New York to Pay $7 Million for Sean Bell Shooting

By DAVID W. CHEN and AL BAKER

Closing a key chapter in one of the most controversial police shootings in recent memory, New York City agreed on Tuesday to pay more than $7 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family and two friends of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was fatally shot by the police in 2006 on what would have been his wedding day.

The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The children whom Mr. Bell had with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, will receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode will also receive payments, with Joseph Guzman getting $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.

The lawsuit, filed in 2007, accused the police of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations. But it had repeatedly stalled as the state and federal governments and city police officials investigated the shooting.

The case, whose settlement ranks among the biggest in recent years involving the city’s police, set off a raw debate over the use of deadly force and prompted the city to change some of its policing procedures. Those include alcohol testing for officers in any shooting in which someone is injured, as well as improved firearms training.

On Nov. 25, 2006, five police officers — three of whom were black and two white — fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving outside a strip club in Queens. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing.

None of the three men in the car had guns, although the officers apparently believed at least one did.

Three of the officers were acquitted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in State Supreme Court in Queens in 2008. The other two officers who opened fire did not face criminal charges.

Federal prosecutors declined in February to file civil rights charges against the officers, citing insufficient evidence.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said the department could now proceed with its administrative case against the eight officers with some involvement in the episode. Mr. Browne had no comment on the settlement.

At the federal courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn, Ms. Bell, 26, emerged from a courtroom looking weary after two days of negotiations, arm in arm with Mr. Bell’s mother, Valerie. Ms. Bell said the settlement was fair but not a victory. “No amount of money can provide closure, no amount of money can make up for the pain,” she said. “We’ll just try to learn how to live with it and move on.”

The money will go to her two children with Mr. Bell, Jada, 7, and Jordyn, 4; she will not receive a share because she was not married to Mr. Bell (she took his name legally after his death). Ms. Bell promised to keep pushing for the passage of police reforms intended to prevent a similar episode.

Standing beside her, Mr. Guzman, 34, said he was sure that something similar would happen again. “I don’t think a black or Hispanic man’s life means much in this city,” he said.

Mr. Guzman had walked out of the courtroom with a noticeable limp. “My injuries are my injuries,” he said. “I’ve got a metal rod in my leg. I’ve got four bullets still in me. I’ve got one pushing out my back right now.”

Mr. Benefield, 26, was not present, but he is expected to join Ms. Bell and Mr. Guzman at a news conference Wednesday at the Brooklyn offices of one of their lawyers, Sanford A. Rubenstein. “It’s a fair and reasonable settlement,” Mr. Rubenstein said.

Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel, said: “The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day. The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family. The city is also settling claims with Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement.”

But Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association, criticized the settlement as “laughable.”

“I think there is something seriously wrong with the entire picture,” Mr. Palladino said, “because if you take a look at the situation in its entirety, it’s that the police were there performing their lawful duty; Bell was intoxicated and he tried to run the police down.”

“If you take a look at the whole situation,” he added, “the settlement is absurd, for that amount of money, when Bell was responsible for the entire incident.”

Albert W. O’Leary, a spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined to comment on the settlement. The five officers who fired the shots and were named in the lawsuit will not have to contribute to the settlement.

The five officers who opened fire — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Paul Headley and Officer Michael Carey — were part of a unit investigating the strip club. All are on modified assignment, with no gun and no shield, Mr. Browne said. Officer Headley is on military leave.

Lt. Gary Napoli, the supervising officer that night, is also on modified assignment, Mr. Browne said, facing internal charges of failing to supervise the operation. Two other officers, Detective Robert Knapp and Sgt. Hugh McNeil of the Crime Scene Unit, were also internally charged, the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene, and the sergeant with failing to ensure that thorough processing was done, Mr. Browne said.

The settlement was among the largest in recent years involving the police. In 2004, the family of Amadou Diallo agreed to a $3 million settlement after Mr. Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from West Africa, died in a hail of 41 police bullets in the Bronx. In 2001, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was tortured with a broken broomstick in a Brooklyn police station in 1997, was awarded a total of $8.75 million in a settlement with the city and the police union.

Last month, the city agreed to pay $9.9 million, the largest personal settlement in its history, to a man, Barry Gibbs, who served almost two decades in prison but was released after evidence surfaced that he had been framed for murder by a corrupt detective.

Paul P. Martin, a lawyer for Detective Cooper, said, “On behalf of Marc Cooper, he understands no amount of money can console the family of Sean Bell and Trent Benefield, and we’d hope that this action, on behalf of the city, will put some closure to the Sean Bell family and to Mr. Benefield.”

Asked how Detective Cooper was doing, Mr. Martin said: “I saw him last Sunday in church. He is in decent spirits; still haunted by this whole situation but trying to move on with his life.”

