Are You Serious???

My jaw is still hanging on the floor from the story of the death of 23 year old Sean Bell. Here’s a quick synop:

The undercover police officer who fired the first shots at a carload of men in Queens early Saturday, setting off a storm of police bullets that killed a bridegroom and injured two of his friends, suspected at least one of the men had a gun and was intent on returning with it to a nearby strip club, according to a person briefed on the officers’ version of events.

In all, five plainclothes officers — two of them detectives working under cover — fired 50 bullets at a silver Nissan Altima, killing Sean Bell, 23, who was to be married Saturday, and injuring Joseph Guzman, 31, and Trent Benefield, 23. Moments earlier, just after 4 a.m., the three had left a bachelor party at Club Kalua, a strip club under surveillance on 94th Avenue in Jamaica.
[New York Times: by Cara Buckley & William Rashbaum / Published 11/27/2006]

Apparently the men were suspected of having a gun, and the officer said he tried to apprehend them by standing in front of the car, and stating that he was a police officer. The story says the gentlemen in the car ignored the warning, and struck the officer with the car, prompting him to fire the first 11 shots.

The car was searched and no gun was found.

This is indeed a sad story, and I hope and pray that each officer involved is forced to explain their actions and brought to justice.

Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detective Endowment Association, insisted that deadly force was being used against the detectives, which could have justified their response. “The amounts of shots that were fired do not necessarily spell out the word excessive,” he said.

I ask him to define EXCESSIVE.
~jaz