Photograph of the Reverend Al Sharpton by Armchair Messiah on Flickr Two hundred sixteen people were arrested during pray-ins protesting the acquittals of three police detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell. The NY Times called the demonstrations "carefully orchestrated," as hundreds of (perhaps a thousand) people gathered at six different locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, blocking traffic and attracting arrest. The Reverend Al Sharpton, Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell, and Bell's two friends......

Photograph of protesters on Varick Street by stconrad on Flickr Hundreds of people gathered at six different locations in the city to protest the acquittal of three police detectives in the Sean Bell shooting. They blocked traffic at the Queensboro Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Manhttan Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge, and arrests were made at the Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge. The arrests seem to be because the protesters have......

Photograph of protesters in Harlem on April 26, 2008 by urbanblitz on Flickr Today at 3 p.m., six pray-ins are planned around Manhattan and Brooklyn to protest the Sean Bell shooting verdict. The Reverend Al Sharpton is leading the events and has said he and other participants are willing to be arrested to make a point about the acquittals of the three police detectives who helped fire a total of 50 shots at the......

Photograph of a young boy participating in Sunday's protest march by Stephen Chernin/AP Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers visited the site where Sean Bell was fatally shot by police officers. He was accompanied by people including Bell's friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were also fired at, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Conyers said he spoke to U.S. Attorney Michael Mukasey and that he would work on strategy with the......

Photograph from yesterday's Sean Bell protest by urbanblitz on Flickr The Reverend Al Sharpton is planning a series of rallies and acts of civil disobedience in the wake of the acquittals of three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell. Bell, who was a few hours from his wedding, was unarmed when undercover police fired at him 50 times outside a Queens strip club on November 25, 2008. At yesterday's National......

Photograph of Detectives Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver by Dima Gavrysh/AP Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, who were acquitted of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting trial, spoke at a press conference this afternoon. Detectives Oliver and Isnora thanked Judge Cooperman for his "fair" decision (Isnora also, per City Room, "thanked God, his family, his lawyers"). Detective Cooper, who was only charged with reckless endangerment, said, "I'd like......

Photograph of Nicole Paultre-Bell heading to the Queens County Courthouse today by Craig Ruttle/AP Lawyers made closing arguments in the Sean Bell shooting trial today to Judge Arthur Cooperman, who is presiding over the bench trial. Defense lawyers argued that the police officers on trial were acting in self-defense. One lawyer, Paul Martin, blamed Bell's friend Joseph Guzman, for intimating he was going to get a gun to even a score. Martin said, "He......

Photograph of former mayor Ed Koch receiving a blessing from the Reverend Al Sharpton by Tim Roske/AP Yesterday Governor David Paterson proclaimed "We're going to work together." And one good example of the high feeling of unity at Paterson's swearing-in was former mayor Ed Koch and the Reverend Al Sharpton's exchange. Sharpton gave Koch a blessing and laughingly told the NY Times, "I was praying for his sins. Times heal some of the emotions.......

In between campaign stops for March 4th primaries, Hillary Clinton put on a happy face about the recent Saturday Night Live skits that aired during the show's return last week, adding that "it's so nice to be a fashion icon at my age" (video here). Last night the SNL troupe was at it again with an opening skit that mirrored last week's. As Clinton (Amy Poehler) faced off with Obama (Fred Armisen), it became less......

Photograph of protesters outside the Sean Bell shooting trial in Queens by Gary He/AP; the protesters are holding signs counting down the 50 shots fired Under intense scrutiny from the community and media, the trial of three police officers in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man started today. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges while Detective Mark Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment in the 2006 death of Sean Bell,......

http://gothamist.com/2007/11/24/vigil_marks_one.php...

After Hillary Clinton's started airing a commercial in Wisconsin questioning why Barack Obama declined to appear in another debate, Obama came back with his own ad. The voiceover says:After eighteen debates, with two more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics, the phony charges, and false attacks. On health care, even Bill Clinton's own labor secretary [Robert Reich] even says Obama covers "more people" than Hillary and does......

On Friday night, the Westchester police shot at a Mount Vernon police officer brandishing a gun in front of a county social services building. The policeman killed was Christopher Ridley, who was off-duty at the time; now it turns out he had been trying to break up a brawl. County lawmaker George Oros explained the gunfire erupted after Ridley got up from the ground with something in his hand outdrawn (he was 100 feet away.)......

Above, from left, Detectives Marc Cooper, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora; below, photograph of Bell, Paultre-Bell and one of their daughters The three undercover police detectives facing trial in the death of Sean Bell waived their right to a jury trial, after unsuccessfully attempting to move the trial out of Queens. Bell was killed early on the morning of his wedding, as he left the Kalua stripclub in Queens with friends. They had been......

Photographs of Spitzer, Sharpton, Dinkins and Bloomberg at Sharpton's National Action Network by Tina Fineberg/AP All over the city, events were held to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. One of the biggest events was the Reverend Al Sharpton's annual forum at his National Action Network in Harlem, which attracted Governor Spitzer, Senator Schumer, former Mayor Dinkins and Mayor Bloomberg. Sharpton hailed Bloomberg's efforts to make the city less racially divisive, "It is......

May 29, 2007 was the last time Stepha Henry, a John Jay honors graduate, was seen. The Brooklyn resident had been visiting an aunt in Miami when she went missing and as months went on, her mother quit her job and moved to Florida to search for Stepha while John Jay classmates and faculty held fund-raisers to help the family. Today, Miami-Dade detectives, along with members of the NYPD, arrested a man in New York......

