wfn.org | Hamm supports call to investigate NY police acquittals

["Office of Communications"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: March 3, 2000
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: cmiller@oc.disciples.org
http://www.disciples.org

00c-8
	
	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) --  The Rev. Richard L. Hamm, general minister and 
president, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is formally supporting 
the call for further investigation of the New York City police officers 
who shot and killed an unarmed Bronx man.  

	The four officers, who admitted they mistakenly shot and killed Amadou 
Diallo, were acquitted Feb. 26 of all criminal charges brought against 
them for the February 1999 killing.  The acquittals have sparked angry 
street protests and renewed calls for justice from citizens all over the 
country.  

	Hamm's March 2 letter to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno supports an 
investigation of whether the officers' actions violated Diallo's civil 
rights, a probe that could result in new federal charges against the 
officers.  The general minister and president also called on New York City 
Police Commissioner Howard Safir to bring administrative charges against 
the officers and to reestablish a civilian review board.

	"Once again, through racial profiling, police officers are given a 
license to kill," said Hamm in the letter to Reno. He also criticized as 
"terribly wrong" police procedures which repeatedly  result in "violent 
confrontations with suspects rather than procedures which bring about 
non-violent conclusions."  

	In the end, police officers themselves also are made victims, "as they 
themselves are often shot or, as in the Diallo case, must live with the 
terrible knowledge that they have wounded or killed innocent people," Hamm 
said.

	Four Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) executives urged Hamm's 
advocacy: the Revs. Gerald Cunningham, Justice Ministries, Homeland 
Ministries; Julia Brown Karimu, Mission Personnel Office, Global 
Ministries; L. Wayne Stewart, Reconciliation Ministry; and Clifford L. 
Willis, Office of Communication.  The Disciples Center executives 
maintained Hamm's role should be consistent with a 1997 Disciples General 
Assembly resolution (#9715) which urged "general, regional and local 
leaders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to speak out 
publicly on issues of police accountability." 

	The police officers face a New York City Police Department internal 
investigation of whether they are fit to return to duty.  The Disciples 
executives also called for Safir, the police commissioner, to bring 
administrative charges against the officers.  

	"The acquittal, on all charges, of the four New York City police officers 
who killed Mr. Amadou Diallo is yet another example that persons of color, 
in particular, can be killed or brutalized with impunity," the executives 
said in a memo to general church employees. "The families of two other New 
York City victims --  Anthony Baez, killed in 1994, and Abner Louima, 
assaulted in 1997 -- have ties to the Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ)," they said.  

	At trial, the police officers testified that after they approached 
Diallo, the man reached for his wallet.  One officer yelled "gun" and the 
shooting began.  The officers fired 41 shots, striking Diallo 19 times.  

                                          -- end-- 

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