Now for some real police brutality

Since you guys are upset about a belligerent kid causing trouble and getting tasered for disobeying the law....you might be interested in real problems with the police....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_on_re_us/police_shooting


Crowd demands answers in groom killing By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer



An angry crowd demanded Sunday to know why police officers killed an unarmed man on the day of his wedding, firing dozens of shots that also wounded two of the man's friends. Some called for the ouster of the city's police commissioner.

At a vigil and rally the day after 23-year-old Sean Bell was supposed to have married the mother of his two young children, a crowd led by the Rev. Al Sharpton shouted "No justice, no peace."

At one point, the crowd of a few hundred counted off to 50, the number of rounds fired.

"We cannot allow this to continue to happen," Sharpton said at the gathering outside Mary Immaculate Hospital, where one of the wounded men was in critical condition. "We've got to understand that all of us were in that car."

Some in the crowd called for the ouster of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, yelling "Kelly must go."

The police officers' group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said it was issuing a vote of no confidence in Kelly over the shooting.

Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD, said Sunday: "We are continuing to look for additional witnesses to shed light on the incident, and assisting the district attorney's office with its investigation."

The five officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, Browne said.

Community leaders planned a rally Dec. 6 at police headquarters.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his aides were in contact with Bell's family and community leaders throughout the weekend. Bloomberg and Kelly also planned to meet Monday with community leaders at City Hall.

The shootings occurred at about 4 a.m. Saturday outside the Kalua Cabaret, a strip club where Bell's bachelor party was held. The survivors were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition Sunday and Benefield was stable.

Relatives of all three men — many of them stoic, and some crying — attended Sunday's vigil but none spoke publicly.

At a news conference Saturday, Kelly said the department was still piecing together what happened, and that it was too early to say whether the shooting was justified.

The car, driven by Bell, was struck by 21 of the police bullets after the vehicle rammed an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan. Other shots hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no one else was injured.

Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun but investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.

It was also not clear whether the shooters had identified themselves as police, Kelly said.

Kelly said the confrontation stemmed from an undercover operation inside the strip club in the Jamaica section of Queens. Seven officers in plain clothes were investigating the Kalua Cabaret; five of them were involved in the shooting.

According to Kelly, the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club and one of his friends made a reference to a gun.

An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, the car drove forward — striking the officer and a nearby undercover police vehicle, Kelly said.

The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. That officer had served on the force for five years. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.

Bell backed the car onto a sidewalk, hitting a building gate, authorities said. He then drove forward, striking the police vehicle a second time, Kelly said.

The police department's policy on shooting at moving vehicles states: "Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle."

In 1999, NYPD officers killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the entry to his apartment building. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges. In 2003, Ousmane Zongo, 43, a native of the western African country of Burkina Faso, was killed during a police raid on a warehouse where he repaired art and musical instruments. Zongo was shot four times, twice in the back.

___

Associated Press writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


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They guy was belligrent and not co-operating. In that instance, I don't think using the taser was excessive.

I do think had he obeyed the law, the police would have never had to use force. The guy was also inciting a riot in an increasingly explosive mob-like situation.

I've protested the Iraq war, incited people to break through the police barrier and I saw what happened first hand. I saw fear in the police officers. And then I realized that they are just people too - trying to do the best job the can under the circumstances, but also they are in harm's way. Outnumbered, hated, and facing a hostile crowd. I saw people getting hit with batons, being maced. Glasses crushes, faces bleeding. It happens so fast.

We were 2 people at first...chatting it up with the offices...joking around with them. Talking about sports. Then we told them we're going to get throught that barrier. They said they couldn't do it. That they had their order. We siad they were preventing us from getting to the rally. Everyone else was just walking by. They had the want to protest - to let off that anger. We tapped into it. We pulled people aside and told them the police were preventing us from walking one block to get to the rally. We made people angry. We started chanting. We thought it was fun. The police told us - don't do it - you don't know what you are doing. Really friendly guy. We didn't listen. We kept on going, more and more and more people came, all of a suddent there was 20, 50, 100, 200...i lost count. I turned to my friend and said - if this gets ugly, keep your hands in your pockets and just walk away. Keep your hands in your pockets. Don't look like a threat. When the crowd couldn't resist anymore....they pushed through....and chaos ensued. We calmly walked through hands in our pockets right through all the chaos...the police went after those who ran. It was like we were invisible - caught up in hell with screams and horses and mace.

That friendly cop was now macing people. He was protecting himself maybe more then anything, one thing was for sure - he was afraid and didn't want this. He just wanted to go home.

I'm not proud of that day. People got hurt because of what? Nothing. For no reason. Pointless.

So this guy - who trys to disobey the law...and acts belligrent, and tries to incite violence? Well he got tasered. That's what happens when you push the limits and break the law.

Non-violent resistence isn't about screaming race when you are in violation of the law. It's about fighting actually wrongs and injustices. Not about picking fights with the police. Not fighting for the sake of fighting.

 

There has to be a trial first. That's how it works over here.