NEW YORK (AP) - Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower.

Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including victim Sean Bell’s fiancee and parents, and at least 200 people gathered outside the building.

The verdict provoked an outpouring of emotions: Bell’s fiancee immediately walked out of the room. His mother cried.

Outside the courthouse, which was surrounded by scores of police officers, many in the crowd began weeping as news of the verdict said. Others were enraged, swearing and screaming “Murderers! Murderers!” or “KKK!”

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3 NYPD detectives acquitted in 50-shot killing

I can see it now, Je$$ie Jack$son and Al $harpton are on the way to the lead the protest, if they’re not there already…

I can understand the frustrations of the friends and families of the dead groom, and I also understand their hurling accusations and racial insults at the acquitted officers based on those frustrations, but I also believe that their anger clouded their judgement, Detectives Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper are black, and the last time I checked the KKK doesn’t let black guys in, it’s part of their Charter I believe, no blacks allowed, they’re kinda funny about that…

Wouldn’t the correct term for Detectives Isnora and Cooper be ‘Uncle Tom’??

And I just have to ask this question of the NYPD, who in the hell teaches your cops how to shoot??For crying out loud, 41 shots fired in an incident that took place in 1999, to kill 1 guy??

Amadou Diallo was an unarmed man reaching for his wallet and identification, and 50 shots to take out Sean Bell?? An individual that was also unarmed??

I’ve always felt that anything worth shooting was worth shooting at least twice, but don’t you think that firing a total of 91 rounds, and the result being only 2 dead guys is maybe, just maybe a bit of ‘overkill’??

I personally believe that the NYPD needs to teach their officers a bit of gun control, that gun control being defined as the ability to fully control the weapon being fired, thereby not wasting ammunition in a wild shooting spree…

Events such as these only illustrate just how quickly things can get completely out of hand in a street confrontation, I understand the victim and his friends wanting to have a rowdy bachelor party but I can also understand the apprehension, and even the underlying fear of the officers involved, they are the continuous targets of hatred, abuse, insults and threats, and they are on a very tight wire, and once in a while that wire snaps…

Looks like that’s exactly what happened here…

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A Dallas police motorcycle officer was killed Friday morning after a crash while escorting Sen. Hillary Clinton’s motorcade to a campaign rally.

Officer Victor Lozada was reportedly leading Clinton’s procession when his motorcycle slammed into the wall at the Houston St. viaduct, causing him to be thrown 20 feet from his bike.

Lozada was rushed to Methodist Hospital, but later died from his injuries. He was a 20-year veteran of the department, according to police officials. He had been a member of the motorcycle unit for approximately a month.

Hillary Clinton was reportedly not notified about the accident until after she finished her campaign speech Friday morning. She spoke to reporters about the fatal crash soon after.

“I just want to express my deepest condolences to the family and the Dallas police department on this tragic loss,” she told the media.

“This reminds us once again what the men and women in law enforcement do every single day,” Clinton said. “It is important that we respect and appreciate their service. I certainly am grateful for all they do for me and, more importantly, they do for the citizens of cities like Dallas and across the country.”

Police Chief David Kunkle and Mayor Tom Leppert expressed their sadness about Lozada’s death to reporters outside the hospital late Friday morning.

Full Story Here:
Dallas Police Officer Killed While Escorting Clinton Motorcade

I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere sorrow for the loss of a fine officer, and to his family I offer my most heart felt condolences, we will keep you in our prayers…

Sr. Cpl. Victor Lozada knew the dangers of the job, yet he gave freely of himself and he accepted all that the job encompasses, to the children of Sr. Cpl. Lozada, your father was a brave man and he gave his life doing the job he loved, always honor him in that unselfish act…

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A vagrant wanted for questioning in a rape overpowered a police officer who was trying to handcuff him, then shot her to death with her own weapon Monday, police said.

The officer’s death was a blow to this city, where hopes were high that a new year could hold back a wave of crime that has been a dark backdrop to the rebuilding effort since Hurricane Katrina.

“When it hits home like this, it hits you tremendously,” said Police Superintendent Warren Riley, who was charged with energizing a demoralized police force in the 2005 storm’s wake.

Officer Nicola Cotton, 24, approached the suspect in her police cruiser and began questioning him. When she tried to handcuff him he attacked her, and a seven-minute fight ensued, Riley said.

The officer managed to use her radio during the struggle to call for backup, but the man grabbed her weapon and shot her repeatedly, Riley said.

Full Story Here:
New Orleans police officer killed by vagrant

It breaks my heart to read a story like this…

Any time an officer goes down in the line of duty it’s a terrible thing, they are out there, every day, 24 hours a day, they sacrifice themselves to protect us, they do the best they can to clean the streets of America, clean them from the dangers of the human garbage that threaten us all, and for the most part, they do their jobs very well and to the family of this officer I say, God bless you, may you find peace in this, she died doing the job she loved, she fought valiantly and she was an officer to be proud of, I hope you can find some peace in that thought…

We are a police family, with several relatives that are retired from police work and some still on active duty in their departments, we understand what the family is going through and offer our most sincere condolences…

Rest in peace Officer Nicola Cotton…

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LIMA, Ohio — The death of Tarika Wilson during a drug raid has left tensions here simmering between minorities and police.

Wilson, 26, was fatally shot and her 1-year-old son was injured when SWAT officers burst into her home looking for her boyfriend. The officer is white, the victim is black.

Black clergy leaders are nervously waiting for investigators to decide whether to charge a veteran officer who fired the fatal shots.

“This was ready to blow,” said Daniel Hughes, one of several pastors who has been preaching patience while residents demand more answers about the shooting. “It still could go either way.”

