Now you may have caught some of the relatively brief news that came out today on the Sean Bell case. I have been following it since the murder was committed. The news today may well have been obscured by the shark attack or other vital news. What has happened is that the trial (which you may not have heard was underway since early this year) concluded with no charges against the police officers guilty of firing 51 shots into a car holding 3 Black men that were all unarmed.
If you never heard about this case (which you might have missed considering the short shrift the major news media gave it) it goes like this. 3 African American men are in a strip club celebrating a bachelor party for one of them, Sean Bell. They leave the club and go to their car. They are followed by a police officer. At this points all the facts end and conjecture begins.
According to the officer, who was in the club for surveillance in a matter unrelated to these men, he believed them to be acting suspiciously. He followed them to the car where he thought they were going to get at least one gun. He approached the car, identified himself, and as the men started the car feared for his life. He then fired into the car, as did several other officers involved in the original surveillance. During the shooting of the surrounded car it was believed that a 4th man exited the car – while under fire - with a gun. In total 51 shots were fired, killing Sean Bell, and severely wounding both of the surviving men in the car. No gun was found, no drugs. No witness identified or corroborated a 4th man, nor anyone exiting the car with or without a gun.
According to the men in the car, the officer has words with their group while in the club. They left and entered their car, at which point they became aware that they were being followed. The man from the club pulled out a gun, and they – in fear of their lives from this unknown assailant – tried to drive away. The man proceeded to fire into their car, followed by several others as they surrounded the car on all sides. There was no 4th person in their group, no gun, no drugs. The man with a gun, and his companions, never identified themselves as police officers.
That is the reports of both sides from the initial day of the incident. And that begins my problems. As I stated before:
“Mr. Sean Bell and his friends were fired at 51 times. One officer fired 31 times another 11 times. The tires of the car were not shot out. Deadly force was used, though it was against official policy…As Mr. Bell continued to attempt to get away the officer seems to have become fearful for his life and the results were one dead another shot 23 times and the third shot 16 times.
Imagine that this was a car full of white males. If that would be excessive then this must be. The bigger question I have always had is why such force needs to be used solely against African American men. Mr. Rodney King had 5 or 6 officers beating him; Mr. Diallo had 41 shots from 4 officers [at least one shot was through his foot after he was laying on the ground dead]. In each case the officers walked away without a single charge. Mr. Louima was violated in a police station with a plunger. Given these facts, my own experiences and those of friends, if I had a chance to get away from a police officer in a touchy situation I’d try to run as well. It’s not about guilt, it’s about survival.”
Now what does the media say? Well Yahoo titles this : 3 NYPD detectives acquitted in 50-shot killing. They go on to mention that the murder occurred in a “seedy strip club in Queens” – inferring that this was a bad place and that bad people go there. The tone is meant to imply that the officers were in the right and the men wrong, justifying the trial outcome.
But what about the case that few ever heard about? There was no jury, only Justice Arthur Cooperman.
“Cooperman indicated that the police officers' version of events was more credible than the victims' version. "The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified" in firing, he said.”
He said this without 1 officer taking the stand. He said this with both survivors taking the stand. He said this even though initial reports had a mysterious 4th person running from the car, without pursuit and allegedly armed, as per the police report and news media coverage that has since been dropped as if it were haze in the sunlight.
So I ask again
“But what is it that makes it alright to go to such extremes. And it must be alright on some level because across the nation Black American men are assaulted like this often. I don’t recall a single white male that was attacked in a similar manner once in my entire life. I’m not talking about a shootout with officers, or hostage taking. I mean beatings by half a dozen officers, being fired at enough times to necessitate reloading firearms, and abuses that even the prisoners at Abu Ghraib have not received.”
And what about the news media? Well I just wrote about Wesley Snipes and the media dealing with him. And this case?
“Black American men shot to death, in a style of overkill usually only found in action movies, minor news. Black man with contribution to the arts for decades, unburied for 2+ months, not important. African American wins a trial by using high priced lawyers and reasonable doubt, bad charges, and evidence planted by the police is unforgettable. Cute (dead) blonde gets daily coverage. An argument between celebrities, daily coverage. Offensive, demeaning comments by a celebrity against a religious or ethnic group, minor coverage. Defensive coverage of accused rapists, prior to a trial or Grand Jury, prior to any actual facts being found – daily coverage. As facts are found, huge recaps of the case, furthering the defense especially if anything leads to defending the accused. Coverage of a bank robbery by ‘cute teens’ huge coverage, the fact that the charges were lessened from federal offenses? 2 minutes.” [In fact there was a follow-up on the blonde bank robbers – they got probation and 1 year, the men of color involved in this non-violent crime got 10 years each. Coverage? About double the 2 minutes mentioned above.]
