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: Injustice in Seattle

The Many Deaths of Sean Bell

By David Packman

An unarmed Sean Bell was killed before he was to be married by a barrage of 50 bullets fired by NYPD officers 2 years ago.

Yesterday, Sean Bell was killed again by a shot fired by the justice system of the United States... at least, this is how it felt to the woman who Sean was to marry the day after he was killed by the police.

"The justice system let me down... They killed Sean all over again, that's what it felt like to us." Nicole Paultre Bell said of the verdict which acquitted three officers yesterday. I know that's how she feels, there is no doubt in my mind about that.

To be denied justice after being wronged is to commit that wrong against the victim all over again, and when the government is the perpetrator, that wrong is all the more compounded because with that wrong comes the promise of more because a power held unaccountable is a power that begs to be repeatedly abused... and that's what happens when the police get away with a wrong such as this.

After all, if it were a group of civilians who fired off 50 shots that murdered one and left two others wounded and they put forth the excuse that they thought the unarmed men they repeatedly fired upon were armed they would have been convicted. To apply a different standard of justice upon the enforcers of justice is an injustice to us all... and it certainly feels like murder to Miss Bell, and it feels like murder to me.

I hope none of you ever know that feeling, of having to relive that pain over and over again, without hope for something good or just to come of such tragedy. It's a horrible and debilitating feeling, at times hopeless and all consuming, to know that those that harmed you are free to harm others and that there is nothing you can do about it. To know that those they harmed will never be given peace or closure... or the truth.

I've been through it, I know, I still feel that way every day, as if the wrong done to me was still being done anew, each and every day... and for Miss Bell's sake, I hope that they do not kill Sean Bell again in another miscarriage of justice like they did yesterday... I hope that she finds justice somewhere down the line and I am glad to know that there are many standing with her as she continues her fight for that justice. Because I'm glad to know that she doesn't have to feel the utter isolation and lack of support that those who never even had their chance at justice must struggle with on top of the injustice they suffer when they've been the victim of police misconduct.

I pray the family and friends of Sean Bell find justice, justice and peace. For them... and for the rest of us who are forced to suffer injustice alone in silence.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on April 26, 2008 (boomark / email).