Why the Diallo case moves so many
By Pam
Parker
Washington
Demonstrations have erupted on campuses, in workplaces and
in the streets. Young, old, workers, students, those in the
lesbian/gay/bi/trans community and other oppressed people
have expressed righteous anger at the brutal murder of Amadou
Diallo.
This unprecedented show of unity has rocked the U. S.
criminal "justice" system to its core. The protests against
Diallo's brutal murder at the hands of New York City police
grew more frequent and militant in the week after the Feb. 25
verdict acquitting his killers. Demonstrators have answered
police threats with outrage at injustice.
Diallo was the 22-year-old West African immigrant
mercilessly gunned down while he stood in the vestibule of
his own Bronx apartment building on Feb. 4, 1999. Since the
police were acquitted, protests have taken place in New York,
Albany, N.Y., Washington, Atlanta, San Francisco and other
cities throughout the country.
The protests have consistently tied the murder to police
abuses throughout the oppressed communities and to the racist
use of the death penalty.
Just days after the verdict another unarmed African
American man, Malcolm Ferguson, was gunned down by police
just blocks from where Diallo had been slain. This young man
had actually been arrested for protesting the police murder
of Diallo just days before.
Many in the left and progressive communities have joined
together to denounce the Diallo verdict and subsequent murder
of Ferguson. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has
issued a strong statement expressing outrage at the
verdict.
Kerry Lobel, the Task Force's director, explained her
group's stand, saying that "the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender community in both New York and across the country
has been affected by police brutality and racism."
In Washington, African American civil rights leaders and
activists the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton led
a militant march on the Justice Department March 2 to demand
an investigation into the matter.
Well-known hip-hop deejay Donnie Simpson launched an angry
on-air attack against the station management of
Washington-based WPGC-FM for tying the tragic death of a
little Michigan schoolgirl to the police murder of Diallo.
The station had made a general call to "stop the violence and
increase the peace."
Simpson said that the station staff had had to fight
management to get them to issue a statement of outrage
against the Diallo verdict and to support a planned rally and
civil disobedience at the Justice Department. The attempt to
tie together the incidents, said Simpson, was an insult to
the station's employees and listeners, who are mostly people
of color.
Big business politicians have been forced to make
statements against the verdict.
What is special about the Diallo case that has inspired
the movement to unite and organize? This is not the first
time the police have appointed themselves judge, jury and
executioner of an innocent oppressed person. This is not the
first time they have gotten away with murder.
One abuse too many
People in the working class and oppressed communities
don't have to be told the police are not there to "protect
and serve" but to vilify and repress. It's known throughout
the oppressed communities that police consistently use
excessive force and discriminatory patterns of arrest,
physically and verbally abuse people, and systematically deny
the First Amendment rights of those they claim to
protect.
So why now? Maybe because this was one abuse too many. The
brazen attacks and the flippant attitude of those running the
police department have simply been too much for the community
to bear.
Have the police been apologetic or remorseful in the wake
of the verdict? No, they have become more vicious. Has the
leadership of the department apologized to the masses of
people affected by this verdict? No, on the contrary, they
have moved forward with their collusive tactics.
The Police Benevolent Association met with the Justice
Department on March 6 to argue against federal civil rights
charges being filed in the Diallo case.
Steven Worth, general counsel for the PBA, was also the
defense attorney for Edward McMellon, one of the four police
officers acquitted in the Diallo case.
Joseph C. Teresi, the judge in the Diallo case, had
earlier been the defense attorney for four white officers who
gunned down a mentally disturbed Black man "armed" with a
fork and knife. It's also been reported that Teresi visited
the cops' defense attorneys at their bed and breakfast after
the Diallo case verdict.
People were angered because, in the face of all the
evidence, officers Edward McMellon, Kenneth Boss, Richard
Murphy and Sean Carroll were acquitted of all charges in the
shooting death of young Diallo.
That Diallo was gunned down in the vestibule of his own
home galvanized the community. It could have been anybody. He
reached for his wallet, possibly in an attempt to prove who
he was and to show that he lived in that building. What would
you have done? What more could he have done?
The movement is organized and galvanized through
participation in many diverse struggles. The fight to return
Elián González to his father in Cuba; the
protest against the World Trade Organization; the struggle
against the unjust detainment of Mumia Abu-Jamal; outrage
over the torture of Abner Louima and the death of Malcolm
Ferguson have brought many youth into the movement, adding to
its energy and vitality. They have all added to the momentum
of this struggle for justice.
Enough is enough. This movement against repression is
growing and thriving and shows no signs of running out of
steam.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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