Jesus Christ!!!

[michael_ital]

Outrage as N.Y. groom gunned down
Nov. 26, 2006. 04:01 PM
DEEPTI HAJELA
ASSOCIATED PRESS


NEW YORK — The five officers who let fly a flurry of bullets at three unarmed men were placed on leave and stripped of their guns. Police and prosecutors promised a full investigation.

But none of that stemmed the fury of a community outraged by the shooting. A crowd of at least a few hundred gathered Sunday at a vigil and rally to demand resolution after the gunfire left one man dead on his wedding day and two others wounded.

The group, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, shouted “No justice, no peace,” and some called for the ouster of the city Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, yelling “Kelly must go.’’

Elected officials and community leaders promised to hold police accountable for the Saturday morning incident, in which officers fired an estimated 50 rounds at the men as they left the groomÂ’s bachelor party in a car. Sean Bell, 23, had planned to marry the mother of his two young children just hours later.

“We cannot allow this to continue to happen,” said Sharpton at the gathering outside Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens. “We’ve got to understand that all of us were in that car.’’

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his aides were in contact with BellÂ’s family and community leaders throughout the weekend to update them on the investigation and receive their feedback. Bloomberg and Kelly also planned to meet with leaders at City Hall on Monday.

The surviving victims were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. The shootings occurred outside the Kalua Cabaret, a strip club where the bachelor party was held. Both men are at Mary Immaculate Hospital, where Guzman was in critical condition and Benefield was listed as stable.

Relatives of the men, including BellÂ’s fiancee, attended SundayÂ’s vigil and rally but none spoke publicly.

Kelly had said on Saturday evening that the police department was still piecing together what happened and that it was too early to say whether the shooting was justified.

Chief police spokesman Paul Browne on Sunday confirmed reports that the five officers who fired were placed on paid administrative leave, a procedure that is administrative but not disciplinary, while the investigation goes on. He said the police department had taken their guns.

The officers will remain on leave “until we learn more about the circumstances of the shooting,” Browne said. “There are still a number of unanswered questions.’’

The officersÂ’ shots struck the menÂ’s car 21 times after the vehicle rammed into an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan. The wild gunfire hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no residents were injured.

Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun. But investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.

Kelly said the incident stemmed from an undercover operation inside the strip club in the Jamaica section of Queens. Seven officers in plain clothes were investigating the Kalua Cabaret.

According to Kelly, the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club after 4 a.m., and one of his friends made a reference to a gun.

An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, they drove forward — striking him and a nearby undercover police vehicle.

The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. That officer had served on the force for five years. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said. In total, it is believed 50 bullets were fired, he said.

It was the first time any of the officers, who all carried 9 mm handguns, had been involved in a shooting, Kelly said.

At some point, Bell, who was driving, backed his car up onto the sidewalk, hitting a building gate. He then drove forward, striking the police vehicle a second time, Kelly said.

It was unclear whether the shooters had identified themselves as police, Kelly said.

KellyÂ’s account of the events was based on statements made by witnesses and the two officers who did not shoot their weapons. Police could not question the other officers because the district attorney must first complete an investigation, Kelly said.

Kelly said there may have been a fourth person in the car who fled the scene. Three officers, including the officer hit by the car, were treated and released. Another detective remained hospitalized Sunday for hypertension.

The police department’s policy on shooting at moving vehicles is somewhat ambiguous. The guideline states, “Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle.’’

Kelly said undercover officers were inside the club to document illicit activity. With one more violation the club would be shut down, Kelly said. He said the establishment had a “chronic history of narcotics, prostitution and weapons complaints.’’

On Sunday, the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said it is issuing a vote of no confidence in Kelly over the shooting. It also wants the removal of the Organized Crime Control Bureau chief, Anthony Izzo, who it says created the undercover unit involved in the incident.

Browne said Sunday, “We are continuing to look for additional witnesses to shed light on the incident and assisting the district attorney’s office with its investigation.’’

