Police Targeting the "good guy"

In the weeks following the murder of Sean Bell, an electrician by trade, I've been wondering: In cases of fatal police brutality, why is the victim always a "good guy?"

Sean Bell- electrician
Amadou Diallo- street vendor
Abner Louima- security guard
Timothy Stansbury- student
Patrick Dorismond- security guard

From what I, and I suspect everyone, have been led to believe, there should be plenty of young black males partaking in illegal activity that the police shouldn't have to search for people to abuse. At least in those cases, they might actually find a gun, or some drugs, to make their case look better.

So, why do the police always kill the "good guy"?


[Mods, I'm having a problem naming the thread. I sent a U2U.]

[edit on 22-12-2006 by HarlemHottie]

Mod Edit: Title Tweak.

[edit on 22/12/2006 by Mirthful Me]

I think the answer is simple -- it's just not news when the police kill a bad guy. It only gets attention when someone innocent gets killed or abused. Some of the cases you list I think were just unfortunate accidents, but yes some are examples of bad cops abusing their power.

it's just not news when the police kill a bad guy

That's not true. I'm watching NY1 right now and they're talking about some guy the police shot, who really did have a gun.

there have been 13 fatal police shootings in 2006, four more than in 2005.

NY police say 2006 shootings by officers on par with other years

I'm gonna have to do some more research, but even a single innocent is too many, especially given that there were only 12 others that police considered so dangerous that they needed to be killed.

Originally posted by HarlemHottie
That's not true. I'm watching NY1 right now and they're talking about some guy the police shot, who really did have a gun.

Well yeah it'll be mentioned in the local press the day it happened, but it's not going to become a huge national story with legs and protests by Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc.

[edit on 12/22/2006 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Well yeah it'll be mentioned in the local press the day it happened...

I should have been more clear. The guy on NY1 is still alive.

So then, my original question stands: in fatal police shootings, why is it always the good guy? And, it's not that criminals don't make the news, because obviously, they do.