Former police chief speaks on Diallo slaying

At a time when police brutality is all too common, millions of Americans were horrified when a jury acquitted the four officers who shot and killed Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant. The shooting occurred on Feb. 4, 1999 on the vestibule of Diallo's Bronx, New York apartment. Four plain-clothes policemen fired 41 shots—19 of which hit their mark—at Diallo, who was reaching for his wallet. The officers claim that they thought Diallo was reaching for a gun. In the wake of the recent verdict, many New Haven citizens and Yale students are wondering if the Diallo debacle could happen here—and whether culpable officers would be punished if it did.

SPENCER PLATT/NEWSMAKERS Americans were enraged—and saddened—by the Diallo slaying. Here, mourners hold up pictures of the victim.

Nick Pastore is the former chief of the New Haven Police Department; during his tenure, he brought the nascent community policing movement to New Haven. Currently a fellow in research on police policy issues for the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Pastore continues to advocate community policing. A special show on the New Haven Police Department and their community policing efforts will air on Fri., Mar. 24 on Connecticut Public Television.

Pastore was among the many who were outraged by the Diallo verdict. As he explained, "It was a case in which most [Americans] posed the wrenching question of how police officers could shoot at someone 41 times. I just don't think that the jury felt the impact of that." He cited the prosecutor's failure to bring in enough expert testimony to combat the defense's arguments as the main cause for the surprise verdict. Pastore also noted that the prosecution would have had a stronger case if it had drawn more heavily on the recklessness displayed by the officers. "The prosecutor didn't speak and represent the victim, who couldn't speak for himself," he said.

In addition to recklessness, Pastore said, the case also demonstrated a lack of respect for human life on the part of the officers. He believes that many police forces partake in a "numbers game" in which they prioritize keeping the crime rate down over being attentive to who their targets are. "The game is just like being at war with society and never putting a human face on the situation," he said.

Noting that minorities are 18 times more likely to serve punishments and jail time than white people who commit the same crimes, Pastore said, "To be black is to automatically be discounted. They are stereotypes to street crime suppression units." He further explained that these units, like the New York Police Department's elite Street Crimes Unit, too often target minorities and certain neighborhoods instead of conducting more in-depth profiling. "This translates to the further erosion of the credibility of policing," Pastore explained. "We're back in '68 with the polarization of blacks and whites, and this verdict translates to a lynching with due process of law."

In struggling to explain the scope of the shooting, Pastore noted that the number of shots might have been the result of "copycatting,"—the officers may have mistaken the sound of other officers' fire for an attack against them. But he could neither understand nor condone the number of times that Diallo was shot. "It is impossible to point a finger or blame the victim," he insisted. Pastore also expressed concern that the officers were not in uniform. "Most people probably thought that they were gang members and Diallo probab-ly thought that they were a bunch of white guys attacking him," he explained.

According to Pastore, several steps need to be taken to insure that such brutality is averted in the future. "We need more awareness, more debates, and more protests," he said. "We need to do everything we can to level justice. The King and Louima cases, along with this one, clearly indicate a pattern of behavior which points to power out of control."

Despite the gravity of the case and the repetitive patterns of police brutality, Pastore remains optimistic that the Diallo case could never take place in New Haven. Although he admitted that mistakes can happen in any city, he also explained, "We don't have the same type of mean-spirited policing. We don't have a crime suppression unit or get into numbers games." Another advantage New Haven police enjoy is their lack of anonymity in the community. "We know people, people know us," Pastore said. "We see the people as customers whom we serve and respect and we try to form partnerships with them and get them involved."

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