NYC Marchers Protest Police Shooting

(AP)  Thousands of protesters, counting in unison from one to 50 to mark the number of shots fired by police in the death of an unarmed Queens man last month, clogged Fifth Avenue on Saturday in a "Shopping for Justice" protest three weeks after the slaying and one week before the Christmas weekend.

Trent Benefield, 23, one of the survivors of the Nov. 25 shooting that killed Sean Bell, led the marchers from his wheelchair as they headed south through midtown Manhattan. He was encircled by bodyguards, and followed by a group of clergy and elected officials on one of the busiest shopping days of the year just nine days before Christmas.

"This is not just a New York City problem," said U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, who was near the front of the march. "This march gives people a chance to speak out."

Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, was also among the marchers, as were U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, city transit union president Roger Toussaint and human rights activist Bianca Jagger. The marchers started at 59th Street and finished their protest more than an hour later outside Macy's on 34th Street.

The demonstration expressed the protesters' outrage at the slaying of Bell, killed in Queens just hours before his scheduled wedding. Five officers fired 50 shots at the 23-year-old Bell's car, killing him and wounding Benefield and another companion outside a strip club.

"It's important that the police understand that they're here to protect the people," said Larry Dais, a Columbia University administrator and father of a 21-year-old son.

Among those marching was James Canley, whose 25-year-old son Adrian was shot and killed last month by a sheriff's department detective in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He compared his son's death with the Bell shooting.

"11-14-06, Ventura County," read a sign held by Canley — the date of his son's slaying.

Other demonstrators waved signs and chanted as they marched. "Stop NYPD Racist Terror," read one sign. "Jail the Cops," said another.

The victims of the shooting were all black; the officers were white, Hispanic and black.

The march was organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and other community leaders, and was intended to contrast the slaying of Bell with the holiday spending spree along Manhattan's most famous shopping district. It was the latest in a series of demonstrations since the Bell shooting.

But not everyone was behind Sharpton's cause. Steven Pagones, a former prosecutor who won a $345,000 defamation case against Sharpton and two other men in 1998, showed up at the march to remind people of the civil rights activist's inaccurate charges against him in the Tawana Brawley case.

Sharpton made the unsubstantiated allegation that Pagones was one of a group of white men who abducted and raped Brawley.

"Al Sharpton is capable of making outrageous and reckless charges," Pagones said. "I know, because I was on the receiving end in the Tawana Brawley case, which we know is a hoax. Al Sharpton is an opportunist. My primary purpose is to remind people to be careful when they listen to Al Sharpton."

Police have said that undercover officers were conducting a vice operation at the strip club before the shooting, and they believed the victims were going to retrieve a gun — although no weapons were found. Police have also said Bell's car struck an officer and crashed into an unmarked police van.

But Sharpton and others say police used excessive force.

[olgreyghost]

Amerigirl28:

Thank you ma'am and I like your style, too. Keep up the good work, we just might win this thing. God bless and keep y'all safe...

[beasia]

Olgreyghost

I like your style! that whole hispanic thing is so true.

sparkeee35 said " Hey everybody on here giving your opinion...kailumego is the ONLY one who is right...no matter what you may say. Notice all the posts he's had lamblasting anyone who dares to have a opinion."

I would like to think he's just exposing cracks in your opinion. But, it is very easy on these boards to become grounded in your argurment, not see the other person's side, abate apologies and genereally become indignant.

I don't know if Kail is really doing that or not, he has not attacked me for the comments I have said. attacking isn't conversing.

[olgreyghost]

Let me throw in an interesting twist to inter-racial crime if I may. Most crime is intra-racial (within a race; i.e. White-on-White, Black-on-Black), but there has been an alarming increase in a particular inter-racial crime. White-on-Black is on the decrease but Black-on-White is on the rise and has surpassed White-on-Black (out of ratio to their respective proportions of the U.S. population) and is quickly approaching the amount of Black-on-Black crime. Could this possibly be the result of the blame-game against the White race or is there some other factor influencing this aspect of crime?

Hispanics cannot, due to government definition, commit inter-racial crimes. If they are the perpetrator, they are defined White. If they are the victim, they are defined Hispanic. Hopefully government statisticians will one day correct this error.

[sparkeee35]

Hey everybody on here giving your opinion...kailumego is the ONLY one who is right...no matter what you may say. Notice all the posts he's had lamblasting anyone who dares to have a opinion. Even if you were there or not...he's right...everyone else is wrong. We're all racist except for him. We're all living in denial...and all the other b.s. he spouted off about. This issue is a old issue...it didn't just start today...we have way more important things in our country to worry about...and so do I...so adious to all this SELF RIGHTEOUS B.S.

