Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party

[lofter1]

50-Shot Barrage Leads to Charges for 3 Detectives

Marko Georgiev for The New York Times
Rev. Al Sharpton escorting Nicole Paultre Bell from the National Action Network
headquarters in Harlem after a press conference today.

NY TIMES
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007

A grand jury voted yesterday to indict three city police detectives — two black men and a white man — in the killing of an unarmed 23-year-old black man who died in a burst of 50 police bullets outside a Queens strip club hours before he was to be wed last year, defense lawyers and police union leaders said last night.

The jury charged two of the detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, an undercover officer who fired the first shot, and Michael Oliver, who fired 31 shots — with manslaughter, two people with direct knowledge of the case said. The third detective, Marc Cooper, who fired four shots, faces a lesser charge of reckless endangerment, those two people said.

Detectives Isnora and Cooper are black; Detective Oliver is white. They were among five police officers who fired into a gray Nissan Altima carrying the bridegroom, Sean Bell, and two friends during a chaotic confrontation in Jamaica, Queens early on the morning of Nov. 25. Neither Mr. Bell nor his friends, both of whom were wounded, were armed, although the police officers apparently believed that they were.

The grand jury reached its decision after three days of deliberations and nearly two months of hearing evidence in an emotionally charged case whose stark outlines — five officers firing 50 bullets at three unarmed men who had been out celebrating — prompted an outpouring of anger in some minority communities, and widespread comparisons to the death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African street peddler who was felled by 19 of 41 police officers’ bullets fired at him in 1999.

The grand jurors, who dispersed into the wintry afternoon yesterday, indicted the three officers on less-serious charges than the second-degree murder charges filed against the four police officers who shot Mr. Diallo. All four of them were acquitted.

It was unclear whether the Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, sought the indictment of the other two officers who fired at Mr. Bell, Detective Paul Headley, 35, who fired one shot, and Officer Michael Carey, 26, who fired three shots. All five of the officers testified voluntarily before the grand jury without immunity from prosecution.

Mr. Brown scheduled a news conference on Monday morning. Lawyers for the indicted detectives said they had been told to have the men surrender on Monday — the next day that State Supreme Court in Queens is in session. Mr. Brown’s office, which would not confirm the indictments, said the grand jury’s decision had to remain sealed until at least one officer is formally charged in court.

The person with direct knowledge of the case who said Detectives Isnora and Oliver faced manslaughter charges did not know if they were first- or second-degree counts. Second degree manslaughter is defined as recklessly causing the death of another person. The three officers may also face lesser charges.

Some leaders in the black community expressed muted optimism as news of the indictments spread late yesterday, while others felt the indictments did not go far enough. In Queens, some detected a sense of relief that at least some of the officers would face charges, easing fears that all five would escape prosecution.

“As long as I know that somebody got something, I can live with that,” said Bishop Lester Williams, who was to officiate at Mr. Bell’s wedding on the day he died. “I have some degree of relief.”

If there had been no indictments, he said, “you have groups out there that would not have been calm. The youth of this city would have responded.”

Lawyers for the indicted officers criticized the grand jury’s action.

Philip E. Karasyk, who represents Detective Isnora, said, “Obviously, my client is upset, and he’s looking forward to having his day in court, and we’re all confident he will be vindicated.”

Paul P. Martin, a lawyer for Detective Cooper, 39, said: “I am disappointed with the grand jury’s decision, but this is just the first stage of a long process and I am confident that once all the facts are considered by a jury of Detective Cooper’s peers that he will be exonerated of all charges.”

James J. Culleton, the lawyer for Detective Oliver, said the indictment “was not unexpected — a grand jury presentation is one-sided,”

"I firmly believe that he will be found not guilty," he said of Detective Oliver, 35, who, with Detective Isnora, 28, were considered the most vulnerable to criminal charges. Detective Oliver fired far and away the most bullets — emptying one magazine, reloading and emptying a second, and Detective Isnora opened fire first, touching off the 50-shot barrage. Detective Isnora fired 11 shots, emptying his gun.

Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association, confirmed the indictments but said he did not know the charges and would not know them until Monday, when they were unsealed.

“I know the grand jury worked very long and very hard on this particular case,” Mr. Palladino said at a late-afternoon press conference, surrounded by officials of his association. “I respect their decision. However I firmly disagree with the decision to indict these officers.”

Mr. Palladino forecast that the jury’s vote would have a chilling effect on police officers in the city and nationwide. “The message that’s being sent now is that even though you’re acting in good faith, in pursuit of your lawful duties, there is no room, no margin for error,” he said.

Stephen C. Worth, a lawyer for Officer Michael Carey, described the moment he learned his client had not been indicted:

“I got a call from the district attorney, Charles Testagrossa, and he told me there was no true bill as to my guy,” Mr. Worth said, referring to the prosecutor who presented evidence to the grand jury. “Obviously, we are gratified by the grand jury’s decision as to Mike and I have always believed that he acted professionally on the night of this incident.”

The detectives indicted in the Bell case were in a larger group seeking prostitution arrests outside the Club Kalua, a topless bar in Jamaica that had been plagued by narcotics and prostitution activity, underage drinking and guns.

Detective Isnora had trailed Mr. Bell’s party, which was broken into two groups of four men, believing that Joseph Guzman, one of Mr. Bell’s companions, had a gun and was about to use it, according to a person familiar with the detective’s account.

