Strip Club Shooting Sparks Race Debate!

Watching CNN now, I honestly can't believe, and cannot relate how INFURIATED I am that blacks in NYC have decided that the shooting at a strip club, where a groom-to-be (if that is even important) was gunned down by cops AFTER striking an undercover police officer, and striking a police van twice. 50 shots where fired, killing one and injuring two others, an excessive use of force no doubt, but racist??

This link will bring you to CNN's coverage of the story.. nice to see Bloomsburg playing all the right political cards, surrounded by blacks.

www.cnn.com...

However, Trini Wright, a dancer at the strip club where Bell's bachelor party was held, told the Daily News she was going to a diner with the men and was putting her makeup bag in the trunk of their car when the police minivan appeared.

"The minivan came around the corner and smashed into their car. And they (the police) jumped out shooting," Wright, 28, told the newspaper for Monday editions. "No 'stop.' No 'freeze.' No nothing."

This comes from the stripper.. she was getting ready to "go to a dinner" - aka prostitution, if you saw the video of the arrest from the other two members they are your typical "gangsters" and him being a "groom-to-be" does not make him a good man who abides the law.

The fact is Al Sharpton ----

Sharpton called it a "very candid, a very blunt meeting." He said the message to Bloomberg was: "This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men."

Has decided it was indeed a racist motive that killed this man.

And the local Democratic congress person

This warrants an answer," Rangel said as he arrived for the meeting. "Not just to the families of those that were shot and killed but to the people of the city of New York."

Apparently agrees.

But wait folks, before you jump the gun and say I am sticking up for a bunch of white cops who shot a black man...

2 cops where white..

2 cops where black..

1 cop was Hispanic..

2-3 where white. All three fired their weapons, 50 shots in total. Ahem. I believe all people crying race should apologize to the white community for their unbelievable racist, ignorant attitudes. Again, I cannot relate to you how pissed off I am that those ignorant jerks cried racism! Is that not racist in it's self??? WHY do the blacks continue to segregate themselves in such STUPID manors??????

i think your post in itself supports the idea why people have the right to
"cry race". you keep mentioning that the victims were "gangsters" and were
not law abiding citizens because they were going to a "dinner" (which your right, most likely prostituion) with a stripper which i think its totally irrelevant in this case and would only be used in court by the prosecution to descredit the victims.


Five officers were placed on paid administrative leave and stripped of their guns, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Police and prosecutors promised a full investigation.

i;m glad an investigation is getting underway wo can figure out whos is at fault and be punished severly. dont you feel thats appropriate?


Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun, but investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.

I think the police shooting at unarmed men is most likely the result of racial profiling gone terribly wrong.





if they indeed were not the targets of the raid then it is my theory that they were victims
of racial profiling which most likely the main description was "black" and hopefully they not steep to your level of "gangsters". but that would explain why some people are
crying out race if indeed the mistake was done on wrongfully profiling the desired
target by race and like i said in the above statement hopefully they did not use the
term "gangster".

[edit on 27-11-2006 by mayatlantean 1]

I only mentioned they where "gangster" once, and it is rellivant because the articles claim "groom"

Most men are a husband, a father, every one a son.. a "groom" is irrelivent in the shooting it's self except to inspire pity. That is why I bring up the "gangster" aspect, that simply because he was a "groom" does not mean he was a "good person" unable to break laws. Is observing that a reason to cry race? Crying race to me is, in it's self racist.

Just an update here.

Turns out it was
2 Hispanics
2 Blacks
1 White.

One officer fired 31 times. That guy should be fired, investigated to see if his shell killed the man. Will they drop the race charges now? Should they have been so quick to blame race as a factor? Do they owe the NYC people and Whites in general an appology?

Originally posted by Rockpuck
I only mentioned they where "gangster" once, and it is rellivant because the articles claim "groom"

Most men are a husband, a father, every one a son.. a "groom" is irrelivent in the shooting it's self except to inspire pity. That is why I bring up the "gangster" aspect, that simply because he was a "groom" does not mean he was a "good person" unable to break laws. Is observing that a reason to cry race?

Crying race to me is, in it's self racist.

rockpuck your doing the same thing your opposing!! you brung up the issue that the article was calling the victim (not of racism but he is DEAD hes the victim of a mistake, wrongdoing, or other) a groom to inspire pity. but your calling him a gangster to justify the mistake as something that is acceptable and not to be made a big deal out of.

you seem to be implying since he was dressed as a gangster to you then he might very well deserved it. you dont know if he was an active gang member, thats not a fact. someones choice of lifestyle or style of dress does not warrant police officers to kill you

he was a groom, was unarmed, and was shot to death on his wedding day. THAT IS A FACT. its not to inspire pity but reporting the situation which you gotta admit is newsworthy.

i;m just waiting for the investigation to be over and hopefully if any officers broke the law then they should be punished to the extent of the law. with great power such that are possessed by police officers also comes great responsibility.


if police officers mistakenly killed the man because of shotty racial profiling information then i can understand why blacks are yelling "race".

He was armed. With a car? A car, being used as a weapon IS justifiable in police killing him? Whether or not the police where correct in their actions, especially 50 shots is up for question, whether it was racist is not, because it wasn't, which is the point of this thread.

I call him "gangster" in relation that just because he was going to be married does not mean he was a good guy. He was at a strip club on his wedding day on his way to "dinner" with a stripper from a club known for drugs, weapons and underage prostitution. Him being a groom is irrelevant in any part of this story, the only way I can see it fitting in his because the media decided it made for a better story.

