Sean Bell: Why Al Sharpton Alters Reality

You've heard the story for almost a year now. You saw it on the news and backdropped by a sobbing fiancee and dramatic music. But here's what you didn't hear, the truth behind why those officers were acquitted and why, at the end of the day, they did what they were supposed to do and responded according to their training.

Racism?
No, this crime had NOTHING to do with racism. Let me repeat that. Nothing.
The undercover officers who killed Sean Bell were staking out the strip club in Queens because of its record of drug and gun traffiking. Their intentions that night were to protect the residents of Jamaica and the occupants of the club from violence. The undercover team was racially mixed, and the officer who fired the first shot was black.

51 shots?
Not all shots were fired into Sean Bell, nor were they fired by one man. 7 seperate officers fired these shots; that's an average of 7-8 shots each or less than one clip. Bell had 16 wounds on his body, several of which were exit wounds (i.e. a bullet leaves two holes, one on the way in and one on the way out).

Didn't one officer reload?
Yes. One officer unloaded 31 shot at the scene of the crime. He was acquitted of any "excessive force" charges because in the midst of a shootout, officers are trained to load and reload in one swift motion so as not to have any lapse in their firing. This way, they are less likely to become targets themselves. Anyone who's ever played a shooting game will atest to the fluidity and necessity of auto-reload features. Therefore, he was simply a more skilled marksman who squeezed off more rounds than his fellow officers.

Weren't the victims unarmed?
Yes, after the scene was cleared and the "dust had settled" the officers inspected the scene and checked for weapons. None were found.

How did this happen?
Ah, and now you have the question, the media seem to "forget".
At 4am, Sean Bell and his friend, Guzman stepped from the club which was being watched by undercover cops. Mr. Guzman got into an argument with a woman inside so they were escorted from the club and asked to leave. An officer overheard an innebriated Bell say, "Let’s fuck him up,” and Bell’s friend, Joseph Guzman, responded, “Yo, get my gun.

The officer (African American, btw) followed the men to their car and flashed his badge announcing that he was an officer. At this point Sean Bell attempted to run the cop over.
The cop began shouting "Show me your hands!" "Stop the car!" Bell did not stop and shots were opened on the driver and his friends. After all, how else do you get a car to stop from running you over?

Now let that sink in for a moment. Were you in the shoes of those cops, what would YOU have done? Granted one of them may have fired more shots than he needed to, he testified that he was scared for his life, he had to assume that the men were armed when he heard that they were going to the car for a gun. Was this one white cop (out of the only 2 white cops there) the racist one? Perhaps that is why he fired so many more times. If so, why is the entire NYPD being blamed for a death which was so obviously brought on by the irresponsible actions of Sean Bell himself?

Is this anything like the Amadou Diallo case from 1999?
No. That man was an immigrant who spoke very little English. He was alone, in a stairwell and when he reached for his wallet to show ID (his only form of communication) he was shot down by overly-aggresive offiers who assumed he was going for a gun. They were found guilty for their crimes. These cases are not "the same" because Diallo never assaulted any of the officers who killed him. Sean Bell tried to kill one of the men who shot him. There is a clear difference.

Why would Al Sharpton bend the truth?
The same reason Louis Farakhan and Jesse Jackson do: they have agendas. It's not an unholy or evil one. Racism does exist in this world and it always has. As long as one group is being oppressed by another, there will be those who speak for the weaker party. Black men and women have been degraded for many years, and since people are used to seeing this, they begin to find "racism" in places where it doesn't exist. It may be out of fear or reflex. In some cases, it may just be a means to an end. In this case, the family of Sean Bell is being used as a gateway to speak about other problems in that community.

Can this kind of lie become dangerous?
As a fellow blogger once said: "the specious racial rhetoric is becoming more ugly and dangerous. To the extent that the exploitation of this tragic event makes the police think twice about engaging with possible criminals or turn a blind eye to crime in the ghetto (as was once the case), the most direct victims will be the hundreds of thousands of innocent, upstanding minority New Yorkers."

To summarize, the more cops get dragged through the mud for simply doing their jobs, the less likely they will want to get involved in any crime crackdown in minority neighborhoods. In truth, in NYC, the African American community was responsible for 62 percent of all murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults from 1998 to 2000, according to victim and witness identification. A large majority of these crimes were commited against OTHER minorities. It’s not the “criminal-justice system” that has broken down for young black males; it’s families and other sources of cultural support. Minority children are being raised to believe that all cops are evil, racist murderers who don't care about them. This increases violence against officers. The same people who complain that the cops never want to respond to crime in their neighborhood are making it impossible for a cop to step foot there.

Next time you shoot off your mouth, think about how many innocent lives YOU'LL be ruining.