I was downtown today and crossed paths with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly leaving City Hall. I can only hope that he was there because he was being held accountable for the deadly consequences of white racism by the New York City Police Department. In the most recent example of this, a white cop shot and killed an off-duty black cop he assumed was a criminal.
The off-d
uty and out-of-uniform man who was killed was Omar Edwards, pictured here with his wife and two small children (photo from NYDaily News).
Edwards had seen someone – an actual criminal – breaking into a car and decided to pursue him, even though he was off duty. The suspect breaking into the car started to run away and Edward chased him with his gun drawn. It was at this point that a white cop, later identified as Andrew Dutton, saw Edwards, yelled “Police! Stop!” and when Edwards turned with his gun still drawn, Dutton shot and killed him.
The local news here is filled with reports about this story, as it should be. Unfortunately, the reporting on the story mostly obfuscates what happened rather than illuminates it. The incident is being called variously: “friendly fire” and a case of “mistaken identity” by the mainstream press. What this leaves out is the crucial fact of race.
Why did Dutton assume that Edwards was a suspect? The plain fact of it is because Edwards was a black man and that Dutton interpreted that to mean that Edwards was, therfore, a suspect. In New York City, racism is a persistent reality of urban life. What that means for the city’s black and brown men is that they are much more likely to be targeted by police for “frisking,” arrest, or assault. Within this context, hard-working black men like Mr. Edwards often rely on uniforms, whether as police, bus drivers or the ‘uniform’ of a college student, to protect them from this nearly constant onslaught from police. Without his police uniform, Mr. Edwards looked like just another suspect in E. Harlem to Mr. Dutton.
Surely, part of this tragedy – and it certainly is a terrible tragedy – is Mr. Dutton’s inability to see beyond the white racial frame that blinded him to the possibility that Mr. Edwards might be something other than a suspect.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not accusing Mr. Dutton of being any more racist than any other white cop; what I am saying is that Mr. Dutton’s worldview was shaped by his experience and racial background in such a way that it predisposed him to assume that Edwards was a suspect rather than a fellow officer. Details are coming out now about Mr. Dutton’s life, and one of these is that he lives in the predominantly white suburban Long Island. Choosing to live in a white suburb while policing a predominantly non-white city doesn’t necessarily make one more racist, but it does little to challenge the predominant white racial frame. Perhaps if, as community activists have long argued, Mr. Dutton were required to live in the city he might have known Mr. Edwards, or at the very least, hesistated before he made a deadly assumption he did.
This case is more than merely “mistaken identity” on the part of Mr. Dutton, but rather it is part of systemic racism that black police officers face again and again. As one unnamed source quote in the NYDaily News says:
“This is always a black cop’s fear, that he’d be mistaken for a [suspect],” a source said.
What this source is saying is that he recognizes that if a case of “mistaken identity” happens, it’s going to happen in only one direction. That is, it’s going to be a black cop that’s shot because he was thought to be a suspect. This is not routinely happening to white cops. As Kai Wright at The Root notes, this is part of a consistent with a larger pattern:
This is a pattern for NYPD’s confrontations with black men: Massive, lethal overreactions that turn difficult situations into disastrous ones. And it’s a pattern for police violence against black men nationally. They get scared; we get killed.
It’s (long past) time for this to end. Mayor Bloomberg should hold Commissioner Kelly responsible for the actions of officers on the NYPD. And, even more than that, we need to challenge the white racial frame and the deadly consequences of white racism.
Jessie, I’m surprised you didn’t link this to the other recent story of Miss “A Black Man in a Cadillac Kidnapped My Daughter and Me,” because they seem pretty clearly connected. How easily these images of black male criminality are reinforced with little to no critical analysis. When black men are perpetually criminalized, is it any wonder that stories like this are the end result?
Finally, I would just point out that when Limbaugh, Gingrich, Buchanan and others cry and wail about “racism,” it’s interesting that stories like these always manage to escape their attention.
