FYI In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate CAIR-NY Council on American-Islamic Relations New York Office 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 246 New York City, New York 10115 Tel. (212) 870-2002 Fax (212) 870-2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5/3/2001 MUSLIMS OUTRAGED OVER NYPD CLEARING DIALLO COPS LEADERS ALSO CONCERNED OVER FDNY HIRING McMELLON (NEW YORK, NY, 4/19/2001) - On Thursday, May 3, the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), along with that city’s Majlis Ash- Shura, Imam’s Council of New York, Women in Islam, Islamic Society of Fire Department Personnel, the Diallo family and their attorneys will hold a news conference to express their outrage over the NYPD clearing the cops who killed Amadou Diallo and the Fire Department’s decision to hire one of the police officers, Edward McMellon. WHEN: Thursday, May 3, 12:00 p.m. WHERE: Fire Department Headquarters, 9 MetroTech Center, Flatbush Avenue Entrance, between Johnson Place and Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik announced April 27 that no disciplinary action will be taken against the four Police Officers who shot and killed unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment in February 1999. Muslim leaders say this is yet another indignity in a case that has been mishandled from the start. Ghazi Khankan, executive director of CAIR-NY, finds it chilling that the four officers were found to be operating within department guidelines. “I urge Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen not to hire officer McMellon, who has already acted as a lightning rod for controversy and racial tension in an already segregated department consisting of only 3% blacks. Rather, he should hire immediately a Muslim chaplain who will work for peace and minister to the Muslim firefighters and EMS workers who selflessly serve the city everyday.” Although one chaplain is in the process of retiring, the FDNY currently maintains seven chaplains – two Jewish, two Protestant, and three Catholic. Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid, the Imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, similarly commented, “We in the Muslim community are outraged that the same New York City Fire Department leadership that refuses to appoint a Muslim chaplain to minister to firefighters should then support the hiring of one or two cops who brutally killed an innocent Muslim.” Kevin James, president of the Islamic Society of Fire Department Personnel, added, “You have to marvel at the Fire Commissioner’s values. He wastes millions of taxpayer dollars on radios that weren’t properly tested and litigation to defend against hiring a Muslim chaplain who is paid scant more than sixteen thousand dollars a year. Yet, he insists on hiring Ed McMellon, whose liability as a walking poster boy for racial inequity in the FDNY has already become apparent.” Aisha Al-Adiwiya, president of Women in Islam, and Omar Mohammedi, one of the attorneys representing Saikou Diallo, addressed the police commissioner’s decision to return the officers to duty and not discipline them. Aisha stated, “Aside from the chilling legal implications this decision will have on communities of color, it is patently immoral! One has to wonder where are the good people of this country, and what does it take for them to stand on the right side of justice.” Omar Mohammedi continued, “The killing of Amadou Diallo was not a mistake, but the result of racial profiling. Commissioner Kerik’s decision is a mistake that provides tacit approval for racial profiling. In 1998 and the first quarter of 1999, 62.7% of all persons stopped by the NYPD street crimes unit were black, while blacks comprise only 25.6% of the city’s population.” The Vulcan Society and the FDNY African-American Heritage Society, which represents black firefighters and civilians in the fire department, also do not want to see officer Edward McMellon enter the fire department. “A black man arrested and tried for murder, no matter what the circumstances, would never be hired as a firefighter,” said Paul Washington, president of the Vulcan Society. He added, “McMellon may have been acquitted, but he was not found innocent.” -END- >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------