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NYPD Shooting of Amadou Diallo Police brutality remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers persists because of overwhelming barriers to accountability. This fact makes it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity (Williams).
Investigations find that police brutality is persistent in all cities, and the systems set up to deal with these abuses have all had similar failings in each city. It was also established that complainants often face enormous difficulty in seeking administrative punishment or criminal prosecution of officers who have committed human rights violations. The majority of these human rights violations are against minorities. Racism plays a huge role in this type of behavior.
On February 4, 1999 just after midnight Amadou Diallo, an unarmed, innocent man was murdered in front of his apartment building by four New York City Police officers. The officers identified themselves and when Diallo reached in his back pocket to pull out what eventually was found to be a mere wallet the four police officers opened fire. Carroll shouted Gun! then he and Mc Mellon immediately started shooting and each emptied their sixteen round clips into the body of a 22 -year-old immigrant form Guinea. In a period of approximately eight seconds all forty-one shots were fired, and like an animal Diallo was killed, in front of his apartment-his sanctuary. Amadou Diallo was a street peddler who sold anything from socks to videotapes.
He was a shy, soft spoken man with no criminal record (Robinson). Diallo was in the United States legally on a work visa, which would have expired in April of 1999. After the execution ended, Carroll went to inspect the already deceased body of Amadou Diallo. When he saw there was no gun he immediately began to administer CPR pleading, Dont die! Dont die! (Q. in Morganthau) Tom Morganthau author of the article in Newsweek Cops in the Crossfire, summed it up best when he said, Diallo was doomed from the moment the officers got out of the car (Morganthau).
These four police officers used unnecessary force. Neighbors even testified there was a split-second pause in the long sequence of gunshots. (Morganthau) Did these trigger-happy cops take a moment to reconsider their decision to open fire on Diallo? Yes, they knew immediately how wrong the shooting was and they knew they were guilty of manslaughter. Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson said, Officers mistakes, their misjudgments, their preconceptions, led to a violent and horrible death of an innocent person (q. in De La Cruz).
Allegations of police abuse are common in cities throughout the country and take many forms. Countless number of specific incidents can be used as illustrations of the obstacles to deterring, investigating and acting upon perceived abuses. Any alleged abuse has a corrosive effect on public trust of the police force, and it is imperative that the system be reformed to prevent human rights violations such as the case of Amadou Diallo. The officers claimed that they fired so many shots because they mistakenly saw the slide of a black gun, when in actuality it was Amadou's wallet.
All four officers were acquitted of all 24 charges. Not one count of murder, manslaughter, homicide, or even reckless endangerment stuck (Chua-Eoan 24 - 27). All four police officers have told reporters and attorneys how desperately terrible they felt. Remorse does not bring a young innocent man back to life, however, and justice has not been obtained. Mc Mellon, Boss, and Carroll each have had previous investigations for using their weapons while on duty. Amadou Diallo was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Each of these four NYPD officers should have been found guilty of second-degree murder. Affirmative action groups demand justice along with Saikou and Kadiatou Diallo Amadou's parents. Under the law, the officers were justified in shooting if they thought Diallo had a gun, even if they were wrong. (Morganthau) Implementation of such legislation can be a serious threat for human rights. It seems that police officers can do whatever they want, and the worst thing is that they can get away with it.
Defenders say Mc Mellon, Carroll, Boss, and Murphy were justified in shooting Amadou Diallo because he could have fit the description of the Bronx Rapist. Yet there was no call to Diallo's apartment building on Wheeler Avenue and that address wasnt the location of any previous attacks by the alleged rapist (Burke). They also argue that according to the four police officers Diallo reached for something that could have been a gun. Yet knowing the sea of racial inequality Diallo panicked and for that and that alone Diallo was shot nineteen times. He was murdered for being frightened of four police officers approaching him in the middle of the night when he was alone. Amadou Diallo did not do anything wrong.
His life and death deserves justice. His parents do have the opportunity to pursue a civil law suit. The communities of African-Americans and some Hispanic were outraged by the final verdict. They were astounded at the fact that the four police officers, all of whom were white, were acquitted. There was little protest among these communities due in part because of Diallo's mother Kadiatou who made a public plea for peace. A civil lawsuit against the police officers could cost taxpayers millions of dollars, but that will never be too high of a price to pay for the loss of a son, friend, and generally innocent person.