Adia ~ you make an excellent point. Of course it’s related to the other news story, but if I start putting in *all* the connections then I start to sound like a wingnut conspiracy theorist. 😉 And, speaking of wingnuts, yes Limbaugh and that crowd do tend to conveniently forget these kinds of incidents. The slander of Edwards is already beginning. Local news reports are going with the “he didn’t follow procedure” angle. Before it’s all over, the press will have convicted him of jacking his own car. Next up, how Dutton’s life has been ‘destroyed’ by all this and what a sympathetic character he is.
>Why did Dutton assume that Edwards was a suspect? The plain fact of it is because Edwards was a black man and that Dutton interpreted that to mean that Edwards was, therfore, a suspect.
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ok, I can be entirely wrong, but somebody with a gun chasing somebody else (without a gun?) and than turning towards the cops with the gun still in his hand – from where should the cops in uniform know that the person with the gun is a cop?
Or did I miss something?
This line: “Choosing to live in a white suburb while policing a predominantly non-white city doesn’t necessarily make one more racist, but it does little to challenge the predominant white racial frame.” reminds me of Nate Silver (of fivethirtyeight.com)’s TED talk. He spoke on land-use patterns, racialized metropolitan residential patterns, and racist voting. The physical space of most suburbs deters meaningful interaction, while the same cannot be said for cities. You know, like how the grid format of cities physically induces interaction between different types of folks.
Silver runs a few regresssions and checks out the association between interacting with different types of folks and an individual’s response that “race was a factor” in their decision to vote for McCain.
The results aren’t surprising; the less you interact with different types of folks (i.e. the kinds of interactions that the physical land-use patterns of cities practically require), the more likely you are to offer a pretty racist reason for making a particular vote.
It’s a quick talk, and worth checking out: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nate_silver_on_race_and_politics.html
JWBE,
Your question is an important and an honest one. I still don’t trust what the media with a story like this and I could only imagine how Black police officers in major cities like NY feel when this happens.
This is truly a terrible situation and I would like to know what “procedure” was supposed to be followed. I doubt the “procedure” was something drilled enough in training but I don’t know.
I would like to know if, indeed, the Black off-duty officer actually pointed his gun at the White officer and, if he did, for how long. A non-police, non-criminal witness, perhaps, would help a lot. I wonder if there was any police, store or parking area videos.
It would also be interesting to know how many times NYPD officers have responded to situations where actual criminals — gangs, whatever — were engaged in the kind of gun chase Edwards was involved in and intervened by shooting the apparent gunman.
I’ll have to read up on this more (I’m in the Midwest). Where was the White officer’s partner? Other responding officers?
jwbe – That’s precisely why jumping to racist conclusions is deadly. I mean, isn’t this the 2nd undercover and/or un-uniformed black officer to be killed? And the fact that Edwards was chasing someone with his gun drawn, but not randomly killing people or hiding his gun, should cause someone to hesitate. What about the criminal Edwards was chasing? Why didn’t Dutton make any assumption about his running? I mean, hears a guy running, who if Dutton’s correct, is running for his life. Shouldn’t he be yelling for help or something? And what, precisely, is the procedure Edwards was supposed to follow that “excuses” Dutton’s actions. Did he not make clear he was a cop? Did Dutton even give him time to make clear he was a cop? Where was the sympathy for people not knowing the person drawing the gun is a cop when Sean Bell was murdered?
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And for my own curiousity, what was the race of the actual criminal?
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Here’s why the Limbaughs of the world don’t consider this “racist.” To them, Dutton was justified because of all the “black crime.” They don’t see that line of thought as racist in itself. So, that pretty much makes sense to me. Do note, though, that just because I can make sense of something doesn’t mean I think it “makes sense” so to speak, doesn’t mean I agree or sympathize or anything like that. I can just follow the line of thinking.
