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Sharpton: No Federal Civil Rights Suit In Sean Bell Case

Sean Bell Shooting Trial: Week 5 Ends

Rev. Al Sharpton said today that federal prosecutors will not pursue a civil rights case against the police officers who shot and killed Sean Bell in a barrage of 50 bullets outside a strip club on the day of his wedding. According to 1010WINS, after reviewing the shooting, federal attorneys decided against pressing charges. Though the police officers involved in the incident were acquitted of manslaughter charges in 2008, friends and family of Bell—who recently had a street renamed in his honor—urged authorities to take the cops to court for violating the 23-year-old's civil rights. But Sharpton said Bell's family has been informed that there will be no federal case.

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  • Bernie Madoff-Goetz

    F**k Fat Albert AND anyone else who's stuck in the 60s.

  • Troy

    If you should contend that the right to bare arms infringed and the incumbrence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness denied, failed I have not and idiot you seem seem to be.

    A "police" force is still a uestion yet to be answered by the SCOTUS, militia and a police force are 2 very different things...but since a cooperation has the right of person hood but is free of manslaughter charges in the death of concumers, the word law does not seems to apply any longer, When small time drug dealers are charge federally with the RICO statue but the chuch molests little boys as if it was going outta business free of criminal liability...law does not weigh even...

    If four men of color killed a police officer involved in the abuse of power, what would be the charge, or would such go unprosecuted...

  • NYCDownHill

    Troy - sounds like "the man" is against you!!! Enjoy that internal struggle. I like how Sharpton keeps sending messages of the white man holding down the man of color. Funny stuff. There are double standards everywhere, it all depends on whos eyes you're looking through.

    Enjoy life and minimalize the risks of doing stupid things. I don't see Bill Cosby looking people getting hassled in the streets.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    I don't see Bill Cosby looking people getting hassled in the streets.

    Considering his only son was murdered in carjacking, it might not be in good taste to keep repeating that line.

  • Snoopy

    Cosby's son was killed in a robbery attempt, not a car jacking. You don't carjack a vehicle that has a flat tire.

  • theplanetofchuck

    You need to call 911 immediately, I think you are having a stroke.

  • Stephenson Billings

    I would love to read what you wrote, but it needs to be in English.

  • Troy

    Once again, violence upon the citizens of the United States by municipalities is a violation of civil rights, ....

    The idea of allowing state aggression toward the poor and under-represented, to which we sadly lost another victim, is what the british did the same to the populations of its former colonies, such led to revolution...

  • longacre

    Sean Bell lived in the county of Queens, state of New York in 2006 America, an area represented by legislators in the local, state and federal governments. Mr. Bell no longer became eligible for civil rights after he attempted to murder one of the officers hired by those representatives with his car.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    So, by your logic, NYPD can do anything to you, but when you stop breathing there is no more basis for civil rights violations.

  • longacre

    I'm saying he forfeited his rights at the instant he started moving the car towards the cop. By forfeiting his rights, the cops were justified in shooting him.

  • Stephenson Billings

    "Once again, violence upon the citizens of the United States by municipalities is a violation of civil rights"

    Do you even have the slightest clue what a democracy is? What laws are? Why we need a police force in the United States? Your comment shows that you do not. We are a society that has mutually agreed upon laws and liberties, a society which is spectacular in its commitment to protect the weak against the dangerous and criminal. Without these protections and the authority to enforce them (our police forces), there would be anarchy and death. Your comment is facetiously immature and slightly deluded. Are you yammering away a set of socialist-anarchist talking points from your high school Goth club? It's hard to reply to you since there's so little thought and meaning in your statement. This is the problem with giving children books when they don't have the soul or the upbringing to comprehend what's written in them. I'm sorry child but your educators and your parents have failed you.

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