When New York City Police Officers Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper were acquitted after killing father and husband to be Sean Bell in a hail of 50 bullets, many, especially the people of color communities of NYC were outraged, but not surprised. We were told not to riot because justice system worked but for those of us in Queens, NYC who had seen the killers of 19 year old Manny Mayi get off (one becoming a police officer), for those of us who saw the police officers who killed cook Jose Librado Sanchez, because he had a knife (imagine that working in a kitchen with a knife), we knew that the Queens District Attorney’s Office had little energy or interest in mounting a strong prosecution.

And so hopes were placed in the Feds. After all the Federal Department of Justice successfully prosecuted once NYC Police officer Francis X. Livoti for violating the civil rights of Anthony Baez when he used an illegal and deadly choke hold against the Puerto Rican in 1995. Today those hopes were killed and in many ways the family and friends of Sean Bell have lost their beloved again as the the U.S. Justice Department says there’s not enough evidence to show the officers acted willfully in the death of Sean Bell.

I watched the news coverage of the decision and listened to Sean Bell’s fiance, made a widow right before her wedding said that she had hoped that the Feds would so something especially since now the Feds were under the watch of the administration of change.

This broke my heart.

While politicos and pundits have to understand the delicate balance in which President Obama works and at the Department of Justice under Eric Holder, a parent mourning the unjust loss of their child, a lover mourning the loss of her partner, they do not and shouldn’t be expected to. Plus here in New York City, it’s really hard for people of color communities to rejoice in all the self-praise for lowered crime rates when the sight of police officers in our communities makes us nervous at best, scared at worst.

I wrote about some of the problems I saw in looking towards the Feds for justice when it comes to immigration . The same issues can extend to the issue of police violence. There have been hearings and panels and commissions and reports on police brutality in communities of color in NYC for decades, some which I testified at even. Some that were created before I was born. Clearly it is not an issue that will be fixed only by the courts. But, for the families of loved ones, there is some small comfort in seeing a person who took away life declared guilty and serving jail time. I understand that. Sean Bell’s family doesn’t have that anymore.

What does remain is a civil case for money damages and and an internal NYPD investigation.

That’s not justice either.

We are all still Sean Bell.