One For the Boys in Blue, None For the People

By : Omar Parris
Photos by Shem Rajoon & Omar Parris

On February 4th, 1999, Amadou Diallo, a 22 year old imigrant from Ghana, fell to his death at the hands of four police officers in the South Bronx on Westchester Avenue. The bullets of Officer Richard Murphy, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss killed the African immigrant.

These four officers fired their semi-automatic weapons a total of forty one times before they decided that they hit an unfortunate street vendor in the lobby of his humble abode. The South Bronx community was given some condolence when these murders was indicted and charged with the death of Diallo. But recently the communityŐs thirst for justice was increased when, on December 16, an appellate court judge ordered that the four officers were to be tried in Albany. In most cases this transfer would only occur after an impartial jury could not be found.

Nonetheless, the perception in the streets is that "the city pulled some strings for some of its white thug cops" and sent their case to an 86% white populated region, a month before a jury search was scheduled to take place. The court claimed that this decision was made to prevent impartiality. Well, the justice system must not be doing their jobs well if they canŐt find 12 impartial jurors in a city of eight million people.

This decision only shows that as a nation we are one more step back from total equality and one step further to a revolution in a society that takes half-ass steps for minority rights. We have seen the American courts make this decision in the past with the Rodney King police beating case in Los Angeles. The trial was moved from the county of in Los Angeles to the suburban community of Simi Valley. Eventually, several police who were caught on tape beating King were acquitted of their charges.

I hope that we the people do not allow this injustice to the citizens of the City of New York take place. This crime was committed by police officers in the Bronx, and the victims were the Bronx people and Amadou Diallo. The courts should make these officers stand before the people of the Bronx not before a jury of 11 whites and 1 black.

Pastor Ollie B. Wells Sr. of the Union Baptist Church and Board member of H.C.C.I made a statement in reference to change of venue for the Diallo case.

"Right now I am just angry, because the justice system again has just shown its racist face. That saying just becomes true more and more every day because itŐs not justice just JUST-US and US is just always at the end of the line. It is difficult to encourage young people to trust in the law, authority and justice when there is so much injustice at the hands of the police. They talk about how we should respect justice. When the police get out of control and abuse people of color it is difficult to convince young people to have respect for the system because there is no justice for police," Pastor Wells said.

To tell you the truth, as a reporter, I can only agree with the pastor. I myself have seen and been at the hands of police brutality. Mayor Giuliani and his personal army are above the law and control the society. We need to take it back. This recent transfer of the case is only as ludicrous as Guilliani claiming, "There is no blue wall of silence."

I believe that the fate of those crooked pig police officers should be the same as the general population at Comstock, Sing Sing, and Clinton maximum-security prisons. We as a people cannot let cops shoot people 41 times, assault young children, and watch night sticks being stuck up an innocent manŐs rectum. We need to turn these cops away as soon as they hand over their job applications.

To Mayor Guilliani and Howard Saffiar (whose badge number is 666) how about you take money away from your secret headquaters and pay increases and put it into getting rid of these crooked cops who belong in the Nut House? In conclusion I believe that we should let these toy cops feel the wrath of the people in the Bronx whose rights they probably violated more than once.