Charles Brown
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The Ritualistic Slaughter of Amadou Diallo
Commentary By Elombe Brath New York Daily Challenge
"Amadou, Amadou ... Why?, why?" The plaintive wail of a grief-stricken African mother, Kadiadou Diallo, as she approached the building at 1157 Wheeler Avenue where her 22-year old son Amadou Ahmed Diallo was viciously executed a week ago by so-called "elite" members of the NYPD's Street Crime Unit (SCU).
This factor has punctuated the tragedy of Amadou's senseless death, for it is only a mother's love for the child she labored to bring into this world--and has to bear witness that someone else who had nothing to do with its birth has senselessly decided to dispatch that child from this earth--that can jar the human consciousness from further tolerating such behavior.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Diallo awaited her husband, Saikou, a Guinean businessman who arrived that evening from his enterprise in Vietnam. Today, this afternoon, they will properly funeralize him with an official Islamic janaza ceremony, let us review what we have been told so far, and what the Diallo's will have to be apprised of before they sit down with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and make their demands for the justice they seek for their departed son.
When the four-man Street Crime Unit (SCU) cut loose a fusillade of 9-mm gunfire at 2:30 AM, last Thursday morning of February 4, killing the young, unarmed Muslim street vendor, it represented the latest manifestation of centuries of a long chain of abuses when armed white men exercised their authority against unarmed Africans in the United States of America.
The major difference this time in the killing of Mr. Diallo (pronounced jal-loh, not Dee-Ah-lo) was the fact that the victim was from Guinea (Conakry), West Africa and the slaughter took place in the vestibule of 1157 Wheeler Avenue, the building in which he lived in the Sound view section of the Bronx. And regardless that he was an immigrant from Africa and devout Muslim who made salute five times a day as called for in the Holy Qu'ran, to the plainclothes special "elite" police unit (in effect a death squad), he was just another Blackman whom white men have been gunning down since firearms were invited, made accessible to them, and an African was made available for the ritualistic slaughter.
Don't underestimate this assessment, and don't let anybody kid you--it was a slaughter. Forty-one shots fired, 19 hitting the target. Reportedly, half were said to have hit Diallo in the legs, which should have brought him down. But the other shots ruptured such vital organs as the aorta, lungs, spine, spleen, liver, etc. The heart shot was credited with causing his death, but he would have died anyway from the damage done to hi organs. In fact, the gunshots were so loud due to the intensity of the firing that all four of New York's fascist reported to the hospital afterwards to be treated for the "ringing in their ears."
In the parlance of the street, the four SCU members "lit Amadou up!"
These four cops, whom Giuliani described as officers with "excellent" records, are an interesting lot. One already has been credited with a Black body, two others have at least three civilian complaints on their record, and all four are about to emerge with a collective defense alibi to establish an aura of innocence that the PBA, the mayor and the New York Post--the three oracles for the defense killer cops have previously been able to count on immediately after such a shooting (but have found it difficulty to do so this time)--can find credible enough to cite "justifiable" homicide.
It is Giuliani that has set the tone of his administration as being "Killer Cop Friendly." He became the current occupant of Gracie Mansion by defeating former Mayor David Dinkins during Dinkins ill-fated attempt to be re-elected. Giuliani's most infamous enter into that race was when he endeared himself to many of the reactionary elements in this city by lending his personal support to an angry, racist, armed police riot at City Hall. These race-baiting members of New York's so-called "finest" were protesting Dinkins for appointing a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which would have monitored some of their excessive behavior, something that they were preparing to resist by any means necessary.
This current mayor, whom even the New York Times reported is known to some as the "Manhattan Mussolini" striving to perhaps become the "Hitler of the Hudson", benefited heavily in winning the election because of a slanderous anti-Semitic libel against Dinkins. This premise, which Giuliani and his then WABC "Hate" Radio cohort, Bob Grant, helped put forth that Dinkins should have unleashed the full fury of the NYPD against the African community in Crown Heights in the 1991 aftermath of protests over the killing of 7-year old Gavin Cato and the maiming of his cousin Angela by a Hasidic driver. The subsequent death of Yankel Rosenbaum, a rabbinical student from Australia, during the disturbances (coupled with substandard medical treatment at the hospital, caused this tragic set of events to be promoted as Dinkins' and the Crown Heights African community's version of "Kristallnact", a replica of the infamous Nazi-induced "night of the broken glass."
Although a great effort has been made to discredit the terminology of "It's Giuliani Time" that arose during the brutal attack against Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant that was symbolically "sodomized" by four other police officers in Brooklyn's 70th Precinct in August of 1997. His dis-Honor has not disowned the SCU's boastful slogan of "We Own The Night!"
The PBA attorney for the four officers, Stephen Worth, claimed that the reason that the cops attempted to question Mr. Diallo was because he fits the description of an alleged rapist depicted in one of the NYPD's sketches. How much did Diallo's actual appearance match the drawing? Uh, well, Worth claims, uh, it was a "generic" match. Translation?: The sketch was of a man of African ancestry and Diallo was an African. It's that simple.
Worth actually had the audacity to tell Dominick Carter of News 1's "Inside City Hall" on Tuesday evening, February 9th, that police officers are now trained to empty their entire clip if they deem it necessary in order that the person they felt threatened by is downed. Why? Because--get to this--the new 9-mm does not have as much impact as the old .38 calibre!
This bald-faced lie flies in the face of the reason that former Police Commissioner William Bratton and Giuliani argued for the NYPD to be equipped with .45 calibre and/or 9-mm automatics, because they had to have "equal firepower as the criminals in the street."
Although Giuliani and Bratton eventually broke up, bickering over publicity and credit for whom was the best crime fighter, the very idea that Giuliani hired Bratton in the first place was another insult to the African community in New York City. We cannot forget that Bratton, in his previous role as head of the Boston Police Department, cut loose is fascist, racist, terrorist police force on the African community after one Michael Stuart, a white man, murdered his wife and blamed it on a Black assailant. Stuart's brother later informed the police and media that the husband had killed his own pregnant wife and made up the story of a mythical Black man as part of his cover-up, causing Michael Stuart to commit suicide.
The murder of Amadou Ahmed Diallo was not an aberration. It was part of a tradition that has been going much too long. He was not killed because he was Guinean. Nor was he shot because he was Muslim. Neither was his good behavior and cheerful disposition the reason that the four killer cops opened fire on him. Amadou Ahmed Diallo was killed because due to the legacy of white racism and a mass Afro phobic psychotic mindset that is considered acceptable, that the law of averages as demographics change, he happened to be another young Black man who, although absolutely innocent, happened--not be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but--was available when the Giuliani's death squad night riders came to his abode to take his life.
So forget the concocted excuse that you are about to be treated to by the murderers defenders. Attorney Worth's lame explanation is worthless and PBA Acting-President Savage will see his savages answer the demand for justice. The quite dignity of the Diallos and the unity of the entire African community, as well as all decent and fair-minded people, shall prevail and their will be no sellout of the quest for justice for Amadou Ahmed Diallo.
No justice, no peace! And that's not just a slogan--It's a commitment!