Vol. 72/No. 19      May 12, 2008

“I’m angry, frustrated, and in shock,” said Jennifer Claude, 49, a member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, at a rally of 300 protesters across the street from the courthouse the evening of the acquittal.

“They killed Sean all over again,” said Bell’s fiancée Nicole Paultre Bell, at an April 26 rally in Harlem. “The justice system let me down. At every march I will be at the front.”

Five undercover cops gunned down Bell in a barrage of 50 bullets on Nov. 25, 2006, while he together with his friends Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman were sitting in Bell’s car outside a night club in Jamaica, Queens. Bell had gone there to celebrate his bachelor party hours before his scheduled wedding. Both Benefield and Guzman were seriously wounded. A grand jury last year indicted three of these cops—detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver for first- and second-degree manslaughter and detective Marc Cooper for reckless endangerment. These cops, who fired 46 of the 50 bullets, claimed they opened fire because they thought Guzman was reaching for a gun. The three Black youth were unarmed.

The cops “should have gotten what they deserve. If I did it, I’d be doing 25 to life,” Benefield told the media upon leaving the courthouse after the verdict was announced. He vowed to “keep fighting” for justice.

“It’s outrageous there could be any conceivable circumstance for a police officer to shoot unarmed people,” said Susan Duncan, 30, an SEIU member at the April 25 rally. Duncan, who attended part of the trial, added, “The judge said prosecution witnesses weren’t reliable, but it was the defense star witnesses who weren’t reliable.”

“Today it’s him [Sean Bell], tomorrow it could be me. They treat me as a criminal too,” Rogelio, 40, an immigrant who is part of Vamos Unidos, an organization that fights against police harassment of street vendors, told the Militant.

In his decision Judge Cooperman disregarded the testimony of numerous prosecution witnesses. He claimed that these individuals presented “inconsistencies in testimony,” had prior “criminal convictions,” and unacceptable “demeanor on the witness stand.” He said he didn’t believe the prosecutions’ key witnesses—Benefield and Guzman. Cooperman also said that the prosecution failed to prove that the shootings by the cops were unjustified.

Throughout the trial the approach taken by the prosecution—Queens District Attorney Richard Brown—came under criticism. The prosecution, for example, provided grand jury testimony from the detectives to Judge Cooperman during the trial. This move precluded prosecutors from questioning the detectives on the witness stand.

Upon hearing the verdict, Brown praised Cooperman as “one of this country’s most respected and learned jurists.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced it will investigate the case for violations of federal criminal civil rights statutes. However, federal convictions of cops acquitted in a state court are highly unlikely, according to the New York Daily News. A Syracuse University report reveals that federal prosecutors declined to file charges in 98.7 percent of cases where officials are charged with civil rights violations.

On April 26 hundreds of protesters marched 20 blocks through Harlem, chanting “No justice! No peace!” Fifty of the marchers carried placards bearing big black numbers for each of the 50 police bullets fired at Bell and his friends.

Willie Cotton and Maura DeLuca contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Charges dropped against Miami students arrested after cop riot
Jail the cops who killed Sean Bell!
‘Free Mumia!’ demand Philadelphia marchers  
 
 
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