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Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4937
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 10:35 pm: | 
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EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON: Indicting New York Cops Is One Thing Convicting Them is Another.
March 20, 2007
New York Attorney Phillip Karasyk minced no words when a reporter asked about the prospect that his client New York City police officer Gerscard Isnora will be acquitted in the killing of Gerald Bell.
Karasyk flatly said that he’d be vindicated. This was not typical attorney bluster; the odds are that Karasyk is right. The November 25 shooting of the unarmed Bell, a new bridegroom, and the wounding of two of his friends, stirred public rage and protests.
And there was good reason to expect that some of the cops that fired the volley of shots that killed Bell would be indicted.
But expectations, not to mention witness testimony, seemingly unimpeachable evidence, and even the official condemnation of the deadly shooting by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won’t guarantee that Isnora and the other two officers indicted are convicted. It's easy to see why. When cops go on trial for overuse of deadly force, their victims are generally poor blacks and Latinos.
The attorneys that defend them are top gun defense attorneys, and have had much experience defending police officers accused of misconduct. Police unions pay them and they spare no expense in their defense. The cops rarely serve any pre-trial jail time, and are released on ridiculously low bail. During jury selection, their attorneys seek to get as many whites on the panel as possible.
The presumption is that white jurors are much more likely to be middle-class, and conservative, and much more likely to believe the testimony of police and prosecution witnesses than black witnesses, defendants, or even the victims.
The same rule applies to black or Latino jurors, and both may be represented on the New York cop’s jury. They are generally middle-class, and share the same biases toward those they perceive as the criminal element as many whites.
Prosecutors have a big task in trying to overcome the pro-police attitudes, and the negative racial stereotypes of middle-class jurors. A 2003 Penn State University study found that many whites are likely to associate pictures of blacks with violent crimes, and in some cases where crimes were not committed by blacks they misidentified the perpetrator as an African-American.
The frequent media portrayal of young blacks and Latinos as crime-prone, drug-dealing gangsters, the gang and murder violence that continues to wrack many black neighborhoods, and the glorification of the thug lifestyle by many young blacks reinforces negative racial perceptions. Almost certainly, defense attorneys will try and type Bell and his two companions in that manner. This makes many whites, non-blacks and even many older blacks guarded, suspicious and fearful of young blacks.
There is no ironclad standard of what is or isn’t acceptable use of force. It often comes down to a judgment call by the officer. In the Rodney King beating case in 1992 in which four LAPD officers stood trial, defense attorneys turned the tables and painted King as the aggressor and claimed that the level of force used against him was justified. The four New York City cops tried for gunning down African immigrant, Amadou Diallo in 1999, also claimed that they feared for their lives. The jury believed them and acquitted them. In Cincinnati, a municipal judge summarily acquitted white Cincinnati police officer, Stephen Roach of criminal charges in the slaying of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas during a traffic pursuit in 2001. The shooting ignited three days of riots. The judge bought Roach’s tale that he feared for his life, and fired in self-defense.
In the Bell case, Kasaryk and the other officer’s attorneys almost certainly will use the same tact and argue that the officers feared for their lives when they fired. In his initial call to a supervising police lieutenant, Isnora said he thought one of the suspects had a gun, made a suspicious move, and that the car they were in bumped him.
The code of silence is another powerful obstacle to convicting bad cops. Officers hide behind it and refuse to testify against other officers, or tailor their testimony to put the officer’s action in the best possible light.
Prosecutors often are barred from using statements made during internal investigations of officer misconduct in court proceedings on grounds of self-incrimination.
This knocks out another potentially crucial prosecution weapon. Federal prosecutors that retried the officers that beat King learned a vital lesson from the abysmal failure of local prosecutors to convict them. They did not rely exclusively on the videotape but on expert testimony on the use of force to prove that the officers went way over the top against King. Yet despite the massive time, resources, and care they devoted to the case, they still only managed to convict two of the four officers.
Karasyk well knows that nailing cops is a rough task for even the most diligent prosecutor. He’s betting that it will take much more than solid evidence that it was a bad shooting to nail his client. That’s a good bet, but prosecutors must be prepared to call him on it.
Mr. Bell & Family
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a political analyst and social issues commentator, and the author of The Emerging Black GOP Majority (Middle Passage Press, September 2006). Contact him via: Hutchinsonreport@aol.com.
