I'm not shocked by the outcome here; It would be very tough to convict officers of any charges given the "he said/she said" nature of what went down that night.

While criminally hard to prosecute, in civil court, these officers face a lower burden of proof, and are very likely to be found negligent.



Some people are quite outraged at the verdict, and that's understandable, too.

So far, everybody's behaving themselves....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/ny...26BELL.html?hp

I live near Kirkwood, Missouri. This is a suburb of St. Louis. A few years back a young man approached a Kirkwood police officer, punched him in the face and took the cop's gun and shot him in the head 3 times.

The shooter was black, the cop was white.

No one rioted. No one protested.

Fast forward, a few months ago. A man walks into the Kirkwood City Hall. Shoots a police officer in the back of the head, takes the cop's gun. Another policer officer was in the hallway...the shooter shoots him 3 or 4 times, enters a City Hall meeting and just starts shooting.

The shooter was black, all the victims were white.

No one rioted. No one protested.


I want to make this CRYSTAL CLEAR. I look upon all human beings as equal in God's eyes. I am not a racist in any way shape or form....

but frankly, if there is so much division in the Black community, I feel at times there is so much distrust that the situation is in many ways ....


Hopeless.

America will always have subtle, sometimes not so subtle, mis-trust and sometimes downright hatred amongst the melting pot of race, creeds and religion.

*Commentary, only reflects my opinion*

While it can be said that being a police officer is one tough job and these things are going to happen. The fact that as many bullets were fired was to me an indication that these guys’s were scared (*)(*)(*)(*)less or just plain out for blood! It’s appalling that they got off Scott free. Sorry; even if someone flinches and a police officer thinks he's got a weapon; he is authorized to fire to protect himself, but after finding no firearm, there is usually administrative punishment and fireings. A widow before she was even married.

I have to say that I disagree. While things are far from perfect now, they're better than they used to be.

These things take time; generations in fact.

But, new york used to be run, litterally, by Irish gangs, who fought the Italians, who fought with germans, who fought with polish.

That sounds like a joke, now. But just two or three generation's ago, it was reality.


Racism toward african-americans is more persistent for a lot of reasons.


That said, two of the three detectives in the case were black.

It's a tragedy...

The cops say the car that bell was in lurched toward them.

There is no proof that it did not.


And the bullets were rather recklessly fired. One blew out a nearby train window, coming inches from hitting a passenger.

Great day for New York and The Nation, finally common sence prevails. I think that even charges being brought against our fine officers was a disgrace but justice has been done!

__________________
"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

Ideology: Self Preservation.

It's a tragedy...

Not the outcome of the case, per se, but the whole event.

It's not a great day for our country when an innocent man was killed by officers of the law, even if it was in perceived self-defense.

A great day when Police officers are not put in jail for doing a dangerous and hard job. They shot Bell not because of anger or hatered but because they were afraid for their and their fellow officers lives.

__________________
"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

Ideology: Self Preservation.

I still find it difficult to understand why anybody would be celebrating this...

Even if they had the best reason for killing a man, they still killed a man.

Im not celebrating Bells death no matter how you cut it was a tragedy,but Im celebrating that common sence prevailed.

__________________
"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

Ideology: Self Preservation.