Cops get away with another killing

If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot. -Thomas Szasz

Another senseless and unnecessary cop shooting, and the cops go free! Unnecessary because they were undercover cops doing a sting on "suspected" prostitution. Prostitution is a victimless crime. It should not be illegal. Certainly an innocent man should not be killed over prostitution.

Killing an innocent man over a vice such as prostitution is like killing innocent people in no knock raids looking for drugs. Taking a drug should not be illegal. You own yourself. Your body does not belong to the Mob. Yet you could get killed by the mob if you ingest something they do not approve.

April 25, 2008, Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.

The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers — undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club — said they thought one of the men had a gun.