Killer Cops Go Free!
41 bullets.
In the early hours of February 4th, 1999, a young West African immigrant named Amadou Diallo was gunned down and murdered by four white plainclothes police officers -- all wearing bulletproof vests, all part of Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Safir's elite Street Crimes Unit that's known for it's violent intimidation and harassment techniques.
Bullets struck the bottom of his feet because the cops kept firing after he was down. One cop reloaded and emptied his gun again.
The four cops were found NOT GUILTY. They pleaded that they were in fear for their lives and acting in self-defense.
Amadou was UNARMED.
41 bullets. The court asks you to put yourself in the cop's shoes. We ask you to put yourself in Amadou's shoes. The cops say Amadou "fit the description". We say Black and Latino youth are being harassed, brutalized, and MURDERED because they've been CRIMINALIZED as suspects first, humans later. They say he was watching them, acting suspicious. We say he was acting as any of us would when coming home late at night-looking around, searching for our keys. And Amadou probably was watching them -- they were four men packed in a car that was driving backwards down his street. They come out, intent on him and shot at him 41 times.
Maybe pausing. Maybe nonstop. Only seeing the color of Amadou's skin.
41 bullets and the cops argue that they were acting legally, following their training and all within official policy. Off-duty cops rally at the sides of these murderers NOT because "it's a tragedy that never should have happened," but because EACH of them could see themselves doing the SAME THING.
Black and Latino youth agree with them -- any police officer COULD do exactly what these four thugs did, and to any one of them. The police know not only that they can shoot to kill, but are EXPECTED to and do. This is no surprise to the generation that faces stop-and-frisks and harassment daily. But the police have NO RIGHT to riddle Black men with bullets in their own home. The people have every right to stand up against this!
One man told a local newspaper, "This could happen to any one of us. We all come here and work. We all come home late. He got shot yesterday. I could get shot today." Black and Latino people of all ages, men and women, are feeling like, "I could be next!"
Mayor Guiliani claims "mob justice" and "police bashing" brought this case to national attention! He says now the legal system shows that the cops were right! The people made a big deal about nothing! WRONG!
More Than 41 Bullets
It's only been because of people speaking out and demonstrating that these cops were even indicted and that the nation-wide epidemic of murders by police has been exposed. (Check out the Stolen Lives booklet, call 1.888.NO BRUTALITY.) Between 1992 and 1996, the NYPD murdered 187 people, most of them Black and Latino youth in poor neighborhoods. In only a few cases have cops even been charged with a crime. In some of the cases, the officers said they "thought" the person had a weapon but none was found at the scene-the NYPD seems to have a knack for mistaking bright orange toy pistols, candy bars, keys and, now, wallets as guns. The jury in Amadou's case was not allowed to hear any of this. In October 1998, Amnesty International released a report called Rights for All, in which they wrote about the widespread and persistent problem of police brutality across the USA. It singled out New York city as having one of the worst records in the country. Now it's time for New York city to be come the city that says NO MORE!
We must stand together to express our outrage, to DEMAND justice be served for Amadou and all other victims of police brutality.
Stop Killer Cops!
Jail Amadou's Murderers!
It's Right To Fight Police Brutality!
[posted 2/26/00]
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