The Sean Bell Case
It is an all too familiar story: a young black man loses his life at the hands of a seemingly trigger-happy police officer, likely from the city of New York. What makes this case stand out, among other things, was something that even the NYC mayor termed "excessive": 50 shots, 31 of which were issued from one police officer, who actually stopped and reloaded his weapon during the course of those firings.
When all was said and done, one man was left dead hours before his wedding to his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two young children. His friend was face down on the ground, screaming in pain with a bloodstreaked face as he was arrested. Another friend was taken to the hospital with upwards of 11 bullets in his body only to later be handcuffed to his hospital bed, as if he were really a flight risk. These two men survived, facing years of physical (and possibly mental) therapy and, for one of them, a number of bullets still lodged in his body.
And it was likely those images & ideas that led a grand jury in Queens last week to indict three of the five cops involved in the aforementioned shooting of Sean Bell, handing out charges of 1st degree manslaughter to two of the cops and reckless endangerment to a third. Today, the accused surrendered, all entering pleas of not guilty. The manslaughter charge implies that the detectives had some sort of intent when the shooting occurred and requires jail time if the policemen are convicted, up to a maximum sentence of 25 years.
For the last four months, arguments and accusations have flown back and forth between the NYPD, its respective union, the family & friends of Bell, his friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, various sectors of the black community and others. And there’s no doubt that the debate will rage on over police protocol, over the alleged criminal records of the victims, if racism played a part, whether the charges were sufficient, the presence of a fourth man (no way) and so on.
But there is one theme that seems to keep recurring, that of training. How police are trained, what they are trained to do, why they are trained in a certain manner. Quite frankly, I think the time has long passed to talk about training – because, as one gentlemen pointed out, if it was only about training, these types of shootings would be happening in all neighborhoods, not just the black ones. And let’s be clear, these incidents happen almost exclusively in the black community.
Training is something you do for a new pet, to keep them from soiling your carpet. You train a child to write with his/her left or right hand. Many people train themselves to get up & exercise before work when all they really want to do is stay snuggled up under the covers.
Training, however, can lapse. Indeed, depending on the circumstance, certain situations can cause you to forget all training. One's mindset, on the other hand, is ingrained, is a part of you. You carry it with you day in and day out. It shapes who you are, positively or negatively, and can be quite hard to unlearn.
So when you see a black man, what is your mindset? In that split second before he opens his mouth, before he extends his hand to shake yours or smiles and says ’hello’, what is your brain saying? Do you see a fully formed, flesh and blood human, who is trying to make it in life just like you? Or do you instead conjure up some of the more prevalent images of black men that exist today, the ones of deadbeat fathers, of cracked-out, unemployed bums or of gun-toting criminals?
I think it is safe to say that the stereotypes of black men have affected and infected the mindset of a large segment of our population, including the police. That image of the thugged and blinged out, sneering black man makes it easy for others to forget – or IGNORE - that black men and the larger black community are a multi-faceted, multi-talented group of people. That negative image becomes the standard by which many black men are measured, rightly or wrongly.
That image is the one many Americans carry in their heads when they see our black fathers, brothers, boyfriends, cousins and sons heading in their direction. It makes little old ladies clutch their purses a little tighter, young women cross to the other side of the street and cab drivers refuse service, saying they aren’t going uptown, downtown or crosstown.
That image makes it hard for the some to see the suit and tie clad brother who just came from closing a big deal on Wall Street.
That image makes it difficult for others to see the young brother who takes two buses and a train to get to school, in the hopes of earning his high school and then college degrees, so he can come back to help his mother and his community.
That image makes it impossible for still others to see the young professional mentoring youth in his neighborhood, trying to set them on the right path.
And too often, that image is internalized by our young men as something to aspire to. Hey, if 50 Cent can be shot nine times, survive and go on to sell hit records rapping about it, why can’t I? Well, the reality is 50 is traveling around with serious security, a bullet proof vest for himself AND his young son (?!) and starting beefs with anyone he can, keeping up the drama that has become his life. His is not a normal world and my guess is it isn't the kind of world that any mother would want her child to inhabit.
So given what I have said, you may be wondering if I think Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield were in any way responsible for what happened to them that night. And my answer is a loud and resounding NO. Shooting anyone 50 times is beyond comprehension, defies any and all logic; you don’t treat an animal that way. So many times, criminals are held up as an example of what is wrong with society and are punished to serve as an example to others. These officers must be held up as an example of what has gone horribly wrong, for much too long, in our law enforcement community. Justice must be served.
As a people, however, African Americans need to start recognizing and rejecting the b/s being sold on our behalf and with our consent, our blessing & even our support. The one-sided stories being told about how we live, how we love, how we succeed, how we fail. It is time to change OUR mindset, reclaim our voice and learn to control the message instead of letting the message control us and subsequently dictate how our lives will play out, with some ending tragically like Sean Bell’s.
At the NAACP Image Awards a few weeks ago, comedian Chris Tucker gave an introduction of his friend and NAACP honoree Bono, the frontman for the band U2. Tucker commented on Bono's unrelenting efforts on behalf of Africa's poor, noting in his trademark high-pitched voice that Bono "ain't even Black" and saying that black people need to get it together. His remarks drew laughter, but his call was a serious one: black people, we need to get it together.
Don’t let Sean Bell’s death and the deaths of so many other unnamed black men and women be in vain. We can’t wait for another tragedy to take place before we 1) demand better from our civil servants and 2) demand better from each other. Because at some point, we have to take a good, hard look at ourselves and what behaviors we can change. Martin, Fannie Lou, Malcolm, Rosa, Medgar and many others did not fight so hard for us to fall so far.
We need to start valuing ourselves and each other. And we need start showing the police, the corporations, the politicians, the nation and the world that we can not and will not be treated like this any longer.
Enough is enough. 50 shots is enough.
posted by Miss E @ 12:16 AM
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