NY cops kill African: `zero tolerance' in practice

By Norm Dixon

The body of Ahmed Diallo arrived home in Conakry, the capital of the west African country of Guinea, on February 14, accompanied by his grieving parents. Ten days earlier, Diallo's two-year sojourn in New York in search of the “American dream” ended in a hail of bullets. Diallo was the latest victim of New York City's racist police and the city government's policy of “zero tolerance” policing.

Australian police and politicians are clamouring for the introduction of US-style zero tolerance. It is being pushed by cops demanding extra powers and populist politicians searching for crime scapegoats -- “Lebanese gangs”, “graffiti gangs”, drug pushers or young people who wear their caps backwards.

Zero tolerance was pioneered in New York by its Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, and successive police chiefs. It amounts to an offensive against petty “crimes” in the belief that this will somehow reduce more serious crimes. Cops diverted resources towards a crackdown on traffic light window-washers, prostitutes, drunks, beggars, litterers and reckless cyclists. New York's African-Americans, minorities and poor bore the brunt.

At 2.30am on February 4, Diallo, who made a meagre living selling videos on a street stall and spoke almost no English, was returning home in the Bronx. He was confronted in the entrance hall of his share-house by four members of the NYPD's “elite” plain-clothes Street Crime Unit (SCU).

In the ensuing 41-shot fusillade, Diallo was hit by 19 bullets, striking his heart, aorta, spine, lungs, liver and spleen. Diallo was armed only with a beeper and a wallet.

The four white cops claim Diallo matched a “generic” description of a wanted rapist (translation: he was black), they believed he was armed and that he failed to respond to their order to stop. There were no other witnesses.

As of February 14, the cops had not been detained, questioned or suspended, but simply “reassigned” to administrative duty on full pay. Mayor Giuliani commented that they had “excellent” records. In fact, one has previously killed a black person “in the line of duty”, and two others have had public complaints made against them.

The cops' lawyer explained that New York police are trained not to stop shooting until their guns are empty if they feel “threatened” by an “offender”.

Not surprisingly, New York's African-American and immigrant minorities see the SCU as little more than uniformed death squads.

More than 1000 people protested outside City Hall on February 6 chanting “No justice, no peace”, and more than 3000 gathered outside the Federal Courthouse on February 9. Large ongoing vigils continued outside Diallo's home before his memorial service on February 12.

The service was attended by thousands, while hundreds more gathered outside. The arrival of Giuliani and police chief Howard Safir was greeted by jeers, abuse and chants of “We want justice!”.

The protests brought the African immigrant and African-American communities together to protest against racism -- a significant development, because language and cultural differences have in the past kept the communities divided.

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