I found this account via the associated press:
“A sergeant and two plainclothes officers in an unmarked police car saw the pursuit and made a U-turn to follow the men, Kelly said. The officers were from the neighboring 25th Precinct anti-crime unit. One of the officers jumped out of the car and fired six times, he said.
It was unclear whether the officers identified themselves. The name of the officer who fired the shots has not been released, but Kelly said he had worked at the NYPD for four years.
Though the official cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, the bullet that caused the fatal injury entered the left side of Edward’s back before hitting his heart and left lung, said medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove. It lodged in the front of his chest, and was recovered.”
An easy way to see the racism, is to ask what the media reaction would be if the dead officer were white, and the killing officer were black?
Indeed, are there cases of the opposite happening, or do black officers think more carefully and use more caution?
No1KState…
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I was just reading that version of the story you posted on another board. Now I’m jumping to conclusions and wondering if this wasn’t an execution. Edwards was just leaving work… the story goes. And, while I would have found a uniform officer(s) scenario more plausible, I find the idea that NYPD undercovers not knowing other undercovers hard to believe especially near shift change and near the precinct.
Now I’d like to know if the sergeant was an undercover as along with the other officers. I also want to know if NYPD is doing the investigation vs. an outside police agency.
No1Kstate, asking questions isn’t jumping on conclusions.
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@Joe
>An easy way to see the racism, is to ask what the media reaction would be if the dead officer were white, and the killing officer were black?
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the media’s reaction is irrelevant to find out what was actually happening.
You’re right, jwbe. Asking questions to silicit information isn’t jumping to conclusions. But, asking questions to prove a point, which I do myself don’t get me wrong, is jumping to conclusions. I didn’t remember you for being an apologist, and I wondered why you’d ask such questions. Again, don’t get me wrong. I follow your line of thought. Guy with a gun chasing a guy without a gun doesn’t smell right. But you have to access the entire scene. Is the guy without the gun yelling for help? Is the guy with the gun putting other people in harms way? Cause when you think about it, if the guy with the gun was a real danger, he’d be shooting without regard for who’d get hurt. So, instead of shooting first, the reaction of the police should be to think first.
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Sorry, jwbe, for misreading your comment, though. That’s sincere.
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Nquest – You ain’t the only conspiracist! I couldn’t even finish telling my mom what happened before she ticked of at least a suspicious scenario. If I remember correctly, her issue was whether or not the car had even been robbed, or if that was a cover story by the survivors who had to come up with an excuse for killing the guy. Her guess was that the other cops were bad cops, the black guy was about to rat them out, and so they snuffed him out, as it were. Me? I tends towards the view that the white cops saw a black guy with a gun and instead of realizing they, too, would look suspicious chasing a suspect with a gun while in plain clothes, they assumed black male+gun=danger.
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And oh! jwbe, according to the autospy, Edwards was shot in the back.
No1KState…
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“…the bullet that caused the fatal injury entered the left side of Edward’s back…”
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Maybe the science will tell us the truth.
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On another note, I don’t think your “yelling for help” scenario is all that realistic especially in a criminal vs. criminal situation. Since the guy running was the true criminal, why would he yell help?
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Besides that, we have no idea whether the runner did or didn’t yell for help. That’s why what’s reported in the news is relevant. Because of the rush to print stories and the rush to create a storyline, factoids like that get sacrificed and you jump to conclusions based on the news organizations sins of omission.
Another thing that doesn’t seem right here is Edwards chasing the guy with his gun drawn.
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Yet and still…
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10228242/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/a-troubling-history-of-officers-firing-on-colleague/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/dcpolice/deadlyforce/stories/hamlette071998.htm
Nquest, thank you for the links.
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No1Kstate:
>But you have to access the entire scene.
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exactly
Though Nquest has mentioned it here, i have seen little, by which i mean no mention in any media accounts that explain or even ask how, if Officer Edwards turned to face Officer Dunton with his weapon drawn, was still shot in the back, the arm and the hip. How is logical or possible? Why isn’t anybody asking this question?
