Killers From NYPD Go Scot Free

The three cops who were charged in the killing of unarmed black man Sean Bell on his wedding day have gotten off scot free. The verdict was handed down by a judge, not a jury, because he decided that pre-trial coverage of the case would prejudice the jurors (since the cops were obviously guilty). The judge claimed that the prosecution never proved that the cops were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He exploited the fact that the prosecution's witnesses had conflicting stories, whereas the cops all toed the same line, as an excuse to let them off.

Of course the cops had the same story! After the shooting occurred, the cops involved were not allowed to make any statements to the press. The only person who was talking to the media was Commissioner Ray Kelly, who kept saying "we're trying to find out what happened" and the cops gave their side of the story 2-3 days after the shooting.

During those days, the cops sobered up and got their stories straight. The New York Times reported that some of them were intoxicated at the time of the shooting but no one ever administered a breathilizer test to ascertain exactly how drunk they were. At the time, some of the cops didn't even know how many shots they fired or whether they fired their weapons at all. At the trial cops claimed they heard someone from Bell's group say "get my gun" outside the bar and that he argued with the club's owner but the owner denied the either happened.

The prosecution in this case was a textbook example of the fox guarding the henhouse. They read the cops' formal statements into the record instead of calling them to the stand. They didn't prepare their witnesses for cross-examination by the defense. They never brought up the fact that the crime scene evidence was intentionally contaminated and mishandled. The District Attorney's office wanted to preserve its relationship with the NYPD, but at the same time had to bow just a little bit to the protests that erupted in the wake of the shooting.

In the end, the inconsistencies and contradictions in the cops' accounts were ironed out, the other witnesses' accounts were ignored, the prosecution was a defense lawyer's dream, and the judge bought the bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. So the NYPD got off scot free after killing yet another unarmed black man, the cops involved will never be re-tried and can go back to their day jobs, beating and killing working-class people and minorities as they please, the prosecutors can say "hey we tried," and Bloomberg can look like he's better than Giuliani.

The only losers here the usual suspects: the victim's family, truth, justice, and working-class minorities who bear the brunt of abuse by the cops. I guess Eugene Debs wasn't kidding when he said "Capitalist courts never have done, and never will do, anything for the working class."