Washington, DC- Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee released the following statement expressing her outrage over the acquittal of three New York City Police Officers in the Sean Bell murder case. On Nov. 25, 2006, 23-year-old Sean Bell, walked out of a Queens strip club, climbed into a gray Nissan Altima with two friends and died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by a group of five police officers the day before Bell’s wedding:

 “I am shocked and outraged that the New York City Police Department was given a ‘free pass’ and was not adequately held accountable in the shooting and death of Sean Bell. This miscarriage of justice is all the more egregious in light of the fact that this young man was unarmed and shot 50 times the day before his wedding.

 “As a senior Member of the Committee on the Judiciary, I renew my call for the Department of Justice to commence a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the circumstances leading to and including the legal proceedings against the New York City Police Department. In the great words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’ and we as a nation will not tolerate such injustices.”

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