Killer Mike on Sean Bell

Per XXL's print magazine of Sept. 2008: The Year of POLITICS & BULLSH#T:

Killer Mike was asked the following question regarding the April 25, 2008 acquitytal of the three NYPD officers involved in the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell:

What was your logical and emotional reaction when you heard about the acquittals?

I wish them death, and I hope they get cancer, and I hope it's incurable, and I hope their family has to watch them die a slow death. That's my natural reaction, seriously.

EXCLUSIVE: Jay-Z Establishes Trust for Sean Bell's Children

AHH: Published Friday, May 02, 2008 12:15 PM, Edited by Fulsome:

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter has established an educational trust for the for the children of Sean Bell.

Sources have confirmed with AllHipHop that Jay-Z is working closely with Nicole Paultre Bell, Sean Bell's widow, to institute the trust funds for both of their children.

Nicole Bell appeared prominently in Jay-Z’s Rocawear I Will Not Lose advertising campaign with images that caused indignation within the NYPD's Benevolent Association.

A well-informed source close to the matter told AllHipHop that Nicole Bell’s lawyers didn’t want to initiate any activity during the trial.

Typically, a trust fund is regarded as a long-term, profitable program that can provide significant monies that vest when a child becomes an adult or graduates from college.

They can also become available at a designated point in the future. Trusts, educational or otherwise, are generally set up in the child's name, by their parents or others close to the child.

Now that the trial is over, Jay-Z will resume his efforts for the children of Sean Bell in the form of a stock-based trust fund.

Artist that disagree with the verdict include: The Game, David Banner, Swizz Beatz, Talib Kweli, Styles P, Jadakiss and Mos Def.

Harassed Sean Bell Family Under Guard

Mickey Factz: I'm Sean (50 More Shots)
12” (2008)

AHH l Illseed l Rumors:

The Sean Bell’s family has been getting threatening and harassing calls and emails from a variety of places. Sure you have the normal trash, but some of these calls originated from the offices of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. New York Police Department's, Internal Affairs Bureau is now investigating these evil phone calls made straight to Bell's wife/fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell.

I don’t advocate the killing of police officers, but I heard the people in Brooklyn, New York are sick and tired of the consistent and persistent legacy of police brutality in NYC. According to the New York Daily News (NYDN) (currently the NYDN routes to: "Page not found"; however per AHH: Sean Bell's fiance gets prank called by laughing pigs after verdict thread), “dozens of cops” were removed off the streets, because of some sort of plot to shoot the ones that patrol the streets. Apparently, a snitch told the coppers in East New York about the plan.

Per latter AHH thread:

…A cruel prank call to the family of Sean Bell's fiancée that originated from the Manhattan offices of a prominent police union, The Post has learned.

"Ha, ha, ha," someone said in a 1:15 p.m. Friday phone call to the home of Nicole Bell's father Les Paultre, according to a police source.

The number for the Sergeants Benevolent Association came up on the caller ID.

"It was just horrible to get that phone call after coming back from the cemetery," said Nicole Bell.

Her father said, "The guy was taunting us, laughing. It was horrible because we had just come back from the court and the cemetery."

+Playahata

Kevin Powell: The Sean Bell Tragedy

I Am Sean Bell

Below find excerpts of AHH: Kevin Powell: The Sean Bell Tragedy, published Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:19 PM.

Kevin Powell is a Brooklyn, New York-based writer, community activist, and author of eight books.

... But I knew this verdict was coming. I have lived in New York City for nearly two decades and, before that, worked as a news reporter for several publications throughout the city’s five boroughs, and I cannot begin to tell you how many cases of police brutality and police misconduct I covered or witnessed, more often than not a person of color on the receiving end: Eleanor Bumpurs ... Michael Stewart … Amadou Diallo ... Sean Bell.

This is not to suggest that all police officers are trigger-happy and inhumane, because I do not believe that. They have a difficult and important job, and many of them do that job well, and maintain outstanding relationships with our communities. I know officers like that. But what I am saying is that New York, America, this society as a whole, still views the lives of Black people, of Latino people, of people of color, of women, of poor or working-class people, as less than valuable. It does not matter that two of the three officers charged in the Sean Bell case were officers of color and one White. What matters is the mindset of racism that permeates the New York Police Department, and far too many police departments across America. Shooting in self-defense is one thing, but it is never okay to shoot first and ask questions later, not even if a police officer “feels” threatened, not even if the source of that “feeling” is a Black or Latino person.

That is a twisted logic deeply rooted in the America social fabric, dating back to the founding fathers and their crazy calculations about slaves being three-fifths of a human being.

“I Am Sean Bell,” many of us chanted in the days and weeks immediately following his death. Yet very few of us showed up to the hearings after, and even fewer had the courage to question the vision, or lack thereof, of our own Black leadership who accomplished, ultimately, little to nothing at all. And very few of us realized that the powers-that-be in New York City have come to anticipate our reactions to matters like the Sean Bell tragedy: we get upset and become very emotional; we scream “No Justice! No Peace!”; we march, rally, and protest; we call the police and mayor all kinds of names and demand their resignations; we vow that this killing will be the last; and we will wait until the next tragedy hits, then this whole horrible cycle begins anew.

And a long as we have leadership, White leadership and Black leadership, mainstream leadership and grassroots leadership, that can do nothing more than exacerbate folks’ very natural emotions in a tragedy like this, we will never progress as a human race. … So many of us, especially us Black and Latino males, will continue to have a very nervous relationship with the police, even the police of color, for fear that any of one of us could be the next Sean Bell.

+Activists, Rappers React To Sean Bell Verdict: AHH
+Legislators Say Sean Bell Shooting Case Not Closed: Alternet

Person Kevin Powell

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts