Police fire 50 rounds, kill groom on day of wedding
The cops were all plain-clothes, under cover. The men who were fired upon were unarmed.
(Photo: Willie Davis/Veras - Village Voice)
(Photo: Willie Davis/Veras - Village Voice)
The NYPD police commissioner Ray Kelly is failing in his duty. Rather than focus on investigating the conduct of his out-of-control under-cover agents, he's got cops kicking doors in to prove there was another guy who was armed who fled the scene. His emphasis seems more defensive than impartial.
Maybe he's raising the stakes because he knows his job is on the line. Maybe a proper investigation would reveal his corruption. Maybe he just has a rotten attitude like Rudy Guliani.
Rudy Guliani had a rotten attitude after Amadou Diallo was slain, and an equally rotten attitude after Abner Louima was sodomized by a cop weilding a toilet-plunger.
I also cannot fail to mention Mayor Bloomberg, who has given a defensive response. The tone of his voice was defensive. Why should he feel defensive unless he's preparing to disappoint the public?
The NYPD have definitely out-done them selves on this one. They've set a new record, beyond the 41 shots that slayed Amadou Diallo. Diallo was also unarmed and also killed by under-cover agents.
At first, I assumed what happened to Amadou Diallo must have been an accident and an abberation. Now with the case of Sean Bell, I'm forced to wonder, what exactly could result in this same mafia gang-land-style killing in which four under-cover cops unload their clips on un-armed men like this?
New York City is full of great people, but these corrupt bullies send a bad vibe cascading down through the public institutions.
The racial context of this event is that there is widely known to be a double standard between the value of white lives and black lives. This double standard exists at the institutional level.
There's a pattern of young black men being killed and their families unceremoniously brushed aside and forgotten.
Bloomberg's failure to attend the funeral and Ray Kelly's failure to acknowledge that this was excessive force reveal a lack of compassion and understanding of the human suffering of the family.
Obviously, Bloomberg and Kelly have allowed a large emotional and psychological gulf to open between them and the shooting victim's family, fiance, the black community.
Why would this gulf exist, if not for psychological alienation based on racial difference? Would a white man killed at his bachelor party receive such a cool, beaurocratic shrug?
It's time for the leadership of the NYPD to end this policy of abusing New Yorkers. Ray Kelly needs to come clean or resign.