Police acquitted over NY shooting, but which is the real issue?
A judge in New York has acquitted three police officers who shot dead an unarmed man hours before his wedding.
Sean Bell, 23, who was black, was shot as he left a strip club in the suburb of Queens in November 2006.
Two detectives, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, faced charges of manslaughter. A third, Marc Cooper, had been accused of reckless endangerment.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Police acquitted over NY shooting.
What a shockingly sad story… It’s incredible that a man could be shot fifty times on his wedding day, whatever the circumstances.
However, how has this become a matter of ‘race’ when two of the police officers who fired the shots were black themselves?
I can entirely understand how this could stimulate concerns about the appropriate use of force, but I’m not sure I understand the logic behind the chants of ‘racist’ and ‘KKK’ at the policemen after their acquittal.
Surely, such political agitating risks polarising the debate and undermining an investigation into the real issue which is one of brutality and unreasonable force, not race?
25th April 2008 at 9:26 pm
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.
26th April 2008 at 9:43 am
Yes, it is unbelievable - shooting an unarmed man 50 times seems excessive - I’ll be interested to read some of the judge’s findings when published…