By Beauty Damned

Murderer

I am so sick about this that I don't even know what to say, except that it is obvious to me that if you are a police officer in NY, you can get away with just about anything.

I cannot deal with the fact that a grand jury declined to indict this police officer for shooting a boy for no reason. They say it was a "tragic accident," that "everbody loses in this case..." NO. The boy loses: his life. The family loses: a loved one. The community loses: a boy who was going to school and working hard to make something of himself, a boy who was not a threat to anyone. The cop loses NOTHING. He was suspended WITH pay for a couple weeks. That's a paid fucking vacation, I really don't care what you call it. Then he gets off scott free. Don't tell me he loses. Don't tell me that he is, in any way, paying for his actions. He says it was an accident. He says that when that door swung open on the rooftop his gun was already drawn and he was startled and he just pulled the trigger and the boy was dead and he didn't mean it and he's sorry. Not fucking good enough. No reason that these officers should be patrolling these neighborhoods with guns drawn. I have been to these neighborhoods. Yes they have problems with drugs and violence. But one of their even bigger problems are the cops always coming around, harrassing and killing them off like it's nothing. I have friends who have been interrogated and dragged down to the precinct simply for being in a project building adjacent to their own. And these cops, with their guns. And their itchy trigger fingers. And their racial prejudice. That is scarier than drugs. It is scarier than a sheisty neighbor.

This officer had no respect for the life of this young black man, Timothy Stansbury Jr. That is all it comes down to. If the door had swung open and a white boy had stood there, I don't believe the officer would have been so startled to instantly fire off a round without a second thought. Police officers know that it is common for kids to traverse these rooftops. Why would they just shoot as if the occurence of a door opening was such an anomily, such a startling incident? It's not that startling. It's common. Another thing that is common in NY is police officers shooting at black men, killing them dead and getting away with it.

It makes me want to just cry that it continues to happen. Nothing changes. The outrage of the public and of the victimized families does nothing to stop this kind of violence. Deeply controversial incidents such as the horrendous murder of Amadou Diallo do nothing to bring these incidents to a halt. These men who perpetrate racism and violence within the police force are protected. It is so hideous that this continues. And that it is dismissed as a "tragic accident." What happened cannot be excused with those two meaningless words. This was not an accident any more than 40 rounds being pumped into Amadou Diallo after he had already fallen to the ground was an accident. It was negligent homicide at best. In Diallo's case it was just murder. Senseless and evil and condoned by our mayor and everyone else who apparently mattered. These incidents have got to stop. But how will we make it stop when a jury refuses to indict a man who should clearly be tried?

I feel for this kid's family. They are suffering a massive injustice at the hands of our society and our legal system.

Posted by Maria at February 19, 2004 12:59 PM | TrackBack