PHILADELPHIA
Ruling gives police 'license to kill'
By
Betsey Piette
Philadelphia
Anger is mounting here since a municipal court judge threw
out manslaughter charges Jan. 15 against a Philadelphia police
officer in the shooting death of 19-year-old African American
youth Donta Dawson.
Through a series of protests and press conferences, Dawson's
family, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, and
numerous community groups are calling for a federal
investigation of the case, and for first-degree murder charges
to be brought against Christopher DiPasquale, the cop
involved.
Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 1, Donta Dawson was sitting alone and
unarmed in his stalled car on a street in North Philadelphia,
waiting for his grandfather to come and take him home. Civilian
witnesses testified that police surrounded Dawson's car with
guns drawn. According to their testimony DiPasquale kept
yelling, "Get out of the car before I blow your f------ head
off."
DiPasquale then fired two shots through the front window of
Dawson's car, hitting him in the head. Dawson died hours later.
Police claimed that Dawson moved suddenly after refusing
repeated commands to show both hands, and that DiPasquale shot
him because he believed Dawson had a gun.
On Nov. 20, responding to public pressure, Philadelphia
District Attorney Lynne Abraham filed charges of voluntary and
involuntary manslaughter against DiPasquale. Even before the
Dawson shooting, 11 complaints had been filed with Police
Internal Affairs Division against DiPasquale. He had been
suspended for 10 days after giving false testimony in the
police beating death of a Puerto Rican man, Moises DeJesus, in
1994.
Dawson family members said DiPasquale had repeatedly stopped
and harassed Donta Dawson over the past six months. On the
night before the shooting, DiPasquale reportedly beat Dawson
and stole his beeper and wallet. Dawson had intended to file a
harassment complaint.
Shortly after the manslaughter charges were filed against
DiPasquale, police terrorized Dawson family members, claiming a
man who had sold cocaine to an undercover officer fled into the
Dawson home. Members of the 39th Police District--notorious for
drug-charge frame-ups of hundreds of people who were later
released--charged into the home, arrested a Dawson family
member and attacked a pregnant woman.
On Jan. 6, Municipal Court Judge Felice R. Stack threw out
the manslaughter charges against DiPasquale, claiming the
police "had no other choice." At a press conference held in
response to Stack's ruling, Stefan Presser of the ACLU noted,
"Something is terribly wrong with a police department whose
officers encounter a lone, unarmed African American man in a
car and the only thing they can think to do leads to the death
of a motorist."
Presser and NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire also
criticized Philadelphia Mayor Rendell for his silence on the
Dawson killing.
Dawson family members point out that Stack's ruling has
given police an unconditional "license to kill." Antoinette
Dawson, Donta's mother, told reporters: "If it was one of us
killing a cop, we'd have a life sentence or be on death row by
now. They should have charged DiPasquale with murder."
Dawson's uncle, Howard Roche, said, "My nephew is dead ...
for nothing. No gun. And they are going to discharge the case.
It's just like being down in Mississippi, where I'm from."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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