The detective approached Mr. Bell’s car. But Mr. Bell drove forward, clipping him, and then hit a police minivan, backed up, nearly hitting the detective again and slammed into the minivan a second time. Detective Isnora, with his shield around his neck, said he opened fire, according to the person familiar with his account. This led to the fusillade of shots, with some of the officers apparently believing that their colleagues’ muzzle flashes were those of assailants.

Mr. Bell was killed as he sat in the driver’s seat. Trent Benefield, 23, who was in the passenger seat, was struck three times, in the leg and buttock, and Mr. Guzman, 31, who was in a back seat, had at least 11 bullet wounds along his right side.

Department procedures call for the suspension of officers who are charged with a crime and the three detectives will be ordered to surrender their shields; all five are already on paid leave. On suspension, they would be unpaid.

Reporting was contributed by Cara Buckley, Diane Cardwell, Manny Fernandez, Colin Moynihan and William K. Rashbaum.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[antinimby]

3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting



The detectives who were acquitted, Gescard F. Isnora, left, Marc Cooper
and Michael Oliver, with Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives’
Endowment Association, at the union’s headquarters on Friday.


By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: April 26, 2008

Three detectives were found not guilty Friday 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, in November 2006. The verdict prompted calls for calm from the mayor, angry promises of protests by those speaking for the Bell family and expressions of relief by the detectives.

Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 bullets the night of the shooting and faced manslaughter charges, said Justice Arthur J. Cooperman had made a “fair and just decision.”

Justice Cooperman delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court at 9 a.m. Describing the evidence, he said it was reasonable for the detectives to fear that someone in the crowd that night carried a gun. He added that 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,” the judge said.

Several supporters of Mr. Bell stormed out of the courtroom, and a few small scuffles followed outside the courthouse. By midafternoon, there were no suggestions of any broader unrest around the city. Mr. Bell’s family and fiancée left without making any comments and drove to visit his grave at the Nassau Knolls Cemetery and Memorial Park in Port Washington.



The Rev. Al Sharpton, left, and Valerie and William Bell, Sean Bell’s
parents, leaving the courthouse after the verdict.


The verdict comes 17 months to the day since the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting of Mr. Bell, 23, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, outside the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens, hours before Mr. Bell was to be married.

It was delivered in a packed courtroom. Mr. Bell’s family sat silently as Justice Cooperman spoke from the bench. Behind them, a woman was heard to ask, “Did he just say, ‘Not guilty?’ ” Detective Oliver and the two other defendants, Detectives Gescard F. Isnora and Marc Cooper, were escorted out a side doorway as court adjourned.

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, but 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.

The seven-week trial, which ended on April 14, was heard by Justice Cooperman after the defendants waived their right to a jury, a strategy some lawyers called risky at the time. But it clearly paid off.

Before rendering his verdict, Justice Cooperman ran through a narrative of the chilly November evening when Mr. Bell died, and concluded “the police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal.”

“The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt” that each defendant was not justified in shooting, the judge said, quickly adding that the men were not guilty of all of the eight counts, five felonies and three misdemeanors against them.

Roughly 30 court officers stood by, around the courtroom and in the aisles. At one point as he read, Justice Cooperman paused to insist that a crying baby be taken from the courtroom. Immediately a young woman who appeared to be among the Bell contingent got up and left with a baby.

The Rev. Al Sharpton accompanied Bell family members to the cemetery, and said later that they will join him on Saturday at a rally protesting the verdict. He said he had spoken to the governor and the mayor, and that he believed a federal civil rights prosecution of the officers would be appropriate.

“This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over,” Mr. Sharpton said.

He promised protests “to demonstrate to the federal government that New Yorkers will not take this abortion of justice lying down.” He even raised the possibility of taking protests directly to Justice Cooperman’s home.



The crowd gathered at the Queens Criminal Court building reacted to
the verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called for calm. “There are no winners in a trial like this,” he said. “An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father and a mother and a father lost their son.”

The mayor continued: “Judge Cooperman’s responsibility, however, was to decide the case based on the evidence presented in the courtroom. America is a nation of laws, and though not everyone will agree with the verdicts and opinions issued by the courts, we accept their authority.”

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.”

A subdued Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, whose office prosecuted the case, said at a news conference: “Judge Cooperman discharged his responsibilities fairly and conscientiously under the law. I accept his verdict, and I urge all fair-minded individuals in this city to do the same.”

Commissioner Kelly, speaking in Brooklyn, would not comment on the verdict itself. But he did say that while there were no reports of unrest in response to the acquittals, the Police Department was ready should it occur.

“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.”

Detectives Isnora and Oliver had faced the most charges: first- and second-degree manslaughter, with a possible sentence of 25 years in prison; felony assault, first and second degree; and a misdemeanor, reckless endangerment, with a possible one-year sentence. Detective Oliver also faced a second count of first-degree assault. Detective Cooper was charged only with two counts of reckless endangerment.



Gescard F. Isnora, left, Michael
Oliver and Marc Cooper, the
defendants in the case.


All three of the detectives, none of whom took the stand during the trial, spoke at the offices of their union on Friday afternoon. “I’ve just started my life back,” Detective Cooper said.

During the 26 days of testimony, the prosecution sought to show, with an array of 50 witnesses, that the shooting was the act of a frightened group of disorganized police officers who began their shift that night hoping to arrest a prostitute or two and, in suspecting Mr. Bell and his friends of possessing a gun, quickly got in over their heads.

“We ask police to risk their lives to protect ours,” said an assistant district attorney, Charles A. Testagrossa, in his closing arguments. “Not to risk our lives to protect their own.”

