One of the next steps in the case of Sean Bell will, it appears, be a decision by America on whether to bring a civil rights case against the police detectives the state of New York had just concluded were not guilty. The civil rights laws America would be using were brought onto the books to help defeat Jim Crow, when it was possible for a white man who killed a black man to be placed in the dock without actually being in jeopardy of losing his own life or limb. This is why it was not a violation of the constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy for such a killer to be tried a second time by the federal government on civil rights charges for the same criminal act. In the south of Jim Crow, there had not been jeopardy in the first instance.

It is, however, going to be passing difficult for the federal government to conclude that the officers acquitted Friday of murdering Sean Bell were not in genuine jeopardy when they went before Judge Cooperman. A lot of things can be said about Judge Cooperman, but one thing that cannot be said about him is that he is a racist or that he was unprepared to find the defendants guilty if the evidence demanded it. The same can be said of the district attorney of Queens County, Richard Brown. He tried his level best to gain a guilty verdict on Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper. So between a high quality judge and a determined prosecution, there is no doubt that the three officers were in genuine jeopardy before the law. Once an acquittal is brought in, the Constitution requires that it be the end of the criminal phase of this tragedy.

It doesn’t, however, mean the end of the story. There is no doubt going to be civil litigation for damages. There is going to be a determination made by the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, in respect of the careers of the three officers. There have already been extensive reviews of police procedures to make it less likely that an unarmed individual can be gunned down in a hail of bullets fired by police officers. And there is going to have to be a constant political effort in our city between the administration and the minority community. We have never felt that the demagogues speak for large numbers, but neither do we discount the danger of a growing cynicism. It is not a small thing that an innocent individual was gunned down by police officers on the streets of New York.

But there is an obverse danger of which the city needs also to stay aware — namely that the police will lose their nerve and their aggressiveness. We have lived, during the mayoralties of Rudolph Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg, in an era of plunging crime rates. Under Mr. Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly, crime has fled so thoroughly that the city is the safest large city in America. At a time of economic uncertainly and possible recession, confident policing will be at a premium. Absent that, all that we have built in the years since September 11, 2001, will be at risk. The mayor spoke well after the verdict when he said, “All of us have a responsibility to improve our neighborhoods and our City, and we can only do that by working together, respecting each other, and doing everything possible to prevent future tragedies and injustices.”