Three New York City police officers will learn their fate Friday in a case over the shooting of an unarmed black man outside a nightclub on the morning of his wedding. The city is bracing for protests if the officers are acquitted. (April 25)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sean Bell MURDERED: WHAT NEXT AMERICA???
never stops...unarmed man, shot dead one day before his wedding.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sean Bell's Fiancee Criticized Verdict
Sean Bell's Fiancee Criticized Verdict:
The justice system "let me down," Nicole Paultre-Bell said Saturday, a day after a not-guilty verdict for three New York City police officers charged in the killing of her fiance, Sean Bell.
"April 25, 2008, they killed Sean all over again," Paultre-Bell told about 250 supporters at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, her first public comments since the verdict. She shared the stage with Bell's parents and Joseph Guzman, who was with Bell, 23, at the time of the shooting in November 2006. Paultre-Bell thanked those at the rally for their support. "It's still not over," she said. "Every march, every rally, I'm going to be right up front." Also Saturday, Reps. Gregory W. Meeks and Charles B. Rangel as well as other elected officials called for a federal civil rights review of the case. State Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman in Queens on Friday acquitted Dets. Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of manslaughter charges and Det. Marc Cooper of reckless endangerment. The three officers fired a total of 50 bullets.Cooperman said prosecution witnesses, including Bell's friends, contradicted one another so much that their testimony "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility. The officers testified that they thought there was a gun in Bell's car before he was shot early Nov. 25, 2006, outside a Queens strip club -- just hours before he was to marry. No weapon was found. The shock of Friday's verdict hadn't subsided by Saturday morning. Bell's father, William Bell, asked the crowd at the rally, "Is this 1955 Alabama? Somebody has to answer that for me." Valerie Bell, Sean's mother, told the crowd that she didn't go through labor pains when her son was born because she had a C-section. But on Friday, she said, "that's when the pain started, and it was in my heart." Sharpton continued to rail against Cooperman's verdict, calling the ruling the worst attack on crime victims he'd ever heard of. He announced he would meet Tuesday with leaders of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union to plan massive civil disobedience and that he would amplify calls for a Department of Justice review. Church, community and union leaders will meet to "plan the day that we who are calling for justice will close this city down," Sharpton said. People in the crowd cheered and chanted, "Shut it down!" The Bell case has been likened to the 1999 police shooting in the Bronx of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was reaching for his cellphone when officers, mistaking it for a gun, fired 41 bullets. A judge acquitted the four officers, prompting widespread and violent protests in the city.
Related Article:
City Reacts to Verdict in the Sean Bell's Case
The justice system "let me down," Nicole Paultre-Bell said Saturday, a day after a not-guilty verdict for three New York City police officers charged in the killing of her fiance, Sean Bell.
"April 25, 2008, they killed Sean all over again," Paultre-Bell told about 250 supporters at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, her first public comments since the verdict. She shared the stage with Bell's parents and Joseph Guzman, who was with Bell, 23, at the time of the shooting in November 2006. Paultre-Bell thanked those at the rally for their support. "It's still not over," she said. "Every march, every rally, I'm going to be right up front." Also Saturday, Reps. Gregory W. Meeks and Charles B. Rangel as well as other elected officials called for a federal civil rights review of the case. State Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman in Queens on Friday acquitted Dets. Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of manslaughter charges and Det. Marc Cooper of reckless endangerment. The three officers fired a total of 50 bullets.Cooperman said prosecution witnesses, including Bell's friends, contradicted one another so much that their testimony "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility. The officers testified that they thought there was a gun in Bell's car before he was shot early Nov. 25, 2006, outside a Queens strip club -- just hours before he was to marry. No weapon was found. The shock of Friday's verdict hadn't subsided by Saturday morning. Bell's father, William Bell, asked the crowd at the rally, "Is this 1955 Alabama? Somebody has to answer that for me." Valerie Bell, Sean's mother, told the crowd that she didn't go through labor pains when her son was born because she had a C-section. But on Friday, she said, "that's when the pain started, and it was in my heart." Sharpton continued to rail against Cooperman's verdict, calling the ruling the worst attack on crime victims he'd ever heard of. He announced he would meet Tuesday with leaders of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union to plan massive civil disobedience and that he would amplify calls for a Department of Justice review. Church, community and union leaders will meet to "plan the day that we who are calling for justice will close this city down," Sharpton said. People in the crowd cheered and chanted, "Shut it down!" The Bell case has been likened to the 1999 police shooting in the Bronx of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was reaching for his cellphone when officers, mistaking it for a gun, fired 41 bullets. A judge acquitted the four officers, prompting widespread and violent protests in the city.
