Nas Slams NYPD on Sean Bell’s Killing, Papoose Fires “50 Shots”

By: Rizoh

      Following the fatal shooting of an unarmed New York resident by 5 undercover cops, Queens rapper Nas has joined the African-American community’s outcry and criticism of the New York Police Department, calling the shooting cowardly. 

       Police dumped a 50-shot barrage on the vehicle transporting Sean Bell and two of his friends from Bell’s bachelor party last Saturday. The 23-year-old was supposed to get married to his high school sweetheart. But hours before the wedding ceremony, he was killed when five undercover police officers fired 50 shots at a car carrying him and two friends. Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield survived the shooting but remain hospitalized. None of the victims were armed.

       The shooting occurred around 4.a.m., shortly after the trio had left a strip club called the Kalua Lounge, where Bell celebrated his last night as a bachelor, authorities said. According to reports, the Nissan Altima transporting Bell and his friends had rammed into an undercover cop and then an unmarked NYPD minivan twice.

       Police emptied then 50 rounds on the car. One officer fired his weapon 31 times, discharging two full magazines. Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun, but later found no weapons.

       "The one who reloaded should go before the judge and plead guilty," Nas said in a statement. "If he was a man, he would be brave enough to face the charges as a man. This brutality bullsh*t is played out with that slave sh*t. It has to end now. The cops need to be charged the way gangsters are charged."

       Nas isn’t alone in his outcry. Rapper Papoose has released a mixtape track titled "50 Shots," where he laments,"No justice, no peace /Another black man shot dead on the streets," likening the incident to the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo. On February 4, 1999, four New York City police officers searching for a rape suspect knocked on Amadou Diallo’s door to question him. When he came to the door he reached inside his jacket, at which point the officers shot at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 bullets. Police later found that the object Diallo was reaching for was his wallet.

Audio: Papoose – "50 Shots"