complex and simultaneous realities…

how do we hold…

this truth…

and this one?

The NYPD’s murder of Bell and attempted murders of Benefield and Guzman are NOT isolated or random events. They represent the continued targeting of communities of color by the police and the lack of accountability for police misconduct and abuse.

“We ask police to risk their lives to protect ours,” said an assistant district attorney, Charles A. Testagrossa, in his closing arguments. “Not to risk our lives to protect their own.”

Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The crowd gathered at the Queens Criminal Court building reacted on Friday morning to the verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial.

“They got away with murder in there,” said Calvin B. Hunt, a man in the crowd, which continued to spill into two of the three westbound lanes of Queens Boulevard, slowing traffic to a crawl.

William Hargraves, 48, an electrician from Harlem brought his 12-year-old son, Kamau, to the courthouse this morning. He said this verdict parallels the outcome of previous police shootings of black men. “Connect the bullets,” he said. “How many times did they shoot Diallo? Forty-one times. They were acquitted. They got a pension.”

His son said: “I think it’s not right, because they shot him 50 times. They knew he was hurt, and they kept shooting him. He didn’t even have a gun.”

more at The Root and Racewire

Sean Bell, with fiancee Nicole Paultre and their daughter

Associated Press