The defense, through weeks of often heated cross-examinations, their own witnesses and the words of the detectives themselves, portrayed the shooting as the tragic end to a nonetheless justified confrontation, with Detective Isnora having what it called solid reasons to believe he was the only thing standing between Mr. Bell’s car and a drive-by shooting around the corner.

Several witnesses testified that they heard talk of guns in an argument between Mr. Bell and a stranger, Fabio Coicou, outside Kalua, an argument, the defense claimed, that was fueled by bravado and Mr. Bell’s intoxicated state. Defense lawyers pointed their fingers at Mr. Guzman, who, they said, in shouting for Mr. Bell to drive away when Detective Isnora approached, may have instigated his death.

Detective Isnora told grand jurors last year that he clipped his badge to his collar and drew his gun, shouting, “Police! Don’t move!” as he approached Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima.

Other witnesses, mostly friends of Mr. Bell, said they never heard shouts of “Police!” Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield testified that they had no idea that Detective Isnora was a police officer when he walked up with his gun drawn.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[The Benniest]

One cop in Sean Bell trial says 'sorry'
BY ALISON GENDAR and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, April 25th 2008, 7:09 PM

After 17 months of silence, the three cops in the Sean Bell case spoke publicly for the first time Friday - but only one of them apologized to the victim's family.

His voice cracking slightly, an emotional Detective Marc Cooper began a brief, halting statement with an act of contrition.

"I would like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," said Cooper, who fired four bullets in the 50-shot barrage.


Detective Marc Cooper as he left the courthouse
after being found not guilty in the shooting death
of Sean Bell.

Then, like co-defendants Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, who spoke before him, Cooper, 40, thanked those who stood by him after the shooting.

"I'd like to thank the Lord, my savior, for today," he added, appearing on the verge of tears. "This started my life back."

Isnora, 29, and Oliver, 36, praised Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman for his acquittal of the trio on all charges.

"First and foremost, I'd like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for bringing this all to fruition," said Isnora, who fired 11 shots outside the Kalua Cabaret strip club.

"Secondly for the honorable Judge Cooperman for his fair and accurate decision today, and lastly for my family and friends for their support."

Oliver, who has been the focus of outrage because he fired 31 shots, thanked Cooperman "for making a fair and just decision."

His relatives gathered at a home in Clifton, N.J., where one gleefully told a neighbor, "He's been cleared on all counts!"

"Our prayers have been answered," a cousin said.

Oliver and his fellow detectives didn't take questions at the press conference organized by the Detectives' Endowment Association, or discuss specifics of the case.

That was left to DEA President Michael Palladino, who analyzed the evidence, ripped Bell's two friends who were wounded in the shooting, and piled scorn on the Rev. Al Sharpton.

"How do I spell relief? N-O-T G-U-I-L-T-Y," Palladino said.

"Our sympathies go out to the Bell family," he said. "We have been portrayed as insensitive murderers and I can tell you that we are not."

Palladino displayed no sympathy for Bell's pals Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, both of whom testified against the detectives. Palladino cited Benefield's shifting account of the shooting as the "turning point" in the trial, accusing him of lying to bolster a civil suit.

"He transformed from a victim into a businessman," he said.

The detectives also were helped by Guzman's performance on the stand, Palladino said. "He was arrogant. He was belligerent. And he was combative," he added.

Although they've escaped state prison sentences, the cops' futures are cloudy. They face a possible federal civil rights investigation, a civil suit and an NYPD probe.

Oliver, Cooper and Isnora are on modified duty, stripped of their guns. Sources say it's unlikely they'll ever patrol the streets again, and the stain of the Sean Bell case may stay with them for years.

In Isnora's Bushwick neighborhood, some residents were angry he wasn't convicted.

"We should put 'Murderer' on his door," said Pablo Rios, 41.

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

[ZippyTheChimp]

April 27, 2008

Witnesses May Have Been Flawed, but Prosecutor Played Hand He Was Dealt

By ALAN FEUER

Five days before the Sean Bell trial began, Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, under pressure to talk about what everyone knew would be a fraught and contentious case, told reporters: “The case should be tried in the courtroom and not on the courthouse steps.”

Now, of course, it has been. And it did not turn out well for Mr. Brown.

The three detectives accused of killing Mr. Bell in a spray of 50 bullets after his bachelor party on Nov. 25, 2006, were acquitted on all counts at the seven-week trial in State Supreme Court in Queens. Moreover, the judge who issued the verdict, Arthur J. Cooperman, criticized the prosecution’s presentation, saying that several inconsistencies had the effect of “eviscerating the credibility” of certain state witnesses. The judge added that the testimony of those witnesses “just didn’t make sense.”

Mr. Brown, 75, who has been the district attorney in Queens for nearly 17 years, is a former judge who has been around the New York law-enforcement world so long that in 1977 he presided over the arraignment of the “Son of Sam” serial killer, David Berkowitz.

Still, defense lawyers, former prosecutors and other interested observers have begun the inevitable process of dissecting how he handled the Bell case.

“The case was flawed from the beginning and probably shouldn’t even have been brought to indictment,” said Marvyn M. Kornberg, a defense lawyer with a longstanding practice in Queens. “There was conflict in the testimony, not only internally with each witness, but externally, between the witnesses. Those are the kind of witnesses you put on the stand?”

Monday-morning lawyering is, of course, a significantly painless task, and nothing about the Bell case was painless for those who were directly involved. After the shooting, outside the Club Kalua in Jamaica, the city felt the wrath of a storm of community outrage and racial anger.

