By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
February 28, 2000
The London Telegraph Sunday edition observed that "Hillary Clinton is facing political embarrassment over calls for Washington to prosecute four white New York City policemen cleared of shooting an innocent black immigrant 19 times outside his home."
Al Sharpton and his crowd already are moving towards getting Hillary Clinton, who is running for the U.S. Senate in New York, to back a new trial of the four police officers under federal law.
Black activists and civil rights organizations will be seeking the backing of Mrs Clinton, who is running for the United States senate in New York, to begin a fresh prosecution of the men under federal law. "Before the trial, she described the killing of the West African street vendor Amadou Diallo as 'murder,'" the Telegraph observed. "The Rev Al Sharpton, who led a civil disobedience campaign and is a potential key Democratic supporter of Mrs Clinton, attacked the trial venue, saying there was 'no chance of real justice'. In contrast, Rudi Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, who is likely to run for the Republicans against Mrs Clinton, said it was "an eminently fair trial". Mrs Clinton, who trails Mr Giuliani in the polls, is anxious not be drawn into the controversy surrounding the death of Mr Diallo.
"The 22-year-old was attempting to take out his wallet, which police mistook for a gun. They fired 41 bullets and he was hit 19 times. The US Justice Department has said it will examine the case, and the officers could be prosecuted for violating Mr Diallo's civil rights."
The New York Times Sunday reported on a Saturday rally and efforts to provoke the police over the acquittal of the four police officers charged in the shooting death of Amadou Diallo. "The roughly five-hour trek, marked by taunts directed at the police and a few scattered scuffles, began just after 3 p.m. at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue opposite the Plaza Hotel, where some protesters climbed on the dry Pulitzer Fountain. ...Earlier in the day, as the mostly young, multiracial crowd marched down Fifth Avenue, hundreds of officers stood shoulder to shoulder in front of stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany."
The Times never says it, but quite obviously the police effort was to nip in the bud any notion that New York would allow the looting and lawlessness that took place in Los Angeles in the Rodney King episode.
"The large procession filled the avenue, prompting the police to shut down traffic, and some groups of demonstrators broke into a run. The move forced a column of police vans, patrol cars and motorcycles, lights and sirens blaring, to race ahead of the crowd to halt traffic so protesters did not mix with moving cars. With their numbers eventually climbing as high as 2,500, by some estimates, the demonstrators tried to turn west at 42nd Street and march to Times Square. But their path was blocked by a phalanx of police officers that stretched across the thoroughfare."
About 95 people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. Two were also charged with inciting to riot. It was, of course, an organized event, with the march leaders using headsets and walkie talkies to communicate with one another and keep track of the police and different parts of the protest group.
However, what is going to be fascinating to watch, after a week of accusations against George W. Bush for speaking at Bob Jones University, dubbed a racist enterprise, will be Hillary Clinton's reaction to racist and liar Al Sharpton who told a crowd in Harlem that the "verdict was a new beginning in the fight against police brutality. He called for a federal investigation of the case and said the verdict was simply a detour on the way to justice. ... Sharpton told the crowd that excessive force had been used when the four officers fired 41 bullets at Mr. Diallo. 'This was Rodney King multiplied by lead,' he said, referring to the 1991 beating by Los Angeles police officers of a black driver."
In 1988 Al Sharpton perpetrated the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which he spread the lie that reverberated throughout the world. He claimed that a black teen-age girl had been assaulted, smeared with feces and raped by a group of white law enforcement officers in upper New York state. Not only is he trying his best to create a Los Angeles style hysteria in New York, but also plans to lobby the United Nations for an international rights violation violation claim.
"There are those who want us to take to the street so other reckless cops can take target practice on our children," Mr. Sharpton said yesterday. Lawrence Hamm, coordinator of the "People's Organization for Progress," in the best Marxist tradition, called for a general strike on May 19, the birthday of Malcolm X. Amiri Baraka, the Newark poet and editor of Unity and Struggle, a monthly newspaper, criticized the verdict, and the decision to move the trial from the Bronx to Albany. "That's the Klan's court," he said. "The Klan have gone indoors. The Klan wears blue uniforms now."
I can hardly wait to hear what Hillary is going to say about all this. Will she do the bidding of a bunch of trouble-making Marxists and demand her hubby at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. re-try the acquitted officers, in order to placate the black racists in Sharpton's corner? After all, before the verdict she already had called the shooting a "murder."
When we compare the Bob Jones University disapproving interracial dating with Al Sharpton's charge that the white police use black children for target practice, an obvious attempt to foment a riot, the University comes out a pretty mild bunch. It will be interesting to see how many in the media voice disapproval of Al Sharpton and his racist rabble-rousing.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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