Story Assignment: Police Brutality and Racism

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
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Friday, April 25, 2008

Police Brutality and Racism

Interviews Available

AP reports: "Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in
the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case
that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations
Florida and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race
Relations. She is author of "Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime, and
African Americans."
She said today: "These cases -- Bell, [Amadou] Diallo -- explain
the African American community's reaction to the O.J. Simpson case and its
general disillusionment with the criminal justice system."

Rev. LENNOX YEARWOOD Jr., via Darryl Perkins, darryl@hiphopcaucus.org, http://www.hiphopcaucus.org
President of the Hip Hop Caucus, Yearwood said today: "This verdict exemplifies the inadequacy and shortcomings of local courts/criminal justice systems to adjudicate police shootings, especially those that result in death. We have not been witnesses to 'fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans' as is stated in the mission of the Department of Justice. If the mission of the Department of Justice and rule of law is being broken, then the integrity of the institution and system is lost, and there is no rule of law. When there is no rule of law, people will organize to work for justice as a means to protect themselves out of necessity."