PETITION TO SUPPORT MUMIA IN OPPOSITION TO CALL FOR “THROWING HIM UNDER THE BUS”

WE URGE ALL OUR FRIENDS AND MUMIA SUPPORTERS, AS WELL AS OPPONENTS OF THE DEATH PENALTY, TO SIGN THIS STRONG STATEMENT INITIATED BY THE CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY.

Calling All Abolitionists – Stand Up for Mumia Abu-Jamal!

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the letter, signed by some US abolitionists, opposing Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s participation in the World Congress Against the Death Penalty and claiming that highlighting his case hurts the cause for abolition in the U.S. (see http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/116. See also Dave Lindorff’s article about this at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117 ). We stand in solidarity with Mumia, who has spent the past twenty-eight years on death row, the victim of a trial and court procedures fraught with racism, and police, prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. Mumia currently faces a grave threat: the US Supreme Court has accepted an appeal to re-instate Mumia’s death sentence, and Philadelphia’s District Attorney has pledged his intention to pursue his execution. Mumia urgently needs our support, and we call for a new trial for him now.

We reject any call by abolitionists to put “coalition-building” with law enforcement over and above the struggle for justice of any death row prisoner, be they innocent or guilty. We also reject the logic of having police organizations that fight tooth and nail for the execution of those with unpopular views as a partner or ally. Many police organizations – as well as prosecutors and judges– have organized against our efforts to win justice for Mumia, and have served as guardians of an unjust “justice” system. We deplore divisive strategies that seek to exclude death row prisoners from our movement. We call on all participating organizations in the World Congress to re-affirm their support for Mumia Abu-Jamal and all death row prisoners in our struggle to end the death penalty worldwide.

Signed:

Albany Political Prisoner Support Committee

Albany Social Justice Center

Anthony Arnove, Co-Author, Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Sylvia Barnard, Professor, University at Albany

Barbara Becnel, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network

Megan Behrent, Delegate, United Federation of Teachers/AFT*

Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, CODEPINK

Kwame Binta, UNIA-ACL

Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild

Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Center for Constitutional Rights

Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Johanna Fernandez, Department of History, Baruch College/CUNY

Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
Marty Goodman, former Executive Board Member, Transport Workers Union Local 100, NYC*

Teresa Gutierrez, May 1st Coalition

Ron Hampton, Executive Director, National Black Police Association

Howie Hawkins, Green Party Candidate, Governor of New York

Lawrence Hayes, Former New York death row prisoner

Larry Holmes, International Action Center

International Action Center

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

International Socialist Organization

Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Kevin Cooper Defense Committee

Candace Lider, Troy Area Labor Council

National Black Police Association

Kiilu Nyasha, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper

Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights

Joan Stallard, Wash., DC, Coordinator, CODEPINK

Andy Thayer, Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism; Co-Founder, Gay Liberation Network*

Marissa Torres, Chapter Chair, United Federation of Teachers/AFT*

Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Barry Weisleder, Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’action socialiste, Canada

*Organization for identification only

If your group would like to sign onto this statement, please contact nyc@nodeathpenalty.org. We plan to post this statement with group endorsements as widely as possible.__,_._,___

Tell as many people as possible about this and let’s work to get it it outta here!

H.R. 5741 Slave bill now in Committee

Rob Dew
Infowars.com

Slavery has a new name: “Mandatory Service”, introduced July 15th 2010 by Charles Rangle.

Democrat Charles Rangel.

H.R. 5741 will give the president the authority “To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.”

Barely a year after introducing H.R. 1444, which was supposed to form a “Congressional Commission on Civic Service to study methods of improving and promoting volunteerism and national service, and for other purposes”, Congress has upped the ante. Anyone between 18 and 42 will be eligible for a two year commitment of civilian or military service. With more college graduates working for the fast food industry, a depression era unemployment rate and less people retiring; the government will have plenty of eligible able bodies to move into the slave ranks.

This echos the sentiment of President Obama who asked Congress in Febuary 2009 to send him a bipartisan bill in the spirit of national service. His Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel outlined a similar plan in his book The Plan.

But even Emanuel aims low looking at only 18 to 25 year olds for three months of compulsory service. Under this new legislation nearly all, able bodied Americans will be sentenced to two years of forced labor. The infrastructure is already in place for those unwilling to participate in mandatory service and now the army is looking to fill it’s ranks with Interment/Resettlement Specialists.

There are very few loopholes to opt of out national service, even CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS (SEC. 109) will be forced to choose the mandatory option of A. noncombatant service (as defined by the President) or B. national civilian service. It seems the congressional commission on civic service will no longer be needed thanks to the hard work of a suspected Congressional tax cheat from New York.

The slavery bill is currently in debate in the House Committee on Armed Services chaired by Rep Ike Skelton a democrat from Missouri. Those who oppose mandatory slavery should contact Rep. Skelton. Many bills die in committee and this bill should meet the same fate.

Source

‘Acting White’: Did Desegregation Hurt African Americans?

By Heather Horn