New York to Pay $7 Million in Police Shooting Case, the black man shot on his wedding day

[Liberal_in_LA]

New York to Pay $7 Million in Police Shooting Case
By DAVID W. CHEN and A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: July 27, 2010

Closing a key chapter in one of the most controversial police shootings in recent memory, New York City agreed on Tuesday to pay more than $7 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family and two friends of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was fatally shot by the police on his wedding day in 2006.

The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The children of Mr. Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, would receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode would also receive payments, with Joseph Guzman getting $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.

The lawsuit, filed in 2007, accused the police of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations. But it had repeatedly stalled as the state and federal governments and city police officials investigated the shooting.

From the outset, the case set off a raw debate over the use of deadly force by the police and prompted the city to change some of its policing procedures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/nyregion/28bell.html?_r=1&hp

[midnight]

1. That poor family.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. It isn't enough.

The cops killed this family, not just a man.

http://vivirlatino.com/i/2008/04/sean_bell_narrowweb__300x374,0.jpg

[malaise]

3. Too true

:cry:

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ThomCat]

5. Our taxes pay for this, and every other settlement, and the police

don't seem to learn. :(

The brutality seems to be getting more common, not less. It seems to be getting worse and more severe.

As long as it's taxpayers paying the bill, and not the cops and police departments directly, how will anything change?

Do the cops really give a shit about these penalties if they aren't the ones paying?

[JI7]

6. cops and departments get money from the taxpayers

[ThomCat]

7. Their budget doesn't get cut as a result of these settlements though.

There is no direct repercussion as a result of these settlements.

No officer ever gets directly fined. Internal Affairs is a well known joke. The most that ever seems to happen is an officer gets a paid vacation, getting suspended WITH PAY for a short period of time while something blows over. How is it a punishment to get a vacation?