The abuse described is preventable. Officers with long records of abuse, policies that are overly vague, training that is substandard, and screening that is inadequate all create opportunities for abuse. Perhaps most important, and consistently lacking, is a system of oversight in which supervisors hold their charges accountable for mistreatment and are themselves reviewed and evaluated, in part, by how they deal with subordinate officers who commit human rights violations. Those who claim that each high-profile case of abuse by a rogue officer is an aberration are missing the point: problem officers frequently persist because the accountability systems are so seriously flawed. State, and federal officials are responsible for holding police officers accountable for abusive acts. Police officials must ensure that police officers are punished when they violate administrative rules, while state and federal prosecutors must prosecute criminal acts committed by officers, and where appropriate, complicity by their superior officers.
Each of these entities applies different standards when reviewing officer responsibility for an alleged abuse. All of these authorities have an obligation to ensure that the conduct of police officers meets international standards that prohibit human rights violations and that; in general, the U. S. complies with the obligations imposed by those treaties to which it is a party.
While only the federal government is responsible for reporting internationally on U. S. compliance with the relevant treaties, local and state officials share responsibility for ensuring compliance within their jurisdictions (Cohen). A national survey was taken by the Seattle Times and states that seventy percent of all police crimes against the public go unreported (Database of Abusive Police). Despite claims to the contrary from city officials where abuses have become scandals in the media, efforts to make meaningful reforms have fallen short. The scenarios are frighteningly similar from city to city.
Shortcomings in recruitment, training, and management are common to all. So is the fact that officers who repeatedly commit human rights violations tend to be a small minority, but are still routinely protected by the silence of their fellow officers and by flawed systems of reporting. Another pervasive shortcoming is the scarcity of meaningful information about trends in abuse. Data is also lacking regarding the police departments response to those incidents and their plans or actions to prevent brutality. Where data does exist, there is no evidence that police administrators or, prosecutors utilize available information in a way to deter abuse. Another commonality in recent years is recognition, in most cities, about what needs to be done to fix troubled departments.
However, this encouraging development is coupled with an official unwillingness to deal seriously with officers who commit abuses until high profile cases expose long-standing negligence or tolerance of brutality (Burris). One recent, positive development has been the federal pattern or practice civil investigations, and subsequent agreements, initiated by the U. S. Justice Department. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Steubenville, Ohio, the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division has examined shortcomings in accountability for misconduct in those cities police departments; the cities agreed to implement reforms to end volatile practices rather than risk the Justice Department taking a case to court for injunctive action. The reforms proposed by the Justice Department were similar to those long advocated by community activists and civil rights groups.
This includes better use-of-force training and policies, stronger reporting mechanisms, creation of early warning systems to identify current officers at risk of engaging in abuse, and improved disciplinary procedures. Problem officers would receive special monitoring, training and counseling to counter the heightened risk of brutality. Several other police departments, including those in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia, are reportedly under investigation by the Civil Rights Division. With the millions of unreported cases and the code of silence within the precincts how will it ever become resolved? The fact is that this remains to be a problem within the minority community. Unfortunately, it will never get the full attention of the mainstream culture and will remain a stain on American society.
Bibliography: Williams, Brent. Shielded from justice: police brutality and accountability in the United States. New York, Washington, D. C. : Human Rights Watch, 1998 Burris, John L.
Blue vs. Black: Lets end the conflict between cops and minorities. New York: St. Martins Press, 1999 Chua-Eoan, Howard.
Black and Blue. Time, 6 March 2000: 24 - 27 Cohen, Adam. Gangsta Cop. Time, 6 March 2000: 30 - 34 Burke, Cathy. Cops Gun Down Unarmed Man. New York Post. 5 Feb. 1999.
Database of Abusive Police. web De La Cruz, Donna. Diallo DA Defends Handling of Case. Associated Press. 14 March 2000. Morganthau, Tom. Cops in the Crossfire.
Newsweek. 29 Feb. 2000. Robinson, Bryan. A Look at the Parties in the Diallo Shooting Case. Court TV Online. 14 March 2000.
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