…because the police need more validation to kill innocent black men…

I am SOOO hurt by this!

My heart is so heavy right now! I am just in deep prayer for my city and for my people, as well as the famililes of the victims.

Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Eleanor Bumpurs, Ousemane Zongo, Patrick Dorismond, Michael Stewart, and now Sean Bell, Trent Benefield, and Joseph Guzman. . .wounded or killed by NYPD, gone but to not be forgotten.

"Nothing about this is justice, these officers deserve at very least to be charged with negligent homicide; yet they will walk free and will likely continue to serve the NYPD.

Until we begin to see police officers held to the same standard of the law as the average citizen we will continue to see the hostility and hatred towards law enforcement that we see in these neighborhoods now. How can an average citizen be expected to respect the rule of law when we see cases like this time and time again where the officers in question are rarely punished appropriately; why should the average citizen be expected to live up to a higher standard of behavior than those who are enforcing said standards?"

Some guy made this comment in another blog and it just about summed up my feeling pretty well.

We been covering Sean Bell's case over at Highbrid Nation from the start and when I read today that the police officers were acquitted I was in serious disbelief. An unarmed man was shot 50 times and the people who did it are not responsible at all!? That's crazy.

I really want to have a well-written response, but the only thought running through my head is: Fuck you, NYPD!

*Screams*

I hope the family has the feds file a civil rights suit. Federal prosecutions work better than local ones in these kinds of cases. This is just so sad.

I not surprised. How do Americans promote themselves as liberators of the world, when this sort of thing goes unchecked in their own backyard.

My heart goes out to Sean Bell's family.

Haning,

would it make a difference if it were an innocent white, latino or asian man? there is no validation in any senseless killing by law officials.

Just sad….

@ misterb: the only difference is that these senseless killings don't happen as often to guilty, much less, innocent whites.

senseless killings should be avoided. but our human minds tend to think in patterns. unarmed black men killed in a storm of bullets seems to be one such pattern.

Michael Moore makes me sick, but his "Day-Glo Orange wallet exchange" on The Awful Truth was a prize.

This makes me think of the outro of Erykah Badu song Twinkle. I don't want them to riot but Damn it we are all Human Beings and our life has value too.

I truly can't remember shedding a tear over a verdict in my life before this. This is disgusting, I read an article that the judge said the prosecutions witnesses were'nt credible since they had criminal records and are currently suing the State. All I could do was pray for the family because I cant imagine how hurt they feel right now.

I knew today was going to be a good day and IT IS! I'm glad those cops killed Bell. You got to expect that when you threaten cops, get in your car, and then drive right for them. The system worked, too. It was a high profile, extraordinary case that deserved to be tried. There was a trial, and today there was justice.

Two of those detectives are black by the way. So you can forget the "racism" charges.

As for Bell's fiance and family - cry me a river.

"Lyn" you are not even worth responding to. I hope you get a life and can stop saying things on the net your not brave enough to say in person.

@ Lyn

I hope nothing like this ever happens to you or your family, if it does I will grieve with you, death is forever and one should never rejoice in anothers pain as a general rule.

As far as the verdict, what can you say? None of us was in the courtroom to see how the witnesses testified.
If they didn't look/sound truthful would you go ahead and believe them any way just because some cops grossly overreacted and "justice" must be done?

There still is the possibility of a civil lawsuit so these cops may end up having to pay one way or another.

Lyn,
First of all I think you're trolling but whateves.
I'll quote someone else again "One of the cops is a black hispanic. He was the one who fired first.
The one who fired the most bullets and changed his clip was the white cop.
I know it's hard for you because you don't really know anything about black people- and it's not your fault: you don't HAVE to. Which is funny because minorities have to know everything about whites. I actually like white people, culture, and history along with my own culture so I enjoy it but I always find it to be odd whenever a white person makes a mistake about black culture.
Black hispanics do not often consider themselves to be African American. In fact, they hate it when people think they're black because some of them have an animosity towards black people (caused by stereotypes, etc.). They believe themselves to be a different ethnicity and color than black people. The same can be said for afro- carribean people. They don't want to be considered to be blacks. They think that they are somehow different- and they really are different because they are not historically associable. It gets confusing because they look like African Americans and in America we use color to determine everything."

Ignore Lyn. She's just trying to start drama. The dumb bi*** didn't even the get the story right.

I knew the cops would get away with the crime. Stupid Lyn said it loud and clear:

"Two of those detectives are black by the way. So you can forget the “racism” charges."

And the dumb bi*** was right about that. That's how it goes. If a blk is involved, it automatically isn't an issue of race. Even though Oliver (white) squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora (blk) fired 11 rounds; and Cooper (blk) shot four times.
Personally, the worst cops I've dealt with were blk (I have never been arrested or convicted… just escorted home when I was in high school for some unnecessary bullsh**). Blk cops are some of the most racist cops I've met. They automatically label you and claim they know all about "your type" just becuz they grew up in a twisted/broken household and took part in some illegal activities themselves. Now I'm not saying they're all like that, but those are the ones I've come in contact with.

