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When Cops Kill: Thoughts On The Diallo Shooting
Though Mumia is thought innocent by many thinking, rational people, it is still ironic that a man in jail for supposedly killing a cop is writing on killer cops. I love it! Mumia's is another blatant example of a bad jury verdict.
Protest Against Police Brutality
Take a look at some of the photos from some of 1999's protests against police brutality.
Behind The Badge With A Hand On The Trigger
Read about two 'Court TV' reporters who tried out the 'NYPD Museum Crisis Simulator' to see just what it might be like to be a cops with a gun in a volatile situation, having to make split second decisions. I have to get down there myself one day soon!
Cardinal And Parents Share Hopes
Cardinal John O'Connor now ailing, expressed his hope that this shooting might bring attention to the healing that needs to be done to stop racial tension. Wish that were enough for Amadou Diallo, but unfortunately, he is not around to be healed.
The Diallo Verdict: Police Must React To Prevent Similar Strategies
Starting out by saying that the verdict reached was 'understandable', this article goes on to actually ask some fairly good questions about what to do now about perceived tension between minorities and thinking people, and the police. It also asks how if Diallo had been a young white man standing in front of his home, "looking up and down the street," as the police shooters described Diallo's 'suspicious' behavior, would they have stopped, then shot him?
Those NYPD Blues
There are also questions of whether the Street Crimes Program lost some restraint and control when it tripled in size a few years ago. Another question is why it needed to triple at all, with crime rates declining, notes John Leo in this 'US News' report (April 5th, 1999), writing about the 'NYPD Street Crimes' plain-clothes cops.
Street Cops Fear Return Of Crime Wave
Some of the unnamed cops in this article fear a crime wave "never seen before in NYC," but the ones who are named mainly seem to think that there won't be much of any change in the 'Street Crimes Unit' having to wear a uniform. But it is a moot question now anyway, because five months after the NYPD brass implemented this policy, they rescinded it, allowing the SCU to go back to their undercover garb, so nobody can tell the whitebread boys driving around four-to-an-unmarked-hubcapless sedan are cops, you know!
Law Enforcement In The Big Apple
Despite 45 084 stops the unit bothered to record in 1997 and 1998, the 'Street Crimes Unit', of which the four Diallo shooters were members, made just 9546 arrests, notes this report.
Chief Fired For Honoring Cops Under Probe
Louisville, Kentucky has its own problems with cops who carry guns with hair-triggers.
Blame Political System, Not Jury, For The Diallo Mess
Here it is pointed out that had Giuliani not spurned every attempt to incorporate more 'community' policing into the NYPD, then perhaps this whole thing wouldn't have happened.
The Shooting Of Amadou Diallo
This is APBnews.com's site for the Diallo shooting and subsequent trial. You can get all the latest information here, and read all news on the issue from day one through today.
No Justice Again! The Amadou Diallo Case
This fiery article points out that the officers' defense attorneys basically blamed Diallo for his own shooting, as he did not react sensibly to the officer's aggressive attitude and confrontational behavior. "If he'd been smarter, we might not have shot him," seems to be the reasoning of many cops I've heard state opinions on this verdict.
Teen Talk 91.5 FM
Read the reactions of some American teens to the shooting of Diallo.
41 Bullets: The Amadou Diallo Archive
This is a collection of Village Voice articles "on Diallo, police brutality, and the politics of race." Here you can read the article cited in my essay above discussing Rev. Sharpton, 'Blaming the Bronx DA'.
The Amadou Diallo Shooting Trial
This is the 'Court TV' offering of the Diallo case. Lots to see and read here.
West African Street Vendor Dies In A Hail Of Police Bullets As Vendors Prepare City Hall Demonstration
This is by Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T., or 'Artist Response To Illegal State Tactics', a group dedicated to defending the rights of street artists, vendors, book sellers, and others of this ilk. Lederman writes with a passion and fire that is guaranteed to grab attention. He has been arrested forty one times now, with not one conviction, simply over his war with big Rudolph Giuliani, the meanest, nastiest mayor in the world, ever.
Should Diallo's Murder Be Explained Away As A 'Language Barrier' Issue?
Monalisa Sarin of 'USAfricaonline.com' writes in this article (February, 1999) that the four cops who shot Diallo "stripped him of every bit of dignity he had, firing at him like they were at target practice, and he was the target." She points out the similarity between the Diallo shooting, and the case of Abner Louima, who cops raped with a plunder handle in a New York City police precinct bathroom, as another glaring example of insane, abusive behavior on the part of police officers against an unarmed immigrant with no police record.
Diallo Indictments Unsealed
This is the 'ABC News' report on the indictments the day they were handed down, first serving notice to the Diallo family that perhaps they might get some justice for their brutally slain son. Now, with the State level criminal trial over, it is up to the Federal cops now. Will justice be served? There's no telling at this point.