Mr. Brown was at its center, monitoring the Internet for updates at 5 a.m. on the day it occurred from his weekend house in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Days later, he met with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Mr. Bell’s relatives to explain the investigative process.

When the indictments were announced, he appeared at a news conference to say that the investigation had drawn on 100 witnesses and 500 pieces of evidence and that the grand jury proceedings were “as thorough and complete as I’ve ever participated in.”

“I think he presented the case he could present,” said Joseph G. Sulik, another Queens defense lawyer, who watched parts of the trial. “He has to put the people who were there on the stand — you have to take them, good or bad.”

And, clearly, they were both. Several witnesses, including some of Mr. Bell’s childhood friends, provided testimony that seemed to better serve the three detectives charged in his killing: Gescard F. Isnora, Marc Cooper and Michael Oliver.

Much of that testimony involved the central defense question of whether there was an armed man present when the police opened fire. Accounts differed about an argument that Mr. Bell had outside the club with a man dressed in black, later identified as Fabio Coicou. Detective Isnora had said that he followed a member of Mr. Bell’s party, Joseph Guzman, from the club because he thought Mr. Guzman was going to retrieve a gun.

One of Mr. Bell’s friends who witnessed the argument from several feet away, Hugh Jensen, testified that the exchange between Mr. Bell and Mr. Coicou was benign. But he said on cross-examination that he believed Mr. Coicou was armed. Another friend, Larenzo Kinred, told investigators that he believed the man was armed or pretending to be armed. And Mr. Coicou contradicted his own grand jury testimony while testifying on the stand, recanting a prior statement that he had heard one of Mr. Bell’s friends say he was going to get a gun.

A former federal prosecutor, Alan Vinegrad, who tried the Abner Louima police brutality case, in which Mr. Louima was tortured with a broken broomstick in a Brooklyn station house in 1997, said that Mr. Brown’s office had a very difficult job in the Bell case. At the same time, he wondered why so many state witnesses — there were 50 — were called to the stand.

“The prosecution called numerous witnesses to testify about a relatively short sequence of events,” Mr. Vinegrad said. “And doing that created the kind of inconsistency that is basically reasonable doubt.”

Joseph Tacopina, another former prosecutor and a defense lawyer who represented one of the officers in the Louima case, said that Mr. Brown had no choice but to approach the case with the witnesses he had.

“There are facts beyond change, and the best prosecutor in the world can’t do anything about that,” he said. “You’re only as good as the witnesses you’re given.”

It is never comfortable for a district attorney’s office, which relies upon the police to investigate crimes, to prosecute officers. Some lawyers, like Mr. Tacopina, said it was an open question that Mr. Brown might have sought an indictment in the case to quell the political winds and racial tensions that were rising soon after the shooting.

Mr. Kornberg, the defense lawyer, went one step further, suggesting that by taking the case to trial Mr. Brown forced Justice Cooperman to assume the burden of decision.

“It took the political pressure off Brown, didn’t it?” Mr. Kornberg said. “He could say, ‘Now the court has spoken. I did what I had to do. I presented everything to the judge, and he found against me.’ ”

In a statement after the verdict, Mr. Brown ran down a list of statistics from the trial: 28 days, 60 witnesses, 900 exhibits, a transcript that ran 5,400 pages. While he made no mention of the strategy his office pursued at trial, he said it was essential to continue the “public debate” that the case had brought about “through passionate and reasoned argument.”

In an interview in December 2006, only days after the shooting, Mr. Brown was asked whether the case might turn out to be a career-breaker rather than a career-maker.

His answer?

“What you’re suggesting is, ‘You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t,’ ” he said. “But I’m not here because it’s a cushy job. I’m here because I want to do the right thing.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[The Benniest]

In Bell Case, Black New Yorkers See Nuances That Temper Rage
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: April 27, 2008

There was anger on the streets of Jamaica, Queens, where Sean Bell was killed in a hail of 50 police bullets in 2006 — both before and after a judge on Friday acquitted three detectives who had been charged in the shooting. But many black men and women in Jamaica and elsewhere in New York said their anger was tempered by the complicated case that unfolded in a city less racially divided than 10 years ago.

In Harlem, Willie Rainey, 60, a Vietnam veteran and retired airport worker, said that he believed the detectives should have been found guilty, but that he saw the case through a prism not of race, but of police conduct. “It’s a lack of police training,” Mr. Rainey said. “It’s not about race when you have black killing black. We overplay the black card as an issue.”


Sheener Bailey recited a poem on Friday that she wrote about the death of Sean Bell on the street where he was killed.


Even near Liverpool Street and 94th Avenue in Jamaica, the very spot where Mr. Bell was killed, Kenneth Outlaw stood and spoke not only of the humanity of Mr. Bell but of the police as well. “A cop is a human being just like anyone else,” said Mr. Outlaw, 52. “If I had to be out here, facing the same dangers the cops face, I’d be scared to death too.”

New York controversies have a way of playing out along racial lines in a city that is diverse but often seems stratified. When Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was killed by the police in a blast of 41 shots in the doorway of a Bronx apartment building in 1999, his death became shorthand for excessive police force against minorities.

Yet in the aftermath of the verdict in the Bell case, many black New Yorkers reacted not with outrage but with a muted reserve, saying that the city felt like a less polarized place in 2008, nearly a decade after the Diallo shooting and with a different mayor and police commissioner. Some also said that after a seven-week trial, the picture of what happened the night Mr. Bell, a black man, was killed was still murky, and so they left the public outcry to a relatively small group of black activists who had been closely monitoring the case.