Maria, Black Hispanics are culturally different than African-Americans, racially not by much, but culturally? YES. You can't lump them in the same melting pot of blackness.

Try calling a very proud Black Haitian, Black Jamaican, Black PuertoRican or Black Dominican "African-American" - they'll cuss you out and they have a right to do so.

Why?

Becuase their family origins is not "American." Black? YES. American? NO. It's a "nation" thing, not a "self-hating" thing.

Lyn - your tone exposes you for someone who has problems. Cry me a river? Seriously? That was inhuman and cold.

Everyone, click on Lyn's name and note the link to her site. We shouldn't tolerate flagrant racists on here; we should just ignore them.

Ike this is a clear issue of race.

The fact is that everytime we are discussing an issue of police brutality or killing by police- it is because the victim is a Black person. The issue will stop being about race when police are attacking white people with the same impunity. Truth - police of all races are engaging in racial profiling that governs how they do their jobs. Police are more apt to act to deadly force when confronted with Black suspects than White suspects.
If that isn't racial I don't know what is!

AMB- I just did that and was coming back to say that!! Lyn is a stated, open racist. I am bummed that I even replied to 'it'.

UNBELIEVABLY OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

This is 2008, folks, and this is still going on??? WTF!!!

WAY TO GO, THE STATE OF NY, FOR PROMOTING "JUSTICE" IN THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES!

and Lyn needs to go fuck off and hang out on the Faux News forum.

Mama's Rice and Beans,

I put the comment in quotes because I didn't say it; I do think there is truth in it though. Meaning the lines we draw when calling an Officer "black" specifically when you are in Queens, is not wise. Where there are so many different cultures in, can be upsetting to people who wish to not be labeled as such.

This is horrible. The man in the middle sprayed Bell's body with bullets, even reloading his gun to shoot again. Even if the other two were acquitted, the man in the middle is guilty guilty guilty of excessive force (at least).

I really hope blk folk do not riot because that will not help the cause. All they are going to do (and can do) is rip/tear and burn down their own(our own) neighborhoods, and on Monday they will be walking 10 miles in another neighborhood to buy milk for their children. If a group of angry black people think for one moment they are going to the Upper East Side to riot, they have another thing coming.

This is more of a reason why WE must get our neighborhoods clean so that the COPS WILL HAVE NO REASON TO PORTROL AND HANG AROUND OUR NEIGHBORHOODS.

If the witnesses were not credible because they have records(and are suing the state), why do the police often use drug addicts with records as witnesses?

@LYN- I hate to inform you that their are black people who are racists towards other black people. If you read this blog often, I sure you have come across a few posts. If there were not black people who hated and disliked other black people, the transatlantic slave trade would have never been as large as it was.

@Maria- Very good post. Black West Indians' and black Hispanics' ancestors came over on the same boats from Africa as the ancestors of African-Americans.

Mama's Rice and Beans says:
Maria, black Hispanics are culturally different than African-Americans, racially not by much, but culturally? YES. You can’t lump them in the same melting pot of blackness

Thank you for this.

It’s like calling a French person an American. They are not having it.

@SweetDiva:

I agree with u. I think u misinterpreted me. I was trying to say that politicians, cops, the media, "white" people, etc, always dismiss the idea of racism whenever a minority is also one of the offenders.

Ike, see post on reaction time when shooting armed vs. unarmed people. I understand that these people risk their lives daily, but damn. They are not Vietnam or Iraq war vets who somehow manage to keep it together for the most time. If your survival mode keeps you from assessing a situation properly, you shouldn't be an investigator and you probably shouldn't be a cop in NYC.

At least unlike Diallo, I feel like people in high places are at least privately siding with the victim's family and trying to ensure that this doesn't happen again, most notably Bloomberg.

Isn't it funny/sad/ironic when racists spend much of their time trolling black-oriented sites?

I'm not one to delve into the mind of an irrational person (i.e. a racist)for fear of spontaneous brain combustion but that is one wierd relationship between ideologies and internet behaviors….

I just took the gun test with these results:

Game Over
Your Score: 405
Average reaction time:
Black Armed:596.24ms
Black Unarmed:742.32ms
White Armed:645.08ms
White Unarmed:716.36ms

And Im black. Just because you are of color doesn't mean you werent brought up in the same racist society as whites and weren't made to subconsciously associate blackness with negativity/crime etc–no matter how many happy nappy buttons you had as a child.

@ ANYONE

How much you want to bet that LYN has a black boyfriend on the side. I bet his name is Tyrone Daquan Johnson who is 6'4 Jet black with a wide flat nose and full lips(pure black looking). She calls him her mandingo warrior.

You know these Nazi type racists always desire what they hate!

My guess is it's someone who's spent his/her entire life getting their ass kicked by the black kids.

Didn't know the cops who killed Sean Bell looked like this… somewhere a KKK party is going on and people are just congratulating each other…

I can't believe this : i hope those guys are not just muppets thrown there to prevent a racial based riot… no… in fact i hope they are.

ummm hind sight's 20/20 ignore my previous posts…
i'm not sure what happened in queens.
kthnxbai