Community leaders are planning a rally at police headquarters for Dec. 6.

This isnÂ’t the first time the NYPD has come under scrutiny over police-involved shootings.

In 1999, police killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the Bronx. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges. And in 2003, Ousmane Zongo was shot to death during a police raid. The 43-year-old, a native of the West African country of Burkina Faso, was hit four times, twice in the back.

[PragmaticGal]

Someone will say they shouldn't have been at a strip club.

[michael_ital]

Yanno ?? Or "they shouldn'ta been black"!!

[Ugaas Diini]

[quote]100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care [/quote]

What do they care about?

[Mowhawk]

[quote="PragmaticGal"]Someone will say they shouldn't have been at a strip club.[/quote]

Prag

He could be a lucky guy who will miss living a life-sentence under a dictator called wife?

Michael

Misleading title if you are not pretending to be a "fake Daanyeer". Btw, most Australians consider Americans to be cowboys, everyone armed to the teeth according to their paranoid constitution, post civil/war . That is why you will have such a paranoid wild west mentality police force armed to the teeth to enforce the laws on armed citizens. We see it as a culture of violence.

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Leave it to Al Sharpton to make political hay out of it. Instead of meeting with the Chief of Police and representing the community in an intellectual way as a responsible citizen, he organizes a rally, of course getting TV time for himself in the process, and making childish chants like "No justice, no peace". Actually, the inverse is true, no peace, no justice. But that's another story. How about if we see where the investigation leads. What does Sharpton expect, that the five officers in question are publicly burned at the stake - no jury, no trial, straight to execution!

[X.Playa]

the inverse is right ' no peace no justice' , whats next .. slavery is freedom ??

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Playa
Walk the dog. If you have an ethnic group in a society that is using violence in a disproportionate amount, this automatically labels that group. In the US, certain groups and certain neighborhoods clearly have a much lower threshold for employing violence against law enforcement. This means, if you are a cop, and you enter one of these neighborhoods, your adrenaline is already higher. This is natures way of improving your chances of survival. Adrenaline, combined with awareness of increased threat, is going to make the officer in quesiton much quicker to react to uncertain situations in a violent manner. Good training can reduce this, but not eliminate it. No matter how much people might like to, you can not control nature through politics.

The same is true in warfare. When troops feel they are threatened, they are much more likely to use deadly force in an arbitrary manner, even against civilian populations. That people don't like it, will never make it not so.

As an example, when I drove through Haber Gedir controlled neighborhoods in Somalia, I was instantly aware of a higher threat level. I might well have shot a kid throwing a stone at me, thinking the stone was a grenade. Your self preservation instinct kicks in, and that overrides everything else.

This is why it is NOT in the interest of black society in America to act in violent ways. And MOST black leaders recognize this. However, the problem is, we have a group that is socially and economically disadvantage, which leads to much higher crime rates, including violent crime. This is a hard cycle to break.

None of this justifies what happened in this particular incident. But Sharptons irresponsible politicking does nothing to help the situation. Sharpton is a smart man, but not a moral one. I guess not surprising, he is, after all, a politician.

[michael_ital]

Good for Al, someone needed to speakout to ensure it didn't get swept under the rug, which is EXACTLY what would have happened hadn't he rallied.

[Shankaroon_614]

I have no interest in reading the long a.ss sh!t laakiin why would you say Jesus Christ when you can say Cise? Or better yet Nabi Muhammed SCW?

[fagash_killer]

Scared heads and Black hebrews
Punk rockers and Hip-Hoppers
Street pharmacists, drug dealers, witch doctors
Rappers wearing hundred thousand dollar wrist watches
Little kids starving, the police killed his father
Rich man, poor man, civilized man, Tarzan
Who's right? fightin over God's land
American History X
Represent the future unknown
What's next?

[michael_ital]

Shank, Why? Simple. I wanted an attention grabbing headline, and I got it. It worked on you, didn't it??

[michael_ital]

More...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15935239/