Coast to Coast Racism

Only hours before his wedding one young black man is dead, and two of his friends are wounded. Why did police fire 50 rounds at their car? My first instinct thinks the shooting was motivated by racism.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said it best when he asked: "How does one justify 50 shots at unarmed men?"

Sean Bell and his friends were celebrating Bell's pending marriage. He was hours away from marrying his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two children. What we know at the moment is that as the men left a strip club they were followed by undercover police officers, in plain clothes, who were investigating possible illegal activity at the Kalua Cabaret.

According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club, and one of his friends made a reference to a gun.

Why did the police follow the men out of the club? What was said that would have led to the verbal dispute? And why, when there was no evidence of weapons, were 50 rounds fired at the car?

And, when it was known there were no weapons, why were the two wounded survivors of the shooting handcuffed to their hospital beds?

I couldn't help but think of the incident earlier in the week involving comedian Michael Richards, and his response to two African American men he perceived to be heckling him. Richards lashed out at the men with a string of racial obscenities and profanity.

Richards has said the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry -- but was it?

Whether the shots fired at Black men are words or bullets, it's well past time to us to examine why this is still happening, and to demand change.