You have not addressed the entire purpose of this thread. They screamed racism, it turns out it wasn't.. shouldn't those who screamed racism apologize for their mistake?

Originally posted by Rockpuck
He was armed. With a car? A car, being used as a weapon IS justifiable in police killing him?

no its not.

(from article)

Bloomberg also said police appeared to have violated the policy stating that officers cannot shoot at a vehicle being used as a weapon if no other deadly force is involved.

I call him "gangster" in relation that just because he was going to be married does not mean he was a good guy.

i dont know what this is supposed to context. so if hes a "bad guy" (doing crimes buying drugs hiring a prostitue) then he deserves to be shot. i dont understand what your trying to say as far as mentioning hes a "gangster".

You have not addressed the entire purpose of this thread. They screamed racism, it turns out it wasn't.. shouldn't those who screamed racism apologize for their mistake?

where exactly in the article does it say that it turns out it wasnt racism? show it to me. even al sharpton does not say anything about racism. now thats something .






[edit on 28-11-2006 by mayatlantean 1]

[edit on 28-11-2006 by mayatlantean 1]

I would like to throw my 2 cents worth into this story.

It doesn't matter what colors they were, or what gender, or any other factor.

The facts that people loose sight of so quickly are the important fact(s)... someone died.

Fifty shots were fired. Cops shooting through the front window made cops at the back window think the passengers were shooting at them. 50 shots!! NYPD has still yet to say anything. Of course they will say its racially motivated. Why should it take several days for the PD to come up with a truthful answer?? There should have been answers within the first hour of the shooting.

Pieman is there ever clear answers right after a police shooting?

They investigate first, most likely the officers didn't even know what was going on right afterwords.

If you have been following this on TV, especially CNN you will see the racial involvement.. which has since subsided when they realized that it was a completely mixed racial group of officers. Is it OK to cry racism like that??

Originally posted by Rockpuck
If you have been following this on TV, especially CNN you will see the racial involvement.. which has since subsided when they realized that it was a completely mixed racial group of officers. Is it OK to cry racism like that??

I think your confusing what "racially motivated" really is. if police shot the man because the target they were going after was described as a black man then you can see the element that race plays in this. Nobody not even al sharpton is crying racism. racism is that they hate blacks because of their race therefore shot him.

so just because the officers were of different races including black does not mean the mistake could not have been racially motivated. again pay attention to the difference of racism and racially motivated.

the facts up to now

the officers violated policy by shooting at a car that was being used as a weapon.
the men were unarmed therefore firepower was not only not needed but not allowed.
50 shot or rounds i forget which one, is excessive firepower in which you are shooting to kill and not defend which the officers should of been doing.

Maybe you didn't read the link. Maybe you have not been watching TV. Al Sharpton, Ragnal, and Jesse Jackson all cried racism. They said it was racist the police shot this man. When announce the ethnicity's of the officers where announce they changed tune right away announcing they no longer cared who did it, but that they should still be punished. But, he first played the race card. Are you blind? Def? How dare you deny that?

I think what your getting at is it was racist for any police officer, even a black officer to shoot a black man.

If we threw a fit every time a white guy was shot, or an Asian was shot, or a Mexican was shot.. we would be in endless riots.

Was it police officers abusing their abilities??? YES. It was, I don't deny that, 50 shots is a lot, they had to change clips to keep firing. Stray bullets hit a train station and several houses. All those officers should be punished. To say it was racist because he happened to be black? Please. You get no sympathy from me just because the man happened to be black.

Why if it was the club that was under investigation for prostitution and drugs would they be following these poor shlubs who were out celebrating their buddies last night of freedom. Shouldn't they have been monitoring the owners of the club itself? The article states the cop followed them out of the club closely on foot . Someone follows me out of a club..I would assume hes looking to jack me up. Why would he stand in front of the car and not at the driver or passenger window and flash a badge? They were not obviously involved in prostitution if they were leaving the club without a stripper in tow. I wonder if the cop heard someone say "I'm gonna cap your ass" and translated that into "I have a gun" LOL it shouldn't take days for an answer to be given. These are cops who are trained to get facts and give them. They are consulting with attorneys and of course the attorneys are looking to get them off the hook.

Read the articles from CNN and you'll get the full view of the story.

They where in fact engaging, or possible engaging in prostitution. The main witness was a stripper who was putting on make-up for a ... "dinner" as she put it.

Did they say they had a gun? Yeah, actually they did. The group of three men, including the groom left the club and got into an altercation with another group of people, the argument escalated and one of the "grooms" friends said they would get a gun, they then got into the car, that is when the officer pulled his gun. Your right though, I doubt the officer showed his badge, and the men in the car took it as a threat from the group they where arguing with and where simply trying to get away. Bad police work, but that being irrelevant. Was it racist?

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Bad police work, but that being irrelevant. Was it racist?

I don't know. Did they mention which cop began firing first? Although there were 2 black officers it doesn't mean that it couldn't have racist reasoning behind it.
You may see black cops being portrayed on comedy skits as being funny when it comes to harrassing their own kind but I would say those comedy skits originate from some kind of fact. It can still be racially motivated even if the person is the same race.
Im curious to hear what The Guardians have to say about it. They are a organization of black NYC Police officers.