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur32200.cfm
Sharpton: It was murder
BY VALENTI & DESTEFANO:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-char0319,0,6803071.story?coll=ny-health-print |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3926
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 12:42 pm: |
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They are gonna walk. No white jury (and what they will do is get the case out of New York City to an all white jury out state) is going to convict some cops for shooting some Negroes.
Everybody will say, well the City will pay the family a lot of money and let it pass.
After all, those cops are there to protect the white folks (and the black middle class) from NEGROES--make no mistake about it.
This will never stop. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4109
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 01:46 pm: |
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Where's your outrage, Chris? You rant about your school sit-ins and derogatory comments about Blacks drinking Kool-Aid, but you don't have a problem with the police killing innocent Black people - time and time again. Get a backbone!!!
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7928
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 02:02 pm: |
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The back story on this shooting makes for ambivalence. Aside from the fact that 3 of the cops accused are black, the reason the victim's fiancee has been so restrained is because she has several relatives who are members of the NYPD. When the shooting first occurred, in an interview she something to the effect that police make mistakes in the heat of the moment because they are human just like everybody else. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3928
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 02:24 pm: |
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Where's your outrage, Chris? You rant about your school sit-ins and derogatory comments about Blacks drinking Kool-Aid, but you don't have a problem with the police killing innocent Black people - time and time again. Get a backbone!!!
(This remark is so stupid I can't even reply to it) |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4110
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 03:19 pm: |
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It's no more stupid than the BS you post. Think about it. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3929
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 03:51 pm: |
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Let's try a different tack, Misery:
What would affect would I have on anything, sitting on my butt in front of a computer screen here in St. Louis, posting a bunch of crap that will only be read by you people. I don't live in New York. I won't be on the jury.
There is a slew of police shootings here in St. Louis we got backed up. Same thing is going to happen. The cops are going to walk. And the Negroes are dead.
Outrage? I'm numb. I am numb because although it wasn't right, I can see how this happened pre 1970--but here it is, still happening. And you know why?
The cops know that nothing is going to happen to them. They know they were hired to do just what they did and they guy they shot was a nobody (they never seem to kill any big time minister, or politician, or entertainer or somebody everybody would get upset over)
And a couple of these cops are black. Outrage? Outrage is reserved for uncommon or outrageous situations. I bet this is happening somewhere in America as we speak.
Finally, I guess ain't nobody else outraged. Ain't nobody hit the streets. Ain't nobody else died. It must be okay with everybody.
After all, look at it. He was out at a strip club early in the morning. Supposed to be getting married. If he'd been in bed like a Christian, praying, this wouldn't have happened.
Ain't that what Pastor Hagee tells you? |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4114
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 04:02 pm: |
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You've grown so complacent lately.
And BTW, it's not misery, it's:
Mzuri pronounced em-ZUH-ree and it means "I feel good" in Swahili
Have a Nice Day!!! 
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Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1785
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 04:10 pm: |
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Mzuri pronounced em-ZUH-ree and it means "I feel good" in Swahili
Now this, I never knew about you! Very nice!
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7931
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 05:10 pm: |
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Personally I prefer a complacent chrishayden to a rabid one since he tends to bare his fangs at me when he gets in attack mode and I have to beat him down with a stick. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7932
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 05:21 pm: |
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So Mzuri is a Swahili name, huh? No wonder you were so good at battling your Sudanese opponent. heh-heh. And Mzuri means "I feel good"! Shades of James Brown! Owwwww! |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4119
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 05:26 pm: |
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That's right, that's right. Good God!!!
But Shirley Temple could have beat down that nonsense.
The big Pay-Back!!!
Owwwwwww!!! I'm sweat-in!!!
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3939
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 11:14 am: |
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And BTW, it's not misery, it's:
Mzuri pronounced em-ZUH-ree and it means "I feel good" in Swahili
(And what's a Black man got to do to make you say--"Mzuri" |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4126
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 11:34 am: |
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He's got to hit me! Good God!!! I feeeeel goooood!!!  |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7947
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 12:47 pm: |
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I know the corpse of James Brown is rockin the crypt where he is temporarily entombed. He's probably breakin out in a Cold Sweat! Owwwww! |
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