SEAN BELL

Quickly, because I have no time, but must comment: the acquittal of three NYPD who emptied 50 bullets into Sean Bell, an unarmed black man, on the eve of his wedding, is a national tragedy. A travesty, too. I was in Europe when the verdict came back -- it was on the front page of a major European newspaper, and all the people I spoke to knew about it and Amadou Diallo, too - and expected rioting in NY... and it wouldn't have been an inappropriate response.

Here is a good piece in the voice about the verdict and its potential judicial legacy.

Related: The Murder Book 2008, an ongoing log of murders in New York by a former Newsday reporter, in a city where the crime rate is steadily rising. Each month he calculates the stats of each murder. By and large the victims are young black and Latino males.