared at a news conference.

"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," Cooper said, thanking God, his lawyers and the police officers who supported him.

The U.S. attorney's office said after the verdict that it had been monitoring the state's prosecution and would conduct an independent review of the case. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, called for a federal investigation.

"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," Sharpton said on his radio show. "What we saw in court today was not a miscarriage of justice. Justice didn't miscarry. This was an abortion of justice."

Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, responded angrily to Sharpton's suggestion that the verdicts were unfair.

"That's despicable for him to say that because we have the greatest criminal justice system on earth," he said.

The nearly two-month trial was marked by deeply divergent accounts of the night.

The defense painted the victims as drunken thugs who the officers believed were armed and dangerous. Prosecutors sought to convince the judge that the victims had been minding their own business, and that the officers were inept, trigger-happy aggressors.

Both sides were consistent on one point: The utter chaos surrounding the last moments of Bell's life.

"It happened so quick," Isnora said in grand jury testimony. "It was like the last thing I ever wanted to do."

Bell's companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — offered dramatic testimony. Both were wounded in the shooting; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body.

Referring to Isnora, Guzman said, "This dude is shooting like he's crazy, like he's out of his mind."

The victims and shooters were set on a fateful collision course by a pair of innocuous decisions: Bell's to have a last-minute bachelor party at Kalua Cabaret, and the undercover detectives' to investigate reports of prostitution at the club.

As the club closed around 4 a.m., Sanchez and Isnora claimed they overheard Bell and his friends first flirt with women, then taunt a stranger who responded by putting his right hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. Guzman, they testified, said, "Yo, go get my gun" — something Bell's friends denied.

Isnora said he decided to arm himself, call for backup — "It's getting hot," he told his supervisor — and tail Bell, Guzman and Benefield as they went around the corner and got into Bell's car. He claimed that after warning the men to halt, Bell pulled away, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene with Oliver at the wheel. The detective also alleged that Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.

Guzman said Isnora "appeared out of nowhere" with a gun drawn and shot him in the shoulder — the first of 16 shots to enter his body.

"That's all there was — gunfire," he said. "There wasn't nothing else."

With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers claimed that they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again, as the supervisor sought cover.

The truth emerged when the smoke cleared: There was no weapon inside Bell's blood-splattered car.

[Raineyrocks]

This is disgusting!


But cops are getting away with so much these days I'm not surprised.

[David]

"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," Sharpton said on his radio show. "What we saw in court today was not a miscarriage of justice. Justice didn't miscarry. This was an abortion of justice."

Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, responded angrily to Sharpton's suggestion that the verdicts were unfair.

"That's despicable for him to say that because we have the greatest criminal justice system on earth," he said.

Bullsh*t.  Sharpton is right.  You are innoccent till proven guilty, but there is no way for Sean Bell to have shot at police, because he had no gun.  These cops were trigger happy murderers.  They commited murder, and have officially gotten away with it. 

[Kat Kanning]

It's so stupid, now they're calling for a federal investigation.  They're really expecting the government to punish itself.

[kola]

this is just one of the many examples that will continue to put an ax between the cop-goons and the coomonfolk.

what a shame to see these goons walk away as free men after a senseless slaughtering.

kola

[Tom Sawyer]

The Fear Behind the Badge
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27murphy.html

No one seems to want to deal with the fact that "vice" crime enforcement led to this shooting spree by the cops.