Reaction to Diallo trial verdict ranges from outrage to hope for reconciliation

Officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy were found not guilty of murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment charges following a one-month trial in Albany.

Mr. Diallo, a West African immigrant living in the Bronx, was killed in February 1999 after the four white officers shot him; they were pursuing a rape suspect and thought Mr. Diallo was holding a gun when they opened fire.

Respect for verdict

"I have to respect the judicial process, and I'm looking ahead to lessons that we've learned from this," he said. "The verdict came down that the officers are not guilty, and the process of reconciliation should begin. I wasn't there in the courtroom, and I honestly believe in the judicial process, right or wrong, win, lose or draw."

Father Lefebvre often visited with Albany police officers outside the courthouse during the trial, and he admired Mr. Diallo's mother, whom he described as "a very dignified lady. I would often see her in front of the church and hear her speak."

Next steps

"I see the tragedy taking a toll on everybody," he said. "These four officers will never be the same again because to take a life takes a toll. It's time for them to be reconciled to themselves and to the Lord, and you start building from there.

"You have to go on with your life, and you don't come equipped with a giant eraser to go back and replay the whole thing all over again."

Feelings about trial

"I tried to think about the trial the way a mother would think about it," said Mrs. Lipscomb, who is black and the mother of four grown children. "We've had good family conversations, and feelings were coming out."

Following the trial by reading The New York Times and Albany Times Union, she "tried to be sensitive to what was happening and what the trial was doing to our area. I prayed that I would remain open to the information given to us. People thought differently about it because it was here. You could go down to the courthouse and look at the crowd."

Mrs. Lipscomb, who doesn't believe that race was a factor in the trial, hopes that race relations will improve now that the four officers have been acquitted.

"I do see a healing process being put into place, if people would open their minds and hearts," she said. "We don't want to grow any more distant than we are."

Racial component

"Even if race did not have much to do with the trial itself, I think it has a lot to do with how people experience the trial and verdict," he said. "I'm hearing a lot of white people in our community using the line 'This is a tragedy, not a crime' as a way of not dealing with the race dimension in all of this."

He went to the courthouse soon after the verdict was read and returned the next day to support demonstrators who had been arrested for civil disobedience.

"It was a very sad experience," he said. "People were grieving and wailing aloud. There was great pain about this, and people were remembering the names of other people of color who were innocent who were shot by police."

Mr. Boehrer believes that the verdict polarizes members of the community, but that it's also "an opportunity for people from suburbs and small towns to dialogue with people in the cities in terms of the roles of police officers in their communities."

Reconciliation should take place in parishes, neighborhoods and the Diocese, he added, but "in order for that to happen and be sincere, it means everybody involved in this situation has an opportunity to share how they have been hurt."

'Outrageous'

"I wasn't so surprised by the outcome," he said. "It's horrendous, outrageous. I wouldn't think there's any sensible person out there who's happy with the verdict. These are the kind of things people never forget. The whole world knows that something is rotten somewhere."

His parishioners were very angry with the verdict, and Father Kofi doesn't think this will be the last time such allegations of police brutality are made.

"When will this come to an end? And how much blood will have to be shed before we treat each other like Christ taught us? This will not be the end of it, unfortunately," he said.

He believes that there can be healing for those affected by the verdict, but it will happen gradually. "Reconciliation will come with time, and I believe that's part of my work," Father Kofi said. "People will have to eventually accept the verdict and go on with their lives, but there will always be that distaste in their mouths about how these things affect certain parts of the population."

(03-02-00) [[In-content Ad]]