The Brian Lehrer Show

Just want to offer my thanks to you, Brian, and Arun and to WNYC generally for staying with this story in such a comprehensive way.

Surely, Sean Bell did not deserve to die because he was legally blind. None of what of I've heard from defense witnesses provide a reasonable person with a scenario in which 51 shots are fired. If Sean Bell had been a white middle class stock broker coming out of a Greenwich Village bar, would 51 shots been an acceptable response to any of this defense testimony?

Even if everything the cops were claiming were true. Even if they identified themselves, even if they tried to hit them with their car, even if all of that were accurate (and I don't think it is)... does any of that justify the shear number of shots fired? And the fact that they actually shot one man as he was trying to get away? There have been cops going after a guy who actually had a gun, waving it threatening, and they didn't have to fire a single shot let alone completely discharge their weapons into a car, reload, and continue firing... these guys were cowboys. They thought they could do whatever they wanted.

the madness of this is that NYPD has a warped since of reasonable force. while i think it is difficult to be a police officer in a city, much in less a city of 8.2 million, i think it is reasonable (if not necessary) to have a please force that understands that force is not the first and overwhelming options. with the cut in pay for officer i fear there will be more cowboys less law enforcement within the police force.