Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Sean Bell's murderers "disciplined"

The cops who killed Sean Bell and shot a couple of his friends for no apparent reason--other than that the cops were trigger happy and that the New York Police Department still hasn't rid itself of its decades old racism--were recently "disciplined." The discipline, according to the N.Y. Post, "could lead to loss-of-pay, suspension or dismissal."

Maybe some of them will get "dismissed"?!

These cops kill an innocent man, on his wedding day, outside of a nightclub, shoot up another two people, spray the whole area down with 50 bullets--shooting so wildly that a bullet ended up in someone's apartment, and another ended up on a train platform a football field away--and the worst the NYPD can do is maybe dismiss them?

I've worked at a lot of different places. A guy was dismissed, canned, fired--whatever you want to call it--at a factory because he was late returning from his break, and some of the wafer-things that we produced were ruined. But for the NYPD, killing an innocent Black man apparently isn't even an offense that is definitely cause for dismissal. It's infuriating, but, no surprise, as this is a long pattern with the New York City police department.

But people are fighting, moreso than in previous cases, and that's an encouraging sign. Black, white, Latino, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish--The fight goes on, united.

Here's a statement from Rev. Al Sharpton on the NYPD's announcement that they would discipline the cops involved:

In light of reports that the New York Police Department has given internal disciplinary charges to eight of the officers in the Sean Bell case, I feel it is a step in right direction. However, we at National Action Network call upon Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray 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. They had the right as does the New York Police Department to terminate people that violate police policy. I strongly believe that the Police Commissioner should fire the officers in the Sean Bell case pursuant to civil service laws. I might add that there was not a fatality in the case in Philadelphia like there was in New York and the City still acted quickly and unequivocally on an incident that was just two weeks ago. This is the kind of aggressive and no nonsense attitude we must have with policing in other parts of the country. There must be no tolerance for crime but also no tolerance for police misconduct and the New York Police Department must send a strong firm signal that that is the case as we have seen in Philadelphia.

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network


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