Bell Case Negligence

To the Editor:

Rev. Al Sharpton calls the police officers involved in the Sean Bell shooting murderers. A spokesman for the Detectives' union (DEA) calls these officers good Detectives who made a tragic but understandable mistake.

Neither of these adversaries is objective or fair to either the shooting victims or the police officers who fired the 50 shots.

The shooting is certainly not murder any more than the Diallo shooting was murder. Nor is it simply "a tragic mistake" that "goes with the (police) territory." Very likely, both shootings are mistakes, but they are unforgivable, incredibly negligent mistakes that can best be remedied not by prison time, but by administrative penalties, such as termination of employment, suspension without pay, and probation.

This will not happen (without mayoral intervention) unless there is a truly independent and powerful monitor of the Police Department, one that can override the Police Commissioner, such as that recommended by the Mollen Commission on Police Corruption in the early 1990's.

When police officers (especially those in plainclothes) initiate a police action and have full discretion on how to approach a suspect, their "mistakes" resulting in the death of an innocent person should result in serious penalties. However, unless a police officer has a corrupt motive, his wrongful actions are generally not crimes that warrant prison time. Until we have a system that takes the politics and bias out of the police disciplinary procedure, we will never have anything close to real justice for police officers or the victims of their deadly mistakes.

MICHAEL J. GORMAN

Editor's note: The writer is a retired NYPD Lieutenant and an attorney.