Sunday, April 27, 2008

Innocent or guilty?


Most people are familiar with the Sean Bell case; however, for those of you who are not I will give you a little background. Sean Bell was an unarmed 25 year old African American who was shot and killed by the NYPD. He and his two friends were fired upon leaving his two friends wounded and Sean dead. The police, three of them being of African American dissent, that fired the 50 bullets were in “plainclothes,” meaning they were not in uniform and were in disguise. This usually occurs when someone is trying to conceal their identity and avoid detection. The three men were returning from Mr. Bell’s bachelor party that evening when the unarmed men were fired at in Jamaica, Queens.

The occurrence has been compared to that of Amadou Diallo who was also an unarmed African America man, shot at 41 times by police. This incident is disturbing to read about and seems like the police officers who took this young man, Sean Bell’s, life would have a lot to pay for. Unfortunately, when it was taken to the grand jury in Queens the three police officers indicted were acquitted on all accounts. They were found not guilty on charges varying from manslaughter to reckless endangerment. As if what happened wasn’t enough for people to state their opinions the public now has even more to say knowing that the men that took the life of Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends are now released and acquitted of charges. Looking at those understanding of the police officers say they were just doing their job. When a situation seems “fishy” or a police officer feels that something is not right and is about to happen they take action. Although in this case it wasn’t the proper action to be taken they still did what they so called “had to do.” Some believe you had to have been at the scene to judge the circumstances and since there were no witnesses it is hard the charge these officers with something. Being part of the NYPD is a stressful thing. While everyone depends on you to ensure their protection they also look to go against you when you are wrong. Even though some understand what happened most people strongly protest the situation and have a lot to say about it.


Many community members protest the amount of force that was used in the case of Sean Bell. Even Mayor Bloomberg quotes “It sounds to me like excessive force was used. The shooting was inexplicable and unacceptable.” People are not comfortable with the idea of the grand jury issuing the sentence of saying Mr. Bell was reckless and that’s why they pulled the trigger and not doing anything else about it. They also believe that black males will now start feeling like targets especially after Mr. Diallo and now Mr. Bell. In Mr. Diallo’s case the bullets that were fired were 41 and in Mr. Bell’s case it was 50. People now wonder, will the number of bullets continuously fired persist on going up? Many people just cannot get over the fact that these officers were acquitted from all charges. They feel like something should have been done and to sit back and not do anything is just unacceptable. Citizens are starting to feel like they can’t trust the police anymore not knowing what they will do in stressful situations. If one was to reach into their pocket in front of a cop should they feel like they will get shot at?


Losing a loved one is never easy, and when it happens answers always want to be heard and the person or people that took the life are expected to suffer. What happened was terrible and I do believe these officers should not walk away without any charges in their hand however, I do not believe they were totally wrong. These policemen had to feel threatened in some way for them to take out their weapon and fire it. Even though the men were unarmed it was hard for the officers to tell that. As a police officer there is one main motive in mind- to ensure the safety of the public. Thinking on impulse, they thought shooting this man was the best option because if they had not he could have perhaps killed the officers and went on harming other people in the neighborhood. Although the judgment of the police was not accurate I don’t think they did this with the motive of death in their mind.

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