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50 Bullets: Rev. Al Sharpton & Amadou Diallo's Mother
Condemn NYPD Killing of Groom Sean Bell Hours Before His Wedding
One State or Two? Rashid Khalidi & Ali Abunimah on the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
50 Bullets: Rev. Al Sharpton & Amadou Diallo's
Mother Condemn NYPD Killing of Groom Sean Bell Hours Before
His Wedding
Early Saturday morning, five New York police officers fired
50 shots at a car carrying Sean Bell, who had just left his
bachelors party on the eve of his wedding with two friends.
On Monday Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the shooting of the
unarmed men was "unacceptable" and "inexplicable."[rush
transcript
included]
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with black politicians
and community leaders at City Hall yesterday two days after
the deadly police shooting of an unarmed African American
man in Queens.
Early Saturday morning, five officers fired 50 shots at a
car carrying 23 year-old Sean Bell, who had just left his
bachelors party on the eve of his wedding with two friends.
None of them were armed. Bell died before reaching the hospital.
His friend Joseph Guzman remains in critical condition after
being hit by 11 bullets and Trent Benefield is in stable condition
with wounds to his leg.
Following the talks, Bloomberg held a news conference with
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and city leaders. Bloomberg
expressed confidence in Kelly but said police officers may
have used excessive force.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Nobody takes this more seriously than
Commissioner Kelly and I do. We are both very proud of our
police department and the officers that work there, but
I can’t tell you that every time, everyone does the
right thing. And whether they did the right thing or not
this time, it sounds to me like excessive force was used,
but that’s up to the District Attorney to find out.
And I do not want to prejudice their investigation.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Monday that his
office was investigating the shootings and the results would
be presented to a grand jury. The five officers have meanwhile
been placed on administrative duties. They have yet to be
interviewed by police officials. According to Commissioner
Kelly, the officers were there staking out the club for prostitution
and drug activity. Police sent two undercover cops inside
where they apparently spent the next few hours nursing drinks
and mingling with the crowd. Neither officer was given a breathalyzer
test afterwards.
The situation began to unravel when one of the undercover
cops alerted the back-up team outside that a man inside was
possibly armed. The police claim the shooting occurred after
Bell's car hit one of the undercover officers and an unmarked
police minivan. Friends and family of Bell say they may have
mistaken the plainclothes officers for robbers and tried to
get away. The undercover officer fired first, squeezing off
11 rounds; another officer, a 12-year-veteran, fired 31 times,
meaning he paused to reload.
The shootings provoked outrage -- and raised new questions
about racial profiling and the NYPD. The Reverend Al Sharpton
- who attended Monday's talks - spoke to reporters outside
City Hall afterwards.
REVEREND AL SHARPTON: To my left is Bishop Lester Williams,
who is the pastor for the Bell family. We have Bishop Williams
who is with the Guzman family of course, Reverend Herbert
Daughtry, and our fighting Counselman, Charles Barron. We
were part of a, about a two-hour program with the Mayor
and the Police Commissioner. It was a candid, a very blunt
meeting. We said what we felt. He responded. I think that
the main thing we have said is that this city must show
moral outrage, that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed
men.
There must also be a review of policy that allows drinking
while vice squad people are working. And there is no real
testing, there is no test--no sobriety test given at the
scene. We also express that there has been a pattern of
disrespect, disregard and absolute unfairness in our community.
A pattern that must stop. And that there must be a dramatic
change in how this administration from the top deals with
it. Councilman Barron has been very public about his call
on the Police Commissioner stepping down.
One hundred blacks in law enforcement found him to have
a no vote of confidence. We said to the mayor, we are meeting
this afternoon with the DA, we do not in any way, shape,
or form see, how these police could have operated in any
way that one could find was not beyond the law. At what
point do you continue to fire and even reload and not realize
that no one is shooting at you. And to say that one gun
causes an atmosphere where you keep shooting is to tell
me and everyone, that was sitting in that room, that if
one policeman makes a mistake, you could be subjected innocently
to what could amount to a firing squad . That is no way
to run a city. And, that is no way to give comfort.
We said to the Mayor, we understand the crime problem.
