The young African American man looked up from his work to see what was happening. Not realising that the knife was still in his hand, the police order him to drop it. As he does so, the cops open fire and shoot him dead. Like the Rodney King case in Los Angeles, this murder was caught on video and the police, who tried to cover it up, were caught red handed. This is no isolated event.
Police brutality is an everyday occurrence in the United States.
In the Bronx, N.Y., Amadou Diallo, another street vendor, was murdered by police in cold blood. There were similar incidents in Riverside, California, Charlotte, N.C., and on the New Jersey Turnpike. In Philadelphia, four more African Americans have been killed by police this year. For instance, in January, Erin Forbes was shot in the heart by Lower Merion police as he returned home from his night job. He was surrounded by at least five fully-armed officers, yet the police story was that he threatened them with a stick.