There were those, however, who spoke of losing faith and trust in both law enforcement and the judicial system, and who saw the Bell case as a vivid example of how little has changed. “How many shots have to be fired for things to change?” asked Torell Marsalis, 35, of South Jamaica.

The verdict set off visible outrage. There were scuffles outside the Queens Criminal Court building, a few marches and rallies in Queens on Friday night, and later, angry denunciations among some black activists, including the Rev. Al Sharpton. But elsewhere, the reaction was more nuanced, even subdued.

Among the dozens of black men and women interviewed in recent days, many said they sympathized with Mr. Bell’s family, but also with police officers who must make life-and-death decisions in tense, uncertain moments.

Ayana Fobbs, 27, a pharmacy worker who lives in Jamaica, a few blocks from the Community Church of Christ, where Mr. Bell’s funeral was held, said she could identify with people on both sides of the Bell shooting. One of her cousins was killed by the police in a shooting in the Bronx in the early 1990s, she said, but she also had close friends who were police officers.


Elliott Clark of St. Albans, Queens, said he disagreed with the judge’s verdict, but felt more resigned than angry about it.

“I’m just concerned about what kind of message it’s going to send on both sides,” Ms. Fobbs said on Saturday. “The community here is going to feel like anybody is fair game, if something like this could happen to an unarmed man and nobody was held accountable. And then, with the officers, it sends a message to them that they can do these types of things and get away with it.”

Others said that had they been on a jury during the trial, they would have found the officers not guilty based on what they felt was the flawed case prosecutors put forward. Still others said that they did not know what to think, after weeks of following contradictory testimony in the news. “If I was the judge, I wouldn’t know what to do,” Paul Randall, 22, a college student, said on Thursday. “From following the case, it’s kind of hard to say one way or the other.”

Some of this uncertainty and ambivalence was on display on Liverpool Street immediately after Justice Arthur J. Cooperman found the three detectives not guilty of all the charges against them. One hour after the verdict, no crowd had gathered at the tattered memorial to Mr. Bell.
Someone had placed a blue votive candle on the sidewalk, and there was one old, brittle bouquet of flowers and one fresh one. The water-cooler jug someone had placed there for donations contained just a few bills.

A man who approached was not there to protest the verdict. He was only walking by, on his way to pay a parking ticket around the corner. The man, Elliott Clark, 54, had seen the news of the judge’s decision on television, and though he disagreed with the verdict, he was more resigned than outraged. This was not 2000, when Rudolph W. Giuliani was mayor and Howard Safir was police commissioner and the four officers indicted in the killing of Mr. Diallo were acquitted, he said.

“The times have changed,” said Mr. Clark, a case manager for H.I.V. and AIDS patients who lives nearby in St. Albans. “People have been so disappointed by the outcome of the judicial system. Every five years something crazy happens, and people are people. They move on with their lives.”


Kifran Vaughan took a picture with her cellphone on Friday of the spot where Mr. Bell was killed.

Mr. Diallo was unarmed when he was shot while reaching for his wallet. The officers who shot him were all white. In the Bell case, two of the detectives who were on trial are black, including the one who fired first. The third, Michael Oliver, the one who fired the most shots — 31 — is white.

And this time it was Detective Oliver — who fired 16 rounds and then reloaded — who bore the brunt of the criticisms of those interviewed.

“That was his time to be a cowboy,” said David Jones, 49, a limousine driver who was walking by the memorial on Thursday with his fiancée, Nicole Hodges. “I think it’s repulsive. It’s demeaning to African-Americans and their community.”

For Mr. Jones and other young and middle-aged black men, Sean Bell has become a symbol of what they describe as police aggression and racial profiling in black neighborhoods. Had Mr. Bell and his friends been white, they said, the police would have responded less aggressively, and Mr. Bell might still be alive.

“My mother always has to look outside her window and worry about us because of the cops,” said Ray Powell, 23, a Queensborough Community College student who was at the memorial on Friday. “If it was me, if I shot a gun 30 times, I would get the death penalty.”

And even those who noted that two of the officers involved in the Bell shooting were black said their race was less important than their badges.

“Some would argue that these were not black cops,” said Kaleem Musa Keita, 49, who was outside the courthouse in Queens when the verdict was announced. “They’re black in color, but they didn’t represent their community. They were representing the police.”

But even as some condemned the behavior of the police, other black men and women interviewed praised Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

“He’s got people who are at least willing to communicate with the black community,” said Salaam Ismail, 50, a youth coordinator, standing outside the Harlem headquarters of Mr. Sharpton’s National Action Network on Friday. “The mayor has done a lot of pre-emptive strikes with that kind of stuff, meeting with community leaders.”

On Nov. 27, 2006, two days after Mr. Bell was killed, the mayor convened a private meeting of black religious leaders and elected officials at City Hall.

One of those at the meeting was the city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, who a month after the shooting set up a panel to review the rules and tactics of undercover operations in response to the Bell case.

Saturday morning, Norma Wait was inside the Arising Barber Shop in Jamaica, talking about the change over the years.

“I must give it to the younger generation,” said Ms. Wait, 62, a bank worker originally from Belize who lives in South Jamaica. “They got a more level head. They know you don’t get justice by breaking windows and burning and looting. You get justice by presenting yourself, demonstrating, calling on the politicians.”

