Only hours before his wedding one young black man is dead, and two of his friends are wounded. Why did police fire 50 rounds at their car? My first instinct thinks the shooting was motivated by racism.The Rev. Al Sharpton said it best when he asked: "How does one justify 50 shots at unarmed men?"
Sean Bell and his friends were celebrating Bell's pending marriage. He was hours away from marrying his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two children. What we know at the moment is that as the men left a strip club they were followed by undercover police officers, in plain clothes, who were investigating possible illegal activity at the Kalua Cabaret.
According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club, and one of his friends made a reference to a gun.
Why did the police follow the men out of the club? What was said that would have led to the verbal dispute? And why, when there was no evidence of weapons, were 50 rounds fired at the car?
And, when it was known there were no weapons, why were the two wounded survivors of the shooting handcuffed to their hospital beds?
I couldn't help but think of the incident earlier in the week involving comedian Michael Richards, and his response to two African American men he perceived to be heckling him. Richards lashed out at the men with a string of racial obscenities and profanity.
Richards has said the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry -- but was it?
Whether the shots fired at Black men are words or bullets, it's well past time to us to examine why this is still happening, and to demand change.
4 comments:
The outbursts by Richards and Mel Gibson will always happen. To a certain extent trying to suppress certain thoughts over an entire population is very difficult if not impossible.
The actions of police are another matter. So far I have heard no reference to probable cause for even stopping the vehicle, much less a plausible explaination for the excessive amount of deadly force involved.
Look, if Al Sharpton is on your side, you know you've got a weak case and all you have is race baiting.
Does the name Tawana Brawley ring a bell?
Sharpton made an excellent point. Instead of bashing him why not respond to his question?
For that matter, why not respond to mine?
BAC
for the past 6 years plus it has been acceptable to be ignorant and racist. bigotry is on the rise and police brutality has almost free rein under the patriot act. unless you are a wasp- you mean nothing in this country. too bad history hasn't been able to be completely rewritten by the rethugs- and there are those of us who remember when we were taught that this country was founded by folks of different races, ethnicities, and religions. we were called the melting pot of the world and we embraced our origins. sadly, today it is wasp or nothing. 1 in 32 people in america have been incarcerated. it would be interesting to know how many of those are black or hispanic males.
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