In Queens last week, a judge ruled that the cops who turned young Sean Bell into a sieve on his wedding day were filled with most understandable apprehension, though Bell turned out to be unarmed. As usual, the cops walk, and sometime later, the victim's family may get a settlement from the city. The important thing is that justice is seen not to have been done. Power needs the periodic buttress of irrational, uniformed violence.

After Judge Anthony Cooperman let Bells' killer go free ...

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