Welfare Warriors

Summer 2008

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  Summer 2008

Thousands Demand Justice for Sean Bell

On April 25, Judge Arthur Cooperman cleared three New York cops of all charges. The cops were on trial for the killing of Sean Bell Nov. 25, 2006. Bell and two friends were leaving Bell’s bachelor party at 4:00 AM on the morning of his wedding. They were unarmed.

Officer Michael Oliver shot Bell 31 times. Officer Gescard Isnora shot him 11 times. Officer Marc Cooper shot him four times. Cops also shot Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, Bell’s two friends.

Oliver and Isnora were charged with manslaughter. Cooper was charged with reckless endangerment. Four other shooters were not charged.

The officers complained that pretrial publicity painted them as cold-blooded killers. They opted to have the judge rather than a jury decide the case. They didn’t even have to testify in their own defense! Judge Cooperman listened to transcripts of the cops testifying before a grand jury.

In the testimony, Isnora claimed he warned the men to halt as they were getting into their car. He said that Guzman made a sudden move as though he had a gun. That’s when the cops went crazy, shooting the three men.Guzman and Benefield testified at the trial that there was no warning. He and his friends had no gun.

But Judge Cooperman found the killer cops innocent based on the transcript of their testimony. Bells mother cried. Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell, stormed out of the courthouse. She joined protestors in the streets. Many people weeped. Others were angry, shouting, “murderers” “KKK.”

One thousand people marched for hours in Queens to protest the verdict. Days later, on May 7, tens of thousands of people held protests and sit-ins. They shut down several bridges and tunnels.

Cops arrested about 200 of the protesters Those arrested included Rev. Al Sharpton and Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell. Several congressmen have joined with Bell’s family and attorneys in filing a complaint with the US Dept. of Justice. They are requesting an investigation of violation of civil rights of the victims.