Talk Bronx New York

Lengthy Interview With Councilmember Foster

The Highbridge Horizon has now posted a lengthy interview with Councilmember Helen Diane Foster on our Web site.

On April 11, the Horizon interviewed Foster in her District Office on Jerome Avenue. We published excerpts of this interview in our April issue, but because the Web does not provide the same space constraints as the printed page, we offer a far more expanded version online.

During the interview, Foster was typically candid, as she addressed a wide range of topics during the course of a roughly hour-long conversation. Her words about the killing of Sean Bell, and the trial of the three officers who killed him –words Foster spoke exactly two weeks before the officers were acquitted — have echoed powerfully in recent weeks.

“There is more outrage over the torturing of animals,” Foster said, “than there is over the fact that another Black man is killed at the hands of the police.”

A little later on in the interview, she added: “I think when the verdict comes out, once again like the Diallo case, this city will be looked at and judged on what that outcome is. It appears that we keep going back to Dread Scott, where a Black man has no rights that a white man has to respect, including his own life. And if we see another acquittal in this city, it will be a sad day for all of New York City, and how we are looked at [not only] by ourselves, but by the country. “

Other highlights of the interview:

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Yes, Pursue Special Prosecutor. But Why Are Cops’ Victims Almost Always Black?

The script is all too familiar: An unarmed black man who committed no crime is approached by police and ends up shot dead. Sean Bell is just the latest in a string of victims whose final moments fit that pattern. What comes next is also pretty predictable: The officers who fired the fatal shots are indicted and stand trial and are found not guilty.

Acquittals Friday for the officers who fired on Bell and two others outside a Queens strip club in 2006 have sparked calls for a special prosecutor to handle cases in which cops kill unarmed people. It’s a reform worth pursuing. No bureaucratic shuffle can answer the key question in these tragedies, but it would engender more confidence that future cases will be investigated and prosecuted impartially.

When defendants are cops, the cozy working relationship that routinely exists between the police and a district attorney makes at least the appearance of a conflict of interest inescapable.

Make no mistake, it will always be difficult to convict officers who shoot while on duty. Life-and-death decisions made in a heartbeat should not be second-guessed cavalierly. And criminal intent is all but impossible to establish. Still, shifting the cases to a special prosecutor would help to defuse the explosive belief of many that when cops kill blacks, indictments and trials are shams.

But beyond this after-the-fact reform is the real question, and it’s one that urgently needs answering: Why, when police kill, are the victims so often black men? Such as Amadou Diallo, shot clutching his dinner and wallet outside his Bronx apartment. Or teenager Timothy Stansbury, shot on the roof of his Brooklyn building. Or Ousmane Zongo, killed when he happened upon a cop in a ministorage building. Or Patrick Dorismond, shot after voicing his ire at being approached by an undercover cop looking to buy drugs. Or bridegroom Sean Bell.

SOURCE: NewsDay.com Read more..

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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..

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