50 Shots Continue to Reverberate

Last week, thousands of New Yorkers engaged in acts of civil disobedience to protest the acquittals of three police officers in the killing of Sean Bell in a hail of 50 shots. They carried signs that read “We Are All Sean Bell: This Whole Damn System is Guilty.” Hundreds were arrested when they attempted to block traffic.

The pray-ins were spearheaded by the Rev. Al Sharpton. From Harlem to Lower Manhattan and across the East River in Brooklyn, the protesters prayed for a federal investigation of the shootings. Their prayers have been answered.

Later today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. will convene a public forum on “law enforcement accountability and strategies for ensuring improved policing and greater public confidence in the fairness of the response to tragedies such as the Sean Bell case.” The invited witnesses include:

• Rev. Al Sharpton, President, National Action Network
• Raymond Kelly, New York City Police Commissioner
• Michael Hardy, Counsel for the Sean Bell Family
• Hazel Dukes, President, New York State Conference of NAACP chapters

At the National Action Network’s rally Sharpton said:

We will continue to do weekly civil disobedience because we can’t have police above the law. We will tell Conyers that whether your name is Guzman or Ziegler, we’ve got a problem in New York City and Philadelphia.

Sharpton added:

The signal is being sent that we have no rights that people are bound to respect.

That’s why people are going to jail. They know they are vulnerable. When you are pushed to the edge, when you are told by a system that you live under that you are not protected, that your rights are not protected, it will make you do extraordinary things because you’re in an extraordinary situation.

Someone must see the depth of fear in our community. We have to fear the criminals and some of the cops. We live in high crime areas and we have to wonder whether we should call the cops or not.

The community forum will convene at Noon in the Lower Level Auditorium of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City.