Diallo Incident; One Officers Perspective Essays -

Diallo Incident; One Officers Perspective Craig H. Brockman Instructor: Eric Becker College Writing 221624 23 April 2000 The Diallo Incident; One Officers Perspective In the quiet post-midnight hours of February 4, 1999, 41 shots rang out in the entry vestibule of a South Bronx apartment house. Within seconds, a young man laid dead, four policemen standing over his lifeless body. A 22-year-old immigrant from West Africa was the unfortunate victim. The police officers: four white men from the New York City Police Department's Street Crimes Unit (SCU). And almost before daylight could illumine the city's vast tract of high-rise businesses and low-rise brownstones, there came the first calls of Police Brutality, Racism, even Murder. But were these four officers, who together fired 41 shots at an unarmed young man, indeed, guilty as charged? Or was this shooting, as the officers would attempt to explain, a tragedy of the greatest possible human dimensions? Did the media ask the right questions and act in a responsible manner? Did the local politicians act in a responsible manner? And were they inappropriate actions or were they appropriate for the situation? Has society changed that much? Do we, society, take the word of the media's insight, and follow people who thrive on media attention? Who are the real prosecutors? Who makes the decision to condemn the actions of four police officers? Do we prosecute the officers of a police department who were trained to do what they did? Has anyone of these so-called experts ever looked into the past situations of men and women in the police department? And then ask the question: Why did they (the police) shoot that unarmed man? Has the police department trained the police officers the proper way? Or will the police departments around the country now train police officers to become less aggressive, giving way for an officer to worry about jail time and the loss of his financial status? Will this lead the police to turn a blind-eye in order to not get involved, and avoid their names being the target of political and community leaders? These are questions to be asked and answered. But the real questions should be asked to the people that care about their communities. These questions should not be asked to the followers of these self proclaimed community leaders who possibly couldn't care less about the quality of life that surrounds their community, some of who live in another state, and may not concern themselves with the pursuit of happiness of the people that live in that community, but the media attention they can receive. This is one officers perspective, a perspective that some may not agree with, but it is honest, it is true, and it is heart wrenching. This is no hype, no media propaganda. This is the view of an incident that happened on a Bronx street on a winter's night in 1999. Hopefully this will be a thought-provoking view, for not only the reader, but also the author. Just ask yourself these questions that I have posted, and I hope that you will understand my perspective. In the early morning hours of February 4, 1999 a tragedy occurred which would eventually separate the people of City of New York and its police department. On this morning, four members of the New York City Police Departments Street Crime Unit {SCU} were on patrol in the Bronx within the confines of the 43rd Precinct: a precinct in a neighborhood that is considered a high crime area. The four officers on patrol were: Police Officer Sean Carroll, 36, Police Officer Kenneth Boss, 28, Police Officer Edward McMellon, 27, and Police Officer Richard Murphy, 27. These four officers would, on this morning, come in contact with Mr. Amadou Diallo, 22, an African immigrant who now lived in the Bronx. On this morning, slightly after twelve midnight, the four officers were assigned to plainclothes and had an unmarked radio motor patrol car (RMP) as their patrol vehicle; this is standard operation for the SCU. Their job is to keep an eye on the street for criminal behavior and prevent crimes when possible. The officers drove down the block of Wheeler Avenue at about this time of the morning. P.O. Carroll, who was sitting in the front passenger