Apr 27, 2008 10:24 am US/Eastern
More Marches Planned In Protest Of Bell Verdict
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Bell family members and supporters are planning more marches and rallies.
CBS
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Nicole Paultre Bell, widow of Sean Bell, man killed by police after leaving his bachelor party in Queens, speaks during rally, New York.
AP
The Reverend Al Sharpton led a rally in Harlem on Saturday amid calls for justice and protest in response to the acquittals of the three NYPD detectives who shot and killed Sean Bell. He promised several rallies in the coming days and to quote shut the city down.
People signed up to take part in upcoming acts of peaceful civil disobedience, possibly during rush hour for maximum impact.
"Shut it down, shut it down. Shut it down, shut it down," demonstrators chanted. They held up white placards numbered one through fifty for the number of shots the officers fired.
Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman who were also shot and wounded, spoke at the rally.
"I walk in here today and I feel a lot better," Guzman said.
Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell shared her grief. "On April 25th, 2008, they killed Sean all over again. Thats what it felt like to us."
"The system let me down," she declared.
The Bell family wants the three detectives who were found not guilty to be brought up on federal charges.
A judge decided the case instead of a jury and aquitted detectives Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora, and Michael Oliver. Their defense for shooting the unarmed men was that they perceived their lives were in danger and that Guzman was reaching for a gun.
Det. Marc Cooper offered an apology to the Bell family for the tragedy, but it apology did not diffuse the fury at the rally, where Sean Bell's father William said he worried the country is moving back instead of forward.
"You tell me, someone got to answer this for me: Is this 1955?" he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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