Related Article:
City Reacts to Verdict in the Sean Bell's Case
Friday, April 25, 2008
North Pole could be ice free in 2008 - earth - 25 April 2008 - New Scientist Environment
North Pole could be ice free in 2008 - earth - 25 April 2008 - New Scientist Environment: "You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility."
Three Officers Acquitted in Mr. Bell's Death
A Travesty. Need I say more?
Here's more on the travesty
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYPD officers cleared in killing; rights leaders want probe
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK - Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.
The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.
Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers — undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club — said they thought one of the men had a gun.
The slaying heightened tensions in the city and stoked long-standing allegations of racism and excessive use of force on the part of New York City's police, even though two of the officers charged are black.
In announcing his verdict in the non-jury trial, the judge said that the inconsistent testimony, courtroom demeanor and rap sheets of the prosecution witnesses — mainly Bell's friends — "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility.
"At times, the testimony just didn't make sense," the judge said.
Police had assigned extra officers to the courthouse and had helicopters in the air to help deal with any unrest. But within an hour, the angry, weeping crowd of about 200 people outside the courthouse had scattered, and despite a few scuffles, no arrests were made.
Oliver and Gescard Isnora were acquitted of charges that included manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. The third officer, Marc Cooper, faced lesser charges.
The verdict does not entirely resolve issues surrounding the case.
After the verdict, the U.S. attorney's office said it will look into the case and "take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statutes."
In addition, relatives of the victims have sued the city, and those cases could either go to trial or be settled out of court with the potential for multimillion-dollar payouts.
Also, the officers, who had been on paid leave, still face possible departmental charges that could result in their firing. While the judge found that the officers' behavior was not criminal, he added, "Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums."
The officers appeared somber later at a news conference. Each called the verdict fair. One apologized.
"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," Cooper said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, demanded a federal investigation.
"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," the civil rights leader said on his radio show. He said he is organizing "economic withdrawal" and "civil disobedience" that could involve going to jail and marching on Wall Street, at the judge's house and at police headquarters.
"We are going to close the city down in a nonviolent, effective way," Sharpton said. "We're going to hit the pocketbooks. We're going to let you know that we are not going to be in any way diverted from exercising our civil rights."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "We don't expect any violence, nor is there any place for it."
The officers had complained that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers. They opted to have the judge instead of a jury decide the case, a strategy that appeared to pay off.
District Attorney Richard Brown said that despite losing the case, prosecutors had "revealed significant deficiencies" in police tactics that need "prompt and serious attention."
The case brought back painful memories of other New York police shootings, such as the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was gunned down in a barrage of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case led to days of protests, with hundreds arrested.
"An ugly pattern is emerging in New York," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in Chicago after Friday's verdict. "This was a massacre. This was not a shootout. And the U.S. attorney general must give America the assurance that we all have equal protection under the law,"
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 cowboys.
Bell's companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — were both wounded; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body. Both testified. Guzman, a burly ex-convict, grew combative during cross-examination, and said of Isnora: "This dude is shooting like he's crazy, like he's out of his mind."
None of the officers took the stand. Instead, the judge heard transcripts of the officers telling a grand jury that they believed they had good reason to use deadly force.
The officers said that as the club closed around 4 a.m., they heard Guzman say, "Yo, go get my gun" — something Bell's friends denied.
Isnora claimed that after he warned the men to halt, Bell pulled away in his car, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene. The detective also said Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.
Benefield and Guzman testified that there were no orders from the police.
With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers said they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again. Isnora fired 11 rounds, and Cooper four. Two other officers who fired weren't charged.
When the smoke had cleared, there was no weapon inside Bell's blood-splattered car.
Here's more on the travesty
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYPD officers cleared in killing; rights leaders want probe
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK - Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.
The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.
Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers — undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club — said they thought one of the men had a gun.
The slaying heightened tensions in the city and stoked long-standing allegations of racism and excessive use of force on the part of New York City's police, even though two of the officers charged are black.
