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 On February 4th, 1999, Amadou Diallo, a 22 year old immigrant from Ghana, met death at the hands of four police officers in the South Bronx on Westchester Avenue. The bullets of Officer Richard Murphy, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss killed the African immigrant. These four officers fired their semiautomatic weapons a total of forty one times before they discovered they had hit a street vendor in the lobby of his humble abode. The South Bronx community received some respect when these alleged murderers were indicted and charged with the death of Diallo. But recently the community's quest for justice was challenged when, on December 16, an appellate court judge ordered that the four officers be tried in Albany. In most cases this transfer would only occur after an impartial jury could not be found. Nonetheless, the perception in the streets is that the city pulled some strings to send the case to an 86% white populated region, a month before a jury search was scheduled to take place. The court claimed that this decision was made to insure impartiality. This decision only shows that as a nation we are another step back from total equality and one step further to a revolution in a society that takes few steps for minority rights. We have seen the American courts make this decision in the past with the Rodney King police beating case in Los Angeles. The trial was moved from the county of Los Angeles to the suburban community of Simi Valley in Ventura county. Subsequently, the police caught on tape beating King were acquitted of all charges.  This crime was committed by police officers in the Bronx, and the victims were Amadou Diallo and the people of the Bronx. The courts should make these officers stand before the people of the Bronx not before a jury of 11 whites and 1 black. Pastor Ollie B. Wells Sr. of the Union Baptist Church and Board member of Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement made the following statement in reference to change of venue for the Diallo case: "Right now I am just angry, because the justice system again has just shown its racist face. That saying just becomes true more and more every day because it's not justice just JUST-US and US is just always at the end of the line. It is difficult to encourage young people to trust in the la w, authority and justice when there is so much injustice at the hands of the police. They talk about how we should respect justice. When the police get out of control and abuse people of color it is difficult to convince young people to have respect for the system because there is no justice for police." To tell you the truth, as a man, I can only agree with the pastor. I myself have seen and been in the hands of police brutality. Mayor Giuliani and his "personal army" act as if they were above the law and enfranchised to control the society. We need to take back the just control of our society. This recent transfer of the case is only as ludicrous as Giuliani claiming, "There is no blue wall of silence." I believe that the fate of these e police officers should be the same as the population at Comstock, Sing Sing, and Clinton maximum-security prisons. We as a people cannot let cops illegally shoot people 41 times, assault young children, nor watch broom handles being stuck up an innocent man's rectum. In conclusion I believe that we should let these cops feel the wrath of the people in the Bronx whose rights they probably violated more than once.
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