Amadou Diallo was a black 22 year old African immigrant who was shot at 41 times by 4 white New York City Police Officers. On Feb. 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo was killed by 19 bullets that actually penetrated his body. Amadou Diallo was unarmed and had no prior arrests. It was said that he allegedly matched the description of a black rapist in the area. Although this incident took place over a month ago (Current date is March 11,199), the 4 white officers have yet to be fired or even brought up on any charges. The four police officers — McMellon, Carroll, Boss, and Murphy — were placed on desk duty pending an investigation. The four police officers were treated at an area hospital for trauma and ringing in their ears.

Amadou (Ahmed) Diallo, 22, a street peddler who immigrated from Guinea in West Africa, was pronounced dead at the scene, his bullet-riddled body crumpled faceup in the well-lighted vestibule of his building on Wheeler Ave. in Soundview. His wallet and a beeper lay next to him. Two of the cops — Police Officers Edward McMellon - 26 and Sean Carroll - 35, didn't stop firing until the 16-bullet cartridges in their 9-mm. handguns were empty. The price for having a permanent suntan in the city of New York.

Being a police officer is a VERY dangerous job. I believe that the majority of police officers take their jobs very seriously, and will NOT go out of their way to harm anyone. However, it's clear that many of these police officers don't have much tolerance when it comes to minorities. These 4 white police officers shot at Amadou Diallo 41 times. What caused these officers to act with such force. We can only speculate and wait for the NYC police dept. to justify the use of such force.

Think about it, if you were in the same situation, how would you react. You have 4 police officers starting to shoot at you, what would you do? Would you run? Would you immediately drop to the ground? Maybe Amadou Diallo did both, who knows? But I can assure you that he was a HUMAN BEING, NOT an ANIMAL, or even the TERMINATOR. Amadou Diallo was shot a total of 19 times. I don't know if their is a man alive that can withstand more than ten 9mm bullets piercing their body. You would have to be Arnold Swartzenegger's character, The Terminator, to withstand such force without a bulletproof vest. The HUMAN BODY can only stand so much punishment. So by the time Amadou Diallo was shot by that 10th bullet, it is HIGHLY unlikely for him to be still standing. One would have to believe that Amadou Diallo was still being shot while he was laying helpless on the ground. What did these 4 white police officers see at the end of their barrels when they were firing at Amadou Diallo? Did they see a HUMAN BEING? Did they see an ANIMAL? Some of the worst criminals in this world were WHITE MEN; however, I DO NOT recall any WHITE MAN being shot at 41 times by a police officer.

Amadou Diallo was just another black man that has been added to a growing list of minorities being killed by police officers in this country. What does a black man have to do to be treated like a human being? How many miles in protest do we have to march? How many speeches do we have to give? After the trial of Rodney King, there were MANY riots in the LA area. What will become of this case? If these police officers aren't convicted of murder, we could have an even bigger riot on our hands in the city of New York. For every cause, there is an effect. People always say that young black youths should have more respect for police officers. That's like asking a woman to send a thank you card to a man who rapes her.

To add insult to injury, less than a week after Amadou Diallo was murdered by these 4 white police officers the NYC Police Dept. was making plans to add hollow point bullets to their arsenal. If you don't  know, hollow point bullets causes more damage to the human body. Hollow point bullets can also penetrate some bulletproof jackets. Many police departments say that their arsenal of weapons are too small to compete with some of the weapons out on the streets. Instead of putting a regulation on these POWERFUL street weapons, many police departments rather just join the fight to see who has the biggest and baddest weapons.