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NYP: JUSTICE SERVED--WHY THE BELL VERDICTS WERE RIGHT
New York Post ^ | April 26, 2008 | HEATHER MAC DONALD

Posted on 04/26/2008 6:26:34 AM PDT by OESY

...ANTI-COP agitators and politicians are fond of claiming that the police are a threat to black lives. In fact, no single private or public agency has saved more minority lives than the NYPD.

Had murders stayed at their early 1990s levels, before the NYPD got smart about policing, 13,000-plus more New Yorkers- the overwhelming majority of them black and Hispanic- would be dead today.

...[E]ven as the NYPD brought down homicide a remarkable 70 percent, it was driving down its own use of force. In 1973, there were 1.82 fatal police shootings per 1,000 New York officers; in 2006, there were .36 such shootings per 1,000 officers--the vast majority... are against criminals who are threatening the officer with force.

The department is one of the more restrained big-city police outfits in the country. Its fatal shooting rate is a tenth those of the Phoenix and Philadelphia departments, for example. While every mistaken shooting of an unarmed innocent civilian is an unmitigated disaster, the number of such NYPD shootings over the last two decades can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

...The risk posed to New Yorkers by the police is negligible compared to the risk posed by criminals- and... officers work their hearts out every day to try to protect law-abiding residents from crime.

If Al Sharpton and Charles Barron really cared as much about law-abiding minorities... they'd stigmatize criminals, not the cops. They'd protest outside the jail cells of rapists and robbers who terrorize the elderly and frail; they'd call on crime witnesses to cooperate with investigators.

The sad fact is, had Sean Bell been killed by a fellow club-goer, Al Sharpton and Charles Barron wouldn't have taken the slightest interest in him. The world knows about him only because he was killed by police officers....

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bell; cooperman; ny; police
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Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal and author of "Are Cops Racist?"
1 posted on 04/26/2008 6:26:34 AM PDT by OESY
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To: OESY

The facts don’t matter. Sharkton has bills to pay.


2 posted on 04/26/2008 6:30:37 AM PDT by Eurale
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To: Eurale

They are screaming civil rights and even racial motivation - even thought the first cop to fire a shot was black - another officer was black as well, and one was biracial (black/Hispanic). Two of the cops were white.

Witnesses say they identified themselves as police, yet another said that a fourth man fled the car and fired at least one shot.

A jury, who I am fairly certain felt a lot of pressure to convict, found the officers not guilty.

So the next step - take it to court claiming civil rights violations.

Where does it end? When the cops involved are bankrupt and beat down or murdered by vigilant thugs?

About the only thing these cops are guilty of is being poor shots - some 50+ rounds were fired and they only hit the “victims” a handful of times.


3 posted on 04/26/2008 6:43:06 AM PDT by TheBattman (LORD God, please give us a Christian Patriot with a backbone for President in 08, Amen.)
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To: TheBattman
A jury, who I am fairly certain felt a lot of pressure to convict, found the officers not guilty.

Uh, what jury are you speaking of? There wasn't a jury in this case.

4 posted on 04/26/2008 6:46:52 AM PDT by Veggie Todd (Were those magic grits?)
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To: TheBattman

Then how can it be racially motivated like they present it on the news? I had not heard that the cops were not all white, until here!


5 posted on 04/26/2008 6:53:39 AM PDT by buffyt (Glowbull Warming: The Greatest Hoax Since Y 2 K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Eurale
Just pray this Bush doesn't emulate his Dad, who "civil righted"the cops in the Rodney King case, whose lawyer wasn't smart enough to waive a jury trial in the Federal matter.

Papa Bush, aka "Wimpie" could have won the election if he had gotten tough on Mayor Tom Bradley and the rioters, not on the cops trying to subdue a meth-crazed criminal like Rodney King.

6 posted on 04/26/2008 6:56:12 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (GOP Plank: Pump Domestic Crude. Double refining capacity Coal / METHANOL. Start Building Nukes)
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To: Veggie Todd
Uh, what jury are you speaking of? There wasn't a jury in this case.

A very smart decision on the part of the legal counsel for the defendants; the typical jury in that locale would have done a reverse OJ on the cops- guilty despite the evidence.

