|
|| Home Page | Welcome | Contents | Staff | Support Us || |
|
|
How do you feel about the Amadou Diallo mural? Interviews by Stephanie
Taylor, Morgan
Hanson and Orlander
McDougal Recently in the Bronx, a mural depicting Amadou Diallo surrounded by four policemen wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods and a Statue of Liberty holding a pistol was painted. The police have asked the artist, Hulbert Waldroup, to paint over the piece, but he has refused. The police have decided to leave the mural alone, but are urging the artist or other members of the community to paint over it. Name: Frank Geneva Occupation: Contractor Location: Staten Island Q.What effects do you think the mural will have on people? A.That it [the shooting of Amadou Diallo] was unjust and they [the police] didn't use good decisions [judgment]. They were too quick to evaluate that they thought he had a gun when he went to reach to his back pocket. He just did it out of his normal [reaction]. Q.What do you think the artist was thinking when he created this mural? A.I honestly donšt know. Maybe it could've been a little biased because of color. But then again it's hard to say because some cops, police feel "shoot first, ask questions later" because of what [can] happen. Sometimes, they pull somebody over on a traffic ticket and they end up getting shot. So they [the police] get gun shy too. They donšt know how to react sometimes but it's not fair to innocent people like this. You can get afraid too -- you have so many different opinions; it's sometimes beyond human comprehension. I say it was defiantly a tragedy. It's unfair. Q. Should we remember this incident A. How can you forget it? You can't forget some innocent man just going about his daily routine. [It was a case of] mistaken identity and then [the police] shoot him in the back 41 times. I think it's unfair and it's a shame. Name: James Garrison Occupation: City Accessor Residence: East Harlem Age: 50 Q.What effects do you think the mural will have on people? A.I guess he probably felt, you know, he'd only been in the city for a year, so I have to believe he felt bad for the guy and probably felt that he could make some artwork to show what happened, and maybe it might prevent it from happening again. Q.What do you think the artist was thinking when he created this mural? A.Obviously it will [have an effect]. I think it would have a big effect because those people will probably feel that at least we represented what happened and at least it will show the police up there that the people aren't forgetting. Public memory is usually short, normally one or two years -- people start to forget about it and life goes on. But they have something to remember. Q. Should we remember this incident A.It's hard to forget it because of the fact that it was overkill. If anybody went up there and saw that vestibule, he had nowhere to go. Really, it was like target practice and he had nowhere to run so it was sad. He probably came here [to the United States] because he thought he was getting a better life. Name: Richard Jones Occupation: Medical Student Residence: Manhattan Q.What effects
do you think the mural will have on people? A. I think he was trying to echo some of America's history there. Q.What do you think the artist was thinking when he created this mural? A. It provokes thought -- triggers, I guess, for older people, memories of a time that was and still is. And for younger people, it might make them curious of these things that they see that may not necessarily be very much publicized anymore but [are] still very much a part of what goes on. The thing is that artwork like this makes us not forget. Q. Should we remember this incident A. I would say so, because it looks back on the past. |
|
|| Home Page | Welcome | Contents | Staff || Back to the top
|
