The Freedom Files
columnist: RS Davis

Topic: government accountability
BREAKING NEWS: Hell Freezes Over!

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Am I actually down with the Reverend Al Sharpton??

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by RS Davis
(Libertarian)
Monday, April 28, 2008

You know, I'm not a huge fan of Al Sharpton, other than as a punchlineor the subject of great quotes, like when former Representative JC Watts so presciently called him a "race hustling poverty pimp."

To me, he is the worst kind of political opportunist, a parasite living off the scars of national shame, tweaking them, making them bleed again, and not for any sense of justice - but for his own political ambition and fat bank account.

This is why I was surprised this morning as I read a Fox News article to be nodding my head and saying, "Amen, brother:"

Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to "close this city down" to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.

"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattanneighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."

The dude is right. I mean, don't get me wrong, cops make mistakes, and their job is a dangerous and difficult one. We should try to understand when something happens that is a tragic - but unavoidable - mistake.

But this is not one of those. Three officersshot Bell fifty times. That averages each of those officers shooting him at least 16 times. At some point someone should have noticed no one was shooting back, and that their shootout was looking more like a massacre. As The Times Ledger tells us:

Prosecutors argued that Oliver, who fired 31 times and reloaded; Isnora, who fired 11 times; and Cooper, who fired four times; were reckless and did not stop to assess the situation when they mistakenly thought Bell was shooting at them. Several of their witnesses, including Benefield and Guzman, told the judge they never heard police identify themselves.

Understand one thing. In the arena of a good shooting,a personhas to process and evaluate millions of bits of information in a split second, and an unwise hesitation can be fatal. Likewise, a wrong and hasty decison can leave you withthe knowledge of killing an innocent person, which, like herpes, is something you will carry with you forever.

This is why I tend to give a homeowner who shoots an innocent person the benefit of the doubt. But in this case, it isn't Joe Homeowner, awakened in the middle of the night, creeping through the shadowy hallways of his suddenly ominous house in his tighty whities, holding his breath in terror of what is around each corner.

These are highly trained police officers that we have charged with our protection. As such, they should be held to a higher standard. Maybe I could give a pass on the first couple of shots, but at some point, there was reloading going on.

This looks less like an honest mistake and more like a Bonne & Clyde style massacre.

Now, I don't know if this was racially-motivated or not, and honestly, I don't much care. Whether Sean Bell was white, black, or green with purple polka-dots, these cops unjustly took a group of people and turned the eve of the greatest day of a young couple's life into a tragedy.

At least a tragedy for those lucky enough to have survived.

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2008 RS Davis, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, April 28, 2008
Last modified: Monday, April 28, 2008

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