We understand because many of our communities have the worst
crime problem, but imagine Mr. Mayor, living in a city where
you have to live with the fear of the cops and the robbers.
Some in the city worry about the robbers. We have to worry
about both. And that was the appeal that we made. This Mayor
has better manners than his predecessor. Let's see if we
have better policy. We prefer talking than not talking,
but the object is not a conversation, the object is fairness
and justice.
So, is it better that the he met and Giuliani didn't?
Let's see what the results are. Because, we are not just
interested in being treated politely. We are interested
in being treated fairly and rightly, and that will happen
when police are held as accountable as anyone else.
Lastly, there are those calling for peace and calm. The
presence of peace is justice. Many are not calling for peace,
they are calling for quiet. They want us to shut up and
suffer in silence. If you want peace, you give justice.
You don't tell people to shut up when they are hurting.
You find out their pain and you resolve the pain. And people
wouldn't be hollering, if they weren't in pain. Thank you
very much. We are going to help the family with the funeral
arrangements.
The Rev Al Sharpton speaking outside City Hall Monday. Many
people compared the shooting of Sean Bell to the death of
Amadou Diallo who was killed in 1999 when police fired 41
shots him. All the officers involved were acquitted. Amadou's
mother, Kadiatou Diallo joins now from Washington D.C.
- Kadiatou Diallo, mother of Amadou Diallo, who was shot
41 times by New York police on February 4th 1999.
One State or Two? Rashid Khalidi & Ali Abunimah
on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Two leading Palestinian-American intellectuals discuss their
new books: Rashid Khalidi's "The Iron Cage: The Story
of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood" and Ali Abunimah's
"One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian
Impasse."[includes rush
transcript]
We turn now to the latest from Israel and the Occupied Territories.
But first, an unusual moment last night on American television.
Appearing on CNN's Larry King Live, former President Jimmy
Carter fiercely critical of Israel's occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. He was talking about his new book, “Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid” which is generating heavy controversy
here in the United States.
President Jimmy Carter: And the oppression of the Palestinians
by Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories is horrendous.
And it's not something that has been acknowledged or even
discussed in this country. The basic problem--
LARRY KING: Why not?
JIMMY CARTER: I don't know why not. You never hear anything
about what is happening to the Palestinians by the Israelis.
As a matter of fact it's one of the worst cases of oppression
that I know of now in the world. The Palestinian's land
has been taken away from them. They now have a encapsulating
or an imprisonment wall being built around what’s
left of the little tiny part of the holy land that is in
the West Bank. In Gaza, from which Israel is now withdrawing.
Gaza is surrounded by a high wall, there’s only two
openings in it, one into Israel, which is mostly closed,
the other into Egypt, the people there are encapsulated.
And the deprivation of basic human rights among the Palestinians
is really horrendous. And this is a fact, it’s known
throughout the world. It is debated heavily, constantly
in Israel. Every time I am there the debate is going on.
It is not debated at all in this country.
Carter's comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
gave a major speech Monday in which he said he was prepared
to offer Palestinians concessions to make peace. Olmert said
Israel would return parts of the West Bank towards the creation
of the Palestinian state. He called on Palestinians to renounce
violence, give up the right of the return, and accept a prisoner
exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Olmert's
comments marked the first time he has endorsed the idea of
a prisoner exchange since Israel launched its attack on Gaza
in June.
Olmert did not give new ideas on some of the most contentious
issues, including Israeli settlements and the status of Jerusalem.
But he said peace would be based on the Bush administration's
position that any new agreement would reflect the reality
of Israel's annexation of large parts of the West Bank for
its settlements.
Olmert's speech comes one day after Israel pulled out of
the Gaza Strip as part of a new ceasefire. Israel's five-month
offensive in Gaza has killed more than 400 Palestinians including
at least 74 Palestinians under the age of 18. Fighting continues
in the West Bank where Israeli forces arrested thirteen Palestinians
overnight.
Well today, we spend the rest of the hour with two leading
Palestinian-American voices.
- Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies
and the Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia
University. His new book is called "The Iron Cage:
The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood."
- Ali Abunimah, creator and editor of The Electronic
Intifada and more recently of Electronic Iraq. His new
book is "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian
Impasse."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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