In announcing his verdict in the non-jury trial, the judge said that the inconsistent testimony, courtroom demeanor and rap sheets of the prosecution witnesses — mainly Bell's friends — "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility.
"At times, the testimony just didn't make sense," the judge said.
Police had assigned extra officers to the courthouse and had helicopters in the air to help deal with any unrest. But within an hour, the angry, weeping crowd of about 200 people outside the courthouse had scattered, and despite a few scuffles, no arrests were made.
Oliver and Gescard Isnora were acquitted of charges that included manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. The third officer, Marc Cooper, faced lesser charges.
The verdict does not entirely resolve issues surrounding the case.
After the verdict, the U.S. attorney's office said it will look into the case and "take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statutes."
In addition, relatives of the victims have sued the city, and those cases could either go to trial or be settled out of court with the potential for multimillion-dollar payouts.
Also, the officers, who had been on paid leave, still face possible departmental charges that could result in their firing. While the judge found that the officers' behavior was not criminal, he added, "Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums."
The officers appeared somber later at a news conference. Each called the verdict fair. One apologized.
"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," Cooper said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, demanded a federal investigation.
"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," the civil rights leader said on his radio show. He said he is organizing "economic withdrawal" and "civil disobedience" that could involve going to jail and marching on Wall Street, at the judge's house and at police headquarters.
"We are going to close the city down in a nonviolent, effective way," Sharpton said. "We're going to hit the pocketbooks. We're going to let you know that we are not going to be in any way diverted from exercising our civil rights."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "We don't expect any violence, nor is there any place for it."
The officers had complained that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers. They opted to have the judge instead of a jury decide the case, a strategy that appeared to pay off.
District Attorney Richard Brown said that despite losing the case, prosecutors had "revealed significant deficiencies" in police tactics that need "prompt and serious attention."
The case brought back painful memories of other New York police shootings, such as the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was gunned down in a barrage of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case led to days of protests, with hundreds arrested.
"An ugly pattern is emerging in New York," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in Chicago after Friday's verdict. "This was a massacre. This was not a shootout. And the U.S. attorney general must give America the assurance that we all have equal protection under the law,"
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 cowboys.
Bell's companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — were both wounded; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body. Both testified. Guzman, a burly ex-convict, grew combative during cross-examination, and said of Isnora: "This dude is shooting like he's crazy, like he's out of his mind."
None of the officers took the stand. Instead, the judge heard transcripts of the officers telling a grand jury that they believed they had good reason to use deadly force.
The officers said that as the club closed around 4 a.m., they heard Guzman say, "Yo, go get my gun" — something Bell's friends denied.
Isnora claimed that after he warned the men to halt, Bell pulled away in his car, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene. The detective also said Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.
Benefield and Guzman testified that there were no orders from the police.
With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers said they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again. Isnora fired 11 rounds, and Cooper four. Two other officers who fired weren't charged.
When the smoke had cleared, there was no weapon inside Bell's blood-splattered car.
Rush Limbaugh Sings: "I'm Dreaming Of Riots In Denver" - Media on The Huffington Post
Rush Limbaugh Sings: "I'm Dreaming Of Riots In Denver" - Media on The Huffington Post: "DENVER (AP) - Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh downplayed his 'dreaming of riots in Denver' statement, saying that he wasn't calling for riots and was referring to warnings of trouble if super delegates decide the nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
Limbaugh's comments on his syndicated show Wednesday prompted Mayor John Hickenlooper to say: 'Anyone who would call for riots in an American city has clearly lost their bearings.'"
Limbaugh's comments on his syndicated show Wednesday prompted Mayor John Hickenlooper to say: 'Anyone who would call for riots in an American city has clearly lost their bearings.'"
3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting - New York Times
3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting - New York Times: "Three detectives were found not guilty Friday on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens, in November 2006. The verdict prompted calls for calm from the mayor, angry promises of protests by those speaking for the Bell family and expressions of relief by the detectives. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 bullets the night of the shooting and faced manslaughter charges, said Justice Arthur J. Cooperman had made a “fair and just decision.”
Justice Cooperman delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court at 9 a.m. Describing the evidence, he said it was reasonable for the detectives to fear that someone in the crowd that night carried a gun. He added that many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” the judge said."
Justice Cooperman delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court at 9 a.m. Describing the evidence, he said it was reasonable for the detectives to fear that someone in the crowd that night carried a gun. He added that many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” the judge said."
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