| Author | Message | ||
     Greenlantern |
The 3 NYPD officers charged in the 2006 shooting of Sean Bell and others during a Bachelor Party at a Queens adult club where acquitted of all charges. I believe in the law and accept the verdict even if my opinion does not fully agree with it. The judge in the non jury case gave the explanation which basically said that the prosecution did not present their case in the proper manner and basically messed up. Again I find this reasoning perfectly acceptable as it is a legally based explanation meeting the letter of the law regardless of my opinion or that of others. However the fact that the judge did not offer any opinion to what all people with common sense know to be reckless conduct regardless the view of the law in my opinion sends the message that a group of people perceived by their behavior and / or background to be a threat by those charged with their protection of body and rights can now be sanctioned at will by those same persons. This is my perception and my opinion. The law has no defense against these two words except the Judgment of their executors . I pray that Judgment keeps our humanity moving forward and in peace and not backward as these developments have gave the perception of doing. Of course the validity of my statements are neither right or wrong, but they are my opinion. | ||
| Jaimec |
My take? The NYPD REALLY needs to beef up their qualification requirements for new police officers. It's no longer an excuse to say "They made a mistake." If, in your job, your mistakes cost someones LIFE, then you DAMN WELL ought to be held up to a higher standard. I was talking to a couple of retired NYPD officers this past weekend (in my MSF RiderCoach Prep) and they agree with me. The NYPD is hiring ANYBODY to beef up their force. They were lamenting they were seeing far too many unqualified cadets graduating from the academy lately. | ||
| Greenlantern |
I am upset with this (more than I realize, thinking my "New York Hardness" would somehow keep my emotions in check) not as much by the verdict (which I do disagree with to a extent) but in the total moral disregard for human life our justice system has shown in it's handling of the judgment. I had thought that we had become better than this but apparently I was wrong. Justice may be blind but it should not be "deaf and dumb". | ||
| Court |
Odd sort of a place that pays a new NYPD recruit something less that $30,000/year in a city where a studio apartment (a cheap one) rents for $2,500 a month. Looks to be a case where both sides were wrong. The prosecutions witnesses lied so many times during the trial that they were lying about lying. The Judge did make a point out of calling the witnesses totally un-credable. Not sure there is any clear cut right or wrong in this. The person lesson I take away from it is to avoid strip clubs with a history of guns, drugs and violence at 3:30AM. Call it a hunch. | ||
| Greenlantern |
The person lesson I take away from it is to avoid strip clubs with a history of guns, drugs and violence at 3:30AM. So.. you leave around 2:00am then I take?  Yes It does seem to be a case of "both sides were wrong". I guess mid-life is just making me more sensitive to the human condition or lack thereof.  | ||
| Greenlantern |
Odd sort of a place that pays a new NYPD recruit something less that $30,000/year in a city where a studio apartment (a cheap one) rents for $2,500 a month. Don't you mean a "Closet" in a Studio apartment? Just had a Building Super complain to me this morning about paying for work in a Park Ave apt, because the tenant was still paying "only" $18,000 a month while the other 2 units on the floor were paying $23,000. I have been there, can't be worth more than $17,000  | ||
| Court |
Actually the average stuod rate is climbing. The logic is that as the economy tightens folks can no longer afford their $6,000/mo one bedrooms and are flocking to studios. The average for a studio, last month, was around $3,500/mo. I recall the first time I saw one . . smaller than my dining room. | ||
| Greenlantern |
It seems like only yesterday (though it was more like 20+ years ago) that a full loft in Soho or Tribecca only set you back $3,500......(You have not lived until you've played "full field" Nerf Football in your friends Living Room, complete with kick off and field goals!) | ||
| Greenlantern |
Back on topic... It only took 3 hrs for the media to insert this blurb in their reports but here it is... While the judge found that the officers' response was not criminal, he added, ``Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums.'' While this does not do much to temper my original statement, it does require a retraction of sorts as I originally implied that nothing to this effect was said at all. My apologies, Randy | ||
| Xl1200r |
