United african movement
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Alton h. Maddox, jr. Tel.: (718) 834-9034
Chairman Fax : (718) 834-1275
16 Court Street
Suite 1901
Brooklyn, NY 11241
April 14, 2009
Commr. Raymond Kelly
New York Police Department
One Police Plaza
New York, NY 10038
Re: Fatal Police Shooting of Ginette Denize
Dear Commissioner Kelly:
Twenty-five years ago, white members of the New York Police Department executed an elderly Black grandmother because she was out of favor with her landlord. Acting without an arrest warrant on October 29, 1984, these police officers entered her home and shot gunned her down. She had to be shot because these burly white men were afraid of her. Thus, the fatal shooting was justified under Article 35 of the New York Penal Law.
No Black man would consider the need to shoot any woman absent criminal intent. Black manhood means having the capability to subdue an aggressive woman without resorting to deadly force. White men use the same definition but with one exception --when the aggressor is a Black woman. There is a long list of Black, female victims. No Asian, Latino nor white woman has ever been murdered by a member of the NYPD.
The only reasonable inference to draw from this conclusion is that too many white members of the NYPD are racist. This is alarming when you consider that Blacks are underrepresented in the NYPD. When an organized police department was established in the 1840s, New York City institutionalized racism in its police force.
By the 1863 Draft Riots, this department was operating off the radar screen. Mayor Fernando Wood poured gasoline on a burning house. Wood was a Confederate sympathizer. Arguably, NYPD still operates in this mold. Institutional racism can only explain these racial disparities. Twenty-five years after the police murder of Eleanor Bumpurs, the police department still operates in the same fashion.
According to media reports, members of the NYPD had made three prior recently visits to Ginette Denize’s apartment without arrests to resolve a landlord-tenant dispute. On the fourth visit, the NYPD became storm troopers. In a landlord-tenant dispute, the landlord is forbidden from engaging in self-help and the NYPD should be unable to enter a home without a court order.
Earl Caldwell wrote on the opinion page of the Daily News in 1984, what the police commissioner said concerning Eleanor Bumpurs: “in the future, in such cases, a captain should be called to the scene before any killing is done.” Media reports indicate that only a sergeant was outside Denize’s apartment building. He was never in a position to assess the situation.
In the absence of a court order to enter the premises, at least a captain should assess the situation. There are Fourth Amendment and common law trespassing concerns in this killing. Reasonable and intelligent police guidelines have been violated in many respects.
Your department, in those media reports, second-guessed itself over the propriety of substituting a semi-automatic weapon for a Taser stun gun. Using Caldwell’s logic, “no cop should be allowed to use a [semi-automatic weapon] to evict a citizen from his or her apartment. Not under any circumstances.” If your department had not perceived this Haitian immigrant as an “enemy combatant,” she would probably be alive today.
Assuming that her apartment was filled with gas fumes, your officers concluded that it was more appropriate to shoot her five times rather than to subdue her with a Taser stun gun. These rocket scientists apparently concluded that the use of a stun gun would cause the apartment to blow up but that the firing of a semi-automatic weapon five times in an apartment filled with gas fumes would be innocuous.
I am requesting that your agency provide United African Movement with a copy of the relevant police guidelines that were in effect on April 8, 2009, the date that the NYPD ended the life of Ginette Denize in Carnarsie.
Very truly yours,
AHM:sr
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Alton h. Maddox, jr. Tel.: (718) 834-9034
Chairman Fax : (718) 834-1275
16 Court Street
Suite 1901
Brooklyn, NY 11241
April 14, 2009
Commr. Raymond Kelly
New York Police Department
One Police Plaza
New York, NY 10038
Re: Fatal Police Shooting of Ginette Denize
Dear Commissioner Kelly:
Twenty-five years ago, white members of the New York Police Department executed an elderly Black grandmother because she was out of favor with her landlord. Acting without an arrest warrant on October 29, 1984, these police officers entered her home and shot gunned her down. She had to be shot because these burly white men were afraid of her. Thus, the fatal shooting was justified under Article 35 of the New York Penal Law.
No Black man would consider the need to shoot any woman absent criminal intent. Black manhood means having the capability to subdue an aggressive woman without resorting to deadly force. White men use the same definition but with one exception --when the aggressor is a Black woman. There is a long list of Black, female victims. No Asian, Latino nor white woman has ever been murdered by a member of the NYPD.
The only reasonable inference to draw from this conclusion is that too many white members of the NYPD are racist. This is alarming when you consider that Blacks are underrepresented in the NYPD. When an organized police department was established in the 1840s, New York City institutionalized racism in its police force.
By the 1863 Draft Riots, this department was operating off the radar screen. Mayor Fernando Wood poured gasoline on a burning house. Wood was a Confederate sympathizer. Arguably, NYPD still operates in this mold. Institutional racism can only explain these racial disparities. Twenty-five years after the police murder of Eleanor Bumpurs, the police department still operates in the same fashion.
According to media reports, members of the NYPD had made three prior recently visits to Ginette Denize’s apartment without arrests to resolve a landlord-tenant dispute. On the fourth visit, the NYPD became storm troopers. In a landlord-tenant dispute, the landlord is forbidden from engaging in self-help and the NYPD should be unable to enter a home without a court order.
Earl Caldwell wrote on the opinion page of the Daily News in 1984, what the police commissioner said concerning Eleanor Bumpurs: “in the future, in such cases, a captain should be called to the scene before any killing is done.” Media reports indicate that only a sergeant was outside Denize’s apartment building. He was never in a position to assess the situation.
In the absence of a court order to enter the premises, at least a captain should assess the situation. There are Fourth Amendment and common law trespassing concerns in this killing. Reasonable and intelligent police guidelines have been violated in many respects.
Your department, in those media reports, second-guessed itself over the propriety of substituting a semi-automatic weapon for a Taser stun gun. Using Caldwell’s logic, “no cop should be allowed to use a [semi-automatic weapon] to evict a citizen from his or her apartment. Not under any circumstances.” If your department had not perceived this Haitian immigrant as an “enemy combatant,” she would probably be alive today.
Assuming that her apartment was filled with gas fumes, your officers concluded that it was more appropriate to shoot her five times rather than to subdue her with a Taser stun gun. These rocket scientists apparently concluded that the use of a stun gun would cause the apartment to blow up but that the firing of a semi-automatic weapon five times in an apartment filled with gas fumes would be innocuous.
I am requesting that your agency provide United African Movement with a copy of the relevant police guidelines that were in effect on April 8, 2009, the date that the NYPD ended the life of Ginette Denize in Carnarsie.
Very truly yours,
AHM:sr
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 1:18 PM
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