Unbelievable All three cops were acquitted today in the shooting death of Sean Bell. If you aren't familiar with the story please visit http://topics.cnn.com/topics/sean_bell

50 bullets, 50! at unarmed innocent men in a car, killing one hours before his wedding
Diallo got 41 bullets, he was unarmed too.

This is why sometimes I really hate the police and the american justice system. There is no excuse for that kind of trigger happiness, none! It has failed Sean Bell and his loved ones - including his two young children.

lol. I thought things like this only happened in NIGERIA!!!!

~Lady~:

lol. I thought things like this only happened in NIGERIA!!!!

Don't be silly. in Nigeria there would be no trial at all. What happened to those policemen that killed those Igbo men in Abuja?


3 policemen were undercover, staking out a strip club looking for guns and narcotics. They saw the groom-to-be head outside, an argument ensued between friends and one headed for the car. believing the guy was going after a weapon in the vehicle, the policemen followed them to the car and drew their weapons. Tragically, the gu ypanicked and tried to drive off. The police officers thought the guy was trying to run them down and so they started firing.


The reaction i see here on Nairaland is based on ignorance. The Police don't use ageing Mark 4 rifles like Nigerians, usually they use semi-automatics like the Browning 9mm, with a moderate rate of fire. It's easy to fire 14 bullets in seconds, especially when you are convinced that people with hostile intent, with possilby concealed weapons are intent on killing you.


While i feel this incident was tragic, i feel it inderlines one important fact: Black Americans can be racist. I really do not see why Rev. Al Sharpton was involved, or why it has to turn into a HUGE white-on-black issue.

Here's my example. in Dec 2006, a North Carolina White man was killed by Police investigating him for the theft of a Playstation 3. Apparently the cops at the door thought the PS3 controller was a gun and desperately started shooting.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/03/north-carolina-deputy-kills-suspected-ps3-thief-and-his-dog/

Why wasn't this such a big stink? Why must race be dragged into everything?

Another big slap on blackman's face in America.
It's crazy, ridiculous and unbearable.

It makes no sense to try or want to campare this to Nigeria; please, leave Nigeria out of it and focus on the mighty land of injustice and the presentation of pure inequity.

It's sad actually, the way people continue to drag race into most every situation they can without realizing how much it actually hurts the black community than it helps. There have been cases similar to this involving indians and even arabs and we rarely hear of those, even in the media. But as soon as a black man is involved, it becomes a puppet show with the media fueling this and many in the black community jumping up and allowing themselves to be used as puppets for the media to up their ratings. The only people who actually benefit from these are the media, after a while these cases down down and the black community finds itself back where it started with nothing accomplished. These sort of cases are really unfortunate but dragging race into it only makes it worse.

Why must race be dragged into everything?

Please, do not fool yourself or be bamboozled. If you think race is not involved; I will advise you to chill out for now, when you get yours I'm sure you will wake up.

Time will tell!

As much as we all do not want race to be dragged into everything; there are also some obvious circumstances that are directly connected to race.

It is what it is; it is very easy to fake the funk and talk rubbish when your brother or sister is not the victim.

The reason i'm not factoring in race is because two of the officers were minorities. I think it was more so the fact that they did not want to demoralize the police department.

nalijah07:

The reason i'm not factoring in race is because two of the officers were minorities. I think it was more so the fact that they did not want to demoralize the police department.

Thank you for pointing that out.

My man, I do not work for NYPD, but I'm directly connected to this department. I know how they think and how things go down.

Forget the minorities, don't ever allow that to bamboozle your mind, This is one of the reasons why they've taken this position without any hesitation[b] "minorities are involved[/b]".

What is being protected is mighty obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfFfUxBDMDY

Do not be a fool!

http://www.livevideo.com/video/APnews/FE028F447D274A7EB039BB1622A1EBDE/protests-feared-when-sean-bell.aspx


The struggle continues!

I pray for the family and all the victims!
Never, never stop fighting for your loved ones.

Not a good day for real black folks in United States; but I wish you folks a great weekend!

it's absurd they were aquitted on ALL charges. 50 bullets is excessive regardless of whether it came from 3officers

OH BROTHER !!!! LMAO!!!

For those who have no clue who the cops involved in this are,

  [img]http://mylifeofcrime.files./2008/04/michael-oliver-gescard-isnora-marc-cooper.jpg[/img]

@topic,

I don't know how else to describe this story other than tragic. I do feel so sorry for the wife-to-be and I sympathise with her for the loss.

