The tragic death of Sean Bell revisited New York City recently. This past Oct. 6, eight of the remaining protesters went to trial in a Manhattan courtroom for their participation in the protest of the New York Police Department’s killing of Sean Bell as he was driving a car.
On Nov. 25, 2006, the morning of Bell’s impending wedding, NYC police shot 50 bullets into Bell’s car. In addition to killing Bell, they also wounded Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman. None of the three men was armed. New York City has a history of its police targeting Blacks and Latinos in the form of racial profiling and killings.
People in New York City and nationally were outraged by the April 25 verdict acquitting all the officers of every charge in the shooting. On May 7, in New York City and elsewhere people expressed their extreme anger. Many hundreds took to the streets in a mass traffic action out of deep frustration and desperation, surrounded by thousands of supporters.
The protest action blocked bridges and tunnels at several different locations within New York City. The action, initiated by the National Action Network, was well organized. Approximately 250 participants were subsequently arrested for civil disobedience.
The bulk of those arrested had their cases adjourned in contemplation of dismissal at a later date. However, the Rev. Al Sharpton; Sara Flounders, International Action Center co-director; and six others were among the activists singled out for trial on Oct. 6th. One of the arrestees had himself been a victim of a brutal police attack.
Judge Larry Stephen, a former district attorney, refused to accept their “Not guilty—Necessity Defense” plea, and they were declared guilty. In essence, the Necessity Defense motion for dismissal argued that the conduct of the protesters was justifiable and not criminal.
The motion also argued that the desirability and urgency of avoiding further police misconduct and violence should outweigh the civil disobedience offense of blocking traffic; that there were no adequate legal means to prevent further police brutality; that there was an immediate need to break the pattern of police killings; and that the arrestees felt they had no other recourse against the precipitating injustices than the action they took.
On Oct. 8, all eight defendants were sentenced to “time already served in jail” and fined $95 each. Benefield, Guzman and Sean Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Bell, were in the courtroom. Despite no one going to jail, it was another example of justice being denied to the people.
In Flounders’ statement to the court she pointed out that “When the protesters’ defense of ‘justified necessity’ has no basis and the police’s long record and pattern of attacks is not relevant to the protesters’ actions, it only confirms the pervasiveness of police misconduct and that the courts have lost the ability to hear the rising anger.
“The traffic action by the many hundreds of people,” she added, “was a polite reminder to the powers in NYC of the people’s ability, in response to deep grievances, to bring the city to a halt, even if just for minutes. It also shows the enormous power and potential that people have when they are mobilized. None of us are guilty. The police guilt is what stands. While the police are found ‘not guilty’ there is no justice.”
