Race War! Race War! Sean Bell Case Update
Every few years a police brutality case comes along that has
all the requirements for a quick burst of national media attention:
race, race and race. The latest of these cases was that of Sean Bell, a
black man who was shot and killed outside a strip club on the night
before his wedding, November 25 2006, by a group of undercover cops.
Immediately following the incident there was the usual knee-jerk
responses both from those who wanted to condemn the cops and those who
were ready to jump to their defense without having all of the evidence
in. And of course the hypocrite reverend
Al Sharpton saw another opportunity for self-promotion.
For accounts of the incident see here, here or here. Very briefly, Sean Bell along with two friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefeld were at a strip club in Queens at 4am when undercover cops who were investigating the club became convinced that Bell and his friends had a gun. The cops followed them to their car, at which point depending on who you believe they may or may not have identified themselves as cops and then drew their guns. Bell then drove into one of the cops and a surveillance van and the cops proceeded to fire 50 shots into the car. The shots killed Bell, but Guzman, who was shot 11 times, and Benefield, who was shot 3 times, managed to survive the incident. No gun was found in their car. For a crazy video showing how one of the shots went through a nearby monorail station, along with interviews with the minister of Guzman and Benefeld see here.
There were five officers involved in the shooting, among whom one was white, two were black, one was half-black and half-latino and one was Middle-Eastern. From this, you might have guessed that the major interest in the story would not be race, but instead the excessive use of force by police. But of course you would have been wrong. In it's usual way, the media attempted to focus on the issue of race above all else. As a perfect example, in the video above the interviewer interrupts a man describing how one cop, Michael Oliver, shot 31 shots to observe: "and he was the white one, right?"
Two versions of the events emerged after the story broke along with two depictions of the victims of the shooting. The cops claimed they had clearly identified themselves as cops and that Bell had intentionally hit them with his car before they opened fire. They said that Bell and his friends had been involved in an altercation with one of the women who worked at the club (who had apparently said at one point "I'm not doing you all. I'll do one or two, but not all") when the cops overheard one of them saying he was going to get his gun. They pointed to the fact that Bell's blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when checked after his death and that he and both of his friends had been arrested numerous times in the past for selling drugs and illegally possessing firearms. The cops also later claimed that there may have been a fourth man who ran from the car and who had a gun.
Guzman and Benefeld claimed they had never said anything about a gun and had just gone back to their car from the club. They claimed the plain-clothed cops hadn't identified themselves and so when the they pulled out their guns, the men thought they were getting car-jacked and tried to get away. Supporters of the victims pointed portrayed Bell as a family man who was about to get married the next day, a star athlete in high school who had given up his dreams to support his family. Guzman and Benefled dismissed the claim that there was a fourth person in the car.
Following an investigation of the incident, three of the five cops were indicted and then formally charged on March 20, 2007 for a number of crimes including, for two of the cops, first and second degree manslaughter. All three pleaded not guilty. They have all been released on bail and are now awaiting the beginning of the trial.
Most recently, there has been a surprise witness and a surprise arrest in the case. A spanish speaking janitor has come forward and claimed that he saw the incident and supports the claims that the cops had clearly identified themselves and that there had been a fourth man with Bell who had fired a shot or two at the cops before fleeing the scene. As the article points out, however, there is no ballistic evidence that anyone else fired a shot in the area. The janitor claims he didn't come forward until now because his boss, Melvin Cordero, had threatened him not to talk to the police (apparently Cordero was afraid that police attention would reveal his own criminal background).
What these latest developments will mean for the case is not clear, but we at It's Still News will of course keep you posted...