Dorothy Omega, 70, a retired drug counselor, sat in the audience at Mr. Sharpton’s headquarters, waiting for him to speak about the verdict. Even there, in the Harlem building known as the House of Justice, Ms. Omega sought the middle ground. She said she understood the anger expressed by Mr. Sharpton, but at the same time, she said, “The Police Department needs our support, too.”

Her thoughts turned to Mr. Bell, and then back again to the police. “The police have families, too,” she said. “They have to live with this.”

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Copyright 2008 New York Times Company

[The Benniest]

Bell Rally Blocks Harlem Traffic
By AUSTIN FENNER, LARRY CELONA and LEONARD GREEN

April 27, 2008 --

Angry demonstrators blocked Harlem traffic today to protest the Sean Bell verdict in the first step of what community activists billed as a wave of civic disruptions aimed at shutting down New York.

Gathering in large circles at intersections to create human roadblocks, the crowd of more than 100 demonstrators gave a preview of the civil disobedience organizers vowed would bring the city to a standstill.

Police kept a close watch on the protesters, who marched through streets amid talk of protests aimed at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and Broadway theaters.

"We're doing it because it's a national problem," said Salaam Ismial, head of the National United Youth Council, which organized today's protest. "Our young people don't have any confidence in the judicial system."

The protest was in response to a judge's decision to acquit NYPD Detectives Gescard Isnora, Marc Cooper and Michael Oliver in the shooting death of Bell, who was gunned down with his friends as they left his Queens bachelor party, just hours before his wedding.

The Rev. Al Sharpton was not at the rally, but a spokeswoman said he gave it his blessing. Also missing from the protest was Bell's fiancée, Nicole Paultre-Bell, who has vowed to lead the fight for justice.

Ismial said he had no ties to Sharpton or Paultre-Bell.

Motorists in Harlem appeared to take the delays in stride.

"As long as there's no violence, it gives them an opportunity to express their view," said Brian Kapchan, 48, a real-estate broker. "Even though I was delayed, 15 minutes is not the end of the world."

Earlier, some of the same demonstrators filled a Harlem storefront, where community and civil-rights leaders attacked Friday's verdict.

While they were vocal about their calls for a US Department of Justice inquiry and changes in police procedure, they were secretive about their plans for mass civil disobedience.

"It will not be the normal stuff," said Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, who is advising Bell's family and friends.

"Since this has gone to a new level, we will respond at a new level."

Among the items on the agenda is a meeting with House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan), who will call for a federal probe, and a Midtown meeting tomorrow of national civil-rights leaders in what was billed as a strategy session.

"It's time for the world to know we're not going to tolerate this type of behavior," said Charles Steele, executive director of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil-rights group founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Even though we're here in New York, we're up South. Nothing has changed," he said.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, officials pulled police officers off of foot patrols after a confidential informant warned them of a plot to shoot a cop, officials said.

Walking-beat cops from the 81st, 83rd and 75th precincts were transferred to radio cars, and department heads circled the wagons to protect the stations from any attack, according to a source.

The transfer was lifted last night, sources said.

Officials said they had not established a direct link between the verdict and the alleged threat but were not taking any chances.

Copyright 2008 New York Post

[The Benniest]

Paterson to meet with Sharpton, Sean Bell family

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, May 7th 2008, 7:51 PM

Gov. David Paterson is scheduled to meet privately with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the family of fatal police shooting victim Sean Bell.

Paterson will meet with Sharpton and Bell’s relatives Thursday afternoon in New York City — a day after protests took place around the city.

The governor expressed surprise at last month’s acquittal of three New York Police Department officers in the November 2006 shooting of Bell.

Paterson says he was surprised because of the number of shots fired.

The officers fired 50 times at Bell and two of his friends as they sat in a car on the day Bell was to be married.

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

[The Benniest]

Hundreds protest Sean Bell verdict

By NICOLE BODE, KERRY BURKE and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


Demonstrators chant outside Police Plaza.

Two hours of controlled fury ended with hundreds of arrests Wednesday after Sean Bell supporters blocked bridge and tunnel entrances in a bid to shut the city down.

Led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, they massed outside One Police Plaze and five other key locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn to protest the acquittal of three cops who killed Bell with a 50-bullet barrage on his wedding day.

"You are unlawfully obstructing vehicular traffic," Lt. John Wolf yelled through a bullhorn when Sharpton tried to lead a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. "I order you to leave the roadway now."


Ralph Evens joins the protesters at Police Plaza.

Sharpton refused, dropped to his knees, and started praying. Officers cuffed his hands behind his back and marched him to a waiting police van.

Police also arrested Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell and the two survivors of the Bell shooting, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman. They and about 200 other protesters were charged with disorderly conduct.

Earlier on the the Upper East Side, about 100 protesters waded into traffic and made for the Queensborough Bridge.

"Get on your knees! Get on your knees!" an organizer yelled.

And they did before the police, who greatly outnumbered the protesters, could stop them.

"It has nothing to do with race or being anti-NYPD," said demonstrator Antwan Minter, 31, of Harlem. "This is about basic human rights."

Within minutes, the demonstrators were in handcuffs and the bridge was reopened.

"I'm going to jail for Sean Bell," Dow Buford, 52, of Staten Island, said as he was led away. "I'm mad as hell."

Protesters briefly blocked the entrances to the Midtown and Holland tunnels before police arrested the ringleaders and dispersed the others.

In Harlem, about 90 people were arrested when they tried to block the entrance to the Triborough Bridge.

Sharpton promised the protests - aimed at pressuring the feds to try the Bell detectives on civil rights charges - would be peaceful.

