Three of New York’s Finest were arraigned yesterday on felony and lesser charges in the Sean Bell case – a tragedy steeped in the chaos and danger that city cops face daily.
The three – Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper – pleaded not guilty to the eight counts against them. Oliver and Isnora face charges of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment; Cooper is accused of reckless endangerment.
Now it’s up to Queens DA Richard Brown to prove those charges.
He’ll have his hands full.
Sure, the usual racial troublemakers already have convicted the three – and locked them up for good.
As if life were so simple.
On the night in question, Bell and his pals were celebrating his upcoming wedding at the Kalua Cabaret, a skeevy strip joint known for drugs, prostitution and guns. The cops were there gathering evidence in an effort to shut the dump down.
When Bell and his buddies left, chaos erupted. Bell rammed his car into a police van and clipped Isnora, who was the first to fire his weapon.
When it was over, five officers had fired 50 shots; Bell was dead, his pals seriously injured.
DA Brown’s extraordinarily thorough investigation followed.
As did the indictments.
Now comes the trial, with time out for motions and a probable application for a change of venue – a not-unreasonable request under the circumstances.
“I’m going to keep this in the street,” the Rev. Al Sharpton vowed last November – and, as always, he hasn’t disappointed.
Yet Sharpton and his ilk weren’t the only ones in the streets of late.
Take some of the incidents that city cops faced last week:
* Crowds at a high-school basketball championship game at Madison Square Garden began a near-riot Sunday night, stretching all the way from 33rd Street to 42nd and Times Square. Gunfire erupted. Cops on horseback were called in. The Deuce had to be shut down.
* On Tuesday, gunman Corey Mickins shot plainclothes officer Robert Tejada twice in a Harlem restaurant.
* Later that night, police say Hugo Hernandez stabbed transit officer Angel Cruz in the head with a hunting knife during a life-or-death struggle at a Brooklyn subway station.
* On Wednesday night, two unarmed auxiliarly cops were executed in cold blood by a deranged ex-Marine who had just murdered a bartender in Greenwich Village. Police managed to kill the gunman, David Garvin, after a total of 56 shots were fired.
For sure, New York today isn’t the seething cauldron Rudy Giuliani inherited 13 years ago, and Mayor Bloomberg deserves considerable applause for consolidating the gains of his predecessor.
But the bulk of the credit goes to the men and women of the NYPD, who are on the streets in the wee hours, at places just like the Kalua Cabaret – risking their lives, and futures – for the citizens of New York City.
They are not perfect.
They make mistakes.
But imagine what the city would be like without them.
Most of the charges leveled yesterday require that intent to do harm be proved beyond a reasonable doubt if a conviction is to be obtained.
Or, perhaps more relevant to this case, to be sustained on appeal.
The fact is, sometimes police officers must fire their guns. And when that happens, the consequences can be tragic.
But criminalizing tragic outcomes serves only to embolden criminals and to hamstring the police.
And to propel New York City back toward the abyss.