In the vicious waters of the 2008 presidential campaign, everything is fair game. President Bill Clinton learned that (again!) after a remark he made has drawn the ire of black leaders. So Clinton called into the Reverend Al Sharpton's radio show to explain why used the term "fairy tale" while criticizing Barack Obama. It turns out during a Dartmouth College speech (the day before Hillary Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary), the former President......

One of the NJ prisoners who escaped from a Union County jail by chiseling through cement blocks (hiding their progress by taping posters over the growing hole) three weeks ago was captured last night. Thanks to a tip, police found Jose Espinosa in an apartment just a few blocks away from the jail. Espinosa and Otis Blunt somehow acquired wire and were able to use it to "scrape the mortar around two 8-inch-by-16-inch cinderblocks," which......

The three police officers facing trial for the November 2006 shooting of an unarmed man are requesting to their trial moved from Queens. Lawyers for Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper claim they won't be able to get a fair trial in Queens, blaming media attention for "incurably poison[ing]" any potential jury pool. On November 25, 2006, Sean Bell was having a bachelor party with friends on the eve of his wedding. When he......

The Reverend Al Sharpton organized a rally of about 400 people outside the Suffolk County courthouse to protest the conviction of a black homeower in a white teen's death. They chanted, "Step down, DA, step down, DA" as well as "Free John White! Free John White!" John White was found guiltyof manslaughter for shooting a teenager, Daniel Cicciaro Jr., in the summer of 2006. White claimed he felt threatened when he saw Cicciaro and......

Barack Obama's historic Iowa caucus win is giving him momentum for the New Hampshire primary, but it's also prompting discussion of how other black candidates have failed in the past. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who won a number of primaries in 1988, ultimately lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis, and the Reverend Al Sharpton didn't gain many delegates in 2004. On CNN, conservative commentator Bill Bennett made some comments that suggested America doesn't want......

A week has passed after a Long Island jury found John White guilty of manslaughter, but details of what happened in the jury room and talk of an appeal continues. White was convicted for shooting a teenager, Daniel Cicciaro Jr., in the summer of 2006. White, who is black, claimed he felt threatened when he saw Cicciaro and other white teenagers surround his house trying to seek revenge on White's son Aaron over a perceived......

At 6:30AM yesterday morning, federal agents delivered "wake-up" subpoenas to the Reverend Al Shaprton and four of his employees at the National Action Network. The FBI and IRS are looking for financial and corporate records, some dating back to 2001, as part of an investigation into Sharpton's financing of his 2004 presidential campaign as well as allegations of tax fraud. Ten people in total were subpoenaed, including a former chief of staff who left in......

...for being totally rude! It's actually not the kind of #1 ranking Bollinger would prefer, as it's for Time's Top 10 Awkward Moments of 2007 list. As Bwog points out, Bollinger deftly bypasses "David Hasselhoff, David Vitter, Rosie, Paris, Miss Teen South Carolina, Caroline Giuliani, and (wait for it) BRITNEY SPEARS" for his introduction of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September, calling him a "petty and cruel dictator." Ahmadinejad earns the #2 spot on Time's......

After a video of a man being harassed and beaten by a group of teens was publicized by The Smoking Gun, some wonder if the tape is real. The main reason why most people suspect it could be staged is because the teen who filmed the incident is an aspiring filmmaker. Seventeen-year-old Kadejra Holmes told The Smoking Gun she didn't have anything to do with the attack and then took the video off YouTube. Her......

It's been quite a 24 hours for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama. Last nght, he was at the Apollo for his first Harlem event. And this morning, he had breakfast with Mayor Bloomberg at a Midtown diner. At last night's $50-per-ticket fund-raiser, both Cornel West and Chris Rock introduced Obama. West asked the audience to think about entertainers like James Brown and Billie Holliday, who "represent a way of life that goes all the......

Today is a citywide "Day Out Against Hate." City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton have spearheaded the event, which was prompted by a number of disturbing hate crime incidents, from swastikas in Brooklyn Heights to a noose found at the Columbia University campus. The Politicker was at one of the events this morning, where Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz "suggested, rather strongly, that city public school students be required to make......

Beginning at 10:30PM last night and through 5AM this morning, family, friend and other supporters gathered in Queens to remember Sean Bell, the 25-year-old man who was shot by undercover police the night before his wedding a year ago. Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell, told the crowd, "I want justice, but no matter what happens, it won't bring Sean back." The Reverend Al Sharpton, who also attended the overnight vigil, said, "This time a year ago,......

On November 25, 2006, groom-to-be Sean Bell and his friends were leaving the Kalua nightclub in Queens when undercover police confronted them. In the confusion that ensued (the police thinking the men were armed or were going to the car to retrieve a gun, uncertainty over whether the police identified themselves leading Bell and his friends to think they were being carjacked) five undercover cops fired 50 times at Bell's car. His friends Joseph......

The second 911 call between police shooting victim Khiel Coppin's mother and a 911 operator seems to suggests some misinformation. Coppin's mother Denise Owens claimed she told the 911 operator who called her back that her son did not have a gun. Here's an excerpt (you can read the transcript here and hear it here) of the call at 7:05PM, 14 minutes before police shot at 18-year-old Coppin 20 times: Female: Hello Operator: Hi Maam......