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U.S. Drops Federal Charges Against Police In Diallo Shooting
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday it will not seek federal criminal civil rights charges against the four white New York City police who fatally shot Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from the west African nation of Guinea.
Diallo, a Muslim, was shot dead in a hail of 41 police bullets in February 1999 in an incident that heightened racial tensions on New York City streets. The four officers involved in the
shooting were cleared of murder and other charges in a state criminal trial last year.
The officers were searching for a rape suspect when they stopped Diallo outside his home. They fired 41 bullets at Diallo when he reached for his wallet; the officers said they believed he was going for a gun.
"The Department of Justice concluded it could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers willfully deprived Mr. Diallo of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force," the department said in a statement.
Acting Attorney General Eric Holder said, "I support the conclusions reached by the United States' Attorney General's Office and the Civil Rights Division. However, with the benefit of what is admittedly 20/20 hindsight, we now know that something went terribly wrong on February 4, 1999."
"Diallo, an unarmed individual, who committed no crime and no act of aggression, unnecessarily lost his life," Holder said.
"We must learn from this troubling incident," added Holder, who is African-American.
"I believe that trust is at the heart of the lesson. Police departments must have the trust of the communities they serve in order to be effective. Trust is achieved when all citizens are viewed by the police in the same manner. Trust is achieved when the police and the community know each other as vital members of the same community, rather than as foes," Holder added.
The officers involved in the shooting - Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy - have remained on the force, but have been assigned to desk duty since the shooting.
Diallo's parents were left to grapple with the Justice Department's decision. They learned of the decision in a meeting with U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.
Kadiatou Diallo described her son's death as a "legal execution." She said the Justice Department's decision left her "morally disappointed."
"I am saddened by it. I'm depressed. I have been betrayed by the criminal justice system because I believe that as a mother, a child is a child," Kadiatou Diallo told a news conference at civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton's New York headquarters.
"There is no doubt in my mind that what happened to Amadou was a crime," said Diallo's father, Saikou Diallo.
In a statement, the Justice Department said an investigation by its Civil Rights Division and by White's office had determined that federal charges against the officers were not warranted.
"The evidence ... does not provide a basis for bringing federal criminal charges," White said. "Mr. Diallo's death was a terrible tragedy, and our hearts will always be with the members of his family for their unbearable loss."
Federal civil rights prosecutions following state acquittals are rare.
In California, the four white Los Angeles police officers charged in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King were acquitted of most charges in state court in 1992, touching off riots. The officers were eventually convicted of federal civil rights charges.
Last March, then president Bill Clinton said Diallo might not have been shot if he had been a white man in a white neighborhood. In June, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said New York's police department had engaged in illegal racial profiling, singling out minorities for stops and frisks.
The independent bipartisan agency said in a report that the tactic "not only violates the law, but undermines respect for the police and can cause deadly altercations as in the tragic and unnecessary police shooting of Amadou Diallo."
The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan has a separate investigation under way into police training and practices, especially by the street-crime unit of which the officers involved in the shooting were attached.
In the Diallo case, federal authorities would have required proof the officers violated his civil rights by intentionally using excessive force.
However on Wednesday, White said that under federal civil rights law, prosecutors would have to prove that the officers acted with the specific intent to use force that they knew at the time was unreasonable.
She said "reasonableness" must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene "rather than from the perspective of hindsight."
Lacking such proof, federal civil rights charges are not warranted, she and the Justice Department said.
"This conclusion, however, should not diminish the importance of Mr. Diallo's life or the significance of his death," said White. "Mr. Diallo's death has deeply affected the city, indeed the world."
"There was no trial - they only went through the motions. And now they're not going to allow us to have the truth," said Bertrand Simmons, a retired welder who resides on the block where Diallo lived.
The Diallo family has filed an $81 million civil suit against the city, its last legal recourse in the case. The family claims the officers used unnecessary force to deprive their son of "his right to life."
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