This just in: nytimes.com reported that 3 policemen were found innocent of shooting a young black man 50 times. This young man, Sean Bell, had been noticed leaving a "gentleman's club" with his friends after his bachelor party by plainclothes policemen who were drinking in the club at the time.
The young men got into Sean's car (he was driving). The plain clothes policemen said they called out, "Police," but the occupants in the car may not have heard them. They may have seen three men dressed in ordinary clothes aiming guns at them, panicked, and backed up the car toward one of them. The police opened fire, hitting the driver 50 times in a blaze of bullets, reloading once.
Readers are blanketing the Times with comments. The Times city editor posted a notice to please be patient, they can't publish comments nearly as quickly as they are being written. People are furious here.
It's deadly to be a black man in America.