[maikkun]

I was there by the library on Saturday along 5th. and I got to watch the march in it's entirety. what struck me as being not too good was that Al had intended for the march to be silent, and it was for a good deal of time. then the crowd got louder and more vociferous and radical. they started shouting "NYPD go to hell," and they had signs that read "Ku Klux Kops," not only are they protesting stereotyping, but they themselves were doing it to the police. if the march had remained silent then the message would have gone through loud and clear, but since the radicals had to muck up the silence with chanting then that downplayed the message. and that is sad. cuz they had a good message to start out with.

[sparkeee35]

kailumego...you know what? You're absolutely right...every bit of trash you just spouted off to me...without even knowing me...is so far off of the truth radar. But since you THINK you know me & my type...you just go ahead & keep spouting YOUR "intelligent" opinios to everyone. I have heard Blacks & whites BOTH talk their racial b.s. all my life...I have seen both men come to the South...spoutin off their racial b.s. Sure racism is alive today...just as well as it was alive YEARS ago...but the difference today is...kids are being taught...by racist parents...BOTH black & white...that its ok to be a racist. But anyway...whatever...you think you have all the answers...you're just as bad as you say I am...judging & pointing fingers...but if it makes you feel better to call me a racist...knock yourself out...your opinion doesn't matter to me.

[beasia]

Kailumego1

I"m not so sure about the black panthers, but there are many black organizations that teach racial intolerance. They teach that white people are the devil and we are the rightful, righteous owners of the earth, once we take white people off of their pedestal: sounds like the black version of the KKK to me.

Anytime you look at a person's skin color to determine their worth, your organization is racist.

[kailumego1]

And comparing the "Black Panthers" to the KKK how ludicrous or ridiculous, this is also a demonstration of RACISM. The KKK a murderous vigilante group that viciously attacked unsuspecting blacks for no apparent reason, other than, they%u2019re black, lynching, burning, castrating, etc., with the full support of law enforcement on their side, in contrast to the Black Panthers a vigilante group spawn out of Marxist Revolutionary ideology whose aim was to combat the wanton gratuitous violence against blacks.

So, pray tell, how in the world can the KKK be compared to the Black Panthers, to polar opposites, the KKK murderous thugs and the Black Panthers, revolutionaries combating a greater EVIL of violence perpetrated against blacks.
That%u2019s how I know you%u2019re in denial, you can%u2019t even reason or differentiate between the two groups without imposing your own subjective racism.

[kailumego1]

Sparkeee35, you are as RACIST as they come, " They are the BIGGEST racists alive. I notice that they don't come to the South and talk that ***...or at least not without all their paid bodyguards%u201D. And you think this isn't a RACIST statement, what planet have you come from. Some of the biggest racists are those that flagrantly deny on the one hand, while making insidious remarks about those whom they profess not to be prejudical.

Individuals like you are so typical, you scream the loudest when the shoe is on the other foot, blacks killing blacks, but speak silently in the mist of your own degradation, whites killing, raping, and lynching blacks.

And you being on the defensive is a dead give away, unfortunately, I wish I had been wrong, because maybe it would demonstrate a ray of hope.

But, individuals like you, with your closet undercover racism, is the most deadly and lethal from of inhumanity.

And since you so vehemently protest, then the next time the KKK marches through your neighborhood, I'll be looking for you to protest them.

[sparkeee35]

For the gentleman who has called me a racist...let me get this straight...I am NOT a racist or a bigot...or living in self denial.I treat people the same...I have grown up in the South...watchin & hearin the "racism bandwagon"...all my life...whether it be the KKK or the Black Panthers...they are BOTH wrong. God created us all equal...and there are a lot of people who vehenemtly deny that fact. I'm not responsible for all the many hateful things that white & black people have done...IN THE PAST. That is history...that can never be changed. I don't point fingers at people who TRY to make a better life for themselves...whatever nationality OR race they are. More power to them. There are white people who are just as wrong...raisin their kids to be racist...I'm not one of them. I grew up in a town where racism was very much alive. My father taught us to NOT look at people that way. Most people are judged by the color of their skin...no matter where you live. White or black. You have voiced YOUR opinion...being just like the rest of us...but you decided to point fingers...my answer to your "opinion" is...everyone has one..glad you were able to get all of that off your chest. You are just as bad as you say I am.