Civil Disobedience Planned to Protest Bell Verdicts
NEW YORK (AP/WCBS 880) -- Hundreds of chanting protesters rallied in front of NYPD headquarters and near major bridges and tunnels Wednesday to push for a federal civil rights probe into the 50-bullet police shooting of an unarmed black man. Some demonstrators were
arrested.
Three detectives were acquitted last month of state charges in the 2006 slaying of Sean Bell, prompting the Rev. Al Sharpton to organize Wednesday's demonstrations in six spots around the city.
The Police Department deployed extra patrols and erected barricades in front of police headquarters, but the protests got off to a mostly orderly start at midafternoon.
Outside 1 Police Plaza, about 200 people chanted ``50 Shots!'' Some demonstrators carried signs proclaiming, ``We are all Sean Bell.'' Sharpton, shooting victim Joseph Guzman and Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, were among the crowd.
WCBS will have team coverage for all Manhattan locations.
``We're going to keep coming until we get federal indictments,'' said Frank Rodriguez, a military veteran who arrived at rally with homemade model of the shooting scene.
General Protest Locations:
Varick and Houston streets near Holland Tunnel
34th St and Park Ave
60th St. and 3rd Ave
Police Plaza - City Hall
125th and 3rd Ave
Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn
On the opposite side of lower Manhattan, protesters outside the Holland Tunnel chanted ``We're fired up, we won't take it no more'' and ``No justice, no peace,'' and counted to 50 in a reference to the barrage of gunfire that killed Bell and wounded two of his friends.
As police kept their distance, organizers gave protesters instructions on how to behave when arrested. Demonstrators held hands as the Rev. James E. Booker Jr. blessed the crowd.
``Don't let Sean Bell's death be in vain,'' said Booker, pastor of St. John A.M.E. Church in Harlem.
A few miles uptown, some protesters were arrested for blocking traffic into midtown Manhattan on the Queensboro Bridge while about 200 people rallied near the entrance to the Triborough Bridge in Harlem.
Earlier in the day, Sharpton said he expected acts of civil disobedience.
``Some will kneel in prayer and risk arrest to heighten the national attention to the fact that the civil rights of people in New York have been violated with this judge's ruling,'' Sharpton told The Associated Press.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers did not expect violence but would ``take appropriate action'' if the demonstrations became disruptive. Protests also were planned in Chicago and Atlanta, Sharpton's office said.
Sharpton is seeking a federal civil rights investigation into Bell's shooting outside a Queens nightclub, which raised questions about police use of deadly force in minority neighborhoods.
Bell was black, as are two of his friends who were wounded in the shooting; the three officers acquitted in the case are Hispanic, black and white.
U.S. attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza said Wednesday that the case was under review, but he declined further comment.
Bell crossed paths with the undercover detectives early on his wedding day as he was leaving his bachelor party with friends.
The officers testified they feared for their lives after Bell and his friends got into a testy exchange with another patron and appeared to be going to retrieve a gun; Bell's friends testified the detectives fired wildly and without warning at Bell's car. No gun was ever found.
State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, who heard the case after the detectives waived their right to a jury, said he found the testimony of the officers more credible than the version of events offered by the victims.
Kelly said Wednesday that the police department was continuing to examine the possibility of disciplinary action against the detectives..
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