While I do understand that she will never accept the judgment, I really think the Judge did the right thing by giving the Cops the benefit of the doubt. Apart from the conflicting stories by the Prosecution Witnesses, the Cops clearly said they identified themselves to the victim but he never heeded their call. The cops are really within the bounds of the law when someone attacks them with a car. This is clearly what they felt happened, and reports indicate that one of the officers was actually hit by the car.

Again, there is no winners in this situation, even though lessons can be learnt.

And by the way, spin Doctors who are making a case for racial prejudice here need to get thei heads examined. As indicated already, 2 of the cops were actually black men. Must everything be iterpreted through the prism of race?

Sorry, but black men shld be more disciplined. If you are the wrong place at the wrong time dont cry when bad things happen to you.
Going to a strip club notorious for crime is a bad idea.

Tayo,
I understand "benefit of the doubt" BUT there is no excuse for 50 bullets! There just isn't. Especially when shots aren't being fired back, they were unarmed. And my qualms is not so much even race, but the rogue, all-powerful attitude of the police sometimes.

The reaction i see here on Nairaland is based on ignorance. The Police don't use ageing Mark 4 rifles like Nigerians, usually they use semi-automatics like the Browning 9mm, with a moderate rate of fire. It's easy to fire 14 bullets in seconds, especially when you are convinced that people with hostile intent, with possilby concealed weapons are intent on killing you.


14 bullets is not 50. Imagine one of the officer fired 31 rounds. Most 9mm hold only 15 rounds, and unlike the rifle it does not have an automatic motion, or a Burst < 3 rounds per trigger pull>. If the weapon in this case was a 9mm, the officer either reloaded - at which point he should have known if his target was disarmed or was holding atleast 3 pistols. Furthermore, with the 9mm you have to reset the trigger for after every one round. I personally do not consider this a case of race, but I consider it negligence and recklessness on the part of the officers. Once again Justice has being tampered with to protect the name of justice enforcing instituition

@JeSoul
I second your opinion.

@4 Him
That is not fair. He went to the strip club for his bachelors night out. It's not as if he were a regular guest.

So are you telling me that if you stop off at a store in a bad neighborhood, and happen to get shot 50 times it would be justifiable because you knew the location was bad and shouldn't have been there?

Sorry, but black men shld be more disciplined. If you are the wrong place at the wrong time don't cry when bad things happen to you.
Going to a strip club notorious for crime is a bad idea.

it doesn't take 50 bulletins to disarm a target, keep in mind these cops were plain clothes officers who didnt' make their identities known before opening fire. i don't see why they should have lost their lives for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. police brutality isn't a matter of race, it happens a LOT

At 3:30 p.m., Nicole Paultre Bell’s father, Les Paultre, went to the local grocery for soda and trash bags. In a store aisle, holding his items, he spent about 10 minutes calmly but firmly describing his family’s reaction to the verdict from Friday morning: first shock, then outrage, then just disappointment in the justice system.

“We just all gasped, like, ‘Wow, how could you throw out this whole case?’ That’s basically what the judge did. He just threw out this whole case,” he said.

“If that was the judge’s son in the car would he have the same reaction to that, or the same verdict?”

“We’re not going to give up,” he said. “We’re going to keep pushing forward because Sean did not die in vain, and these young men should not have been stopped in the first place.”

Mr. Paultre, a musician and carpenter, said of the lengthy trial, “We all went into it hopeful that justice would prevail, and what kind of message does this send out to young kids.”

He said that his family got a taunting phone call from someone that his caller ID identified as the Sergeants Benevolent Association.

“We got a harassing phone call from the Sergeants Benevolent Association, laughing and taunting us, and I filed a complaint,” he said. “I have caller ID. That’s how stupid it was.”

He said the family was disappointed in the justice system but refused to abandoning all hope and faith in it.

“There’s got to be justice and we’re going to find justice for Sean,” Mr. Paultre said. “We’re going to find justice for these young men who got shot for no reason at all.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/verdict-shocks-sean-bells-family/

These thugs (sorry young men) are an example to us all that bad things happen to those who act with poor judgement.

