Advocates Testify Before Friendly-Fire Task Force
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Members of a commission formed by Governor Paterson to investigate ways of preventing friendly-fire incidents among city police officers heard testimony Thursday night from Harlem advocates who called for improved community relations. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.It's been more than six months since off duty New York City Police Officer Omar Edwards, a black man, was gunned down by a white police officer in East Harlem.
The fatal shooting sparked outrage from critics who charged that non white police officers are at greater risk of being shot by another member of the force in a case of mistaken identity, than a white officer.
"It is a serious question to many of us that if Mr. Edwards had not been an African-American would the assumption have been that he had been pursuing a crime, when he in fact had been stopping a crime," said Reverend Al Sharpton.
Sharpton's remarks were directed at a special task force created by Governor David Paterson to examine so-called friendly-fire police shootings.
Sharpton called for the creation of a special prosecutor's office to investigate police matters involving both civilians and other police.
Others testifying tried to draw connections between the way police officers interact with African-American and Latino New Yorkers and the recent police on police shooting. They called for a dialing down of tensions and for police officers to treat all New Yorkers with respect.
"What I believe is the hostility shown on a day to day basis on street corners around stop and frisks, the subjective arrest of people is a low burning fire that escalates in situations where guns are introduced, such as a police-on-police shooting," said The Brotherhood/Sister Sol Co-founder Khary Lazarre-White.
"Civility. Service. Protect means that you protect my rights, not exploit my rights," said former New York State Supreme Court Justice Laura Blackburne.
A deputy commissioner with the New York City Police Department cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the role race may have played in fatal friendly fire shootings in the city.
Since 1930, 10 NYPD officers have been killed in incidents of mistaken identity. Five of the officers killed were black, four were white, and one Hispanic.
"Ten incidents over such an extended period of time do not provide us with any discernible historical pattern," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Training Wilbur Chapman.
Sharpton, however, disagreed with Chapman's analysis, noting that six out of the 10 officers shot were non-white.
"I did go to public schools in New York, but 60 percent of those shot by police, in a police force that is not 60 percent black and Latino is a disturbing figure to me," Sharpton said.
The task force is holding another public hearing on the issue in White Plains on Friday and is expected to issue its recommendations to the governor in March.