Homeland Security

The fate of NYC’s finest

By Joe ⋅ April 27, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

[Edit - I wrongly stated Cooper was the supervising Officer, when it was Oliver.]

As a Police Officer, I have been following the recent news of the acquittal of 3 NYC Police Officers in the shooting of an unarmed man. I’d like you to suspend your own judgment of the events that transpired until you’ve read the news article I’ve linked to, as it will spell out the events that happened.

The victim, Sean Bell, a 23 year old black man was shot to death by 3 NYC detectives in a hail of 41 bullets. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the facts of this case are very apparent which has caused a rush to the claim of racism on the parts of the detectives, as well as the Judge delivering the acquittal. This isn’t a race issue, 2 of the 3 detectives charged in the case were black as well as the victim. What we have here is a break down of communication in a stress filled environment leading to panic stricken officers shooting wildly at anything that moved. These officers have much to answer to, but a charge of murder is not one of them.

Before the shootings even took place, Sean Bell attempted to elude officers and it is even alleged that he rammed a vehicle into one of the officers. Once the first officer began firing in fear of Bell actually having a weapon, despite none being on Bells person, other officers fell victim to the group mentality of self-preservation. Oliver, the supervising officer on the scene admits that he began shooting while looking for cover, reloading, and shooting some more, a total of 31 bullets. Detective Oliver did not know what he was shooting at or why, he just knew that people were shooting and he feared for his life. It is completely reasonable to expect that under these circumstances, the officers lost their rational thinking skills and all began firing as a result of their fellow officers firing as well.

The Judge had a tough decision to make, he had to decide if indeed there existed the intent of the Officers to kill this unarmed man without any justifiable reason. Regardless of the fact that Bell was not in possession of a weapon, he gave the officers reason to believe he may have had one, and his actions in his attempt at fleeing only set off more red flags in the officers minds. There is incompetence exhibited by the officers, a major loss of their grip on the reality of the events unfolding, but how can anyone judge these officers without being in the exact type of situation they were in. They had a split second to make a decision that will be combed over and picked apart for years to come, and no reasonable person can be expected to handle that kind of responsibility without flaws 100% of the time.

What bothers me is the total number of rounds fired. Supervisor Oliver unleashed 31 rounds, after reloading, which tells me he did not maintain control over his actions. Officers are trained to continually assess the situation before continuing to rack off rounds. If Oliver had to reload his service weapon to fire off a total of 31 rounds when in fact there was no present threat to his life tells me he did not once bother to assess the situation. Mr. Oliver has shown that he cannot handle the responsibility of the job and I do not believe should be allowed to continue in his position on the force.

I don’t know what it’s like to be in a situation where I fear for my life to the point of having to draw my weapon and fire tens of rounds; But I do know that if that situation arises, I intend to do what is necessary to preserve my life without wasting a second wondering how my actions are going to be judged years from now. No one can possibly know how difficult it is to maintain composure in the face of an unknown threat, but we trust Officers that they will be able to do just that. These officers showed they are not capable of maintaining composure under duress, and therefore should be removed from duty, but not convicted of a crime.