Home > Opinion > New York City court system condones violence
New York City court system condones violence
BY JARED DYRDAHL
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The three police officers shortly after hearing
“not guilty” verdict.
In November 2006, three undercover New York City police officers were investigating an alleged prostitution ring at a strip club in the Burough of Queens. The investigation turned ugly when police fired upon suspects who were thought to be members of the prostitution racket.
The alarming aspect of this incident is that the three policemen, who claimed that they had reason to believe the suspects were going to carry out a drive-by shooting, fired upon the suspects upwards of 50 times, killing one and wounding two others, according to the BBC article “Police Acquitted over NY Shooting.” However, the same article also states that no guns or ammunition were found in the suspects’ vehicle after further investigation.
This story was in the news again recently, since the case for the three officers was before the court. Many packed the courthouse to hear what amounted to a stunning verdict: All three of the officers were acquitted on the grounds that “the people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified in firing,” according to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, as quoted by the BBC article. As the officers left the court room, words like “murderers” and other insults were lobbed in their direction by community members aghast at what had transpired just moments before in what were supposed to be halls of justice. The flames of conflict were further fanned by a police union representative who was quoted by the BBC article as saying that the verdict showed that officers could expect “fairness” in court.
The real tragedy of this event is that Sean Bell (the man who was slain in the incident) never received his day in court. I have no idea how a judge could rule that police were not over-zealous in their use of force against these individuals. According to another BBC article, “Were New York Cops Trigger Happy?,” one of the officers fired his weapon 31 times, stopping to reload at least once. One would think that by the time reloading was necessary, the officers would have been aware of the suspects’ lack of weapons.
Unfortunately, this is an event that happens far too often in the United States. However, instead of learning from previous mistakes, it just seems that cases of this nature keep occurring and are starting to serve as episodes rather than lessons.
By not punishing these individuals, are we not sending the message to others around the nation that what happened was OK? Instead of using this case as a conduit through which to send a powerful message about the boundaries policemen must respect when they are serving and protecting citizens, New York has condoned the actions of three men, who it seems used excessive force that robbed one man of his life, his day in court and his wedding day.
