Council Approves "Sean Bell Way" Renaming

City Council overwhelmingly approved a plan to rename the street where police shot and killed Sean Bell, voting 41-7 (with two abstentions) in favor of the proposal, according to a Council insider. The decision clears the way for converting a three-block-long Queens strip into "Sean Bell Way" to honor the 23-year-old who died in a salvo of police bullets on the day of his wedding.

The proposal turned controversial as it reached the Council, where Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) stated: "Nothing about that tragedy is worthy of a street renaming." New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser railed against the plan today, claiming the memorial street name "reeks of two-fisted police-bashing" and that the city shouldn't honor a man who spent a "night of drunken carousing at a seedy strip club patronized by diseased hookers and low-rent junkies, rammed his car into a detective's legs, then died in a hail of police bullets."

But the renaming had the support of many elected officials including Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Councilman and Comptroller-elect John Liu (D-Queens), who noted: "This has something to do with our community embracing and using as example a young man that was on his way to doing what was right and his community rallied around him. That's what streets are named for." According to a source, Councilmembers Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens), Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), Vincent Ignizio (R-Staten Island), Kenneth Mitchell (D-Staten Island), Jimmy Oddo (R-Staten Island), Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), and Vallone. Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn) and Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) abstained.

Now, the "Sean Bell Way" bill — alongside a number of other street renamings — will be sent to the desk of Mayor Bloomberg, who told the Observer he would sign it. "I have said that when a bill comes before me listing a lot of names, I will sign the bill," the Mayor said. "[R]ather than just enflame the situation, I will sign the bill."

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By Ben Muessig in News on December 21, 2009 5:15 PM

Comments [rss]

Cobra

Yes. We should only continue to name streets after White Men who owned slaves, subjugated women or started the genocide of Native Americans.

Typical.

--Cobra

snickerdoodle

Thug Culture creeping into everything now. SMH.

Wza

Ooooh oooh..I got one!

Renaming the street next to the Wakamba Lounge, Patrick Dorismond Street.

marcasm

Would have been more fitting to rename the strip club after him. The Bada Bell !

valeriob

They should rename Times Square after the CD salesman/rapper/hustler/pimp. Then again he only got shot 3 times.

38 more and we would've had Raymond "Ready" Martinez Square.

zodak

let's honor all the drug dealers who have died in the line of duty.

Bell had been arrested three times, twice for drug dealing and once for a firearms possession.[8] In all cases, he was released on his own recognizance.[9] The New York Daily News reported that, according to unnamed law enforcement sources, Bell sold crack cocaine twice to a confidential police informant in August 2006.[10]

The two men who were injured by the police, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, had been arrested nine and three times, respectively, each having been arrested at least once for illegal firearm possession.[8] Guzman had been previously arrested for armed robbery, spending two separate terms in a state prison.[8] Benefield had a sealed record as a juvenile for gun possession and robbery.[8]

Cobra

All irrelevant. None of these facts were known before the incident. Your argument amounts to "shoot Blacks first, and check their records later, posthumously if need be."

Sorry. That attitude might fly on hate radio and Fox News. Won't work uptown.

--Cobra

MrManhattan

I was all against this until I read Andrea Peyster was against it.

Now I have to reconsider.

5borough

Pathetic.

A drunk driving drug dealer hits a cop with a car, gets killed and gets a street named after him.

Nice culture.

Snoopy

If anyone lives on a street for more than forty years that street should be named for them. And if they lived in a corner building two streets.

dadoc

Surprise? Not.

Pay no attention to these "elected" clowns.

They are just throwing up smoke and mirrors to divert attention from the real issues: their own misfeasance, malfeasance & criminal conduct.

Let them put up some signs with a dirtbag's name.

At least he's a dead dirtbag.

No surprise, they're just keeping you distracted so they can really screw you.

Guest

ok... going with this theme. why not name streets after all the heroes that died in 9/11? how about dead jewish american soldiers from new york during ww2? how about new york gay guys that got murdered for what they were? or better yet, all the chinese deliverymen in new york that got killed senselessly (by none other than you-know-what)?

i mean, it seems like you don't have to be so important to be named after a street as long as the person died senselessly, so why not go the full-gamut?

oh, i forgot. al cares if you are dark-skinned.

take your eyes out al. it's better to be blind than to try in vain to put seeds of guilt in people.

Guest

and we should then definitely name a street for that woman who hung herself after she got arrested for marijuana possession.

c'mon al... fucking cops, aren't they? show your love to everyone like the reverend you think you are, or you're just feeding yourself while everyone else goes hungry.

JacqueMehoff

it's a start. and thanks for the list of objections not that it's a surprise.

Guest

http://imgur.com/puGwH.jpg

farleft

Good. Fuck the trigger-happy officers that murdered Sean Bell. And fuck all you conservative morons that go out of your way to malign innocent, unarmed black people that get murdered by uniformed thugs.

snowflake108

Its good that this asshole got shot.. They all should be killed before they attack innocent people.. Police did their job - protected others. If i was a cop i would do the same. Put all of you to against the wall and shoot from machine gun!

Gwinny

Well THAT's a broad generalization... this guy was a thug, that's all there is to it. And I'm a registered Democrat, thanks very much. I'd just like to see this type of honor bestowed on people who actually did more than deal drugs and drive drunk.

farleft

You people can deal with your white guilt by convincing yourself that he deserved to die. Or you can confront reality and admit that the officers used excessive and deadly force on an innocent man.

Gwinny

Who the hell said he deserved to die? All I'm saying is that he is NOT a hero for what he did that night.

Oh and I love the way you just *assume* I'm white, too!