I took part in the march on the 16th of December in Manhattan against police violence. The march was prompted by the shooting death of Sean Bell by NY police. The march had thousands of participants, and stretched along most of 5th Avenue. (Note: I am a cousin of the Bell’s Fiancee, Nicole Paultre.)
There were also a lot of people watching the march against police brutality. The police set up barricades to create a march route from 59th St. and 5th (Central Park South, right in front of the old Plaza Hotel) to 34th and 7th (Penn Station). The march was very orderly, and the marchers’ chants were dominated by a count to 50 to point out the ridiculous number of times Sean Bell (unarmed) was shot. There were a lot of helicopters in the sky, too.
Al Sharpton and Charles Rangel were there. (IMNSHO, those two men represent opposite ends of the respectability scale.) The other picture is me (4) with Les Paultre (3), Nicole’s father and two of my cousins, Furcy (2) and Alan (1) Paultre.
PS: I’d also like to thank everyone for their comments of condolence and support.
PPS: I noticed that there is very little press coverage in the mainstream media, even though there were tens of thousands of marchers and they blocked most of Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Herald Square on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Also, Rangel was awarded a bronze star for his service in Korea, and Sharpton has been in two episodes of Boston Legal.
That makes both men heros in my book.
Hey James Hill !!! Geeze, I was wondering if you would have the guts to show your face again. Still trolling I see. I’ll give you credit on this. You did try to have something of an opinion, unlike in the Kevorkian post.
Usually when the Police arrest someone, it is assumed they are guilty. Yet in this case, the police didn’t even arrest anyone. They just shot instead. 50 or 51 times, it seems both numbers are being used. At three unarmed men. The police were not in uniform. The survivors say the police never identified themselves. They just attacked.
Yup, sounds like the police killed a man. That is called a homicide. If that is policy, too bad. The LAW doesn’t give police the authority to kill wantonly. So shove your “policy” back inside your empty skull. I don’t think the families would want your selfish, hollow, sympathy anyway. I know I wouldn’t.
People who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth is less likely to turn out violent since they don’t have to struggle to get what they want.
Then how do you explain millionaire rappers who still go around shooting each other. From what I see they aren’t struggling. Its more cultural then economic, but I know some here don’t want to hear that.
Guts to show my face again? I’ve yet to be proven wrong in any thread on this blog… so your opinion is, as usual, null and void.
Likewise, your post, as a reply to mine, is meaningless because you failed to address my main point: motive. Why did it go down, and why are we so quick to assume that the police didn’t feel that their lives were in danger?
It’s not called homicide if the police were justified… so the question becomes what their justification was. Did Bell have some sort of prior history, or did he do something to attract the police’s behavior? Being so quick to convict without knowing these facts shows nothing more than an anti-police bias.
As for the “50 or 51 times”, it sounds like the only thing we can prove they’re guilty of is bad aim.
Yes, policy does reign in a situation like this. That means you can take your false conclusions, your weak comebacks, and your loser attitude and take a hike… because you’ve just been owned.
Not that you haven’t been before, of course.
It seems as though “The Troll” wins again.
Also, if you were really a man of your convictions, you’d offer to kill Kevorkian and save the lives of these police officers. Really, the logic of this cannot be denied… unless you’re ready to reject your liberal ideology.
(I didn’t want you to be without a troll-like comment to sweat over.)
Why are there mostly black people in those pictures?
I thought in USA blacks are minority – is it different in New York than the rest of that country?
#22 – We disagree on whether race influences behavior, so we are unable to discuss either.
#33 – Then how do you explain millionaire rappers who still go around shooting each other.
Were they born with a silver spoon in their mouth?
34,
James,
You disappoint me. Under what justification in your opinion would a police officer need to empty his weapon TWICE and reload with no return fire? Even if the incident started under the best of conditions, there is obvious evidence of overzealousness to fire (there were bullet holes even in the nearby train station) in a situation that obviously did not warrant such force.
Read Gilliard about Sharpton. He’s right: if you’re white, it doesn’t matter what you think about Sharpton.
He has credibility with blacks. That’s all that matters.
I don’t care what you say. The one cop fired 31 shots into this kid. He needs to be put into a mental institution, on leave WITHOUT pay, until more is found out about why he emptied a clip into someone, reloaded, and emptied another clip in him. Whatever happened to DISABLING a criminal, rather than shooting to kill. Perhaps these officers need better, and more training.
#39 – There is no justification, nor am I trying to justify it, but when I see you making comments like “This had less to do with racism than with a “guns first” mentality. Better training would help in that area, and reminders that the police are there to protect and serve, not as an occupying force.” I want to take a step back and ask what’s really going on, and not take a step forward and condem-and-forget.
The line of thought that says this was just a fluke… dumb cops with Mr. Bell being in the wrong place at the wrong time… just doesn’t add up. Are you saying the cops are so stupid that they thought they’d get away with firing so many shots? C’mon…
I don’t know if Bell was up to something, or if the cops were, but I do know that the odds of this type of event happening randomly are slim-to-none.
There’s an element to this story that’s missing: That’s what I’m interested in.
Is it just me, or do some of those photos look odd, like they’re photoshoped. Some of the colors look weird, and some of the signs look to have similar angles…
42,
There is a big difference between stupidity and bad judgement.
43,
I think it’s you.
#44 – There is, but in this case “bad judgement” went out the window after the first round.
No doubt this is fishy, but I still say there’s something missing to the story.
#45,… but I still say there’s something missing to the story.
Comment by James Hill — 12/18/2006 @ 10:02 am
What is missing is the police explaining themselves. Instead, they went out and handcuffed the two injured men to their hospital beds and posted a police guard even though they were not under arrest or had been charged with anything. They proceeded to round up other family members and friends looking for a mysterious fourth man who allegedly escaped the hail of bullets and ran from the scene. They didn’t arrest anyone, just hauled them down to the station and made them talk.
What is missing is your belief that the police are capable of doing wrong. It doesn’t matter what the police decide their procedure is. They must still obey and respect the laws of this country. Gunning down three men who had done nothing wrong or tasering handcuffed prisoners is a systemic problem we are witnessing time and time again. It is called police brutality. And the odds of police brutality happening are much more common then trolls like you want to believe.