Campaign Of Civil Disobedience In Wake Of Sean Bell Verdict Surprise Dissatisfaction And Outrage May Force New Yorker To The Streets To Express Feelings Over Injustice In Queens

By Tony Best

A coalition of institutions, civil rights advocates, elected officials and individuals who care passionately about justice launch a program of civil disobedience to send a strong message about the “injustice” they insist was perpetrated in Queens a few days ago.

Angry, surprise, dissatisfied and outraged by the decision of New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman to exonerate three police officers – Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper – who were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and assault in the November 26,06 fatal shooting that left 23 year old Sean Bell dead near a strip club in Queens, the coalition, said Sanford Rubenstein, a prominent civil rights attorney, who is deeply involved in the plans, “wants to send a strong message about the injustice of it all” when it stages a series of actions “of civil disobedience to dramatize our dissatisfaction.”

Key to the coalition’s plans are Nicole Paultre Bell, the fiancé of the dead man, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, the victims who were riddled with police bullets but managed to survive the deadly onslaught; their relatives and friends as well as District Council 1199, one of the largest unions in New York State, the National Action network led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, attorneys and a host of federal state and local government elected officials.

“It’s clear that we are not going to accept the verdict in the State Supreme Court as the end of this tragedy,” said Rubenstein, who along with Michael Hardy, represented Nicole and the surviving victims of the shooting which occurred outside of Kalua Cabaret during the early morning hours on the very day Sean and Nicole were to walk down the aisle.

“Nicole, who sat through eight weeks of testimony which supported the charges brought against the police officers, was devastated when she heard the verdict,” Rubenstein told the Carib News. “She ran out of the courtroom, crying almost uncontrollably. It was devastating to her but she is determined to fight on.

“She plans to stay the course until justice is done in this case,” the attorney added. “She told me and others that the verdict was an unbelievable outcome, grossly unfair.”

Indeed, Paultre Bell told a crowd in Harlem during the weekend, “the justice system let me down. April 25, 2008. They killed Sean all over again. That’s what it is like to us.”

Like others involved in “the fight for justice,” the mother of Sean’s children as well as the Rev. Sharpton, several member of the U.S. Congress, including Representative Charles Rangel, Democrat of Manhattan and Chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee, John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Gregory Meeks of Queens who represents the District where Sean lived, Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns both of Brooklyn, and New York State Senate Minority Leader, Malcolm A. Smith, are looking to the federal government for redress.

“We do not accept that this is the end of this case,” the federal, state and local government elected officials in New York said in a joint statement. “We have joined with the families and their attorneys in filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice requesting an investigation of violations of the civil rights of Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield.”

And as if in response to their complaint, the U.S. Justice Department of Justice announced that its Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations would conduct a thorough and “independent” review of “all facts and circumstances” of the case.

Their goal is to determine if the civil rights as guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. constitution were violated. If they were, then the cops who were freed last week would have to face fresh but different charges. “Although we understand and share the frustration that many New Yorkers are feeling at this moment, we caution against giving into that frustration,” the elected officials said. “Instead we urge all who are disappointed with the decision to channel their energy into monitoring this review and utilizing their right to peaceful assembly to seek a redress of their grievances.” Rubenstein said that the program of civil disobedience now being considered would be peaceful but said that some of the participants may voluntarily take action that could lead to arrests for minor infractions of the law.“Some people may volunteer to be arrested, if only on minor charges,” was the way he put it. What has angered many observers and participants in the trial was the judge’s decision to ignore the weight of the evidence and ultimately to free the cops of all charges.

Cadmitted that the verdict caught him by surprise “to a certain degree, maybe just because of the number of shots that were fired.”The cops unloaded 50 shots on Bell and his friends outside the Club and claimed before and during the trial that they thought Bell or someone in his party had a gun. However, a gun was never found and no one returned fire after the Police officers began shooting.

Patterson said that he understood all too well why some New Yorkers were upset, insisting that such cases “arouse mistrust” in the criminal justice system “among people who live in these neighborhoods,” meaning areas where the shooting occurred.

However the Governor was quick to appeal for acceptance of the verdict, reminding New Yorkers “it is the way our criminal justice system works.”

He also appealed to people to await the outcome of the review of the case by the New York City Police Department and the federal authorities because “there may still be redress in that case.”

One person who is keeping a close eye on the federal review is Congressman Conyers, who stood outside the club where the deadly shooting occurred.

“This is an important moment in the history of the criminal justice system in America,” Conyers said. “We want to make sure justice is served and a message is sent out not only to law enforcement but to young people that these kinds of tragedies have to end in this country.”

For his part, Rubenstein said that the appointment of special prosecutors at the state and federal levels was urgently needed to ensure that justice was done in the way such cases were handled.

“It’s really unfair to put District Attorneys in the position in which they have to prosecute police officers on whom they routinely rely day-in-and-day-out to investigate crimes,” he said.

Meanwhile, the New York Immigration Coalition joined the chorus of complaints against verdict, charging that Judge Cooperman’s action made it a “sad day for all New Yorkers, and in particular for the family of Sean Bell.”
Chung-Wha Hong, the Coalition’s Executive Director, said the organization was “stunned that no one is being held accountable for the death of Mr. Bell, an unarmed and innocent civilian.”

It was not, she added, “the first time that use of excessive force by NYPD officers had resulted in death or serious injury to a Black or immigrant civilian.”

That was why “we stand in solidarity with the African-American community in continuing to call for justice for Sean Bell and support the pursuit of further legal resource, including federal civil rights lawsuits.”

Rubenstein said that federal civil suits seeking damages have already been filed but no immediate action would be taken on them.

 

NY CARIB NEWS HEADLINES

 

1. The Sean Bell Murder Case: A Pattern Of Injustice Four Cops Acquitted After Killing An Unarmed Black Man

2. STATEMENT CONGRESSMAN CHARLES B. RANGEL On The Verdict In The Shooting Death O Sean Bell

3. Campaign Of Civil Disobedience In Wake Of Sean Bell Verdict Surprise Dissatisfaction And Outrage May Force New Yorker To The Streets To Express Feelings Over Injustice In Queens

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