Photograph of the Reverend Al Sharpton by Armchair Messiah on Flickr Two hundred sixteen people were arrested during pray-ins protesting the acquittals of three police detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell. The NY Times called the demonstrations "carefully orchestrated," as hundreds of (perhaps a thousand) people gathered at six different locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, blocking traffic and attracting arrest. The Reverend Al Sharpton, Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell, and Bell's two friends......

Photograph of protesters on Varick Street by stconrad on Flickr Hundreds of people gathered at six different locations in the city to protest the acquittal of three police detectives in the Sean Bell shooting. They blocked traffic at the Queensboro Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Manhttan Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge, and arrests were made at the Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge. The arrests seem to be because the protesters have......

Photograph of protesters in Harlem on April 26, 2008 by urbanblitz on Flickr Today at 3 p.m., six pray-ins are planned around Manhattan and Brooklyn to protest the Sean Bell shooting verdict. The Reverend Al Sharpton is leading the events and has said he and other participants are willing to be arrested to make a point about the acquittals of the three police detectives who helped fire a total of 50 shots at the......

Al Sharpton released the locations and schedule of his civil disobedience capaign, which is supposed to take place next week. The purpose is to maximize public inconvenience, and Al Sharpton decided that it would be more effective to have as many people show up as possible, as well as to let the NYPD where they were going to be in advance. NY1 reports "The goal of the protests is to tie up traffic and force......

Photograph of a young boy participating in Sunday's protest march by Stephen Chernin/AP Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers visited the site where Sean Bell was fatally shot by police officers. He was accompanied by people including Bell's friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were also fired at, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Conyers said he spoke to U.S. Attorney Michael Mukasey and that he would work on strategy with the......

Photograph from yesterday's Sean Bell protest by urbanblitz on Flickr The Reverend Al Sharpton is planning a series of rallies and acts of civil disobedience in the wake of the acquittals of three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell. Bell, who was a few hours from his wedding, was unarmed when undercover police fired at him 50 times outside a Queens strip club on November 25, 2008. At yesterday's National......

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating allegations that just hours after the not guilty verdict was issued in the Sean Bell shooting trial, a number of crank calls were made to the home of Nicole Paultre Bell's parents by someone connected to a police union. The calls were both hang-ups or someone laughing--"Ha ha ha"--on the other end of the line. Caller ID identified their source as a line at the Sergeants Benevolent Association's......

Photograph of protesters in Jamaica, Queens by Jason DeCrow/AP Last night, hundreds of people marched from the Queens courthouse to the Kalua Lounge, the strip club where Sean Bell was killed on his wedding day, yelling, "Fifty shots equal murder," to protest yesterday's not guilty verdict for three police officers charged in the shooting. Bell's mother, Valerie, fainted when Judge Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict, amid tears from Bell's fiance Nicole Paultre Bell and......

Photograph of Detectives Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver by Dima Gavrysh/AP Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, who were acquitted of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting trial, spoke at a press conference this afternoon. Detectives Oliver and Isnora thanked Judge Cooperman for his "fair" decision (Isnora also, per City Room, "thanked God, his family, his lawyers"). Detective Cooper, who was only charged with reckless endangerment, said, "I'd like......

Above, from left, Detectives Marc Cooper, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora Update: Queens DA Dick Brown just held a press conference with his prosecution team to discuss Judge Cooperman's not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial. While many fault the prosecution's case against the three cops as the reason for its outcome, Brown defended the work of everyone involved in the case, stressing the amount of time and effort put into preparing......

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Judge Arthur Cooperman is expected to announce a verdict for the three police officers on trial for the shooting of Sean Bell. Mayor Bloomberg said he's not worried about the reaction, telling reporters yesterday, “I think people in this city have come a long way from the time when people rushed into the streets and tried to tear apart society.” Bloomberg also made a point of speaking with the Reverend......

Photograph of Reverend Sharpton, with William Bell, Valerie Bell, Nicole Paultre Bell, John Liu, and Trent Benefeld on City Hall steps (above) and photograph of Mayor Bloomberg with Sharpton and Paultre Bell by Jin Lee/AP The Reverend Al Sharpton held a press conference on the steps of City Hall today to discuss the Sean Bell shooting trial verdict, which will be announced on Friday. Sharpton said an acquittal would not be justice. The News......

Photograph of Nicole Paultre-Bell heading to the Queens County Courthouse today by Craig Ruttle/AP Lawyers made closing arguments in the Sean Bell shooting trial today to Judge Arthur Cooperman, who is presiding over the bench trial. Defense lawyers argued that the police officers on trial were acting in self-defense. One lawyer, Paul Martin, blamed Bell's friend Joseph Guzman, for intimating he was going to get a gun to even a score. Martin said, "He......

Yesterday, a doctor who treated police shooting victim Joseph Guzman was the prosecution's last witness, detailing how Guzman was riddled with bullets. Guzman's friend, Sean Bell, was killed in the gunfire, and two undercover detectives face manslaughter charges while another faces reckless endangerment charges for the shooting. Surgeon Dr. Albert Cooper testified that on November 25, 2006, Guzman was brought into the Mary Immaculate Hospital, "He was telling me in somewhat of a mumbling voice......

