The hip-hop community has been shaken to its core in the wake of last week’s “not guilty” verdict in the Sean Bell case. Among other charges, two of the three officers on trial were charged with first and second-degree manslaughter, while a third officer was charged with reckless endangerment. Out of eight charges, Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver, and Marc Cooper were found not guilty on every count.

This tragedy began during the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006 when undercover officers shot at 23-year-old Sean Bell and two of his friends 50 times. Bell and company were leaving a club, where Bell had just concluded celebrating his bachelor party. He was going to be married to the mother of his two daughters later that day.  

According to testimony from the trial, the officers overheard a member of Bell’s group hav-ing a verbal dispute with another man outside of the club. During this exchange officers stated Bell’s associate, Joseph Guzman, said, “Go get my gun”—a claim refuted in trial by the man whom Bell’s group was said to be arguing with.

Shortly after, the officers followed Bell and company they walked back to Bell’s vehicle, which was parked quite a distance from the club.

Mistakenly believing the group was retrieving a gun, a number of officers moved in on the group as they got into Bell’s Nissan Altima. Bell attempted to flee as the plain-clothed officers approached his car with their guns drawn. After backing into an unmarked police vehicle, officers fired 50 shots at the Altima, killing Bell and wounding his two friends. Conflicting testimony from witnesses and police made it unclear whether officers identified themselves when approaching Bell with their guns drawn.

Bell and company turned out to be unarmed, and no gun was found inside Bell’s vehicle.

While some see Bell’s killing as justifiable and/or understand and accept the judge’s verdict, the hip-hop community is livid. A number of artists have expressed their feelings on the case through interviews and on wax.

In an interview with sohh.com, David Banner stated, “I was outraged but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t get mad anymore… [They] shot Sean Bell 51 [note: the official total is 50 shots] times and they got eight counts and you can’t convict on one count. Not even endangerment? You shot 51 times homie!”

Atlanta’s Killer Mike offered, “What happened in that case is a [terrible] travesty. What is the police trying to force the underclass to do? The police maintain jobs when they have something to police. By agitating the people you just create a bigger need for police. So instead of the police protecting and serving the community, the community becomes a commodity for the police force.”

Steele of Smif-N-Wessun told allhiphop.com, “We must stand together and defend our-selves and be smart. We are all under surveillance. It’s time to stand up.”

The Hip Hop Summit Action Network’s CEO, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, released a statement saying, “The anger and disgust that the hip-hop community certainly feels today should not be permitted to develop into anything negative, as a response. Sean Bell’s death will not be in vain, to the extent to which millions of youth work even harder to demand equal justice, and to fundamentally change the current system of injustice.”

Leroy Gadsden of the NAACP went onto say, “This case was not about justice. This case was about the police officers having the right to act above the law… Justice was not here today. This court is obviously bankrupt of justice when it comes to people of color.”

On the music side, Graph released an emotionally charged track titled “Not Guilty (The People’s Verdict),” and this cut is the best work I’ve heard from the emcee. Other artists including the Game have also expressed their displeasure with this case in song.

In my own opinion, I feel that justice for the Bell family was completely ignored. There was abso-lutely no value of life given to Sean Bell as evident by the state’s verdict in the case.

For the officers to be cleared of all charges suggests that the state of New York feels Sean Bell’s death was justified. For not only the hip-hop community, but people of character and common sense in general, that is hard to swallow.

What now? The world will keep turning. You and I will go back to our lives and soon forget about the 23-year-old kid who was recklessly killed by police officers on the day of his wedding back in 2006. However, the pain inside the hearts of a mother, a father, a once bride-to-be and two father-less little girls will last a lifetime. It’s cases such as this that remind us it is indeed bigger than hip hop.

Source:
InsideNova.com