4 Him:

These thugs (sorry young men) are an example to us all that bad things happen to those who act with poor judgement.

just because a man has a criminal record, doesn't mean he can't change. he has a right to go to a strip club. 50 BULLETS is plain excessive, one of the officers(oliver) reloaded his gun after shooting 14bullets, even the nigerian police isn't that bad. you'd think they would aim for the tires of the car or something. what exactly would u do if someguys in plainclothes were running towards ur car.
here's how they think by the way.

http://theerant.yuku.com/topic/3166
http://theerant.yuku.com/topic/3107

@topic

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Justice System in our "beloved" USA, especially when you are a shade darker. Lord have mercy on their souls, I wept this morning when news of the verdict was released. I pray that those two little girls will grow up to become productive ladies in their community, A life was taken, and NO ONE was held responsible, It's high time something is done to curb these trigger-happy NYPD officers, They act like they are gods, It is NOT fair,

If it were in Nigeria, the police would have placed an Awka made hand gun by his side. That automatically makes him a high way armed robber. End of tori.

@topic

Lets for once relax a little about this race card palaver.

~Antidote~:

@topic

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Justice System in our "beloved" USA, especially when you are a shade darker. Lord have mercy on their souls, I wept this morning when news of the verdict was released. I pray that those two little girls will grow up to become productive ladies in their community, A life was taken, and NO ONE was held responsible, It's high time something is done to curb these trigger-happy NYPD officers, They act like they are gods, It is NOT fair,

one of the officers is black, one is a minority. What are you talking about?

Those officers merely protected themselves, they are permitted under the law to use deadly force anytime they feel threatened. I for one i'm tired of black people forever blaming others for their own poor judgement.

Do you also know that as undercover police, couple of the officers also had too much to drink that same night at the same club?
But of course, they did not allow this to come out.

Official protocol of NYPD: Depending on the operation, as undercover police (while on duty), they are allowed to have no more than two drinks, but the bar tender admitted that couple of the officers had more than five drinks before the shooting show went down. Few days later the same bar tender disappeared.

For anyone to try to justify NYPD's shady businesses is despicable. I advise you to get to know these folks first and how they operate.

Official protocol of NYPD: 2 shots pause and observer the situation; if no one was shooting back and there was no gun involved, why fired 50 times? The shots were so sporadic that folks at the near by train station almost got killed by the same 50 bullets.

NYPD home-grown protocol: If you make mistake, you must shoot to kill; and it is purely clear that this was the protocol these officers followed.

It is obvious that these folks made a big booboo; and it is sad that innocent families will have to pay for it.

It doesn't matter what kind of record any of these victims had or has; no one deserves to die or to be treated like shi t.

And please, stop saying minority officers are involved. Trust me, it isn't about these folks; what is being protected is much bigger.

I can also assure you with confidence that under every circumstance, a whiteman getting married in the morning will never be treated carelessly like this.

It is very easy to fake the funk and talk rubbish when your brother or sister is not the victim.

But remember that the same cow skin the husband used to beat the first wife could also be used to beat the second wife at anytime.
Let's be careful; this could happen to anyone of you folks in US at anytime and anywhere (it doesn't have to be at the gogo club in the middle of the night, it could be at the church during the day time)

LOL
Nigerians are the most dishonest, sermonizing group of people when they get into their sanctimonous, self-righteous moods.
These cops aren't robots. They are human beings, with wives, sons and daughters. They have families they want to go home alive to. So why is it so hard to understand that when a cop thinks he's threatened, he knows he has a split second to nail the attacker before his attacker ensures he's a dead man. It takes only one cop to open fire before the others join in.

For all those who are saying we should put ourselves in the families' shoes, put yourselves in the shoes of the cops. You're outside on a cold night, trailing a group of people to a car which you strongly suspect contains some weapons. You challenge the suspects, and instantly their car lunges at you. Next thing you know, your partner opens fire, and the car still keeps coming, so you join in, desperately firing at the vehicle to kill the perps before they kill YOU. That's a moment of madness, but it's all too human, and it could happen to you too.

The less educated people here are the ones with the knee-jerk reactions. More exposed people know how to envision scenarios to ensure there's fairness to all parties. it's as simple as that.

I gave the example of the guy who was shot by police when he came to his door with a Playstation 3 controller. Why was no fuss made over that?

the real truth coming from this is that racism will never die, not because of racist white trash, but because hate-mongers like Al Sharpton, jesse jackson et al make a big meal of anything that can be milked for spotlight.

Texazzpete. . . na wa for you ooo

Whats with the 'less educated ones' bit.

So because we no go school, you com think say we no fit get opinion.

Onyioshi