April 25, 2011 marked the three-year anniversary of acquittal verdicts of the N.Y.P.D. police officers who murdered Sean Bell in the 50-shot fusillade on November 25, 2006, the day he was to wed his high school sweetheart, Nicole Paultre.
As 31-shot Detective Michael Oliver and his buddies waltzed to their freedom, the Bell family and their supporters prayed at Bell’s grave at Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington.
Let us always remember Sean Bell and how he innocently suffered and died. Let us pray for the comfort of the Bell family, work toward new laws for civil rights, and love our neighbors of all colors.
Let us remember what Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Blacks and whites either hold hands with one another embracing life and happiness, or we ignominiously die as a nation.
Joseph N. Manago
Briarwood
