February 28, 2000
Jerome Hule
PANA Correspondent
NEW YORK, US (PANA) - Peaceful but well-attended mass protests continued in New York City Sunday to demand for justice in the 1999 brutal fatal shooting of an unarmed African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by four white New York City police officers who were acquitted Friday from any blame.
Much to the dismay of many, the four police officers were Friday acquitted of all charges of murder and negligence by a 12-man jury sitting in Albany, the capital of New York state.
Diallo, 22, was killed in front of his apartment in the early hours of 4 February, 1999 when the cops fired a volley of 41 shots, hitting him 19 times.
Despite arguments by the police officers that they fired in fear of their lives, observers said they should not have been acquitted of all charges since the 41 shots fired were an act of excessive force.
On Saturday more than 2,000 protesters from all races and religions shut down part of mid-town Manhattan to express their outrage over the jury decision and to demand for justice.
Political leaders, including the highest ranking black congressman in the city, Charles Rangel of Harlem, and other New York City congressmen as well former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, have been involved in the protests which so far have been peaceful.
On Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton, a black civil rights advocate who has led protests since the killing, led about 2,000 protesters to the UN headquarters to draw international attention to the issue.
He said the protests were being held at the UN because it is the body that discussed violations of human rights around the world.
The killing of Diallo, he said, was a violation of those rights.
"Right in this city where the United Nations is based, an innocent man was shot dead by policemen," he stated, adding that UN ambassadors must take the US government to task over the killing.
Addressing the protesters, Rangel said the US, as a country that stood for justice, should hide behind injustice.
"Just because the jury said nobody was guilty does not mean nobody was wrong," he said.
Drawing attention to the racial underpinnings of the killing, Rangel pointed out that if the Guinean immigrant were a white person in a white neighbourhood, he would not have been killed.
He promised that he and his fellow congressmen would make sure that justice was done in the case.
Dinkins, who was city mayor till 1994, blamed his successor, Rudolph Giulliani, for conditions that led to the shooting of Diallo.
According to him, Giulliani had twice vetoed legislation by the city council calling for the setting up of an independent body to monitor the police force.
The father of Diallo, Saikou Diallo, asked the UN to examine the matter of his son's killing.
"Four policemen shot an unarmed youth 41 times and none was found guilty," he said, adding that his son's right to life was violated.
He also called on the US federal government to take up the matter.
Several other persons, representing Jewish and gay and lesbian groups as well as well as the president of the New York Civil Rights Union spoke, expressing their support for the family and their commitment to ensuring that justice was done in the case.
Sharpton plans to take the protests to federal authorities in Washington Thursday.
The federal authorities have been asked to carry out a civil rights investigation into the shooting, and the federal attorney in Manhattan has already said his office would review the case.