The case of Ahmed Amadou Diallo was finished you can go home to Guinea. As a result of the clever collaboration of all those who stood or sat in the well of the court, the four cops beat the charge of murder once this trial was over. There may or may not be a civil suit, a tort case, or a federal case charging that the four SCU policemen violated the civil rights of Amadou Diallo, but any attempt to bring them up again on charges of 2nd degree murder or manslaughter in the 1st degree is over and done with. To add insult to injury, Bennett Epstein, one of the defense attorneys, tried to make believe that with all the evident contradictions in the Albany fiasco that the police officers had been wrongfully condemned by some hysterical members of the media demanding mob justice , but since now that we ve had a trial and the policemen had a chance to tell their story, everyone who believed that the cops were guilty as charged have been proven wrong. In my view, Epstein insulted our intelligence as well as the Dreyfus affair when he tried to make us believe that the two cases were somehow analogous.
Nothing can be further than the truth.
Whereas Dreyfus was a victim of the machinations of anti-Semites in the army of 19th century France, and was prejudged by many ordinary French citizens, he did not lose his life. Nor was Dreyfus on trial because he shot a non-Jewish Frenchman one time, let alone 19 times. To try to compare Alfred Dreyfus to Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, Edward McMellon or Richard Murphy is like pouring lemon juice and salt into the open wound. After two trials and 10 years later, fortunately, Dreyfus was finally freed from prison and allowed to pursue his career. In 1918, his reputation was restored, and he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and enrolled into France s illustrious Legion of Honor.