Diallo Case Draws More Scrutiny

Calls for action in the death of Amadou Diallo increased Saturday as the Justice Department continued reviews of New York City police practices as well as the case of four New York policemen who shot him.

Police officers, Muslims and even President Clinton weighed in over the weekend on the case of the West African immigrant killed in a hail of gunfire by police who say they mistakenly thought he pulled a gun on them.

In Washington, several dozen people, mostly American Muslims, protested Saturday in front of the Justice Department, saying the department should file a federal lawsuit against the New York Police Department.

“What happened to Amadou Diallo, what has happened to others . . . is a pattern of abuse within the New York Police Department that has been going on for many years,” Mauri Saalakhan of the human rights group Peace and Justice Foundation told a noon rally of about 50 people.

“They should spend the money on a federal suit against the NYPD and the city of New York for a pattern of civil rights violations.”

In New York, a coalition of black law enforcement groups called for a review of the Diallo case.

“We want the Justice Department to look into this, to investigate,” Charles Billups, head of the Grand Council of Guardians, said in a news conference on the steps of City Hall.

His group represents black members of the NYPD, the state troopers and law enforcement agencies on Long Island and the northern suburbs.

The Justice Department is reviewing the Diallo case, specifically, as well as investigating the patterns and practices of the New York department, a probe expanded to include the Street Crime Unit after Diallo’s shooting.

All four officers in that case were assigned to Street Crimes, a roving group of plainclothes officers.

On Thursday, Diallo’s parents and black activists met for almost two hours with Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to press for Justice Department action and to bring attention to the broader issue of police brutality. Holder made no guarantee that charges would be sought.

Lawyers for the four white policemen plan to visit the Justice Department on Monday to argue against civil rights charges.

Clinton offered his first public comment on the case Friday night at a political fund-raiser, saying he believes Diallo’s race was a factor.

“I don’t pretend for a moment to second-guess the jury,” Clinton said. “But I know most people in America of all races believe that if it had been a young white man in a young all-white neighborhood, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

The officers fired 41 shots at Diallo in the early hours of Feb. 4, 1999, as he stood in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building. They testified they fired when Diallo reached for what they thought was a gun. It turned out to be a wallet.

A jury of eight whites and four blacks acquitted the officers of all charges, which ranged from second-degree murder to reckless endangerment.