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Vol.64/No.11      March 20, 2000 
 
 
High school walkouts demand justice for Diallo  
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BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
NEW YORK--High school students in the New York and New Jersey area took to the streets to express their outrage at the acquittal of the four cops who shot to death Amadou Diallo, a 22-year-old worker from Guinea.

Chanting "No Justice, No Peace," several hundred students walked out of classes March 3 at Stuyvesant High School and several others in New York City. They marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to a rally by the federal courthouse, where a jury was deliberating the fate of three cops accused of covering up the August 1997 police-station torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. Three days later they were convicted.

After demonstrating in Brooklyn, about 300 students then marched back across the bridge for another protest action at City Hall.

The same day, some 120 students from Hunter High School marched from their school to a rally by Central Park. "No more killer cops," "Students Against Police Terror," and "Justice for Amadou," were among the signs the students carried on their 35-block march through the middle of Manhattan.

Hunter High student David Beck, 14, pointed to the cop killing of Malcolm Ferguson, a 23-year-old Black man, on March 1 just a few blocks away from where Diallo was gunned down in the Bronx last year. "That proves it's not a mistake. It's recurring. There's something wrong with our system and we must do something about it, " he said.

"We care about society. It's disturbing to find out justice isn't served in this country," said 17-year-old Sarah Nerboso.

During the week leading up to the march, students at Hunter High held rallies and discussions every day during lunch time.

In Jersey City, New Jersey, about 400 students from Snyder High School walked out of morning classes March 1 and marched to City Hall to protest racist treatment by the cops and the killing of Diallo. On their way the students marched to Lincoln High to call on students there to join them, but found that authorities had barricaded the school grounds, preventing them from entering or other students from leaving.  
 

'Convict the guilty police'

Chanting "Convict the Guilty Police," some 1,500 demonstrators rallied in front of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., March 2. Most of the largely young crowd came on buses from New York City to demand that the federal government step in and convict the four cops who shot and killed Diallo. Groups of youth held up wallets as they chanted, "Its a wallet not a gun!" Cops claim they fired 41 bullets at Diallo when they mistook his wallet for a gun.

"I came because this could happen to anyone one of us, Black or Puerto Rican," said Monica Gutierrez, 19, who lives in the area of the Bronx where Diallo was killed. "The cops treat us the same. We must be united and fight back."

Twenty-year-old Richard Hammond from Brooklyn said this was his first demonstration. "The cops get special treatment from the system. That's why they moved the trial to Albany. Black people can't get justice in America," he said.

Several organized groups in the rally held banners. Among them were Howard and Georgetown Law Students. A large contingent was present from the Service Employee International Union (SEIU)

Audrey Johnson and Gerald Osborne work in an office nearby. When they heard about the protest on the radio they decided to take an extended lunch break. "I just couldn't believe the verdict," said Johnson. "There is no way you can justify shooting someone 41 times for any reason.

During the rally Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., met inside the Department of Justice with Diallo's parents, Democratic party politician Alfred Sharpton, and several congressmen. According to the Washington Post, Holder explained that federal prosecutions after state trials happen only about once or twice a year.

In Boston, some 120 people rallied in front of the JFK Federal Building February 28. The event was organized by "Next Movement," a group of young people of color who explain they are "organizing to fight oppression."

Charles Yancey, a Black city council member, and Thomas Atkins of the NAACP, addressed the rally. But most of those who spoke were young people who took the open mike and explained why they were there. Tamara Williams, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that she had school work to do that day but explained, "No matter what work I have to do I had to be here to let others know that there are people out here who won't take this." Elena Tate, a student at Hunter College and a member of the Young Socialists; Sam Manuel, member of the United Transportation Union in Washington, D.C.; and Ted Leonard, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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