'Not guilty' doesn't mean the system failed

Jack Ford,

I have to disagree with you from a cultural standpoint and from a legal standpoint. I will start with the latter; by the judge's own admission the system has failed us. All men are supposed to be created equal under our system however this judge has implied that because some of them men had criminal records their rights are not inalienable.

This is problematic, the facts are the facts and I am sure the prosecution proved without the shadow of a doubt that none of these men were armed. The defense concedes that point; the prosecution proved that 50 shots were fired into the car injuring 2 and killing one man, the defense concedes this. So how can the defense concede the heart of the actus rea which is the conduct of this crime yet the judge find the men not guilty. At the bare minimum to fire 50 shots at a car that is not firing back is reckless endangerment to say the least but most of all it is flat out murder.

Which brings me to my next point; culturally the court systems of NY have held time and time again that you can kill a black man and get away with it. Need I remind you Jack of Amadou Diallo and a host of other men of color slaughtered and brutalized by the NYPD then acquitted by the Courts of New York.

This is one time where your objectivity is blinding the very statements that the Judge himself has made. This was not justice and how can you expect people of color to trust in a system that blatantly says their lives are disposable. Sorry Jack, this time the courts failed the people.

http://nativenotes.wordpress.com

The problem is that it just reinforces the fact that police in America can get away with anything. Regardless of whether the Plaintiff is black or white, police officers in America just cannot be touched and it truly undermines our whole justice system. Here in Cincinnati police officers do so much wrong but can never be fired. Even when it has been established that the actions of officers on the force in Cincinnati were unneccessary and unjustified they have still been able to retain their jobs. How can we accept that? What a shame.

I would like someone to explain to me how you can shoot someone 50+ times and you don't think there is something wrong with that. The same thing goes for the man in NYC who was in the doorway holding a wallet and was shot 40+ times. When is it overkill? Both these men were UNARMED. I thought the police were trained to look before they shoot? The Judge apparently didn't believe some of the witnesses because there was contradictory testimony.

Again, 50+ shots?

Thank you for tying to be diplomatic Sidebar,
But it's not going to help people understand any better how the "justice" system works.
All people know is that an unarmed young black man and his friends were shot at 50 times or more and died and the cops got off.......................
Who cares about reasonable doubt – that's not justice

This is not good! this is the wrong message to send to the black community. there come a point when enough is enough. there will be repercussions from action like this. remenber 41 or 51 you do the math.

It is ludicrous to blame the officers for what they have done. They were present in a club KNOWN to be entangled in illegal drug and gun dealings. The undercover officers overheard Bell having an argument about a gun-related transaction. When the officers made a move, Bell and his buddies lashed out and tried to flee.
The officers were trained to deal with these specific situations, and reacted in a proper way.
Why is it that every time a black criminal is properly handled with by the police, the black population accuses the officers of being racist and innapropriate? The funny thing is that a number of the officers who shot at Bell were black themselves.

I feel that there should have been a jury trial. Seeing that the D.A. and the courts work together it seems as is a bench trial would ensure the protection of the officers. Could there have been a threat to the officers? Certainly. Did that threat require 50 shots? Absolutely not. It just seems as if the scales were a lttile weighted.

This is just another reason why people have a hard time trusting the
police. Some police officers take their power and use it excessively.
There was no need whatsoever to fire 50 shots into a car and have
no return fire. The police in this case were using deadly force. I am so sorry for Nicole Bell, it must feel like Sean died all over again. Pray for the city of New York. A change must come or destruction will not be too far away. We have to be better. Wars over seas and at home. Shameful!

It's another sad day in American history. Will the black people every get any justice for the innocent lives of black men slain by the police. I left Columbus Ga. after not feeling safe anymore. After Kenny Walker was shot twice in the head while another police was holding him down with a knee in his back. How long must we cry out for justice! when will the life of a black man equal (All men are created equal?) oh let me watch out, I'm starting to sound like Rev Jerimaia wright! . it is times like these when I'm not very proud of my country, So if I close my eyes to it all. ignore the pain. then maybe I can see my self singing "God Bless America" Will justice ever come?

The fact that the officers fire at least 50 rounds tells me that they were out of control. It doesn't say much for police training or whoever trained them. Since the victims were unarmed, there obviously wasn't any form of retalliation, so why did these police officers assume that they needed to fire so many shots. My guess is that they didn't identify themselves, they felt anger and resentment, and maybe they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both. In any case, their actions were at the very least unprofessional.
To add: There seems to be more and more of this sort of thing happening. I mean overreaction by the police. They seem to want to injure or kill innocent people to create a story that strikes fear into the hearts of innocent citizens as a step towards establishing a police state.

Say what you want but our system of justice is so screwed up it is not funny. If you have money and are of a certain class you walk most of the time even if you are guilty. It is a damn shame this continues to happen, just look at how Hollywood celebrities can snort coke, do other drugs, drink, smash into things, endanger the lives of their children and murder and get away with it. Justice will never be served while society allows the unequal treatment of its citizens based on their wealth and not on justice. Equal treatment will never be applied because then so many of the "white" population would also be incarcerated. After all, who can afford the expensive drugs out there, not those living in the ghetto!. Maybe CNN should go undercover and scope out the non-ghetto party scene? Guess what you are going to find, high class drugs being used by the high class and nothing is being done about that!

I don't think it matters what race the cops or the victims were. How about NOT trying to run over a cop with your car, and then maybe you won't get shot!!! If a police officer with a drawn gun tells you to STOP, you probably should STOP (or risk getting shot!). For all of the things that cops put up with, a bunch of guys at 4:00 AM who say they have guns flee in a car and try to run you over after you've identified yourselves as police officers? What would you have done if you were those cops??? Sorry, but no big surprise here. When a cop tells you to stop, for God's sake, STOP!!!

I hear talk about 50 bullets. The truth is that they were in a car and the officers thought that they were going to be run down. Regardless of whether or not Mr. Bell and his friends were unarmed in the sense that they had no guns, a vehicle was involved and that in itself can become a weapon very fast. 50 bullets to a car from 3 officers is not completely ridiculous. For instance, the video presented by the defense shows that 31 bullets can be discharged in less than 13 seconds.

As for reliable prosecution witnesses, it can be presumed that they were intoxicated so their memory would be distorted at best. After all, it was a bachelor party at a nightclub, you can reasonably assume that there was alcohol involved.

I have nothing but sympathy for the family of the deceased, but using this as a rallying cry and claiming the justice system failed is a horrible misrepresentation of this case.

I don't believe these officers should be behind bars, not quite sure if they should be on the streets either (the psychological effect alone). However to hear some people talk you would expect a lynch mob to have formed outside of the court house.

I believe that we should view this as a horrible tragedy and an accident that could have been averted. Not a malicious crime, just a gigantic accident that unfortunately resulted in the death of a member of the african american community.

They always get away because anytime Black young men are involved with a police issue and they get killed it's categorized as NHI (no human involved) It's a bloody shame!

I always thought cops were trained to shoot below the waist, not shoot to kill. What these cops did was deadly!