Joseph Guzman dramatically described the night he was hit 16 times, with 19 wounds all over his body, and his friend Sean Bell was killed in a hail of police gunfire. In recalling the man holding a gun, who turned out to be an undercover detective, stood near Bell's car, "He shot me. I’m looking in his eyes, man. He shot me. Everything slowed down. But I’m looking at him shooting me. He’s continuing to......

One of two friends in Sean Bell's car on November 25, 2006 testified in a Queens court room yesterday about the night where undercover police fatally shot Bell. Trent Benefield, who had been celebrating Bell's bachelor party at a Queens strip club, said he wounded, laying on the sidewalk, when he begged a man standing over him, "Please don’t shoot me. I don’t got nothing to do with nothing.’" The man turned out to be......

Yesterday, a NYPD trajectory expert testified about the fatal 2006 shooting of unarmed man on his wedding day. Crime scene detective Michael Cunningham, only called to examine the evidence seven months after the incident, testified he was unable to determine some trajectories because measurements supplied by the crime scene unit team were inaccurate. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are on trial for manslaughter, while Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment. Prosecutors used......

Detective Michael Oliver, the undercover cop who fired 31 times at Sean Bell in the fatal November 2006 shooting, told a grand jury last year, "I didn't want to die. I reloaded the gun, and I continued to fire." The 14-year NYPD veteran's testimony was entered into evidence in the trial where he and fellow detective Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges; detective Marc Cooper faces reckless endangerment. Bell, who was to be married hours later,......

A Queens DA took the stand yesterday, to testify about a detective who fired at Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed in a barrage of police gunfire hours before his wedding. DA Michelle Cort, who took Detective Marc Cooper's statement after the November 25, 2006 shooting, said, "He told us he fired a single shot. He was certain he fired one time." Cooper, (pictured) who actually fired four times and is charged with reckless endangerment,......

Attention turned to the car that Sean Bell and his friends were sitting in and a gun that was instrumental in his death at the trial of three police accused of killing him. Cops at the scene accuse Bell of striking one of the detectives with the Nissan Altima in an attempt to flee the scene, initiating a barrage of gunfire that mortally wounded the driver and seriously injured his two passengers. The bullet riddled......

The Sean Bell trial progresses, with recent attention falling on a bruise below the right knee of Detective Gescard F. Isnora. It was allegedly sustained when Isnora was struck by the car driven by Sean Bell. Isnora claims he leaped out of the way to avoid more serious injury. Bell then reportedly rammed his car into an unmarked police van, then a wall, and then the van again, where it came to a stop. He......

The trial of three police detectives for the fatal shooting of Sean Bell has been a magnet for scrutiny. And lately, there are reports Bell's parents and fiancee disagree about how the case is going. On Saturday, a lawyer for Bell's parents, Neville Mitchell, said, "We're somewhat concerned about the prosecution. We don't want to denigrate the prosecution, but we want a little more passion. The family's looking for justice." Which a source translated to......

A police detective detailed photographing the aftermath of the Sean Bell shooting as prosecutors entered 80 photographs into evidence. The Post called the photos "horrific" and "grisly," as many showed blood on the car's seats and police-fired bullets riddled in the side of the car. They caused Bell's mother Valerie Bell to look away while Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultrie Bell "showed no emotion, but occasionally shook her head." One of now-retired detective Dave Rivera's photographs......

Undercover detective Hispolito Sanchez testified for a second day, with prosecutors playing the 911 call he made on November 25, 2006, the night police fatally fired at Sean Bell 50 times. Sanchez's colleagues detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard face manslaughter charges while detective Marc Cooper faces reckless endangerment charges in the bench trial at the Queens courthouse. Sanchez, who did not fire any of the 50 shots at Sean Bell or his friends, heard but......

Testimony picked up again yesterday in the trial of three police officers for fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2006. The prosecution called friends of victim Sean Bell and the commanding officer of the undercover operation to the stand. Bell was to be married on November 25, 2006, and the night before, he and his friends were celebrating with a bachelor party at Club Kalua, a topless bar in Jamaica, Queens. Friend Hugh Jensen said......

Photograph of protesters outside the Sean Bell shooting trial in Queens by Gary He/AP; the protesters are holding signs counting down the 50 shots fired Under intense scrutiny from the community and media, the trial of three police officers in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man started today. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges while Detective Mark Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment in the 2006 death of Sean Bell,......

http://gothamist.com/2007/11/24/vigil_marks_one.php...

Leonard Levitt, a veteran journalist who spent 10 years covering the NYPD for Newsday and now writes at his own website, NYPD Confidential, is suing the NYPD over its refusal to grant him a press pass. In this video, Levitt explains how the NYPD's action are "strictly retaliatory," because of his past writing exposing NYPD issues. Levitt notes that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly actually complained to Newsday editors about his coverage, not even complaining......

A Bronx man was shot in the hand after exhibiting what could charitably be described as foolhardy behavior Friday. Perhaps we are too immersed in stories like Amadou Diallou and Sean Bell, but the story of a driver in the Bronx left us shaking our heads. After the man was pulled over once and then peeled out before police could exit their car, he was pulled over again, and then took off again. A short......

Above, from left, Detectives Marc Cooper, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora; below, photograph of Bell, Paultre-Bell and one of their daughters The three undercover police detectives facing trial in the death of Sean Bell waived their right to a jury trial, after unsuccessfully attempting to move the trial out of Queens. Bell was killed early on the morning of his wedding, as he left the Kalua stripclub in Queens with friends. They had been......