Why was Sean Bell killed with 50 shots by policemen?

Question

doesn't this just go to show how racist the police in the USA are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sean_Bell_family_photo.jpg

To 'ducatigirlsam' this was an unarmed black man in usa who didn't do anything wrong, so why was he killed then?

To 'jeeper_peeper321' why do you lie?

To 'jb' they were police officers sworn to uphold the law who killed this man, not just anybody, so of course its not just like any other case, if it was the other way around and a black policeman killed a white civillian with 50 shots he would be in the electric chair right now?!!!

TO 'whcwarrior_10', i'm sure there's a difference between the crips and police officers

To 'mebe1042', why can't i tell facts without you harrasing me and saying i'm looking for a fight, seems to me your the one thats spoiling for a fight

Answer 1

It was believed that the cops we possibly intoxicated on the job but were too late in obtaining proof. A group of noisy happy black men can't gather without cops thinking they are in a gang.

And as to ducatigirlsam question if this would be an issue if they were white... well we would first have to have someone unarmed & white be shot fifty or more times to answer that correctly. Since it never has or ever will happen because white people get the benefit of the doubt it is an unfair question.

And even though a couple of the officers were of color it does not rule out racial profiling. Racist ideas do infect people of their own race, especially if you are bombarded with these ideas about your own people everyday. People come to believe that these racist or rather stereotyped ideas are all true therefore using them against their better judgment.

EDIT: To ducatigirlsam, I never said that white people do not get shot by the police, they just do not get shot up fifty or more times when they are unarmed. Besides, we are speaking of the US, not the UK. I can honestly say I don't know they way things work there. And unless you've lived here and and watched the police mistaking shoot a young black girl shot 30 times while is she is having an epileptic fit in her car or a had a young black latino boy beaten to death in front of your eyes because he was playing street football and the ball hit an officers car or the many other of the many miscarriages of injustice you can't really know. I am not misinformed. I live within this life. The news is not the only reality nor is it always the truth.

Answer 2

No, however the bible speaks of judgement by God...we will merely might desire to confirm what happens to those law enforcement officers and the decide...They have been aquitted by a justice device that all of us understand holds little or no properly worth on a Black existence, yet we will see what God has to declare approximately it interior the top. No way any law enforcement officers could be aquitted in the event that they pumped "50" rounds right into a vehicle carrying a white man or woman, whether that man or woman had 50 pounds of drugs and a gun interior the automobile. they might have at present cried 'extreme stress'.

Answer 3

So are you asking a question or trying to pick a fight?

If you must know why so many shots were fired it's called an "Ecclectic response". If one Officer starts to shoot others will and because of the stress levels in these situations being so high, most will empty their weapon. Which between five Officers, and the NYPD limits their Officers to 10 round mags is about right.

And BTW, the other person who pointed out the racial make-up of the group of Officers was correct.

Sorry, try again.

Answer 4

What so if they killed a white person with 50 shots then would you still be asking this question? Get real, they are policemen, can you prove they were racist just cos it was a black person they shot, and they over used their ammunition? They did what they had to do at the time, in a split second, could you make that decision?

Yes I do watch the news even though I am in the UK not the USA. It happens a lot, it happens in the UK aswell. Police marksmen do not fire unless they have reason to believe they should, have you not heard the saying "no smoke without fire"?. I am not saying that they are always right when they do this, but implying that they did it just because he was black is a mistake that too many people are making these days. Police in the UK are even told to try and limit the number of arrests of coloured / ethnic minorities so that they cannot be accused of arresting people just because of their colour! This is due to people making general assumptions on racism rather than knowing the facts.

Edit:- To wuvmonki - It happens in the UK too you know, and it has happened in the UK to white people also. Unfortunately as someone else mentioned, when it happens to a white person nobody seems to give a damn about it and it goes virtually un-noticed and is quickly forgotten, however, when it happens to a black person / ethnic minority then it is apparently clearly a racist attack that happened for no other reason than to p*ss all ethnic persons off! Do you honestly really think that the majority of policemen risk their jobs and future for that? - I think you need to watch the news more often, lol - It has never happened and never will to a white person? Get real and get your facts straight before you make such silly comments!

Edit:- Laughing out Loud - You are the one making assumptions that I am racist! I have never once implied that I agree with what happened, I have only said that it happens to whites too and that I doubt this happened JUST because the person was black. I do not condone racism, never have, but unfortunately if you have an opinion on here and someone disagrees with you then you are labelled as a racist. If in that case you are making the assumption that I am racist then you are very wrong. I suggest you read my post again and point out the part where I actually imply that I condone racism! By the way, racism is also actually comments against whites and other colours aswell, but that seems to go un noticed on this forum.

Edit:- Wuvmonki - It was your comment of "has never happened and NEVER will happen" that got me. It was an assumption you cannot realistically make. White people will get mistakingly shot in the UK or US as will black people, but you cannot assume that a black person getting shot whether once or 50 times is a racist attack, when a white person can be shot once or 50 times by a black cop and that would not be classed as a racist attack. It has to work both ways. There are far too many unneccessary racist comments on here as it is. I can only speak for experience as my partner is a police office in the UK and to be honest, I see the dangerous job they do and they take a hell of a lot of sh*t and get very little reward for what they do.

Answer 5

Nice use of the photo, but I'd suggest people, having looked at the family photo consider the following. At least one of his accomplicies had a gun.... there was obviously mass confusion at the scene and he tried to escape in a car, hitting at least one person and one other vehicle. He had a history of drugs and firearms offences and was emerging from a 'bachelor party' held in a drugs and prostitution den following a major argument with a prostitute who had refused to 'service' his entire group at once. Now look at the photo again. As a previous poster has said, the large majority of the police involved were non-white. Excessive force, probably. Action taken without due reason, only possibly. Racism.... no.

Answer 6

Would 49 shots have been enough or would you have considered that many excessive too?

By what experience or knowledge do you judge the "perfect" number of shots to be in a particular situation? Have you ever been in a fire fight? Have you ever shot ANYTHING (including a deer)? Or are you merely commenting based on the old cowboy movies?

Answer 7

IHmmmmmmmm, its funny, you said jeepers lied.

But he quoted directly from the link you gave.

So are you saying the link you gave in your question is a lie ?

Because this is exactly what it says.

" While many have claimed that the shooting was racially motivated, two of the five officers involved were black, one was white, one was Middle-Eastern, and one was of biracial black and Hispanic origin (Haitian/Mexican). The first officer to fire was black."


So you can call people liers all you want to,

That doesn't change the truth.

Maybe you are the racist, since your making facts up as you go.

Answer 8

Poor judgment on the part of the officer's involved. I really don't think his or their color made the difference. I think it was the neighborhood and they panicked. They blew it and cost a man his life. And the state of New York is not going to accept responsibility.

Answer 9

It's called black on black crime it you believe the cops went out to intentionally kill Sean Bell that night. Black cops shot a black man. Of the officers on scene, only one was white; the others were Black and Hispanic. I suggest you get your facts straight before playing the O.J. card here.

Answer 10

Were the black and hispanic cops that shot him racist? People need to grow up and stop screaming racism every time the wind blows. It detracts from the legitimate incidents.