No native-born African, dressed in African clothing, was lynched in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. If any native-born African had demanded a cup of coffee in a white restaurant in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964, for example, the local police department would have called the U.S. State Department for instructions.
A remnant of this policy can be found in the senseless and fatal shooting of Ousmane Zongo, an African immigrant. Bryan A. Conroy, a white police officer, shot him in the back in May 2003. The shooting of anyone in the back gives rise to a prima facie case of murder. The Manhattan Supreme Court has given the rogue cop a slap on the wrist. His sentence was probation. This sentence would be unusual if the victim had been a descendant of enslaved Africans. Blacks, born in the United States, learned during Hurricane Katrina that they are “refugees” absent international protections.
Since Omar Edwards was born in the United States and his constitutional rights can be found in Dred Scott, his status as a peace officer was meaningless. A white, rogue cop, P.O. Andrew Dunton, shot him in the back this year. Edwards had just left the same precinct that employed the shooter.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, acting suasponte and exercising his unreviewable decision- making authority under the New York City Charter, summarily classified this fatal shooting as an accident. Leading Blacks are comfortable with the city’s charter. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, absent a grand jury, is in accord with Kelly’s decision. If Dred Scott were not in effect, a white police officer would be subject to the state’s penal code for shooting a white person in the back. The grand jury would be given an instruction on the charge of criminal use of a weapon. A license to carry a weapon by a police officer is insufficient alone to defeat this charge.
There was not even a peep from Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau about P.O. Dunton’s criminal use of a weapon to achieve a state-sponsored assassination. A white police officer is not a terrorist. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that even a “fleeing felon” should be protected from a shot in the back. This was a far cry from the outcry of these public officials to Plaxico Burress using a weapon in Manhattan to shoot himself in his leg. In violation of the Supreme Court decision in Sheppard v. Maxwell, these public officials have tainted a potential jury pool in People v. Burress. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed public officials from selling wolf tickets during legal proceedings.
The race of the offenders is the only factor that can be used to explain the judicial disparities in Burress and Edwards. Burress is Black and Dunton is white. The facts that gave rise to the state-sponsored assassination of P.O. Edwards are far more egregious than Burress shooting himself in the leg. P.O. Edwards is dead. P.O. Dunton chose to shoot him in the back.
Any protest against Jim Crow in the New York Police Department should start with the Black members of the New York City Council. So far, mum from them is the word,even though the City Council funds the five local district attorneys. At the very least, there should be a cut-off of public funds to the office of the Manhattan district attorney. In the absence of political representation, Blacks are compelled to finance their own oppression. Moreover, the city charter must be amended to extirpate a police state.
If a Black attorney had advised a high-profile client to waive transactional immunity in addition to any rights he enjoyed under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments and give testimony to a poisoned grand jury, the white ruling class would have killed two birds with one stone. Burress and his Black attorney would be holding hands en route to prison. Although the Star Chamber was outlawed in Great Britain, it has been revived in Manhattan. Burress is the victim of an oppressive, secret proceeding. No reason existed for him to waive his constitutional rights and give incriminating testimony to a police-dominated grand jury. Tie goes to the district attorney.
Since I was permanently suspended from the practice of law in 1990,no Black person in New York has been entitled to rights under the Sixth Amendment that guarantee the effective assistance of counsel. This slanted, disciplinary penalty against me has had a chilling effect on all defense attorneys. Benjamin Brafman is the latest victim of being seemingly compelled to compromise his legal obligations. Attorney Arthur Lewis successfully represented Lemrick Nelson in Brooklyn Supreme Court against a change of murdering Yankel Rosenbaum. When Nelson was subsequently indicted in Brooklyn Federal Court, Lewis personally told me that the Brooklyn Grievance Committee had warned him to stay clear of Nelson. He did. Lewis later died under mysterious circumstances.
New York employs the one-client rule for Black attorneys. After winning a high-profile case, a Black attorney must go back into the woodwork. Attorney Johnny Cochran misconstrued the rule and paid for it later. He sat quietly at the defense table in the prosecution of Shawn “Puffy” Combs, who was charged in Manhattan with illegal possession of a weapon. Cochran aborted the government’s effort to make Combs the poster child for “Negroes with Guns.” This prohibition is rooted in slave codes. Burress is now wearing a bull’s-eye on his back. Hopefully,his moves in a courtroom are as good as his footwork on the gridiron.
Within the last 30 years, only four Black attorneys have challenged the office of Manhattan district attorney, while all leading Blacks–including politicians and preachers–have sat quietly on the sidelines. After these attorneys were given the boot, leading preachers and politicians were given microphones to continue confusing the Black masses.
The church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four innocent, young girls happened on September 15,1963.Forty-six years later, voters will go to the polls on September 15 to select a new district attorney for Manhattan and Wall Street. This position is as powerful as the New York Fed. Since leading Blacks and Latinos have failed to devise a political strategy for the Black and Latino masses, their votes will be devalued. The status quo will be maintained in Manhattan. This is a rewind of the district attorney’s race in Queens after the assassination of Sean Bell.
In 1985, Louis Clayton Jones, C. Vernon Mason and myself, among others, devised a political strategy to defeat Morgenthau in the September primary. Mason was our candidate. He garnered nearly forty percent of the vote against Morgenthau. The police-killing of Michael Stewart had prompted this political campaign. Within 10 years, none of us would be practicing law in New York.
This is the price that Black attorneys must pay for according effective legal representation to the Black community. Effective legal representation for Blacks has always preceded effective political representation. See the achievements of Robert Morris, Sr. in Boston. He laid the groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education.
Leading Blacks are aware of our legal efforts. Nonetheless, they have chosen to do the political moonwalk. None of them will demand our reinstatement to practice law. They have cashed in their womanhood and their manhood for 30 pieces of silver. Sellouts are cheap bids on auction blocks.
Since George Boyer Vashon became the first Black person to practice law in New York, every other outspoken Black lawyer in New York has been sent packing from courtrooms. The lack of legal and political representation for Blacks means that slavery is still in effect in New York.
Conscious persons of African ancestry will be celebrating the birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey on August 17.For these times, he will be remembered by these words: “A people without power and authority is a people without respect.” These words describe our plight in a nutshell. “Up, you mighty race. You can accomplish what you will.”
Sept.2–UAM resumes its weekly forums at Elks Plaza,1068 Fulton Harriet Tubman (Fulton Street) near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn. Take the “C” train to Franklin Avenue.
Sept.19–The historic, inaugural meeting of the Freedom Party in Buffalo, which was also the site of the formation of the Free Soil Party in 1848.No political voice for Blacks exists in the United States. Become a charter member of the Freedom Party. Attend this historic convention.
Oct.10-11–Overnight bus trip with hotel lodgings for “Blacks in Wax Museum “in Baltimore and “Nile Valley on the Potomac” field trip in Washington, D.C. For further information, call UAM at (718) 834-9034.