Posted on 04/26/2008 7:53:51 AM PDT by pissant
They waited for hours, singing spirituals, praying and chanting for justice, but in a flash, the crowd gathered outside a Queens courthouse Friday erupted in anger and grief.
Men cursed and shouted. Women wailed and covered their faces. "Oh, no! No!" they yelled, as word spread that three police officers had been cleared of all charges in the 50-bullet shooting that took Sean Bell's life on his wedding day in 2006.
To some, the acquittal seemed like more proof that blacks can't get a fair shake in the criminal justice system.
Moments after the verdict was announced, Trent Benefield, a friend of Bell's who was wounded in the hail of gunfire, staggered down the courthouse steps with a look of angry disbelief on his face, a friend's arms tightly wrapped around his shoulders.
"Not guilty. Not guilty. It's real," he said, while dozens of people wearing Bell's face on hats, T-shirts and buttons burst into sobs.
Within an hour, the crowd of about 200 people had settled down and dispersed. Despite a few scuffles between members of the throng and police officers, no arrests were made.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represented the Bell family, angrily denounced the verdicts on his radio show later and called on his followers to protest the outcome, but without violence.
He vowed to lead a campaign of "economic withdrawal" and civil disobedience that could include demonstrations at police headquarters and outside the judge's home.
"We are coming back to demonstrate to the federal government that New Yorkers will not take this abortion of justice lying down," Sharpton said. "We are going to close the city down in a nonviolent, effective way."
The protests were muted compared with past verdicts where officers were cleared in police shootings of black men, perhaps a result of improved race relations and the complicated nature of the Bell case.
Bell was black, but so were two of the three officers charged in the shooting, including the one who fired the first shot.
Supporters of the Bell family began arriving early at the courthouse. Few were able to get inside. Most waited in a long line on the sidewalk, leaning against police barricades.
A few carried signs reading "Justice for Sean Bell." One group held a banner proclaiming, "50 Shots. 50 More Reasons We Need Revolution."
Scores of officers wearing blue NYPD polo shirts, along with others in standard uniform, ringed the building and kept the sidewalk clear of swarming journalists.
Inside the packed courtroom, gasps could be heard when Justice Arthur Cooperman acquitted the officers. Bell's mother cried; her husband put his arm around her and shook his head. Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, rushed from the courtroom. Officer Michael Oliver, who fired the most shots, also cried.
Word spread immediately to the crowd outside, and the reaction was intense.
William Hardgraves, 48, an electrician from Harlem who brought his 12-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter to hear the verdict, paced angrily.
"I hoped it would be different this time. They shot him 50 times," Hardgraves said. "But of course, it wasn't."
Calvin Hunt of Harlem shared his anger.
"This was a disgrace, what happened today," he said.
And Al’s “thesis” was Tawana Brawley.
Just a guy and some buds down for a bachelor party, and a pretty tame one at that.
If he'd wanted to go to a hellhole they do have some in that area, but the fellows downtown at police headquarters wouldn't have risked having one of their college educated patrolmen in it ~ he could have gotten hurt.
Yup, all ~ the shooters and their victims. The use of the term “hispanic” is an add-on ~ not an exclusivity sort of thing.
The Reverend Al is wrong in his personal relationships, his adherence to the Democratic party, and his understanding of who is grinding black people into the pavement ~ but he is not wrong on the life and death issues around us.
Actually, I believe the Latino is Haitian/Mexican, if I remember correctly.
Riot on!!!
What?
What relevance to this trial did that story have?
You’all are still retarded. New Yorkers have never highly prized social graces.
Three of them were the primary shooters ~ we know who hit who and how many rounds each person fired. On-lookers or the guys who missed weren’t on trial.
As I have stated I live in New York, specifically Queens County, why would you wish a riot to happen, careless thinking on your part. What do you wish me and my family to have our heads bashed in?????? Or do you thrive on the misery of others?/Just Asking - seoul62......
Well, we ain't so retarded (your word) as to feed trolls.
Lou Dobbs had Curtis Sliwa on last night. It has been a while since I have seen Sharpton torn a new one on cable news. Dobbs did not have to encourage Sliwa much for Sliwa to give viewers some of the truths about Rev. Al. Personally, I have been sickened on how much respect Sharpton has gotten on cable news lately.
Run over? On top the hood? Irreconcilable issues ~
There's even some confusion regarding who the cops were shooting at ~ some of them seemed to be of the impression the guy who was the undercover cop was one of the bad guys. His own testimony about where he was at what time tends to dovetail with the supposed sighting of a "fourth person". He's lucky he didn't get hit.
Regarding the "whiteness" of a person of Lebanese ancestry, some are certainly considered "white" and some are certainly considered "non-white" ~ depends on the time of day, social circumstances, etc. Folks in that part of the world have been bringing in African slaves for thousands and thousands of years.
Oh, yeah, and the SUV part of the story. In the "bridegroom case" the COPS own the SUV, their targets are in a sedan. The story you are trying to insert has the targets with the SUV, and the cops in a sedan or on foot.
That's enough difference anyone could easily differentiate between the two stories. The "Arabs with machinegun case" has nothing to do with this one.
Except for his troubles with IRS we had a chance to convert him to Republican interests this election year.
Me too. Sharpton is almost a regular on FOX and he popps up on other channels also. He has no credibility. Why bother inviting him?
Doesn't mean we need to like the guy, but it's better to have Rev Al than let's say Rev Wright!
Yeah, even the hispanic one.
I live in NY as well. No I do not wish for your head or your family’s heads to be bashed in. Depending on who it is, I may thrive on their misery, if they bring it on themselves.
If he’s the “last Right to Life” democrat why isn’t he “protesting” the fact that 1/3 of abortions are black babies???? Where is his anger for them?
He can feel for the death of a thug but not the unborn?
Yea...that was OK
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