Truth, Justice & the American Way

What is truth? It’s the account of an event with our own twist to it. It’s the version of reality we have built up in our own minds. Having individual truths doesn’t make any of them more or less right. More or less credible. It simply means that truth isn’t always as clear cut as you might think.
As I write this, three NYPD officers have been cleared of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting incident. The facts of the case remain simple. The defendants claim to be moral upstanding lawmen serving and protects as three petty thugs gunned their way down a Queens street leaving a strip club. There was no weapon found in Bell’s car. The prosecution contends that three men merely celebrating their friend’s impending nuptials were gunned down by three power hungry, blood thirsty, trigger happy cops. Two of which who are black.
As a guy who’s been through affairs of various consequence, though none with as much at stake as this, I’m of the mind that the truth lie somewhere in between. I don’t doubt the cops over reacted. (50 fucking shots, 1 kill and another of the victims got shot 16 times—none fatal? Step your game up NYPD) I don’t doubt that the victims did something to pique the officer’s interest.
And interesting of all is the last sentence from two paragraphs ago. “Two of which are black.” (Is it copacetic to quote yourself?) If this were a case of white cops and three “people of color”, I think the reaction may be different. It may be more violent. The KKK might be standing near the front of the courthouse espousing that all n!&&ers are nothing short of petty thugs blasting their way down the silent blocks of the American Heartland. The family, friends and those with a general disdain of law enforcement officials might be rioting and the NYPD might respond with riot squads instead of guys in polo shirts. But two of the cops are black. So we’re left with Rev. Al Sharpton speaking for the family and asking that no violence be carried out in Sean Bell’s name, memory or visage.
But maybe this is the time for protest. The time when there is no ulterior motive. There is no ‘white cops walking the beat in a black neighborhood with itchy trigger fingers and a disdain for rap music’. It’s black victims and 2/3 black cops. Maybe the communities should call a truce and fight for a common cause. The outraged families and those of other questionable shootings coming together along with people like you and I questioning the tactics of the NYPD. Maybe that same KKK should be standing out front calling black cops n!&&ers same as they would the petty thugs.
Or maybe the facts of the case are simpler. There were three NYPD officers who unloaded 50 rounds into a carful of guys out for their friend’s bachelor party with no weapons. There was no justice on 11/25/06 and there was no justice on 4/25/08.