7 posted on 04/26/2008 6:58:33 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW!)
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To: Kenny Bunk
Just for the sake of accuracy, Rodney wasn't meth-crazed. Though to all outward appearances he was acting in the same way those on ‘angel's dust’ act. They figured he was a 'duster', not a meth-head.
8 posted on 04/26/2008 7:03:43 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg
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To: buffyt
The people involved were "different from each other" but all within a broad general category of "black" when it comes to filling out Census forms.

The biggest difference I could see was education ~ some douffus downtown took a recent college graduate and put him in a juke joint as an "undercover cop".

It went downhill from there and finally the college graduate mistook an Emenem "ring tone" for a threat.

Apparantly you can grow up black in New York, go to college, become a cop, and never, ever come in contact with hip-hop culture.

The unknown boss probably thought he was "educating the college boy".

50 bullets later he sure had an education.

9 posted on 04/26/2008 7:04:50 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: TheBattman

Interesting that there is never any involvement by the federal government in investigating civil rights when white victims are assaulted by blacks. Even when the black assailants or killers make it clear their attacks are motivated by race, authorities often look the other way. Like in the Long Beach incident of Halloween 2006.


10 posted on 04/26/2008 7:05:56 AM PDT by TNCMAXQ
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To: JimRed

When you take a look at the jury pool and they’re all braiding ropes, it’s time to go with a judge trial.


11 posted on 04/26/2008 7:06:17 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg
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To: OESY

Sounds like the surge is working in NYC.


12 posted on 04/26/2008 7:11:39 AM PDT by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." - Albert Einstein)
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To: TNCMAXQ

The only answer to situations like these is to have a well armed local militia. All family members should be taught how to accuratly handle the firearms in the house. I GAURANTEE that if 1/2 a dozen or more males living in that neighborhood would have jumped out armed these girls would not have been so badly beaten.


13 posted on 04/26/2008 7:44:13 AM PDT by liberty or death
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To: TheBattman
Based on my observations, I'd say one of the "positive" things that has happened in New York City since 9/11 (I use quotes here because the term "positive" really depends on what you see as the proper role of law enforcement in a society) is that most people have lost a lot of patience for the city's perpetual losers and professional malcontents. The level of media exposure in this case has effectively obscured the fact that most New Yorkers really don't give a sh!t about Sean Bell, his family, Al Sharpton, Charles Barron, etc.

One important thing to remember in this case was that the undercover police detail was racially and ethnically mixed. I'm sure the city will now see to it that this is corrected -- and the undercover units will from this point forward be composed entirely of black and Hispanic members. Because if those cops had all been minorities, they could have fired 5,000 shots and slaughtered hundreds of @ssholes at that nightclub -- and they would still have been acquitted.

14 posted on 04/26/2008 7:44:31 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: liberty or death

The above post is in referance to the Long Beach incident of Halloween 2006. Sorry for jumping off subject...sort of?


15 posted on 04/26/2008 7:45:53 AM PDT by liberty or death
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To: OESY

Al Sharpton and Charles Barron are in the race-hustling business. This is how they earn their living.


16 posted on 04/26/2008 7:56:06 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: OESY
Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa...

My Italian isn't too good but in Spanish, wouldn't he be Carlos Huevos-mui-grande? I think it took a lot of b@lls for this clown to argue the case as he did...or maybe none at all because he was afraid to look Sharptooooon in the face and tall him there was no case.

17 posted on 04/26/2008 10:34:12 AM PDT by MIchaelTArchangel
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To: OESY
More to the point, why don't civil rights activists ever support the police? The greatest threat to minorities comes not from the thin blue line but from the criminals who make communities virtually unliveable. Instead of expressing thanks to those who put their lives on the line to keep the public safe, the race mongers declare war on them and in effect ensure that criminals will murder more innocent people. The kind who unlike Sean Bell - never make the headlines because the civil rights poseurs are uninterested in securing that most elementary of all rights - freedom from fear.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

18 posted on 04/27/2008 10:20:33 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

Exactly. Well stated.


19 posted on 04/27/2008 10:22:01 AM PDT by Dante3
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To: Veggie Todd
The officers opted for a trial before a judge. It was a risky move. Still the truth is, given the position they were in, they had no choice but to use deadly force to remove themselves from danger. They couldn't be faulted for making that call. Any cop in similar circumstances would do the same.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

20 posted on 04/27/2008 10:23:05 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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