What also infuriates me is that while we are being told that there is a need for patience and a thorough investigation, ya-di-ya, the same officials are already either implying or outright stating that Officer Edwards was responsible for his murder by violating official police guidelines which allegedly clearly dictate how he should have handled this situation.
That’s my point. A criminal wouldn’t be yelling for help. So if a guy is running from another guy with a gun, and he’s innocent, wouldn’t he be yelling? I don’t know. I’m not trying to make a big deal of it since we don’t know whether Santiago, the car jacker (allegedely according to my mother), did and said/yelled anything out of the ordinary. I’m just suggesting that there’s more to it that just seeing some guy running down the street with his gun drawn. Do I watch a lot of crime drama? Yes. Maybe too much? Guilty. But you gotta ask yourself, if the officers who shot Edwards were also plain clothes, what exactly was supposed to make him trust them? And if a rookie cop is running down the street with his gun drawn and he turns around, who’s to say that it’s not just automatic response to keep the gun drawn?
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Mordy, you said it.
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And here’s what bothers me. You’re a police officer. You know from jump you’re putting your life on the line. That’s nothing special. It’s part of the job. It’s what you signed up for. If you wanted a job where your life wasn’t on the line, then become a CPA or something. Now that you know where I’m coming from, is it too much to ask white officers to actually be in danger and not just feel endangered before they kill someone? I mean, wait for the guy to fire his weapon and duck the bullet, then kill him. I’m probably asking too much, I get that. But I’m sick of all these innocent black men being killed by cops. I mean, the officials are already saying Edwards didn’t follow proper protocol, and that’s odd seeing as how the investigation isn’t complete like Mordy pointed out, and why besmirch the name of a fellow officer without evidence, right? But assuming Edwards didn’t identify himself, did he have time to? And let’s say he did, do you think the other plain clothes officer would’ve believed him?
JWBE, “the media’s reaction is irrelevant to find out what was actually happening,” is correct on the actions on the ground, but the media are substantially responsible for the negative image of black men as criminals that is often the basis, in whole or in part, for these killings, and attacks on black men. I again ask, how often are there black cops killing white cops in situations like this. I repeat, give me some examples. If there are almost none, why is that? This Why? It likely has a lot to do with frames and images in white heads, and the media are key to that negative framing of black people, every day indeed.
You said it, Joe!
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You know, and I’m about to get a little sentimental, trying to be an anti-racist activist isn’t, you know, the easiest thing in the world. Sure, it comes naturally. Especially with my contrary nature and general distrust of authority. But, I also have to give everybody the benefit of a doubt on an individual basis. It’s just as wrong for me to assume each and every white person is racist as it is for them to assume that I, because I’m a black woman, have about 3 kids by 4 different men. But events like this just really push me to the brink, you know? Yeah, I know the argument about black men killing black men. But put any other group of people in the same socioeconomic situation, and you get the same results. Black men killing black men isn’t about race, it’s about poverty. But what’s the excuse when white officers kill, murder black men? It’s days like this where you just get sick of it! You wanna scream to the top of your lungs that Rush and Pat Buchanan aren’t just a couple of extreme wingnuts. They’re just saying what most every white person is thinking. That’s why they get to stay on the radio or MSNBC. But then, because collectively, white people can’t stand to here the truth about themselves, you get all kinds of denials and blah, blah, blah. Then an innocent black person gets shut, and the media doesn’t even have the guts to cover the race aspect except to say, of course, that Al Sharpton, that race-hustler, and people like him, who always see race where it isn’t, see race here. Grrrrrr! I’m just flat sick of it! Even the white members of the LGBT community have more credibility with the media. And that’s just because they’re white and the anti-homophobia movement doesn’t indict all white people.
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But back to being rational, what do we do to stop this? Marches don’t have the punch they used to. Maybe we need some sort of Malcolm X style standing outside all the precincts.