What about the legal system?
“There is no question that African Americans have long felt that the legal system in America is a failure when it comes to any person of color. We have long complained of higher conviction rates, less access to bails, and harsher penalties once convicted. That says nothing of the stigma attached to those paroled, falsely accused, or who win the judicial action.
There is the examples from the past of numerous lynchings, the eradication of Rosewood, and Jim Crow laws including segregation as recent as the mid- to late-70’s. But on more recent notes there are the examples of Rodney King, Sean Bell, OJ Simpson, Genarlow Wilson, and the Jena 6." [Add to that Wesley Snipes and his unfair and uncommon sentencing for misdemeanors.]
And yet when the facts are observed we find that
“So we get this realization, Whites committed 4,297,146 acts of violent crime against a single person, and 759,079 acts against multiple victims that were White. Including the 40,249 multiple Black victims we get a total of 5,096,474. Thus once we move away from percentages and look at real numbers we learn that Whites are far more likely to commit a crime of violence against anyone, especially other Whites.”
Yet given the preponderance of facts that Whites commit more violent crimes, against everyone, there has never been a White that has been murdered in a manner and/or without punisment as African American men face on a regular basis.
The media is negaitve, the legal system unbalanced, and the facts ignored. Is anyone surprised that the officers got off without a charge? Or that the judge in this case wouldn’t believe them? Or that, looking more broadly, a couple of 10 second clips of video is being accepted as Bible truth in an attempt to assault Senator Obama’s Presidential aspirations?
When you look at the larger picture the painting isn’t very good. If you’ve read this far I have to believe you can see the point and share my anger. You can see why African Americans laugh coldly when the concept of “fair and equal under the law” is brought up.
40+ years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and so many others fighting for Civil Rights there is still the absensce of equality in the law and law enforcement. And some want to tell me ‘It’s in your head’ or that I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Looking at all this I think we can all understand when an American military veteran religious leader says “Godd**** America” or wonders if AIDS was another version of the Tuskegee Experiments.
There are a lot of problems in America, and many can be seen in how the media reports or fails to report (like the Megan Williamns case) the facts.
But now that you see what I have seen and followed what will you do? For those White Americans that read my posts I ask you, now that another layer of the wool that covered your eyes has been removed, how do you feel? What is your response? How will you help get things to change, even if this reality makes you uncomfortable?
2 comments:
While I agree with most of what you have to say, I have to point out that cops kill all of us, not just black people.
In 2006, an unarmed man named Ryan Wilson was killed with a taser in Colorado by a police officer, videotaped evidence was destroyed, and I don't think anyone heard of this outside of Colorado.
He was white.
Anonymous,
I am sorry to hear of the death of Ryan Wilson. And you are correct I don’t immediately recall this case. It is true that police violence has caused the death of many across the nation, of every race and creed in the nation.
But my post, and several others of similar content, addresses a bigger issue than any one individual act of violence. The Sean Bell murder was not an isolated event. Nor was Rodney King, Amidou Diallo, and on and on.
Across the nation the police in every state routinely used unwarranted amounts of force against people of color. And on occasion they are caught or reprimanded on this fact. Just search “race in America” or click that label in my blog and you will see the multitude of cases I refer to. With so many acts it is the definition of insane to “do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome”.
I ask you, have you heard about the older woman that was tasered to death in her home by police? Have you heard about Megan Williams? Do you know why the Jena 6 were initially charged with attempted murder while White students that brought a shotgun to school were given a suspension? Can you name 1 case in the last 40 years where a White male was shot over a dozen times, by accident or under false pretense?
The question is not if police act in a manner that negatively affect many Americans. Nor do I dispute that most are trying to do a difficult job in extreme circumstances at times. But there is a definite observable systemic response in effect that causes the repeat murders of Black men. And I see and am aware of no comparable response to any other race, creed or ethnic group.
With no disrespect, your comment weakens my argument. Not because you intend it to, but because it assumes that there is not a persistent plan or unstated approval in the manner and number of deaths similar to Sean Bell and the others I’ve mentioned in this blog. I believe that there is such an approval, and by commenting and causing attention to focus on this I hope it will change.
While I do not wish any person to die for less than life-threatening causes from the police, my priority is to the most serious and imminent threat to my brothers, nephews, godsons, friends and myself. Once this threat, and it is just that, has been removed I will then be more than willing to widen my scope and be concerned about the inappropriate actions that affect more than just Black men.
I think you can accept and understand my concern and prioritizing.
But I do thank you for taking the time and effort to make a comment and remind us all that there is not just one issue but many out there.
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