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Black NY protesters march 5th Ave over shooting
2006-12-16
Black New Yorkers angry over the police shooting death of a groom on his wedding day marched down Fifth Avenue on Saturday to demand better treatment by law officers. As Christmas shoppers flooded Fifth Avenue, thousands of protesters marched 25 blocks in a blocked off traffic lane to commemorate victim Sean Bell's life on the day they said he should have been celebrating his daughter's fourth birthday. The march, organized by civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, was led by Sharpton and Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre-Bell. Celebrity marchers including Bianca Jagger and singer Harry Belafonte. "This must stop. They have been killing us for too long," said Michelle Bethea, a 51-year-old New York legal assistant. "The black people of America are treated like dirt. Our kids don't live to see 21 because of the people that are supposed to protect us. It doesn't make sense," she said, holding a placard urging better police and community ties. Bell, 23, who was out for a bachelor party, was killed on November 25, hours before he was to marry the mother of his two children. Two friends with him were wounded, one critically, after police fired 50 bullets at the three unarmed men. The District Attorney in the New York borough of Queens is investigating the incident. Police have said the officers opened fire as the men were in a car outside a strip club, apparently in the belief one of them had gone to fetch a gun to settle a dispute at the club. The Nation Action Network said Saturday's march was to "remind New Yorkers that it won't be business as usual until there is an end to police brutality." The December 12th Movement, a human rights group, has planned a "Day of black outrage" protest to "shut Wall Street down." Protesters called for New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly to step down and for the police involved in the shooting to be jailed. They carried placards reading "Stop police terror" and "Justice for Sean Bell." "The police have done this far too many times, they're killing too many of our black men. Every time something goes wrong the first thing they do is to pull out their gun," said Terry Hendrickson, 37, a student, from Morristown, New Jersey. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said it was "unacceptable or inexplicable" as to how 50 shots were fired, while Kelly has established a panel to review the department's undercover operations and policy.
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