Outside of a brief shoving match between Brooklyn councilman Charles Barron and cops, they largely were, police and protesters said.

Sharpton arrived at police headquarters a little before 4 p.m. holding Paultre Bell's hand. Also with them were Bell's parents, William and Valerie.

While the 500 or so demonstrators chanted "No justice, no peace," organizers went from protester to protester to take their names and find out if they would be willing to get arrested. They found about 65 volunteers.

"That's good," said William Bell, who chose not to get arrested. "It's all over the world. We really appreciate the love."

In Brooklyn, a crowd of 200 protestors led by Barron and Rev. Herbert Daughtry tried to march onto the Brooklyn Bridge from their side of the East River.

They were diverted to the Manhattan Bridge, where traffic to and from the city was blocked briefly before cops cleared them away. There were 23 arrests, including Barron and Daughtry.

Far smaller demonstrations were also planned in Chicago and Atlanta.

In Washington, representatives from the Detectives' Endowment Association met with members of the House Judiciary Committee and urged them not to press for federal charges against detectives Marc Cooper, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora.

Before the protests, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said cops didn't anticipate serious disruptions, but he made sure there were extra officers at each of the six protest sites.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also made plans to detour buses around the protest areas.

Private commuter services like Access-A-Ride sent out automated recordings to customers warning them of "stoppages" and "delays due to protests."

"It's annoying to me," said Susan Banks, 65, who commutes from her secretarial job near Rockefeller Center to Midwood, Brooklyn. "I'm coming home at that time. I'm sympathetic to any protests, but not when it affects me."

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

[Ninjahedge]

I think this is bad both ways.

First, they keep forgetting to mention that this bachelor and his friends were all drunk and coming out of a strip club at the wee hours in the AM. It is not like he was some bastion of purity when the cops confronted him outside that "reputable" establishment.

Second, why weren't the cops ever punished AT ALL? I know the trial and suspensions were one thing, butthey lost control and put people in danger. I think one freaked when he heard the others firing and was on a shoot-to-kill spree.

I do not think he was doing something that others would not have done in a similar situation, but he is a cop, he should not be like the "others". He should show more restraint and composure, even in a hostile situation )percieved or otherwise).


The thing that gets me is that people do have the right to protest, to keep an eye on the system, butthis just seems to be hate swinging the other way. It scares me a bit and makes me sad that it is there in the first place. this protest is not just about this one guy, there is something else (maybe a lot of somethings) behind it.

[NoyokA]

This is not a race thing, two of the three cops were black. And I'm not a blind defender of the NYPD but there is a reason why cops are never convicted, it is because their job is inherently difficult, they are put in life threatening situations on a constant basis. There are no news stories when cops actually kill armed criminals. Cops are humans, they must make a decision in a split second, they will make mistakes, but in a reverse instance a mistake of non action could cost them their lives. I would like to see these protestors in the same shoes as these cops, they were not there, they do not know the response their brain would elicit. In situations like this its very easy to complain and say what should have been done, its an entirely different situation when one is actually experiencing it.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Originally Posted by Stern

This is not a race thing, two of the three cops were black.

It's not racial in the sense of racial hatred, but the presumptive attitudes that are taken into neighborhoods of particular ethnicity. And people of the same race, because of on-the-job experience, are not immune to it.

Police officers engaged in undercover work or sting operations have to be carefully monitored. One of my neighbors, who is Hispanic, has a brother who's a police officer in Newark. He'd been involved in several of these operations, and said the work was dangerous and stressful, but he was an experience veteran, and was able to handle it.

His son joined the force, and because he was a big guy, was enlisted into one of these groups at what his father thought was too young an age. The father noticed a change in his son's personality, and when he finally spoke to him about it, the son admitted that the job was exciting, but the pressure was getting to him. It's a simple procedure to transfer between police departments in NJ, so he switched to another municipality.

it is because their job is inherently difficult, they are put in life threatening situations on a constant basis...

I would like to see these protestors in the same shoes as these cops, they were not there, they do not know the response their brain would elicit.

People have to be held to the standards that is expected of their professions.

If a doctor administers aid to an accident victim, screws it up, and the person dies, he can't justify it by saying to me, "If you think practicing medicine is so easy, why don't you try it."

Cops are humans, they must make a decision in a split second, they will make mistakes, but in a reverse instance a mistake of non action could cost them their lives.

I posted the following 18 months ago:

NYPD sidearm is a Glock model 19 (9mm). The magazine holds 15 rounds. The rate of fire is rapid, and emptying a clip during a pressure situation might be understandable, but a 12 year veteran emptied one clip, reloaded, emptied a second clip, reloaded again, and got off one more round.

Enough time to think about what you are doing.

[The Benniest]

The New York Times has released several photos of the protest:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/200...EST_index.html

[Ninjahedge]

I agree with you Zip.

I know the job can be very stressfull, but if you are starting to get shell-shocked, it is time for you to be transferred.

I think the vet phreaked and just kept unloading. Do I think that 2+ clips is not enough time to think about it? No. But do I think he WAS thinking, and thinking clearly about it when he did it? I certainly hope not! Otherwise unloading 31 (?) shots from a PISTOL is a bit psycotic!

I do not think these guys were guilty of walking up to a couple of innocent looking black guys and giving them problems and forcingthem to run in terror, but it was a major screw-up and they should have diciplinary measures.

Unfortunately, anything now would look like it was done for reasons that it shoul dnot be done. I would not call it an outright homicide, but I also would not let them go with onthing to answer for.

