Party for Socialism and Liberation on police violence

Ten years after Diallo:

Ten years after Diallo
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
By: Kerbie Joseph

Struggle against racist police brutality still strong

Feb. 4 marked the 10th anniversary of the New York City Police Department shooting of Amadou Diallo.

The senseless killing of Amadou Diallo triggered mass outrage at
the racist NYPD.

Diallo’s death continues to be one of the most glaring examples of the NYPD’s unrestrained brutality. His death brought to the fore the injustices committed by New York cops under the leadership of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The aftermath of the case also demonstrated the true power of a rapidly mobilized and organized mass movement.

Amadou Bailo Diallo was an immigrant worker and student from Guinea. Like many immigrants who come to the United States, Diallo wanted to become a permanent resident. Diallo would never get that chance.

On Feb. 4, 1999, Diallo was shot and killed by four NYPD plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Brendan Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. Though he was standing in front of his own Bronx residence and unarmed at the time of the shooting, the officers fired a fusillade of 41 rounds, 19 of which riddled his body. Diallo was only 23 years old.

Shockwaves of rage and grief rippled from New York City to the rest of the country and beyond. In the ensuing controversy, police brutality, racial profiling and gratuitous shootings became the targets of public outrage.

The four officers involved were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit, a special police taskforce created by Mayor Giuliani to “take guns off the streets” and “clean up” New York. Giuliani’s crusade prompted the already aggressive and abusive police officers to be even more savage.

When Diallo was killed, Giuliani immediately and strongly backed the guilty police officers. Later, all of the officers were acquitted of criminal charges at trial.

Diallo’s death, the change of venue in the officers’ trial and the eventual not-guilty verdicts each sparked massive demonstrations against police brutality and racial profiling. Thousands of people came into the streets, with more than 1,700 people arrested over the course of many weeks.

Those arrested in the protests at the entrance of One Police Plaza came from all walks of life. Some politicians made an appearance, but it was the unity of the people—regardless of race, gender or age—that made its presence felt for their fallen brother. The charges against the activists were ultimately dropped.

The Justice Department announced in 2001 that it would not even charge the officers who killed Diallo with civil rights violations—much less murder.

Police brutality is an all too common occurrence in our society. Youth from oppressed communities are harassed by the police on a daily basis. Though the media rarely depict such harassment, working people cannot escape a reality that plagues neighborhoods from coast to coast.

The police brutality epidemic, a key component of national oppression in the United States, has continued regardless of which politician is in office. Clinton was in the White House when Diallo was murdered and he said absolutely nothing. Will Barack Obama be any different? When a judge acquitted the officers who fired 50 shots at Sean Bell on the day of his wedding, Obama said, “We respect the verdict.”

Diallo’s death at the hands of the police is no isolated incident but rather part of a pattern of systemic violence. Others victims include Anthony Baez, Sean Bell, Gary Busch and Oscar Grant, who will always be remembered by their loved ones and those who continue to take to the streets chanting “An injustice to one is an injustice to all!”

Riverside community outraged at latest racist police killing

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
By: Nathalie Hrizi

Cop shoots mother, Brown Beret in the back

On Jan.21, a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy fired six bullets at 28-year-old mother Annette Garcia as she was walking away, with one bullet striking her in the back. Receiving no medical attention for more than one hour, Garcia died. Her husband and some of her children witnessed the attack.

From Oakland to New York City to Riverside, police killings are no
isolated incidents.

The Riverside-area police have a sordid history of attacking and killing the poor and people of color, taking 22 lives in 2008 alone. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department—the largest in the area—killed nine and wounded four people that year. One-third of those killings happened on the Soboba Indian Reservation.

The courts collude with the police to allow these officers to go free. The Press Enterprise reports that “shootings are almost always ruled justified under the criteria that an officer feared for his life or the lives of others.” The officers’ names are almost never released. The cops in Riverside County know full well that they can pull the trigger on oppressed people with impunity.

The department has suggested that because Garcia was carrying a knife, she represented a danger to the deputy. The deputy had responded to an initial suicide threat report—not a violent conflict. Garcia did not pose a danger to anyone; as a matter of fact, she was walking away when she was shot in the back.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s department has put the deputy on paid administrative leave. They will not speak openly about the investigation, but continue to make statements to justify the shooting.

Garcia was a member of the Brown Berets—an organization that grew out of the struggle against racism and national oppression in the late 1960s. Around 100 people attended a Jan. 23 vigil organized by the Brown Berets and members of the community to protest the racist police murder.

Posted to IPR by Paulie