What are your feelings about 3 NYC police detectives being acquitted in the shooting death of Sean Bell?

The fact he was getting married makes it tragic but has no bearing on the incident.

The fact he was black and two of the three officers charged were black would seem to indicate it was not racially motivated.

The fact he was found to be unarmed -after- the fact is hindsight and we can all sit here and second guess the actions of those officers until the cows come home but at the end of the day we were not there.

The facts are, if you can read past unarmed black man shot 50 times, that three men were involved in an altercation and were observed by undercover officers. It is reported one of these men spoke about someone getting his gun. The officers followed to investigate and the three men drove towards them and struck a police vehicle. At one point it was observed that one of the guys in the vehicle looked to be reaching for something, the officers fired into the vehicle a total of 50 times.

It has been said in error many times that one officer unloaded his weapon three times, it was two not three.

People see "man getting married" and the picture pops into your head of a guy in a tuxedo being gunned down in front of a church, this was not the case, by all accounts he appeared to be a thug hanging out at a seedy strip club. The fact it was a seedy strip club really has no bearing because law abiding citizens do frequent strip clubs.

Now take into account all the videos police officers are forced to watch as training of their fellow officers being killed in the line of duty because they hesitated or were lax.

Now another thing to take into account, officers do not use their firerarms to "wound" people. Television seems to have led people to believe cops will try and shoot guns out of people's hands and such, wrong! When they fire their weapon that is deadly force and it really does not matter if you are killed by one bullet or twenty, dead is dead.

It takes very little time to empty a magazine and reload, it is part of the training. I personally believe that emptying two magazines was a bit much but it does not change the underlying fact that even one shot was deadly force.No one here can judge these men since there were not there, but we all have opinions.

I believe that this decision was a gross injustice and it just goes to show the underlying problem that America will soon have to face with race. To the previous posters, I will only say that 50 rounds were fired on an unarmed victim (regardless of whether he had a record or not, George Bush has a record!). It is my opinion that if this victim was white, there would be all kinds of outrage and disgust. The fact that this nation continues to disregard the civil rights of miniorities signals an alarming path to which this country is doomed to head down. Look at the war in Iraq, the economy, home foreclosures, gas prices...etc. The citizens of this country have lost their way morally and continue to sow seeds of hate and injustice. Will God reward those that continue to practice injustice with justice?

Galatians 6:7: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Police officers are not the pillars of society they once were. Now-a-days most people are as distrusting of the police as they are of criminals.

I wasn't there; I don't know what went down. However someone needs to answer for this. The detectives pulled their weapons, claiming the suspects were armed. Based on a hunch not proof, they fired 50-rounds into a vehicle, killing a man and critically wounding two others. Once the dust settled, they found no weapon of any type. BTW, to the poster who said they drove into an unmarked police car, you're right they did, after they were blasted with semi-automatic gun fire.

I've noticed a growing trend of police officers becoming more and more belligerent with their power; the use of force, deadly or otherwise, is taking the place of reasoning. One of my good friends is an officer, he graduated at the top of his class at the academy. He got drummed out of his precinct because he did not show the "proper (excessive) force." I'm all for cops protecting themselves but they need to have a justified threat. You can't kill man by mistake then say "sorry."

the judge had already made his decision long before the trial was over. and yes the policemen wanted to get home to their families that night....but then again, so did Sean.

This case should have gone before a jury of Bell's peers.

they do that you know, for white defendants...and the fact that there were two black defendants means nothing. In fact it worked in the judge's decision....he wasn't going to send the whites to jail..and if it meant acquitting the blacks also, to him, it meant nothing.

It was all a joke

Our Justice system will have Wesley Snipes an actor that didn't pay his taxes do 3 years in prison, but 3 police officers get to go home and probably keep their jobs for murdering a unarmed innocent groom on his wedding day...

This just proves the justice system has their priorities wrong , which Crime is more Hannis.

I believe I am not in a position to second guess a judge who knows the law, sat in a courtroom and heard all of the evidence presented and deliberated accordingly.

Justice was served and it is about time they got a ruling correct.

They hit an unmarked police car, all of the guys involved in the situation had records, and they were coming out of a seedy strip club. WAKE UP! The verdict, for once, was the correct one.

As usual the US propaganda machine (i.e., mainstream media) has failed to give the average citizen enough of the facts involved in the case in order to arrive at a sound judgment. If I could see the trial testimony then I could give you a decent answer.

I think it was wrong for a judge to rule on this.They should have gone to trial and sent to jail for a long time.Justice was not served.No I do NOT agree with the judge.he sould be kicked out of office.Sean Bell did nothing.He diserved to live his life with his new bride.May God be with her and His & her family. .