But you gotta ask yourself, if the officers who shot Edwards were also plain clothes, what exactly was supposed to make him trust them?
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Maybe its me but initial reports didn’t include any information about plainclothes officers. So the automatic assumption was that Edwards was confronted by uniform officer(s). Also, the media specifying that Dunton is a “sergeant” causes the same automatic assumption especially when the other officers are the ones called “plainclothes” officers with no clear indication what Dunton was wearing (a uniform or plainclothes).
A sergeant and two plainclothes officers in an unmarked police car saw the pursuit
You don’t know if there was two cars — one a marked car driven by the sergeant in uniform and the other, an unmarked car, with the 2 plainclothes officers — or one car with all three or one car (the unmarked) with the sergeant on foot patrol.
Joe,
I can’t give you examples, if there are any, I am not familiar with all facts of Americas reality.
It seems that some here believe that I consider it as correct or are looking for justifications, why Edwards was shot. That’s not the case, for me personally already the information that Dunton fired six shots looks like the intention to kill.
I mean, wait for the guy to fire his weapon and duck the bullet, then kill him.
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That’s ridiculous.
Yeah, Nquest, I know it’s a stretch. But this automatic assumption that your life is in danger when they guy only has, say, a hairbrush, is killing too many innocent people. That comment wasn’t specific for the Edwards shooting.
>It was at this point that a white cop, later identified as Andrew Dutton, saw Edwards, yelled “Police! Stop!” and when Edwards turned with his gun still drawn, Dutton shot and killed him.
[..]
Why did Dutton assume that Edwards was a suspect? The plain fact of it is because Edwards was a black man and that Dutton interpreted that to mean that Edwards was, therfore, a suspect.
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still thinking about this and sorting through my thoughts. I find this odd, because we have the information via the media that Edwards was a cop, an information Dutton appearantly didn’t have.
I don’t know whats more common in America, a criminal with his weapon drawn chasing a victim or a cop without uniform with his weapon drawn chasing a criminal.
At this moment, nobody can actually say that “the plain fact of it is because Edwards was a black man” is true, he was nonetheless an armed Black man, therefore how can the OP know that it was only about Edwards race?
I don’t think that police never shots and kills armed whites.
jwbe – If Edwards turned with his gun still drawn, and that’s when Dutton fired, how did he end up being shot in the back? Furthermore, how was Edwards supposed to know they were cops? Is it true that they IDed themselves? And even if it is, I’m sorry. When white cops do something “outside protocal,” they argue it was just a natural, human response. What about Edward’s natural, human response to keep his gun drawn? And even taking what the media is giving, are we to assume that white cops in plainclothes have never chased down a suspect such that to on-lookers, they would look like a suspect rather than a cop?
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Besides, studies have shown that cops are definitely quicker to pull the trigger when the suspect is black than white, armed or not.
No1Kstate,
I refer to the quote of the original post and nothing else. You either can see this or not.
@jwbe- why are you referring only to the quote of the original post? new details are constantly emerging that may or may not radically change the original post. I think it is very obvious and very easly to say that this officer was shot because of his race. This doesn’t mean that Dunton is necessarily a racist. But please point us all to the time a white cop was accidently killed by a group of black cops. Here, i’ll make it easier for you, find us the time (or 2, or 3 or 10) that a white cop was accidently killed by a group of cops of any race? You will be looking for a very long time. These shootings simply can not be labeled as mistakes for this very reason. If they were truly random mistakes, every 3 or 4 times there’d be a white cop accidently killed. History simply does not bear this out.
Thanks for the clarification, jwbe. But I’m referring to the few articles I’ve read/skimmed through. I’m with mordy on this.
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Even if Dutton is a blatant racist on the level of Pat Buchanan, he’s certainly been affected by the blatant racism of our mainstream culture.
