On my way home from the subway the last few days, I have seen an up-spring of Sean Bell paraphernalia plastered on some telephone poles and street signs. Stickers and flyers that say "We are all Sean Bell." On the cover of AM New York, there was a boy perched on a man's shoulders with a sign that read "I am Sean Bell."
But here's the thing. We aren't all Sean Bell and this whole issue with the protests surrounding the acquittal of the officers in that case, ties directly into something that absolutely baffles me. Why do the public seem to feel as though every tragic occurrence is something worthy of a dramatic outcry and hero-slash-villainization? Why are people downright emphatic about how they are just like a person who - terrible, accidental death or no - was in a shady place and put himself directly in harm's way? Why is a sad event that happened to an average person who purposely did something stupid with no humanitarian aim, suddenly the stuff from which a martyr is born? Driving a minivan directly at another human being means that Al Sharpton will come rushing to your aid?
Why is Al Sharpton "speaking out"? On what is he speaking out? On cops who were undercover and investigating prostitution and drugs in a seedy strip club, known more as a brothel? On a person at whom a large vehicle was being driven, as if to run him over? Is he speaking out against the officers who were looking for criminals rather than club patrons, celebrating a bachelor party? I don't get it.
What he should be speaking out against, is the young men of his community patronizing places of ill repute on the same day they are to be married. Who wants a tired, hungover groom? He should be speaking out against people who exacerbate an already potentially tense situation by getting fights outside the brothel / club and then subsequently turn their vehicles into weapons, aiming them at other people. He should be speaking out about the misapplication of public sympathy and he should be trying to calm those in the community who clearly don't understand why they are fighting, against whom they are fighting and what the real issue is at hand. He should be trying to bring the families together to grieve and, as an educated man and public figure, trying to promote dialogue and understanding. But he's not and they are not.
Instead, there are thousands of people getting together to protest the elusive "Man." I must interject here that I am no friend of the police, nor are they of me, but I am a fan of fairness and objectivity. I also think that it's tragic that Sean Bell's children are now without a father. I think it's horrible that his bride-to-be woke up to the worst, most painful phone call a person can receive. But those things, while sad and lamentable, do not warrant protests and signs and calls for justice and resignations and prosecution.
As an oft-labeled hippie and rights / fairness advocate, I think that everyone has missed the mark on this one. I'm not knocking the act of outcrying publicly, however I am most definitely knocking it in inappropriate circumstances.
Al, round up the troops and take a closer look at what's really going on here. Just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, does not mean that people have to fry. I make no moral judgement on Sean Bell or his friends and family, but for fucks sakes....do something good to honor your lost one and leave the signs out of it.
I am not Sean Bell, and neither are you.
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