More than two weeks have passed since the Jan. 4 death of Wilson, a 26-year-old mother of six. Her baby son, Sincere Wilson, was injured and had a finger amputated.

Little is known about what happened. Family members say Wilson was an innocent bystander. Police have said her 31-year-old boyfriend, who was arrested during the raid, was selling drugs out of the house. The raid concluded a long-term investigation into the sale of illegal drugs from the home, the police chief said.

The shooting has led to much soul searching about the mistrust between minorities and police and what happens to cities when manufacturing jobs move out and drugs move in.

Full Story Here:
Ohio Residents, Police on Edge After Woman’s Death During Drug Raid

“The root of this is we have no jobs here,” said Artria Knuckles, who manages a Taco Bell and supports four children in this northwestern Ohio city. “They have to do what they can to survive. They have to resort to selling drugs.”

And the above statement ladies and gentlemen, is the very reason there will always be ghettos, dope dealers, a great divide between the races and the various acts of murder and mayhem that accompany the actions associated with drug dealers…

No one is FORCED into this, no one, and when those that DO participate pay the price, naturally the race card is going to be played, of course the cops raided the house because they were BLACK drug dealers, I mean, everyone knows that cops don’t bust WHITE drug dealers, and we ALL know the woman was shot simply because she was an innocent BLACK bystander, it had nothing to do with serious drug deals, and God only knows what other circumstances going down in her house, done by her boyfriend, or whatever he was, or her, I am not passing judgement on her or the officer that shot her or the reasons for the shooting but if there was a long term investigation and drugs were being dealt, she was far from innocent in THIS situation…

‘She was such a good child, she was a wonderful mother, they was jus’ a dealin dem drugs to makes ends meet til she could catch a break and goes back to whorin’ down at the I-75 rest area…’, and truth be known, that is NOT as far from a real statement as one might imagine, anyone that could justify drug dealing and it’s relation to their employment status would seriously use that as more justification, these are the very types of excuses our police officers hear every day, people doing the crimes aren’t actually BAD people, they were just forced into it by economic maladies and life circumstance…

And have you ever wondered?? These people use their lack of work to justify their drug usage or dealing, or both, but they don’t have any money, just sayin’…

‘We wuz jus a tryin’ to keeps food on da table fo’ dem chirrens’…’

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A record number of fatal traffic incidents and a double-digit spike in shooting deaths led to one of the deadliest years for law enforcement officers in more than a decade.

With the exception of 2001, which saw a dramatic increase in deaths because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 2007 was the deadliest year for law enforcement since 1989, according to preliminary data released jointly by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and Concerns of Police Survivors.

The report counted the deaths of 186 officers as of Dec. 26, up from 145 last year. Eighty-one died in traffic incidents, which the report said surpassed their record of 78 set in 2000. Shooting deaths increased from 52 to 69, a rise of about 33%.

“Most of us don’t realize that an officer is being killed in America on average every other day,” said Craig W. Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Officer fatalities have generally declined since peaking at 277 in 1974, the report said. Historically, officers have been more likely to be killed in an attack than to die accidentally and shootings outnumbered car crashes. But those trends began to reverse in the late 1990s. This year, about six of every 10 deaths were accidental.

Full Story Here:
U.S. police fatalities spike in 2007

Mr. Floyd points out, “Most of us don’t realize that an officer is being killed in America on average every other day,” and he is quite correct, a tremendous number of people aren’t aware and quite frankly, they don’t care…

Many feel that the police are the enemy, and in many of those cases, that assumption is correct as well, if they are criminals, you betcha, the cops ARE the enemy, and in many cases the cops are outnumbered, out-gunned and are forced fight with their backs against the wall because their every move is subjected to intense scrutiny, their arrests a negated by liberal judges that take the side of the criminal, in some cases, the bad guys are back on the street before all the reports are filed, unscrupulous defense attorneys have them bailed out before the shift is over…

The bad guys know all of this, and they play on it, it’s their security blanket, and they don’t hesitate to take a few shots at a police officer, it’s a badge of pride to the ghetto gang bangers and assorted drug dealers and various definitions of thuggery, their right of passage into full blown criminals…

And then there’s the liberal citizens among us, those that cry like babies any time a criminal goes down at the hands of the police, those that scream about the rights, human rights, that some animal supposedly has after being witnessed killing a person(s) in public, but the liberal, bleeding hearts see this as a violation of the criminals rights, it doesn’t matter that the guy was armed and threatening even more people, when the police do their jobs and the libbers go nuts…

But what about the times the police capture a bad guy without firing a shot?? What about all the bleeding hearts that piss and moan when an officer uses a Taser instead of deadly force, and in many Taser use scenarios, deadly force could have be used and would easily result in a ruling of justifiable homicide?? What about those guys?? They take a chance and make every attempt to SAVE a life, even if that life is someone that theoretically is a homicidal maniac, but there are those that accuse the cops of being judge and jury, and on some occasions, executioner as well when the officers have risked their lives to keep the public safe…

It’s a terrible shame that we lose officers in ANY number, being a police officer is a dangerous, underpaid and thankless job and the men and women of law enforcement know what they are up against every time they strap on a gun and pin on a badge, and given the current pulse of the criminal element of this nation and the liberal judges that support them, I don’t blame the cops for engaging in what some see as overly vigorous tactics, in fact, speaking for myself, I applaud the officers for exhibiting the restraint that they do, God knows, the bad guys will offer no quarter…

I know some of you have read here and seen where I posted about the border states being in an almost warlike setting in our border areas, well folks, our police officers, Deputies, State Police and Federal agents face a war zone every time the go 10-8, no matter where they are…

Ask yourself this question, and answer honestly, ‘What would I do if I were faced with the life and death situation faced by officers?’, faced with those situations every day, sometimes several times a day…

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