[eddhead]

^^

I tend to agree with Zip as well. That the officer had time to reload and re-empty is Glock is an indication of negligence at least. Still as Ninja points out, the circumstances were difficult and the job is inherently dangerous.

I hope this does not sound insensitive, but at the end of the day I think the jury reached the only verdict they could. I agree the officers were negligent but I am not convinced there was criminal intent or at least that criminal intent was proven. When it is all said and done, that to me, is the test of criminality. Still, given the negligence, I am sure there will be a civil judgment for the Bell family. Small solace.

Irrespective it is a horrible shame and a waste. I can understand the demonstrations, although I wish Sharpton were not involved in them. I and I believe others never got over the Brawley matter and as a result think he lacks credibility on race issues. His presence result undermines the objective of these types of protests.

[ZippyTheChimp]

May 21, 2008

Officers Face Department Charges in Bell Killing

By AL BAKER

Seven New York City police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell, including three detectives who were acquitted in a criminal trial, were formally accused on Tuesday of breaking Police Department rules in the case.

The department said that the officers violated the internal policy manual in a variety of ways, including improperly firing their guns and failing to process the crime scene after Mr. Bell was killed and his two friends injured in a storm of 50 bullets.

The three detectives who stood trial in the case — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were charged with “discharging their firearms outside of department guidelines,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. Detective Isnora was also charged with taking enforcement action while working as an undercover officer instead of letting officers who were present, and not working undercover, take control.

Lt. Gary Napoli, the ranking officer at the scene, faces internal charges of failing to supervise the operation, Mr. Browne said. Sergeant Hugh McNeil and Detective Robert Knapp, of the Crime Scene Unit, were also charged: the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene and the sergeant with failing to ensure a thorough processing was done.

Police Officer Michael Carey, was charged with discharging his firearm outside of department guidelines. Another officer involved in the shooting, Detective Paul Headley, was not charged because a review of the evidence currently available did not support charges, officials said.

If the charges, known as administrative charges, are upheld, the officers could face discipline ranging from loss of pay to retraining to firing. But the internal investigation has been suspended as federal prosecutors weigh civil rights charges in the case.

The department filed the internal charges Tuesday to beat a Sunday deadline. Under personnel rules, it had 18 months from the date of the shooting, Nov. 25, 2006, to charge the officers.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been a spokesman for the Bell family and has protested the acquittals, called the charges “a step in the right direction.” But he drew a parallel between the Bell shooting and the recent beatings of three suspects by the police in Philadelphia, which was caught on videotape.

He urged Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly “to follow the lead of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who fired four police yesterday, demoted one sergeant, and disciplined others, without going through a long internal procedure.”

Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, shot back that the “Rev. Al needs to be reminded that all of the detectives were found not guilty in a court of law.” He said the union would “vigorously represent our detectives in the department’s trial room.”

Lawyers for some of the officers also criticized the decision to lodge internal charges against the men.

Though neither Mr. Bell nor his friends had a firearm, defense lawyers argued at trial the three detectives believed someone in Mr. Bell’s car had a gun because of comments they overheard outside the nightclub. Additionally, the evidence suggested the shooting began only after Mr. Bell had twice rammed his car into an unmarked police van. Detectives Isnora and Oliver were charged with manslaughter and Detective Cooper with reckless endangerment, but Justice Arthur J. Cooperman of State Supreme Court in Queens acquitted them, saying the prosecution had not proved that the shooting was unjustified.

But the judge seemed to criticize the operation when he wrote in his verdict, “Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums.”

The chaotic moments surrounding the shooting were examined in depth at trial, with testimony showing that no bubble lights were in place on the roofs of the police vehicles during the attempted arrest of Mr. Bell, and that while officers said they were wearing their shields, some were not wearing police raid jackets. Elements of the crime scene investigation were disorganized, with accusations of contamination of evidence and inaccurate markings of physical evidence, such as shell casings.

Shortly after Detectives Isnora, Oliver and Cooper were indicted, they were served with administrative charges in April 2007 that “basically mirrored the criminal charges they faced,” Mr. Browne said. The new internal charges accuse them specifically of breaking departmental rules — though both could result in their being fired.

The officers can contest the charges before a departmental judge, but it is ultimately up to the commissioner to accept or reject the judge’s recommendation.

The department does not always file internal charges in such cases. In 1999, after four officers in the Bronx fired 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo, killing him, the officers were indicted and acquitted, and no departmental charges were filed against them.

The internal charges were determined by what is already in the public record, Mr. Browne said. That includes court testimony in the criminal case and a preliminary departmental report on the shooting. The department did not specify the basis for the charges, that is, why it believed the detectives had violated the rules on shooting, and it did not elaborate on the lapses in handling the crime scene.

Philip E. Karasyk, a lawyer for Detective Isnora, said the department rushed to file charges that he said “are often dismissed or amended.” He added: “The charges that have been served today have been drawn up without the benefit of hearing what the officers have to say.”

Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, defended Officer Carey, saying the department would find that he “acted fully within the scope of his duty and the guidelines of the department.”

Howard Tanner, a lawyer for Lieutenant Napoli, said he “has an excellent prior record.”

Paul P. Martin, the lawyer for Detective Cooper, said he was taking the departmental charges “very seriously,” but was more concerned about the possibility of federal charges.

James J. Culleton, the lawyer for Detective Oliver, did not respond to messages. Sergeant McNeil and Detective Knapp could not be reached for comment, and their lawyers were not known.

Kirk Semple contributed reporting.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company