Today was supposed to be a wedding for 23 year old AFrican American Sean Bell and his long term 22 year old girlfriend Nicole Paultre. But instead, both families will be attending the funeral of Bell after he and two unarmed friends were shot FIFTY times by PLAIN CLOTHES individuals who were with the NYPD. http://www.newsday.com/...
Police commissioner Ray Kelly and Queens District ATtorney Richard Brown are urging people to withhold judgment. Certainly that's fair but in the wake of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed man shot 41 times by plain clothes officers, one can not help, knowing how corrupt and dishonest some in the NYPD can be at times, that the cops who did the shooting are being "lawyered up" and they were all come forth with another poppycock story in a few days in which all their "stories" read off the same script provided for them by the PBA.
Here's what we know so far.
- The men who were shot were unarmed.
- One police supervisor, according to the Newsday article, described the story as "It's confusing as hell."
- Some cops at the scene did NOT fire weapons.
- Apparently there was some kind of possible violent altercation a few minutes before near a club upon which Bell and three friends left the scene.
- Ray Kelly then says the following happened as quoted by Newsday.
In quick succession, Kelly said, the following happened: The four men got into the Nissan just as an unmarked police Toyota Camry passed them. The undercover cop crossed Liverpool from west to east and was standing in front of the Nissan. Then, an unmarked police Ford minivan rounded the corner from 94th Avenue onto Liverpool. The Nissan pulled forward, struck the undercover cop, scraping his shin, and then crashed into the minivan. The Nissan backed up and then struck the minivan again. That's when the shooting started, Kelly said.
And here are the problems. (With some editorializing by me.)
A. If four unarmed people are getting into a car and leaving and a bunch of PLAIN CLOTHES individuals try to confront them, especially after the victims just left a scene to avoid violence, ANY reasonable person would believe that these PLAIN CLOTHES inviduals might be out to harm them. If you are trying to leave a violent altercating and some PLAIN clothes individual confronts you, you SHOULD try to leave.
B. If a minivan tries to drive into you, then any reasonable person would try to get away even if it means smashing your car into the minivan. Kelly's story has a BIG HOLE in it. If the Nissan BACKED UP into the minivan but the minivan had PREVIOUSLY PASSED the Nissan, and the minivan is an UNMARKED CAR which any reasonable person could believe was owned by a civilian, then it appears that the MINIVAN was the aggressor. Moreover, if the Nissan is BACKING UP, it could easily be doing that to get away from what is perceived as a mad driver out to get them.
C. While there are many good cops with the NYPD, large segments of the people should NOT have badges. I have personally witnessed one sergeant just lie cold bloodedly in a deposition, saw some of the harassment toward law abiding citizens during the 2004 GOP convention, and believe that Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima did not happen in a vacuum.
D. This is not cop bashing. My position has always been that I support good cops and good law enforcement and I oppose rogue cops (liars, criminals) and bad law enforcement. It is also my position that every bad cop disgraces the good cops.
E. Starting salary for an NYPD officer is under $30,000 a year. How can the NYPD expect to attract the good cops when the nearby suburbs offer salaries that far surpass this pittance? You can earn more at McDonalds. What you end up with is an inferior talent pool and thus people who should not have badges. This should not detract from good cops but too many of those who work for the NYPD are bigots, people drunk on power, people who have steel traps for brains, people who seek to abuse power, etc...
F. The NYPD is a mess. ON a daily basis, people are given BS tickets, people are falsely arrested, people are harassed, people with badges are breaking the law, cops are testilying frequently in depositions, etc...
When you have a police department that keeps repeating this kind of disgraceful behavior on a day in and day out basis, you end up with bigger problems.