Excerpts :
Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning 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.
Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning 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.
Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court, said 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,” he said.
The acquittals do not necessarily mean the officers’ legal battles are over. Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the three men could still face disciplinary action from the Police Department, and that he had been asked to wait on any internal measures until the United States attorney’s office determines whether or not it would pursue federal charges against them.
He added: “There will be opportunities for peaceful dissent and potentially for further legal recourse — those are the rights we enjoy in a democratic nation. We don’t expect violence or law-breaking, nor is there any place for it.”
“We have prepared, we have done some drills and some practice with appropriate units and personnel if there is any violence, but again, we don’t anticipate violence,” Mr. Kelly said. “There have been no problems. Obviously there will be some people who are disappointed with the verdict. We understand that.”
I've just realized how important blogging and the internet is. I was just searching for a news report that came out yesterday regarding the deployment of troops to NYC Subway system under the guise of counterterrorism and there are no "major" news outlets carrying the story today. These were prominent yesterday and even older stories are still featured on their first pages--it's like they deleted the stories from their archives. Thank goodness for bloggers hunh?
I will unashamedly corrrelate the deployment of this special NYPD Task Force on a THURSDAY with the Sean Bell verdict on FRIDAY. The Establishment expected some rioting today and are not ashamed to SIC heavily armed NYPD and dogs on the people. This is what the conspiracy theorists talk about people. The Establishment create situtations to meet their ends. Those officers were guilty, excessive and willfull! They should have been charged. The set-up began with the prosecution. They sucked and anyone following the case made note of this since the first days of testimony. This fool was pleading the defense's case for them!
The fact that these officers were acquitted is no surprise, and that's what keeps the people off the streets. They've beaten the people down to being apathetic to these issues because we know there is no justice nor peace. We've exhausted every avenue of dissent and judicial process and have come to the realization that we just can't win. It's either fight or flight and we would prefer to flee. We want to live--the Establishment's deployment is a waste of tax dollars to tell you the truth.
“There will be opportunities for peaceful dissent and potentially for further legal recourse — those are the rights we enjoy in a democratic nation. We don’t expect violence or law-breaking, nor is there any place for it.” -Commissioner Ray Kelly
Yassa Massa Boss
