COLUMN: A star witness without a voice

On Saturday, a grave crime occurred. Four killers were set free. Since then, huge protests have been held across the country. Blacks and non-blacks alike, fed up with the status quo in terms of police "protection," are speaking up in a united voice. Others have sat proudly in agreement with the verdict. Any lawyer or law student will tell you that the prosecution was missing evidence. For them, with all that is right and wrong with the system, justice has been served. With all of the finger-pointing happening now, it is easy to forget who the true victim in this case is. It is not the millions of black people in this country who live in constant fear of the police; it is not the police who can be held liable for split-second actions that may save their own lives; and it is certainly no one in between. Amadou Diallo is the victim. This is so easy to forget when people use his death as an impetus for protest or as a defense of the criminal justice system. Amadou Diallo now only exists in our memories. He was a man without any prior convictions, an immigrant of two years just trying to make a living. He was a devout Muslim living in a poor community in the Bronx, peddling on the street to barely scrape together a living. He was only 22. The way he died was far from humane. The prosecution had no case because its star witness was massacred. Nineteen of the 41 shots fired at Diallo hit him, and most ripped through his body after he had already fallen to the ground. Regardless of whether the policemen did feel a real threat, one must question their firing 41 bullets. That is not protocol -- it's cruelty. The real tragedy of this case is that we will never know what really happened that fateful night. Our star witness' body was sent back home to his native Guinea in a casket. His is a story that was never told due to a barrage of gunfire; his perspective on that night very possibly could have changed the outcome of the trial. Instead, the testimony of the four plain-clothed police officers on trial was given more credibility than that of the prosecution witnesses. With Diallo silenced, the state could not fully challenge the policemen's stories, and thus lost the case. But we'll never know what really happened that night a little more than one year ago -- and speculation is useless. For the next few weeks, this verdict will surely be the topic of many a discussion. Many will cite police brutality as the cause of this tragedy. Others will crassly blame the victim for running away from four plain-clothed men with guns. Still others will look at a very imperfect system characterized by mistrust between the police and lower-income black communities. Let us take from this tragedy what we can. Let us learn from the strength of the victim's mother, who -- through all the pain -- still urges the masses to stay calm. Or let it become a springboard for discussion. Believe what you will, but the police went overboard when they killed Diallo. He was treated more as an animal than as a human being. He was an innocent man who was suspect because of a system of racial profiling. What turned out to be an innocent man was picked off the street, and eventually gunned down, because he was black. Everything else is presumption. Who truly knows the motive behind Diallo's decision to flee or the police officers' motives to empty their guns? The police officers might have been racist. Diallo might have used poor judgment in running away. Or maybe not -- we just cannot know. When forming an opinion on the verdict, focus on the faulty system and less on the motives of a few individuals. Stick with the facts. And most of all, remember that an innocent man lies dead today. His voice, now silenced, might then speak volumes.

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