NYC Mayor Bloomberg Stabs NYPD In Back

 For those who have not heard, there was a controversial shooting by New York City police officers early Saturday morning.  Five undercover police officers opened fire on three black suspects in a car outside a strip club in Queens.  The police fired 50 shots in all.  One of the men in the car was a 23-year-old named Sean Bell who, as reported in the New York Post,

"was set to marry his high-school sweetheart and the mother of his two young daughters hours after his bachelor party at the club."

Mr. Bell was killed.  The incident is now being referred to as the "Groom Shooting," and already is being compared by Al Sharpton to the infamous shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999. 

"Clearly they [the three men in the car] were victims, and at the moment, from what I know, there is no evidence whatsoever that they were doing anything wrong. Period."

"It's hard to understand why 50-odd shots should be taken.  To me that sounds excessive and unacceptable, but we'll wait and see for the investigation."

Contrary to Mayor Bloomberg's rush to judgment, the New York Post has reported that Mr. Bell, who was driving the car, twice tried to run down one of the plains clothes police officers at the scene, which prompted the officers to open fire.  Even if the incident was a tragic misunderstanding (perhaps Mr. Bell thought he was being carjacked), it is factually wrong and politically irresponsible for Mayor Bloomberg to suggest so strongly at this time that the police officers were at fault.  Indeed, despite stating that "We will tell everybody eveything we know, when we know it and not speculate," Mayor Bloomberg has engaged in a most inappropriate and damaging form of speculation about the professionalism and decency of the very men and women who keep New York City safe.


Steven M. Warshawsky