SourceThe Rev. Al Sharpton was arrested Wednesday at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge in a protest over the acquittal of three police officers involved in the 50-bullet shooting of Sean Bell.
Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man's fiancee were arrested Wednesday in one of a series of demonstrations calling for a federal investigation into the November 2006 shooting.
Sharpton had called for acts of civil disobedience across the city. Several other demonstrators have been arrested as they stopped traffic at bridges and tunnels.
As police kept their distance, organizers gave protesters instructions on how to behave when arrested.
The three officers were acquitted of state charges last month.
Sharpton is seeking a federal civil rights investigation into Bell's 2006 shooting. Bell was killed in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a Queens strip club that was under investigation for prostitution. The officers charged in the slaying were acquitted in state court April 25.
Demonstrators were gathering at six locations, including outside police headquarters and the entrances to the Brooklyn and Triborough bridges and the Holland Tunnel.
Sharpton said some marchers planned to kneel in prayer and risk arrest.
Bell's fiance said after the verdict was read April 25 that "the justice system let me down."
"April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again," Nicole Paultre Bell told a crowd at the headquarters of Sharpton's National Action Network. "That's what it felt like to us."
The verdict elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while Bell's mother cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out outside the courthouse. Sharpton lambasted the judge who acquitted the detectives.
"If people are on the public payroll, doing their public duty, they should be required to face a public jury," Sharpton said. The officers had opted to have the judge instead of a jury decide the case.
Sharpton later promised to "shut the city down" with organized civil disobedience. "Shut it down! Shut it down!" supporters chanted.
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