Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
The city of New York reached a settlement today on the shooting of Sean Bell by police. The Bell estate will receive $3.5 million and the remainder will go to the families of Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were with Bell on the night of the shooting.
Bell was shot on the night before his wedding in 2006.
"The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day. The City regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family," Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo said when the deal was announced.
The settlement frees the city from having to admit any wrongdoing. The money will go to Bell's two children, and his fiancee Nicole Paultre-Bell. Three of the five officers involved in the shooting, where 50 bullets were fired, were tried and acquitted of manslaughter in a 2008 trial. The officers claim that they believed Bell and his friends were armed on the night of the shooting, but it turned out that they were not.
Nicole Paultre Bell, Sean Bell's widow, said this to Aol. Black Voices:
"No amount of money will provide closure for me. I lost the father of my daughters and my best friend on the day we were to be married."
Prominent black public figures were not at a loss for words when describing their response to the Sean Bell settlement. I reached out to Rev. Al Sharpton, Bennett College President Dr. Julianne Malveaux and Georgetown Professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson to get their takes on the situation. Rev. Al Sharpton had this to say:
The settlement must all provide for their families but this in no way mitigates or repairs the permanent damage done to them and the pain it has caused them forever nor does it diminish the outrage in the community. We will always pursue justice for the family of Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield.
Dr. Malveaux said the following:
He should not have died, and the life in this settlement caution for each of us to take care of all of us and to be cautious and careful about the meaning of life. Both bullets and assumptions killed Sean Bell. Neither assault is acceptable.
Professor Dyson said this:
The Bell murder highlights the need for the end to racial profiling of minorities and police brutality against blacks. While the condition of the settlement precludes admission of wrongdoing, we all know that vicious racist practices often have lethal consequences for minority citizens.
Read each person's statement in its entirety here.
If President Barack Obama wants to speak on an issue related to race, he can speak on the Sean Bell incident. The Henry Louis Gates case is not a solid prototype for racial injustice, but the Bell case certainly is. The shooting of Sean Bell is one of the rare cases in which black men who are harassed by police actually find a way to receive justice (even though Bell himself paid the ultimate price). In most cases, justice is not served. Instead, victims are served with long prison sentences and a label of guilt that precludes them from ever being a part of our society again. That is something to think about.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.