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Toxicology reports now show that Sean Bell, the unarmed man who was killed in a barrage of police bullets hours before his wedding, had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. Which gives the groups representing the police some soundbites regarding the events of the night. The Detectives' Endowment Association president Michael Palladino said, "[This report] gives some insight into why Sean Bell acted the way he did behind the wheel. His behavior was reckless and life-threatening to the officer he hit. If the reports are true, his judgment was impaired."
The undercover police officers who shot at Bell and two of his friends said that he identified himself as a police officer but that Bell drove into him anyway, one of the possible reasons why the police shot at him (though why 50 shots were fired is another issue). One of Bell's friends, Trent Benefield, said that the officer did not identify himself.
Sanford Rubenstein, a lawyer for the Bell family, says, "No matter what his blood-alcohol level was, he is a victim." And let's not forget that there are questions about how much the police were drinking that evening.
Photograph of Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, at last weekend's protest march by Shiho Fukada; Paultre Bell is wearing a pin with Sean Bell's photograph
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No matter how drunk he was and no matter if he looked threatening and could have killed people in his car he was a victim! why can't people understand that?
From the start of the story the blame goes to Sean Bell. The guy had it coming.
Everyone makes it seem like the Cops were the bad people in this while Sean Bell was actually the one who killed himself not the police.
stupid blacks.
You racists kill me.
However when the SHTF, can you count on mr. cop from Holbrook or Spring Valley to arrive to the UWS in time to safe your ass?
leave it to the cops to keep clawing for excuses to cover their own asses.
i'm pretty sure that if i was sober and an unidentified man jumped in front of my car with a gun i would be "reckless" with the vehicle as well.
Hmm, what was the BAC of the cops that shot him? I'm so suuuuuuurrrre that information will be released soon. The NYPD spin machine at work.
That nigga had it coming! Good riddance! Too bad the other niggaz didn't take more bullets!
^
Too bad indeed. Need to get the criminals off the street and without letting taxpayers pay for them to stay in jail
Still how long can the cops get into the city in case of emergency when they live fifty miles away?
You try getting in from Nassau, Suffolk or Rockland county into manhattan. cops are living as far up as Ossining.
good luck racists. Cops don't live in the five boroughs except for S.I. but even then, I got myself at least an hour head start.
I must say, I've tried to write some intelligent, constructive comments about this Bell incident on a few threads, and gotten blocked, and yet Gothamist runs shit like h.g.'s comment. I don't get it.
The following aricle sums up how I feel about this shooting:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2006-12-04hm.html
the truth is a biatch like that mcdonald.
From that City Journal essay cited by "The Truth":
"witnesses and video footage confirm that a fourth man in the party fled the scene once the altercation began"
Video footage? I think this is inaccurate.
The police are living in Orange County too.
Go to Washingtonville. It's like one big hang out for the NYPD.
Wow, the NYPD are moving further and further north.
Guess they hate the city that much.
Soon they'll only afford Putnam and Dutchess county and them there is farm country.
Rubenstein gives mercenary lawyers a bad name. As if they had a good name to begin with. I'm sure he'd say no matter what Bell did or did not do, he was a victim. Hell, Rubenstein probably could give Johnny Cochran a run for his money in terms of selling out his principles just to win his case. Nailing the cops is the only thing that matters, no matter what Bell did.
Disclaimer: I have no great love for NYPD, but the way people (especially many commenters here on Gothamist) jumped to conclusions instantly and stuck to their conspiracy theories no matter what makes me sick.
video footage = dash board cams.
city-journal.org is the counterbalance to gothamist's knee-jerk pro-leftist editorializing.
White, Black, whatever. Everybody knows. Flashing lights - pull over. I've been stopped twice this year alone because the landscaping equipment covers my plate. I stop. Put my hands where the cop can see them when he gets out of the car. Nothing to hide. No problem. Drive away.
Nobody has addresed why these guys ran? If they had NOTHING TO HIDE, why wouldn't they stop? Why did they NOT do what the MIXED RACIAL group of Police do what they told them? This is BS.
I know the NYPD loves cameras but that's the first time I've ever heard of them having Dash Cams.
NO WAY in hell would the PBA allow them in their cars and if they did, they're gonna find a lot of malfunctional units when the go to the videotape.
I think the video footage is from private surveillance in the area and the club's camera.
Just like the idea of one man patrol cars, not gonna happen.
If the problem the police had with Sean Bell were that he was drunk, he would have been given a breathalyzer exam and not summarily executed. Let's be real: the police's problem with Bell was that he was black. It's why they were so quick to flash their guns -- so quick they didn't identify themselves -- and why they were so quick to fire.
It doesn't matter whether you are a black cop, a Latin cop, and certainly doesn't matter if you are a white cop -- if you are in the police force, you know that shootings like this are considered "justifiable" by the brass so long as the victim is black and in the outer boroughs. After all, why is it that vice cops swarm all over a hole-in-the-wall like Club Kahlua, and are nowhere to be found over at places like the Hustler in Manhattan that cater to a crowd of coke-snorting PATH-train riding white yuppies?
