Three NYPD detectives firing 50 bullets at one unarmed man? An acquittal? It begs the question; how many bullets are too many bullets for an acquittal? Previously, we learned that 41 bullets were not too many for an acquittal, and today we learned that 50 are not too many.

Three detectives were found not guilty Friday on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens, in November 2006. The verdict prompted calls for calm from the mayor, angry promises of protests by those speaking for the Bell family and expressions of relief by the detectives.

Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 bullets the night of the shooting and faced manslaughter charges, said Justice Arthur J. Cooperman had made a “fair and just decision.”

Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court, said many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” he said.

While his decision prompted several supporters of Mr. Bell to storm out of the courtroom, and there were a few small scuffles outside the courthouse, by early afternoon there were no suggestions of any broader unrest around the city. Mr. Bell’s family members made no comment as they left, and they immediately drove to visit his grave at the Nassau Knolls Cemetery and Memorial Park in Port Washington.

Source: New York Times: 3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting

Referring to the departmental and even federal charges the officers may face, Cooperman continued “questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums.” As the judge finished his verdict, Nicole Paultre Bell, Bell’s fiancee and widow, stood up immediately and walked out of the courtroom as Bell’s father buried his head in hands sitting in silence as a friend comforted him.

About one hundred people—and three times as many cops—gathered outside State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens as police and news choppers buzzed overhead. PBA president Pat Lynch was the first to react to reporters, saying this “was a case where there is no winner and no losers, we still had a death that occurred… we still had officers who had to deal with that death.”

As an angry crowd nearly drowned him out with screams of “Murderers,” Lynch added that the verdict sent a message to New York City police officers that says “you will get fairness” which was important to officers out on patrol because “there is never a script… we have to deal with circumstances as they come.”

Bell’s family and friends—including shooting the Rev. Al Sharpton, attorney Sanford Rubenstein and shooting victim Joseph Guzman who wore a soft cast on his right leg and a white T-shirt emblazoned with a sparkly silver “Sean Bell’s Boys” logo—walked past the assembled media without comment.

Carrying banners that said “50 Shots” and “Justice for Sean Bell,” many Bell supporters chanted “Racist Cops You Can’t Hide, We Charge You with Genocide” as one small scuffle broke out when a Bell supporter took exception to a reporter’s question.

[…]

The acquitted NYPD officers Mike Oliver (L), Gescard Isnora (C) and Marc Cooper

In “Guns Gone Wild,” an examination of the frequency with which cops fire their weapons, and NYPD tactics in the wake of the Bell slaying, some observers questioned the efficacy of deploying details of detectives to stake out a two-bit strip club in Jamaica, Queens.

“Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD cop and prosecutor who is now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, calls such initiatives “overpolicing.” “What are these cops doing in a strip bar in Jamaica at four in the morning listening to trash talk?” O’Donnell says. “You’ve got alcohol and drugs being used and then you have cops bringing firearms and deadly force into the picture. So you have trouble. . . . We’ve got to stop overpolicing everything.”

Source: Village Voice blog Runnin’ Scared: UPDATE: Sean Bell Cops Not Guilty on All Counts As City Reacts

Photo credit: Reuters

See also:

• NYC Mayor and NYC Police Commissioner Kelly Statements on Acquittals
• The Scene Outside the Courthouse
• Officers who shot Sean Bell aquitted of all charges
• New York Times Topic: Sean Bell