Left to other forums? This was from a judge, who is supposed uphold the law. If he had doubts about carelessness and incompetencem, he should should have addressed them in the verdict. I hate the hypocracy in the U.S. legal system sometimes. "Here's a popsicle, but for the record, I think you're a d**k." Give me a break. On the off-topic topic - I had no idea housing was having the issue it's having in New York. A friend of mine is looking for a place right now and having a bit of a hard time finding anything in her budget. That must be the reason. | ||
| Blake |
Who no jury? | ||
| Court |
Cops elected to take the somewhat risky option of waiving the jury. Judges, in emotionally charged cases, are often less driven by deviating from the law (as rigth or wrong as it's application may appear) to "teach a lesson". | ||
| Chellem |
What forum, exactly, is the appropriate one when someone has committed a potentially criminal act resulting in the death or injury to others? I don't know enough about the case to really have an opinion, but, I mean, carelessness and incompetence that results in death is called, well, manslaughter, right? I mean, if your NOT cops? So they should take it up with HR? ->ChelleM | ||
| Hammer71 |
Amazing that cops have about one second to make a decision to take a life to save either their own or anothers and a bunch of morons have as much time as they need to find fault in it. Correct decision by the judge in my opinion and one less "thug" on the streets. | ||
| Damnut |
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| Mr_grumpy |
This side of the pond, the story has been widely reported in the media, we've not had all the details though, so opinions aren't as informed as they might be. Nobody I've spoken to about this story seems very surprised about the fact that the fellow got shot, (after all it's the US that's how they do things over there) most were surprised about the degree though. "Shot 50 times? How many times did they reload?" was a fairly typical response. I'm sorry to say that this sort of thing does the US no favours at all, it just reinforces the stereotype image most people have of Americans, that being that they're all gun-toting violent barbarians. With a shoot first ask questions later mentality, & a f****d up justice system. Most of you guys that I know aren't like that I reckon, but you're not on the news either. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
that being that they're all gun-toting violent barbarians. With a shoot first ask questions later mentality, & a f****d up justice system. And your point is??? Seriously though that is not too far from the truth | ||
| Court |
And yet. . . . oddly enough . . . folks from every country in the world are giving up about anything they can, hiding in the wheel wells of jets, cargo holds of ships, rubber rafts and mortgaging their life to get here. One of the officers did reload. I don't recall the number (you can find them easily) but one guy fired like 40 of the shots. The NYPD police are as well trained as any other person being paid $30,000/yr (in a town where that would buy 9 months of an apartment) and who make split second life and death decisions. I am a supporter of the NYPD but they are ill trained and like many things in NYC there is a lot of corruption. There was never a chance these guys would be convicted. | ||
| Dynasport |
First, I don't know more about this tragedy than the generally reported information in the national media. Having said that, I have experienced a confrontation with local police in which I was doing absolutely nothing wrong. Still, I felt very threatened by the actions of the officers. I saw firsthand how a misunderstanding can become dangerous very quickly. I knew how dangerous the situation was because I am also a trained law enforcement officer and I recognized what the officers were doing such as, placing me in a position of disadvantage, ordering other civilians to leave the area, assuming tactical positions, and the like. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and everything worked out. In hindsight I realized a key mistake I made in the encounter and will handle such encounters differently in the future. Even with my mistake, however, the officers badly overreacted. The bottom line, don't expect every officer to be perfect. Don't forget they have emotions and can become afraid, angry, confused, and a variety of other emotions that are counter productive to correctly handling a situation. Understand this and make the officer's job as easy as possible in their interactions with you so that they do not make a fatal mistake that you both regret. Finally, as a country boy, I just don't understand why anyone would choose to live in a place like NY with the cost of living you have to endure there. I understand there is more to do there than possibly anywhere else in the world, but give me a country road and a motorcycle and I am happy. The culture of NY would be wasted on me. And $3000/month for a room the size of my living room. I just don't think I could survive. | ||
| Court |
By the way . . . . I realize that my opinion is not representative of the United States overall. Tourism in the United States is down 17% and it's UP 9% in New York City. Over 125,000 fine folks arrive here to visit EVERY DAY.
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