To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Media Feb. 9, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/media/col/elde/2000/02/09/diallo Pity the poor immigrant The cast of characters in the Diallo trial -- from Rudy's NYPD to the Rev. Al Sharpton -- is priceless, so why does TV drag in Bernhard Goetz? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Sean Elder You don't see all that many African immigrants on television. There isn't much of a market for them in sitcoms, newsrooms or weather reports, of course, though in police and medical dramas you might find one now and then. (It's hard for the actors to get the accent right.) Most of the time, African immigrants are pretty much invisible. If you live in New York, however, you see them everywhere. They're driving your taxi, delivering your groceries, wiping your baby's cute little bottom. From the bodegas to the street vendors, African immigrants are the suppliers for our various needs. They are the latest wave in that immigrant tide most of our ancestors rode in on. Amadou Diallo has been on television a lot lately, thanks in large part to Court TV, which is presenting the trial of the policemen who killed him. It has been a year since he was shot to death in the Bronx by members of the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit, invariably referred to in the press as the "elite" Street Crimes Unit. The unit's motto was "We Own the Night" (and in Diallo's case they might have added: "You Pay for It"). Such braggadocio may have contributed to Diallo's killing last February, though the four officers on trial -- Kenneth Bass, Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy and Edward McMellon -- now maintain that they did everything by the book. The four veteran officers -- all out of uniform -- were on the lookout for a serial rapist when they confronted Diallo in the doorway of his apartment building. Did they identify themselves? Did he hear them? Was pulling out his wallet (which one of the cops mistook for a gun) the best way to respond? Apparently not, since the officers reacted by firing 41 rounds at him. Diallo was struck by 19 bullets -- 16 of those shots passed through him and three were removed by the medical examiner. In the year that followed there were a number of protests in front of police headquarters in Manhattan, all spearheaded by that man for all seasons, the Rev. Al Sharpton. The protests were successful by media standards (arrested guests included the actress Susan Sarandon and former New York Mayor David Dinkins) -- perhaps too much so. In response to a request for a change-of-venue by the officers' defense team (all four were charged with second-degree murder), the trial was moved to the state's predominantly white capital, Albany. Sharpton and company had a field day with this decision, comparing it to the move of the Rodney King trial to Simi Valley, Calif., (and we all remember how that verdict went over). But before the whole world could cry "Fix!", a state supreme court justice, Joseph C. Teresi, allowed Court TV access to the proceedings, deflating Sharpton's accusations that the African-American (and African immigrant) community was being cut out of the action. This move also cut Sharpton's planned protests in Albany off at the pass. Now all anyone interested in attending the trial needed was a television set -- and maybe a few cups of coffee. For if C-Span is democracy in action (the U.S. Congress seems to function in something slower than real time), Court TV is the legal system -- live! The wheels of justice turn slowly and there is no fast-forward. The folks at Court TV seem to have the same philosophy of the officers on trial: Shoot first and ask questions later. Compared to O.J., which went on forever, the People vs. Bass is flying by, with Teresi sustaining and overruling objections right and left, and generally keeping the proceedings on a short leash. (Call him anti-Ito.) He does not seem to be playing favorites and the justice he has administered so far is definitely of the double-edged variety. After ruling Monday that an "ear witness," Ida Vincent, could not testify that she heard someone plotting what sounded like a coverup right after the shooting, Teresi reversed himself after defense attorneys "opened the door" by asking about other specifics. ("Defense Team Blunders," the Daily News shrieked afterwards.) Reportage in general has focused on the pause three witnesses reported in the fusillade. Defense attorneys preferred the word "break" (a semantic distinction that is lost on me) but the real question is that of length. While Vincent agreed with other ear witnesses that it was several seconds (long enough, presumably, to see if Diallo had a gun or was even moving), the pause -- sorry, break -- Vincent illustrated by rapping out the shots on the witness stand was less than one full second. More time might have indicated that the officers meant to finish the immigrant off. Call it the pause that represses. Tuesday's proceedings centered around the testimony of Dr. Joseph Cohen, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Diallo. Cohen's version of events was as close as the prosecution was going to get to an eyewitness account and the defense was duty-bound to jump all over it. Was the spine severed or perforated? And how could Diallo have turned while falling if he was essentially paralyzed? "If a helicopter came in and lifted him up, that would explain it," a defense lawyer harangued. (The prosecution objected and Teresi sustained.) Granted, the police attorneys are in a tough place, even though some members of the jury (eight white, four black) have law enforcement experience. They can blame the system (the cops were "trained not to wait for the glint of steel" one attorney said in his opening remarks); and the job (they feared for their lives); and try to put the killing in the best light possible. At one point Tuesday, for example, one of the defense lawyers seemed to be making a case for 9 mm full-metal-jacket bullets. Hollow-points would not have passed through Diallo's body with the same ease, he argued, making the full-metal-jacket the kinder, gentler ammo of the day. And unseen by the folks at home is the victim's now-famous mother, Kadiatou Diallo. Her grace and composure, even in grief, has been a P.R. nightmare for the NYPD. While adopted (some would say appropriated) early on by Sharpton, her presence has had the opposite effect of his. While Sharpton traditionally provokes, Mrs. Diallo has called upon all concerned to do the right thing. As she reminded the audience on Court TV's "Pros and Cons" last week, her son "was full of hope and belief in America." (She did not attend court Tuesday, due to the nature of the evidence presented.) For its part, Court TV's presentation of the trial has been straight-ahead and unfiltered, only occasionally using break-out graphics to remind viewers what they're watching and why. Anchor Fred Graham adds a benign and, well, courtly presence -- especially compared to "Pros and Cons'" Nancy Grace, who seems to be doing an impression of Ted Knight. While Grace may be concerned about the staid nature of the hearings, her attempts to sensationalize what is already a hot-tamale case are over the top. Her vocal inflections don't seem to have much to do with what she is saying ("Believe it or not, I have not made up my mind in this case"), and she squints and widens her eyes so often that she appears to need new contact lenses. By contrast, former CNN hand Catherine Crier is almost a voice of reason and professionalism -- though her choice of an "exclusive" guest on her lunchtime program Tuesday provided one of the coverage's more bizarre moments. Bernhard Goetz may be an expert in shooting unarmed black men, but what "The Subway Vigilante" of 1984 has to do with this particular case is anybody's guess. "I don't have a lot of faith in the legal system here," Goetz whined at one point, to which Crier countered, "It turned you loose." The desire to sensationalize these solemn proceedings is perhaps a natural one, though Court TV would be wise to resist it. The testimony of a Mrs. Diallo says far more than any heated "debate" between legal experts could, just as the ability to observe the trial and its players enables us to draw our own conclusions. Until the trial began last week, most New Yorkers had seen no more of the four cops than a few seconds of tape of them walking into police headquarters last year, looking rather lost. Sean Carroll (who probably yelled "Gun!" when Diallo pulled his wallet) seems the most stricken, staring intently at the schematic drawings of the victim, refusing to touch the weapon he fired. On Tuesday, as Cohen held up Diallo's shoe to show the jury the placement of a particularly incriminating exit wound, the humility of the victim's life was brought home. It was a cheap brown sneaker, probably a knockoff. It had been suggested by the defense that the videos Diallo sold may have been pirated as well -- though that's hardly a shooting crime, even in Giuliani's New York. Before the people rested Tuesday afternoon, making way for the officers' testimony Wednesday, we got to hear about Bernie Goetz's new cause. "Be Kind to Animals" was the message on the button he wore, and he bemoaned the fact that 25 million squirrels are killed in the United States each year for target practice. Not African immigrant squirrels, I trust. salon.com | Feb. 9, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Sean Elder is a columnist for Salon Media.