Word: diallo
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...police violence captures national attention. Although the facts are similar--a city with a history of law enforcement abuse against minorities, a black victim and multiple white aggressors--this case is not at all the same. The Rodney King case led to an explosion of urban anger. The Diallo acquittal has stimulated nationwide protest, but the estimated 2,500 people who marched up and down Fifth Ave. last Saturday were largely peaceable, ordered, and multi-racial. In the King case, it was easy to blame the police officers; in the Diallo case the enemy is less clear...
...frequently pointed out, if homicide rates had stayed at 1990 levels (when Mayor David Dinkins, who happens to be black, was in office), thousands more black and Hispanic New Yorkers would be dead. The tactics of squads like the Street Crimes Unit, to which the four officers who shot Diallo belong, have dramatically reduced crime and helped make New York the safest large city in the United States. The greatest tragedy of the Amadou Diallo case is that it has further alienated the black community from the officers who are meant to protect it at a time when statistics indicate...
...somehow, this argument does not ring true. While the numbers point to better minority/police relations, the evidence tells otherwise. We want to believe that the Diallo killing was a tragic exception, but the shooting of innocent black men has too often been deemed a "justifiable homicide," and the 41 bullets fired at Amadou Diallo are too reminiscent of the gratuitous physical violence of America's past. While few believe that the officers (one of whom broke down in tears on the stand) had malicious intent, our innate sense of fairness demands that they be held accountable for their actions. Although...
...people search for the answer to this question, I congratulate those who have already begun to address the "disturbing" Diallo verdict in a peaceful and ordered fashion. The black community has responded to a senseless act of violence in the right way. The protestors who could have degenerated into an angry mob marched calmly, practicing as well as preaching an end to violence between civilians and police. On campus, organizations sponsoring forum discussions instead of finger-pointing. Many public officials have called for better police training, and the former New York police commissioner has admitted that police brutality...
...death of Amadou Diallo is an unmitigated tragedy. But the nationwide response to his death speaks that there is hope for the future. The problem of police brutality and the larger question of race relations within the U.S. are far from solved. But the intelligent response of the black community and the general recognition that police brutality is a problem that cannot be explained away with instructional videotapes shows that we have come a long way since the Rodney King trial...