FYI
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
CAIR-NY
Council on American-Islamic Relations
New York Office
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 246
New York City, New York 10115
Tel. (212) 870-2002 Fax (212) 870-2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5/3/2001
MUSLIMS OUTRAGED OVER NYPD CLEARING DIALLO COPS
LEADERS ALSO CONCERNED OVER FDNY HIRING McMELLON
(NEW YORK, NY, 4/19/2001) - On Thursday, May 3, the New York Chapter of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), along with that city’s
Majlis Ash- Shura, Imam’s Council of New York, Women in Islam, Islamic
Society of Fire Department Personnel, the Diallo family and their attorneys
will hold a news conference to express their outrage over the NYPD clearing
the cops who killed Amadou Diallo and the Fire Department’s decision to hire
one of the police officers, Edward McMellon.
WHEN: Thursday, May 3, 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Fire Department Headquarters, 9 MetroTech Center, Flatbush Avenue
Entrance, between Johnson Place and Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik announced April 27 that no disciplinary
action will be taken against the four Police Officers who shot and killed
unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo in the vestibule of his Bronx
apartment in February 1999.
Muslim leaders say this is yet another indignity in a case that has been
mishandled from the start. Ghazi Khankan, executive director of CAIR-NY,
finds it chilling that the four officers were found to be operating within
department guidelines. “I urge Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen not to
hire officer McMellon, who has already acted as a lightning rod for
controversy and racial tension in an already segregated department
consisting of only 3% blacks. Rather, he should hire immediately a Muslim
chaplain who will work for peace and minister to the Muslim firefighters and
EMS workers who selflessly serve the city everyday.” Although one chaplain
is in the process of retiring, the FDNY currently maintains seven chaplains
– two Jewish, two Protestant, and three Catholic.
Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid, the Imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood,
similarly commented, “We in the Muslim community are outraged that the same
New York City Fire Department leadership that refuses to appoint a Muslim
chaplain to minister to firefighters should then support the hiring of one
or two cops who brutally killed an innocent Muslim.”
Kevin James, president of the Islamic Society of Fire Department Personnel,
added, “You have to marvel at the Fire Commissioner’s values. He wastes
millions of taxpayer dollars on radios that weren’t properly tested and
litigation to defend against hiring a Muslim chaplain who is paid scant more
than sixteen thousand dollars a year. Yet, he insists on hiring Ed McMellon,
whose liability as a walking poster boy for racial inequity in the FDNY has
already become apparent.”
Aisha Al-Adiwiya, president of Women in Islam, and Omar Mohammedi, one of
the attorneys representing Saikou Diallo, addressed the police
commissioner’s decision to return the officers to duty and not discipline
them. Aisha stated, “Aside from the chilling legal implications this
decision will have on communities of color, it is patently immoral! One has
to wonder where are the good people of this country, and what does it take
for them to stand on the right side of justice.”
Omar Mohammedi continued, “The killing of Amadou Diallo was not a mistake,
but the result of racial profiling. Commissioner Kerik’s decision is a
mistake that provides tacit approval for racial profiling. In 1998 and the
first quarter of 1999, 62.7% of all persons stopped by the NYPD street
crimes unit were black, while blacks comprise only 25.6% of the city’s
population.”
The Vulcan Society and the FDNY African-American Heritage Society, which
represents black firefighters and civilians in the fire department, also do
not want to see officer Edward McMellon enter the fire department. “A black
man arrested and tried for murder, no matter what the circumstances, would
never be hired as a firefighter,” said Paul Washington, president of the
Vulcan Society. He added, “McMellon may have been acquitted, but he was not
found innocent.”
-END- >>
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