New York City Settles Sean Bell Civil Suit

New York City Settles Sean Bell Civil Suit

July 28, 2010 11:24:00 AM CDT

by Omar Burgess

Tuesday, the city of New York agreed to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from a 2006 shooting which killed Sean Bell and injured Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. The Associated Press reports the settlement was filed in Brooklyn and will award $3.35 million to the estate of Bell, $3 million to Guzman and $900,000 to Benefield. Police opened fire on the three men outside of a Queens strip club while they were leaving Bell's bachelor party.



After his killing, artists such as Game, ?uestlove, Papoose, David Banner and many others took up Bell's cause. Bell's widow, Nicole Paultre-Bell was also featured in a Rocawear advertisement.



"We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement," city attorney, Michael A. Cardozo, said in a written statement.



In 2008 the involved officers, Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, were acquitted of manslaughter and other charges. There were also no civil rights charged raised against the officers, and they currently remain on modified duty and face departmental charges.

From HipHopDX.com
 
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.11810/title.new-york-city-settles-sean-bell-civil-suit

New Book Claims Death Row Was An FBI Front To Ruin Black Activism

New Book Claims Death Row Was An FBI Front To Ruin Black Activism


Thursday, June 17, 2010 4:30 PM

By Nolan Strong

(AllHipHop News) A new book being published claims that Death Row Records was actually a front for the FBI in an attempt to assault and end black activism.



The new book "The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders: U.S. Intelligence’s Murderous Targeting of Tupac, MLK, Malcolm, The Panthers, Hendrix, Marley, Rappers & Linked Ethnic Leftists".



According to the book’s author, Baltimore area native and Columbia University graduate John Potash, he extensively researched the book, which claims to show the FBI’s consistent pattern of undermining black activism.



The book claims that Shakur was deliberately targeted by the government, like other black leaders, due to his growing influence in the African-American community, utilizing Hip-Hop music.



"What I think it was was that he had become the most influential black man in the black community in the country," Potash told The Baltimore City Paper. "The CIA and U.S. intelligence, what they have to do is win the hearts and minds of the people. They don't want to control us by force, they want us to control ourselves by having us believe in a certain way--that we don't need national health care, for example. And here, Tupac was threatening to win over the hearts and minds of people, he was able to counter so much of the propaganda in the black community."



The FBI War on Tupac Shakur took ten years to research, utilizing court testimony, FBI documents and a number of previously unseen documents provided by The Black Panthers to Potash.



As for Death Row, Potash claims that the government was definitely involved in the record label’s operations, in a continued attempt to harass Shakur and derail his career.



"I believe that Death Row Records, which included dozens and dozens of police officers at all levels, according to a high-level police officer that investigated them, was a front company and was trying to continue penal coercion and mess up [Tupac Shakur's] head," Potash said.



A research documentary also accompanies the self-published book.

From AllHipHop.com
 
http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/06/17/22270000.aspx