Taki,

This NYC cop, thanks you for this post.

Pax
Marty

I don´t understand this story. How many shots fired by police would have been “appropriate"here? Six? (Two per hoodlum?). And would the seventh shot then make it inappropriate? And what if police fired only three bullets - each one killing a gangster. Would this also make it a foul play?

You know, I noticed that some of the accused officers were black. Don’t they get even the slightest “break” from the race-hustlers you speak of? I was born in NYC, but it sure doesn’t seem like my kind of place anymore.

My father was from NYC.  I have many happy memories of visiting my relatives who lived in the city. Even after I was an adult; I visited frequently.

You are correct, digbydolben, it isn’t “my kind of place” anymore, either. :o(

Imagine if the cops were found guilty - it woulda cost NYC 200 million!

I notice that Sean Bell’s fiance is identified as Nicole Paultre Bell.  Has the Reverend Al married them posthumously?  Is there no end to this charlatan’s powers?

OK, if you’re still labouring under the misapprehension that the world hasn’t gone completely mad, then look at this story that was on the wire this morning:

“An overweight prisoner in the United States is suing the authorities for not feeding him enough after he lost about seven stone (45kg) in jail.
Broderick Lloyd Laswell, who is awaiting trial for murder, dropped to 22 stone (140kg) after eight months inside the Arkansas prison.

He claims his vision has gone blurry while trying to exercise. The prison says the meals average 3,000 calories a day - more than the US recommended daily intake for adults.

Laswell has filed a federal law suit complaining Benton County jail does not provide inmates with enough food.

According to the suit, Laswell weighed 29 stone (187kg) when he was jailed in September.
Police say he has been charged with fatally beating and stabbing a man, the Associated Press news agency reported.

“On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out,” he wrote in his complaint.

“About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again.”
He then goes on to complain about the lack of physical exercise, adding: “The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death.” The suit also asks that the county be ordered to serve hot meals instead of cold food.

I recently had a vigorous discussion with a gainfully employed friend of mine from Haiti, regarding the Bell verdict. I heard him say “the cops go around shooting who they want”
Let’s see:
1)Bad guys (with a record.
2) In a bad place. At a late hour.
3) Booze and drugs, pimps and whores.
4) A car rams you, driven by these guys.
5) Words and threats exchanged.
I ask “Would you pick up these guys in your cab?” His answer to me. “Your raciest” A convenient and popular response I get often from people who don’t like my quesitions.

Hans Myer, three bullets, three dead gangsters=outstanding marksmanship.

For those who aren’t quite sure what a “stone” is, I believe it is approximately 15 pounds.

Feel free to correct if necessary.

The police and army are necessary evils. All this worship of the authority figures is sickening. My uncle was a cop for 30 years. He never liked arresting anyone or giving anyone a ticket. He would avoid it at all cost. A lot of these power hungry cops are inbred and think they are God’s avengeres. The police have to be restrained like all government.

Thanks Jack
All Americans should continuously question authority. Especially the police and even more in these times when coward slaves have given away our freedoms to the government.

Governmental accountability is non-existent and people need to speak out. If 50 rounds are ok then why not use an RPG. If all citizens are suspects a little collateral damage can be excused with a snide “sorry.” We can clear our “bad” places like a drug den with a “smart” bomb. There is a War on Drugs after all and Bill Bennett said anyone who used drugs was a traitor. We jail more people than any other country in the world. More government workfare jobs for the suffering taxpayer to subsidize.

I think two of these cops were black so racism isn’t a question as much as attitude and incompetence. Good cops should want to get bozos off the force. Huey Long was killed by one of his own incompetent bodyguards. Who knows whom might get shot by accident.

Even good men wake up screaming at night. The military and government may tell their minions its ok but anyone with a conscience regrets taking life. We have 25000 or so servicemen who have committed suicide after tours in our more popular war zones. To air jockeys its a video game and even they sometimes are forced to think about what they are doing.

I don’t believe anyone here is worshipping these cops.

I agree that we should always question authority, but that is not a blank cheque as many try to make it out to be.

We need lessons on morality from immoral drug dealers as much as we need them from those who hate all authority arbitrarily.

These cops were in a fight for their lives with the lowest of low. Instead we label them incompetent or cowards, yet it’s us sitting on a computer making these judgements on those who put themselves in harms way.

If 50 shots needed to be fired so be it. That sounds a little excessive to me as well, but I am here behind a computer, and they were dealing with thugs trying to kill them with a 5000 lb vehicle.

I personally chose to give them the benefit of doubt instead of the parasites who take advantage of everyone that they possibly can exploit.

Anyone with a conscience does regret taking life I’m sure of that, and I’m sure these police officers feel the weight of their decision. I am also sure that what is getting them through this is the knowledge that they reacted and took life when they were given no other choice.

With all due respect: many cops are incompetent and cowards. The police and all public officials need to be held to very high standards. I know or knew many policeman and worked in a far more dangerous occupation. Many policeman I knew were crybabies and whinners. Sure there are some brave ones but it’s just their job.If they don’t like it they can quit.
Public school teachers are a another group of over paid whinners. We could go on with underworked public servants forever. The point is we have to get these bureaucrats under control.

A fight for their lives? Only in their imagination. The people they shot weren’t armed so it wasn’t a fight. It was a cowardly shooting frenzy.

Its like the Uncle in South Park said. They will only let us shoot rabbits and deer except in self defense so yell they’re coming right at us and blast those bunnies to kingdom come.

“A fight for their lives? Only in their imagination. The people they shot weren’t armed so it wasn’t a fight. It was a cowardly shooting frenzy.”

You like anyone else is entitled to their opinion, but I find your commentary on this crap.

I’d like to see your reaction to someone trying to run over you in a vehicle, I bet you wouldn’t be as brave as you are now. As a matter of fact it would take you half a second to figure out you’re in danger when someone is driving at you.

Anyone with half a brain cell can easily see that a vehicle is a weapon if abused or intended to be used as one, so no they were not unarmed.

What is this insistence that cops and their defenders have with calling the people whom they attack “the bad guys”?  I mean, if the cops are in the wrong, aren’t THEY the “bad guys”, or are the “bad guys” always supposed to be the people in the cops’ sights?  Isn’t finding out who the criminals really are the whole point of the inquiry?

Are we really three years old who need such sappy, imprecise, infantile words to understand the case?  It would be so very nice if, in our contemplation of the law enforcement situation, you could use adult language that treats your readers as capable of nuanced thought, rather than the loaded terms that always gets used by both sides in these discussions.

Sometimes the government is the “bad guy”.  Conservatives used to understand this.  I think that period of time when such understanding existed was called “the Clinton presidency”.