BY AL DUNCAN
NEW YORK - In the face of nearly two months of protests, a
grand jury in the Bronx on March 25 indicted the four cops
who killed Amadou Diallo, reportedly on charges of second-
degree murder. The February 4 shooting of the 22-year-old
worker from Guinea has caused a crisis for the city
administration of Rudolph Giuliani, with even some of his
fellow Republicans trying to distance themselves from the
mayor. But even before the content of the sealed indictments
is publicly announced, many of those who claim to lead the
struggle for justice have begun working to defuse further
protests.
Police officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy are charged with shooting Diallo 19 times, firing a total of 41 bullets at him. Since Diallo's death there have been numerous demonstrations and other activities demanding that those responsible be indicted and convicted. Among the most visible have been the daily actions at One Police Plaza, the police headquarters in downtown Manhattan.
When asked what she thought about the indictments, 43-year- old legal assistant Cynthia Davis said, "Anybody can be indicted. You can indict a piece of meat. The grand jury couldn't do anything else.
"I have no faith, none whatsoever, in the judicial system," Davis added. "People will have to show up in the hundreds. Not necessarily for civil disobedience, but to let people know we will not go away. On Tuesday the Bronx and on Wednesday in Brooklyn, at both courthouses," Davis was referring to the call made by the organizers of the protests at One Police Plaza to demonstrate at the courthouse as the next step in the fight.
According to the grand jury, second-degree murder was the highest charge that could have been brought against the cops under New York law. If convicted on these charges they could receive 25 years to life in prison.
"I think this [indictment] is a positive step - a first step if we want to get justice," said a 30-year-old Chinese- American teacher from Brooklyn picketing the police headquarters. "We need a trial so we can know what happened and learn lesson from it." She was among 20 members of the United Overseas Chinese of Greater New York organization who came to the last of the daily demonstrations at One Police Plaza on March 29. They carried signs and banners denouncing racism and police brutality.
The breadth of these protests underscored the intense pressure that the ruling class in New York was under to return an indictment against the cops accused of killing Diallo. The capitalist media and prominent bourgeois politicians, including Giuliani, have sought to portray the killing of Diallo as a "tragic mistake."
"Mistake?" declared Rafael Ramos, a 43-year-old construction worker. "I can't accept that. A tragic accident would be one shot or something. Here you have them shooting at Diallo 41 times - they intended to do something to him!"
Eric Cordova, a high school student who became involved for the first time in something like this, had a similar reaction. "I've been here four times," Cordova said while picketing at Police Plaza. "I didn't like the fact that the cops shot 41 times. If this had happened to someone else a indictment would have been much quicker. Cops always seem to get away with something like this."
He added, "Protests should not stop. This is not the first time this has occurred, it will happen again. Besides a lot of people are demonstrating not only against this but also against the Street Crime Unit, for Mumia [Abu-Jamal], and a lot of other things." The Street Crime Unit is the special police unit that the cops charged with Diallo's death belonged to at the time of the shooting.
The size of the protests outside of One Police Plaza grew in the days following the indictments, to 1,000 or more each day. More than 1,200 people were arrested as part of the civil disobedience component of these actions; the large, peaceful pickets have involved many times that number. Among the most recent arrestees were Democratic politician Jesse Jackson, actress Susan Sarandon, and Carolyn Goodman, whose son, Andrew Goodman was murdered in Mississippi in 1964 for his involvement in the civil rights movement.
These actions coincided with jury selection in Brooklyn in the trial of four cops charged in the 1997 torture of Abner Louima and the sergeant accused of covering up their actions. This case, like Diallo's, sparked major demonstrations against police brutality.
Giuliani and other capitalist politicians have all sought to put forward programs that they hope will enable them to put a damper on things. For example, the mayor has invited a number of Black elected officials who have opposed him in the past to Gracie Mansion for coffee March 28, something that he hadn't done in years.
He has had his police commissioner announce measures that include assigning 50 Black and Latino officers to the predominantly white Street Crime Unit and placing a Black cop in the number two position in it. Giuliani is also planning to hire dozens more Black and Latino officers.
Nearly all the top leadership in the Democratic Party in New York City have come together to push their own program for reforming the NYPD. This group includes the former mayor of New York David Dinkins, Rep. Charles Rangel, Rev. Alfred Sharpton, Dennis Rivera, president of hospital workers union Local 1199, and many others. They put forward a "10 point program" that includes demands that New York cops live in the city, more hiring of "minority" police, a pay raise for cops, and an outside prosecutor in instances of police corruption or brutality.
In reaction to the indictment of fellow officers, the cops and their supporters have stepped up their campaign to portray the police involved in Diallo's "tragic death" as the victims of a well-organized effort by a bunch of "cop bashers" and "publicity seekers." This includes calling pro- cop rallies outside the Bronx courthouse.