The Sean Bell Case
The second thing that crossed my mind upon hearing the verdict that was handed down in the Sean Bell case–the first had been simple disbelief–was a song lyric from the Clash:
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a crime
Unless it was done by a policeman
Different lessons seem to have been drawn on both sides of the case. Black men have been reminded that it’s dangerous to leave their homes with their keys, wallets, or even candy bars (each of the preceding has resulted in the shooting death of a black man at the hands of the police)–to say nothing of their skin. The NYPD, on the other hand, has been reminded that for all intents and purposes, they have carte blance to use whatever degree of force they see fit, whether or not it’s proportionate to the threat–real or perceived–posed by their targets.
The NYPD, along with other big-city police departments, has touted its efforts to train its officers in hopes of preventing incidents like these from happening. While the thought is a noble one, the results suggest that it’s not working very well. I don’t buy into the idea that the police–in NYC or anywhere else, for that matter–are uniformly a gaggle of racists and murderers. That said, sooner rather than later a few things need to be addressed:
- Those in law enforcement must be held as accountable for their actions as are the rest of us.
- We need to question how and why the unrestrained use of deadly force is, for some cops, a desirable first option
- We also need to address the mentality of the “Thin Blue Line,” which threatens to become at least as much a scourge as the crimes from which it claims to protect us.
Admittedly, this is a somewhat simplistic approach. It’s not the solution, however, so much as a necessary first step toward finding one.
Tags: court cases, police shootings, Sean Bell
May 1st, 2008 at 8:00 am
[…] (The original post I wrote on the Bell shooting may be found here.) […]