Bronx Shooting Another Strain On NYPD
Malcolm Ferguson, who has a criminal history of drug sales and possession, but not one violent act apparently, was shot in the head and killed just a few blocks from where Amadou Diallo was blown away. This time the victim already had planned a US$5 million suit against the city for an injury sustained during a protest over the Diallo shooting in March 1999, when police had severely beaten and shattered Ferguson's hand. He was due to be off parole on April 3rd, 2000. I don't suppose the police unit knew that when they approached him, did they? Maybe they knew he'd run? I might have too, facing another trip through the system, that close to being done with their powergames, and mind trips. It is no fun within the system, and look how many other young black and Latino men there are like him, in nearly the same boat here in the 'Land of the Free'. How many more are going to die over the War on Drugs? Will he become another statistic spouted by Drug Czar McCaffrey proving that drugs can kill?
A Look At Aggressive Policing And Civil Rights Abuses
Here's a merry little rant with links to places like 'Know Your Rights', and 'D.W.B., Driving While Black'. Also included are short rundowns of the Abner Louima, and Amadou Diallo cases of extremely aggressive policing that wound up hurting or killing innocent, unarmed people.
Are Police Going Too Far?
This article from 'US News' online (February 7th, 2000) asks if the police are justified in their aggressive tactics, then goes on to quote statistics that seem to show that crime is plummeting. On the other, I heard the former Chief of Police for New Haven, Connecticut say last week that murders in the US don't get solved as often as they did not so long ago, because our priorities are focused on the wrong things, like the Drug War.
Guiliani's Gatterdammerung
This is a brilliant article by Nat Hentoff of the 'Village Voice', dealing with the aggressive policing that is driving a wedge between our police and the communities they are policing. This is a great piece!
Stop And Frisk Law: A Guide To Doctrines, Tests, And Special Circumstances
Here is a breakdown of the Terry rule, the one that gives the cops the authority to stop anyone, any time, and outlines how a police officer is supposed to proceed about a 'stop and frisk' encounter.
NYCLU Strengthens Case Against Police Brutality
Although there's been a reported drop in crimes around the country, in its place there's been a national epidemic of police brutality, Frank Serpico told the 'New York Times' (January 11th, 1999) according to this ACLU press release stating that Serpico had joined the NYCLU's 'Campaign to Stop Police Brutality'.
Diallo Is A Martyr, But The Cops Aren't Murderers
This 'Salon' magazine article (March 1st, 2000) points out that cops are people too, that there are plenty out there who are doing a good job, that the guys who shot Diallo probably weren't out to kill a black man that night. He also discusses the fact that Rev. Sharpton has done more for promoting racial harmony than press pundits have given him credit for, in this, and other instances in the recent past.
Brutal Verdict
In this 'Salon' magazine article (February 26th, 2000), James Fyfe, former NYPD officer, now a professor at 'Temple University' as well as an expert in police brutality, testified in the trial of the four Diallo shooters that "standard procedure, not premeditated brutality by the police officers, is the real crime in Diallo's death." This article's reporter notes: "Studies by the US 'Department of Justice', and the 'University of North Carolina' have documented that fatal police encounters are not likely to begin not with a major crime, but with a civilians casual defiance of an officer on a minor public-order matter." Heavy stuff, not for the closed minded!
Police Brutality, And Mayor Rudy Giuliani
While this page is actually about Abner Louima, the young man raped by NYPD cops in a precinct bathroom, and who was not taken to the hospital for over three hours after the attack while he bled profusely, it is still indicative of some of the extremes that have gone on within the NYPD. The precinct and the NYPD for the entire trial tried to cover it up, attempting to label Louima gay, insinuating that he had been engaging in homosexual behavior, right up until the day that Justin Volpe finally broke down and admitted his responsibility for the rape. Louima had apparently been attempting to break up a brawl outside the bar where he was arrested, then was taken to the precinct for an unholy torture session. This is so disgusting!
NYPD's Bloody Month Of August 1999!
I can't help but notice that one of the seven dead killed by police action in this article, Larry Cobb, a 30 year old homeless man, was "shot in the head while struggling with the officer," which is the exact same description given by the cop who shot Malcolm Ferguson in the Bronx. Hmmm. Why are these cops holding guns while struggling with suspects? Key word here is suspects by the way, not convicts, not death-row inmates, but suspects who the police only want to talk to!
Only In Canada You Say?
Here are some links to a 'smattering' of stories of other abusive police troubles, for those who are suffering under their own repressive police departments, and are feeling all alone. Don't worry, there are plenty more out there who know what you are going through!
Cop Crimes Links
There are a lot of links here on cop crime, and on the perception of cops as criminals. This is an amazingly balanced list, with many sides to the debate on the problem, and how it is dealt with.
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