Students Protest Diallo Verdict

Harrel E. Conner '02 began yesterday with a symbolic gesture.

Clad in black, he wore to breakfast a gold pin, emblazoned with the fraction "3/4." That represented the three fourths of black men who had never faced legal trouble, he said.

Days after a jury acquitted the acquittal of four New York City police officers in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant, questions and anger about the case reverberate through the halls of Harvard.

For Conner, who helped to organize a forum last night to discuss the case, "no black man is protected from the police."

After reflection, he said, he realized his button conveyed the wrong message.

"I realized that Amadou Diallo was not involved with the law at all, he was a target simply because he was black," Conner said. "I realized that it could have happened to me. The police were probably not even consciously racist, but this incident is indicative of a problem."

Conner joined about thirty other students, most of whom were clad in black, that participated in a Black Men's Forum (BMF) discussion about the case yesterday.

Diallo died instantly in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building, after being shot 19 times by police.

The police officers were members of an elite street crimes task force and thought Diallo matched description of a man wanted for rapes in the area.

What happened next has been disputed in court. Both the prosecutors and the defense agreed that Diallo reached for his wallet. The officers said they thought he was reaching for a gun. They opened fire, discharging 41 bullets in total.

The incident enraged New Yorkers both black and white, many of whom charged that the officers acted with either malice or, at best, gross indifference to Diallo's life. The Rev. Al Sharpton and others said they believed the shooting was in part racially motivated. A Bronx prosecutor filed charges against the officers, and the case was moved to Albany because of the publicity. Last Friday, a jury of four black women, one white woman and seven white men acquitted the officers, igniting protests across New York City.

For two hours last night, the conversation was often intense.

"In the past three years, there have been three major incidences of police brutality," said Alicia E. Johnson '01, who is president of the Black Students' Association (BSA). "This incident is part of a much larger issue, something that must be addressed, and the BSA at Harvard is dedicated to mobilizing action against this issue," she said.

Within the next week-and-a-half, participants at the meeting agreed to try to inform Harvard students about the case, and about allegations of police brutality and racial profiling.

They said they plan to stuff mailboxes, to stand outside of the Science Center to reach out to students and to sport arm bands representing the cause.

Shearwood "Woody" McClelland '00, president of the BMF, said that the biggest product of last night's meeting was the students' dedication to organizing and initiating the protests.

"We had some great discussion, but we more importantly organized our plan of action," McClelland said. "Our action has already begun."

McClelland added that the BMF also hopes to get some response from the Harvard administration as well.

"We would now like to hear a reaction from the administration, from President Rudenstine, Dr. S. Allen Counter, and Dean [Harry R.] Lewis '68," McClelland said. "We would like to see a statement about what they think, and I hope they won't have to be prodded."

BMF leaders say they hope symbolic rhetoric will sway students to their cause.

Conner, the Brotherhood Chair of the BMF and a Crimson editor, thought up the idea to wear all black to protest the acquittal of the four police officers.

"We are not going to let this issue die--we are going to react and start some action," said Conner. "We don't want this to be just a movement of black students, we want this to be a movement of all Harvard students."