The outrageous list of innocents killed include Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond and Sean Bell; in addition to Graham and Robinson.
First let’s review aspects of the Constitution–the supreme law of the land. Something New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly doesn’t seem familiar with.
The
Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is
the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable
searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially
sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a
response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of
general search warrant, in the American Revolution. Search and arrest
should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to
the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer, who has sworn
by it.
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United
States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the
Reconstruction Amendments.
Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad
definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v. Sandford
ruling by the Supreme Court (1857) that had held that blacks could not
be citizens of the United States.
Its Due Process Clause prohibits
state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or
property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This
clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to
the states, as well as to recognize substantive and procedural rights.
Its
Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection
under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause was
the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court
decision which precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation in
United States education.
The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution don’t apply to the majority of Black folk in New York City. Consider the staggering numbers of Black people who were
illegally stopped and frisked by the New York Police Department (NYPD)
in 2011; a record 350,743. Consider the routine killings, with the latest being Ramarley
Graham, and Tamon Robinson.
The NYPD targets
Black neighborhoods on a daily basis, and issues summonses for petty
offenses such as jaywalking, noise pollution, open alcohol beverage
containers, littering, tinted car windows and the possession of small
amounts of pot. When you go into predominately White
neighborhoods you don’t see the same police presence or activity.
The type of rogue
behavior that’s being displayed by the NYPD against Blacks is not
tolerated in any other neighborhood in the city; the elected officials
there wouldn’t stand for it. Where are our elected officials on this
issue? Why are they allowing the clear violation of our constitutional
rights to take place? We need answers and we need them now.
When law enforcement fails its sworn duty to protect the rights of
the residents of the neighborhoods that they serve it’s the responsibility of our elected officials and the
Office of the State Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice, to make sure they do
so.
The outrageous list of innocents killed include Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond and Sean
Bell; in addition to Graham and
Robinson.
Where is the U.S. Department of Justice? These intolerable conditions can lead to an explosion.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
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