Clearly stated

Now why can’t the black leaders convey this message of personal resposibility, they may get less yawns and more credibility

Powell just wants something to say and like most he’s take the low hanging fruit, the easy and obvious to take aim at. Unimpressive.

As a commenting person has said, the people involved can pursue this through the process at this juncture. The real topic meriting discussion and editorial comment is the lack of interest and involvement in any protest of this decision. If you’re going to explore anything about this matter, that’s really what’s note worthy.

This judgment is not a big issue in the Black community other than with a very tiny small handful of Sharpton’s circle. There’s no collective uproar, there’s no collective feeling of outrage, I don’t know a single person who’s pissed.

Why and how that is, is indeed worth exploring and writing about. It’s fair ground statement to say “people don’t care too much about this”. Face it, that’s very much the case.

I am a 34 year old Black Man, but I AM NOT SEAN BELL. I make different choices and decisions than Sean Bell. I am Diallo though, a man that walks out of front doors of Aparment Buildings.

They’re not the same and melding them together is not valid. Sure, you have the right to go to a strip club in sketchy parts of Brooklyn and drink and leave at 3 or 4 in the morning or whatever it was…..and not be killed. Yes, you have that right.

However you are a F’*cking fool if you think you can go drinking as a strip club till 2 or 3 am, then get in a car and drive and not have a good chance of being pulled over by the police.

I think the statistics are that 1 out of every 4 drivers after 2am is legally drunk. Yes, I am serious, the cops know this and actively pull over cars, especially nearly nightclubs and strip clubs and sportsbars. Why? A high [percentage of the drivers are drunk and hazards.

I drink alcohol. However I don’t drink when I know I am going to be driving on the roads after midnight. Why? 2 drinks in 1 hour = failing the sobriety test and a DUI/DWI cost about $2K minimum to handle, often as much as $5K (legal and processing fees).

I caution my company too, if they are driving of the inherent high probability of being pulled over in certain areas after certain hours.

Can we be honest? There are sections of Brooklyn where you don’t want to be Black after sundown. As Black people we know this. It’s not right, it’s not fair. Yes, you can scream and holler all night that you have the right to be Black and walk the streets of Bensonhurst or wherever at midnight or 2am.

Sure, you have that right. But in the real world, all we’re saying is you have the right to be a fool and exercise poor judgment, that’s all. Yes, you have the right to stack the odds in favor of positioning yourself in a high risk environment.

No, I am not Sean Bell and of course he did not deserve to be shot, killed, etc. You know Pro Athletes have programs within their leagues warning them about placing themselves in high risk environments. This might be a newsflash but a lot of Sh*t goes down at the strip clubs, especially after certain hours.

When you’re a Black man, you should not have to have a multi million dollar contract to have to practice prudence and awareness of where you are placing yourself. Life is not fair. Is that news? You cannot give the cops or society and invalid unfair reason to kill or beat you. You don’t walk down the streets of Bensonhurst at 2am, you don’t make quick movements that cause a dumb white cop fear if you are pulled over.

Let’s face it, there are high risk activities when you are Black. and if you are not cognizant of that, you better recognize. This whole, “I am Sean Bell” markething angle/theme is absurd and perhaps the reason no one cares and this judgment has resulted with a collective yawn by 98% of the Blacks in NYC is because unlike Diallo, not a lot of people can relate to drinking at a strip club at that hour of the morning. No excuse to be murdered by the Cops, but also no surprise to me.

I have only one thought to add.

He quotes a friend who said “Black male lives are meaningless in America.” I would like to pose to those members of our community who believe that “no snitching” is an affirmative response to a tragedy like Israel Ramirez and too many others, that they need to recuse themselves on the sideines of this tragedy until they correct themselves. Once they confront their hypocrisy and take responsibility for respecting the meaningfullness of all black lives no matter who the shooters are, only then can they join with the rest of us when we criticize the system for not doing the same. In my eyes those who have information that should be made public about killers of innocents, and do not, are little different than a judge who can not see the guilt in his boys-in-blue’s execution of Sean Bell and who sets them free.

All of the killers of innocents on our streets need to be removed.