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Supporters rally for Sean Bell in Union Square

BY MICHAEL FRAZIER | michael.frazier@newsday.com

Members of the Harlem Revolution Club rallied in Union Square Thursday, the latest in a wave of protests after acquittals of three city police detectives charged in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell in Queens 18 months ago.

"What happened to Sean Bell is nothing new," said Nicholas Heyward Sr., whose teenaged son was shot and killed in 1994 by a housing authority officer. "It's time for this to stop."

Nicholas Heyward Jr., 13, was shot in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, when an officer mistook his toy gun for a real weapon. The officer was not charged.

Heyward was among about a dozen supporters of the grassroots activist group who met in Union Square and marched to City Hall Thursday. The revolution club holds weekly demonstrations in Jamaica, the neighborhood where police shot Bell and two of his friends on Nov. 25, 2006, after the trio had celebrated Bell's bachelor party at a nearby nightclub.

Advocates for policing reforms say that community pressure already has led to some positive results. Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee, which has influence over funding of police departments, held a public forum in lower Manhattan on the Bell shooting. The panel is considering recommendations for reforms in policing.

On May 20, the NYPD filed internal disciplinary charges against seven officers in the Bell shooting, including the three detectives acquitted in Bell's death -- Gescard Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper. The internal charges came while the U.S. Justice Department is separately considering federal civil rights charges against the three detectives.

Rallies such as the one at Union Square intensified after the acquittals, with the Rev. Al Sharpton leading appeals to city, state and federal politicians, including Gov. David A. Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to improve police accountability.

More than 200 people -- including Sharpton and Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell -- were arrested May 7 during nonviolent demonstrations at several locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Sharpton, who spoke before the Judiciary Committee, was not at Thursday's rally.

Since Bell's killing, Sharpton has garnered national media attention -- a key strategy in evoking social change, said Michael D'Innocenzo, a history professor at Hofstra University.

"Whether it's Ghandi or [the Rev. Martin Luther] King or Al Sharpton, people leading some kind of civil rights protests, a huge amount depends on publicity," D'Innocenzo said. "How do you reach a tipping point where enough people will pay attention so there's a ripple effect that could lead to greater awareness and can produce change in policy?"

In the Internet age, the Web has helped people spread their message beyond street corners and neighborhoods, Hofstra University law professor Monroe Freedman pointed out. But nothing can take the place of marches and rallies, he said.

"People are aware of the problem in a way that they weren't before," Freedman said. "But there are people who are not wired up electronically, and it is still an important way of democratic expression."

Carl Dix of Brooklyn, among those marching to City Hall yesterday, said one thing could end his participation in such rallies.

"If there was justice, I wouldn't protest," he said.