Meanwhile, I find it highly suspicious that there is some anonymous source that seems hell-bent on sabotaging the case by leaking select details of it. Before the AP was reporting on this leak, they were reporting on the leak about the non-existant "fourth man" with a gun -- which fell through as soon as the NY Times got ahold of a credible investigative report.
If people don't mind a bit of self-promotion here, I've kept a running tab of all the references to "anonymous sources from law enforcement" in the reports from Hays and Milton in the Associated Press:
http://alloutforthefight.blogspot.com/2006/12/peoples-investigation-sean-bell-defamed.html
And I'll be keeping tabs on whether Hays and Milton's "anonymous source from law enforcement" has anything more to say over the next few weeks.
#20 *if you are in the police force, you know that shootings like this are considered "justifiable" by the brass so long as the victim is black and in the outer boroughs.*
You're a racist douche-bag. Get help before you hurt someone, mainly yourself.
I find it odd that this was leaked, too.
when was the last time you heard of a tox report as the first report coming out? in fact, why not add in a drug tox report for good measure.
I say put the word out that we are watching these two AP reporters and should tail them where ever they go.
Whether Sean Bell was drunk or not that doesn't give the NYPD the right to shoot 50 rounds into his car, and if there was a fourth man how did he get out the way of the bullets come on people get real. One story says he was in the car than another story says the fourth man was standing outside the car. Which one is it?
If it was so much as a fourth man that fed from the scene why wasn't he follow to be arrested or even question? It was five cops on the scene!!!
So now they are testing for alcohol-blood level trying to justified the reason for shoting an unarm man and his friends. Did they test the cops the same night they were in the club having their good time as well? Who's to say their vision wasn't impaired and they gotten information wrong. Cops need to face up to what they did was wrong they took those children dad away, a husband to be, and a son and now they are trying to save their own asses. I tell you about SOME cops.
You know they may lie or even get away on earth but they won't get away before God. What those officers did was cruel and very unjustifiable but, as usual they seem to always justify what they do. I have a question if the officer was struck by Sean Bell's car did he endure any injuries, did he recieve any medical attention, was he treated and released from the hospital, did he even go to the hospital. Why they are talking about all that other bull ma larky talk about that.
To be honest, no matter what color he was police officers are trained to handle situations better than they did there was no justice in the way they behaved, not at all. Also I wouldn't want a group of murders protecting me, sorry! And for all of you ignorant, racist people making comments you or your love one could be next you never know you really have to be careful how you think and what comes out of your mouth because power lye's in the tongue.
Sean Bell was someone's dad, son, husband to be, cousin, and friend. The way they gunned him down and shot his friends was unacceptable behavior for any law enforcement officer. And 50 shots is pre-meditated murder the same way a citizen murders another citizen and gets sentenced should be the same punishment for a police officer.
Everyone knows if it would have been one of thier officers gunned down they would be ripping Queens apart looking for a suspect and harassing everyone they can, hell the entire community would be on death row by now. But New York hold it down be blessed and stay safe. Please pray, just pray. Prayer changes everything!
50 shots - the main cop being investigate shot around 30 or so of them. that's a reload, and around that point, wouldn't you think if someone was shooting back at you at any point. that's a skirmish. i'm just horrified of the amount bullets used and the lack of correct police conduct. firing a gun is the last obtion to any confrontation and for this instance, it wasn't even a life threatening one.
and to the posters above, saying it was good riddance, and claimning they were criminals? save the tax payer? racists live well and confortable behind their screen.
no justice no peace!
This is addressed to "bobo", You'd probably have a different reaction if a man in plain clothes walked infront of your car waving a gun at you. GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEADS...the cops were NOT in uniform. OH and for the whole "running away from the scene bullshyt I'd run if I heard 50 shots ring out and a car being rammed into a building to, I don't know who wouldn't. The fact that a man was running away from the scene when he heard bullets doesn't make him a "fourth man", thats rediculuos. Whats even more rediculous is this idea that some man with god-like power was able to release himself from a car that was just riddled with 50 bullets and rammed into a building, and was well enough to run away from the scene escaping the attention of 5 trigger happy police.
how many times were the so called victims charged with gun crimes?? armed robbery???? how much time have they done upstate??? I guess the racist cops made up those charges too
okay who ever h. g. is there an ignorent cracker how dare you say that he had it comming to be killed in cold blood he was a person just like you and me although you couldn't tell your a person from the way you talk about black people not all black peopl are murders and crooks he was going to get married that day and you say he had it comming h.g. your an extrem jackazz and hopefuly you'll realize that you shouldn't judge others by the color of their skin you rasist prick I bet if it were a white guy you wouldn't have said he had it comming think befor you speak DUMB AZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!