Talk Bronx New York

In the Bronx, a Rift Between Two Larrys

It is almost expected in the Bronx that elected officials will seek to have their children follow them into the world of politics. It is also true that yesterday’s friends can quickly become today’s political adversaries.

That seems to be the situation in a City Council race in the northeast section of the borough, covering Williamsbridge, Wakefield and Co-op City.

It looks as if Councilman Larry B. Seabrook is positioning his daughter, Latisha, to succeed him. Mr. Seabrook, who is barred by the city’s term limit laws from running for re-election next year, said that his daughter was looking seriously at running for his seat.

“She has involvement in the community,” Mr. Seabrook said of his daughter, who works as a manager in a city agency.

If she enters the race, she will face a rival for the seat who has been a longtime family friend, former Councilman Lawrence A. Warden.

Mr. Seabrook and Mr. Warden were once so closely aligned politically that they were known widely as “the two Larrys.” They belonged to the same political club. And in the 1990s, when Mr. Seabrook was a state senator and Mr. Warden served in the City Council, the two officials shared office space and often traveled together to political functions.

Mr. Seabrook left the State Senate in 2000 to mount a primary challenge (ultimately unsuccessful) to Representative Eliot L. Engel. Mr. Warden left the Council at the end of 2001, blocked by term limits from running for re-election, and Mr. Seabrook succeeded him in the Council.

After that, the Larrys drifted in different directions.

Mr. Warden, some Bronx Democrats said, was angered by what he considered Mr. Seabrook’s tepid support for his unsuccessful 2002 race for the State Senate.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Cops Cleared in Groom’s 50-Shot Slaying

 New York Police Detectives Marc Cooper, left, Gescard Isnora, center, and Michael Oliver talk to media at a news conference, Friday, April 25, 2008 in New York. The three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be Sean Bell on his wedding day in November 2006, a case that put the New York Police Department at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)

Judge Sides With Police Account of Sean Bell’s Chaotic Death Outside Queens Strip Club

A New York City judge cleared three police officers today in the 50-shot fusillade that killed an unarmed man on his wedding day, triggering outrage and vows of protests that will “close the city down.”

Judge Arthur Cooperman ruled in the nonjury trial that the officers’ account of what happened outside a Queens strip club in November 2006 was more credible than the story told by witnesses and wounded friends of the dead man.

Cooperman also said that Bell’s friends who survived the shooting may have been motivated in part by the payout they stand to receive in a multimillion-dollar civil suit filed against the city.

What both sides agreed on was that in a brief and lethal moment of chaos outside Club Kalua, Sean Bell, 23, was gunned down by police. The cops claim they believed he had a gun and ignored their orders to stop.

Two men wounded with Bell insisted the cops never said a word and just opened fire.

Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, were cleared of manslaughter charges while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was cleared of reckless endangerment.

Oliver fired 31 shots, Isnora fired 11 rounds and Cooper shot four times. A manslaughter conviction could have carried a maximum of 25 years in prison. None of the three defendants testified in their own defense.

Cooperman delivered the verdict to a courthouse packed with Bell supporters — including fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell, his parents and the Rev. Al Sharpton — as well as supporters of the three police officers. Outside, an estimated 200 people waited for the news in a trial that thrust the New York Police Department under a spotlight for possible excessive force.

Nicole Bell immediately left the courtroom. Bell’s mother began to cry.

After the verdict was read, a large crowd of people streamed from the courthouse, with angry Bell supporters screaming “Murderers!” and “KKK.” Police guided the throng through the courthouse grounds. Bell’s family members then traveled from the court directly to his grave. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post