Mordy, unless you’re a walking Lexus-Nexus on police-on-police shootings, I think it’s wise to not overstate things about what the “history” does and doesn’t support.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/state_police_investigation_of.html
>@jwbe- why are you referring only to the quote of the original post?
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Because this is I refer to. The same way I don’t agree with mainstream media which represents cases like this mostly in a biased way, supporting the white cop, I don’t agree with a prejudgement that race was the only issue, like the OP is doing.
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Of course I know that race often is the only reason that a Black man is shot by police and I also know that most cops are aquitted.
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I really don’t know why being critical is such a problem as it seems. There seem to be no stats refering to race, or I can’t find any, of cops shooting cops without uniform. I found an FBI statistic of ‘justifiable homicide’, refering to race of person shot and race of police. I can post it.
But again, my point is not, that race couldn’t have been a factor, my issue is how it is presented in the OP.
NATIONAL BLACK POLICE ASSOCIATION STATEMENT
PRESS RELEASE
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SHOOTING DEATH OF OFFICER OMAR EDWARDS
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The shooting death of NYC Officer Omar Edwards may be only hours old; however, the known facts thus far combined with the police experience possessed by members of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) reveal that the shooter, Officer Andrew Dutton, was reckless and shot without identifying himself as a policeman and worse, failing to give Officer Edwards a chance to drop his weapon. As has been the case in all shootings of black officers by white officers —by example the shooting of Officer Ridley in Westchester and the shooting of Officer Young in Providence, the shooting officers recklessly mistake black officers to be criminals and then commence fire without warning. This shoot first and ask questions later behavior clashes with the caution and protocol that we as police officers are supposed to undertake when confronting individuals with guns. Furthermore, consider that coroner’s report shows that Edwards was shot in the back. Consider that Dutton’s weapon is limited to a three round burst. Six to seven rounds were fired. This means that Dutton pulled the trigger at least twice. By the end of the first burst—Dutton had to know he was aiming at a man’s back and wrongfully firing his weapon. Two other officers were with Dutton, yet Dutton was the only shooter. Lastly, after Dutton shot Edwards—-Edwards was handcuffed and lay dying in his blood. The officers rendered no assistance to their dying black comrade. It was not until the paramedics arrived that Edwards was tended to.
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http://www.blackpolice.org/Press.htm
@mordy
>Here, i’ll make it easier for you, find us the time (or 2, or 3 or 10) that a white cop was accidently killed by a group of cops of any race?
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Corporal Mario Jenkins was shot and killed by an Orlando police officer who mistook him for an armed suspect at a University of Central Florida football game.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/17878-corporal-mario-roberto-jenkins
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Officer Wise died of wounds he received when he was accidentally shot by another officer who mistook him and two other undercover officers for suspects during a shootout.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/17344-police-officer-michael-harry-wise-ii
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Officer Jensen was shot and killed by friendly fire during a high risk warrant service.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/14734-police-officer-ii-james-rex-jensen-jr.
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Officer White was shot and killed by fellow officers who had mistaken him for a suspect during a confrontation with an armed suspect inside the Roseville Police Station.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/778-officer-mark-andrew-white
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Corporal Bromley was accidentally shot and killed by other officers during an undercover drug operation. He was purchasing narcotics from a suspect when the man pulled out a pistol. Responding officers mistook Corporal Bromley for a suspect and shot him with a police shotgun.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/283-senior-corporal-lawrence-david-bromley
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Agent Ahrens was accidentally shot and killed by fellow agents while on a stakeout for armed robbery suspects in Phoenix, Arizona. Agent Ahrens was running down an alley towards other agents with her gun drawn. The other agents did not recognize her and ordered her to drop her weapon. When she did not comply they opened fire, fatally wounding her. She was not wearing any clothing identifying her as a law enforcement officer.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/1080-special-agent-robin-l.-ahrens
Officer Skagen was accidentally shot and killed by two New York City police officers while chasing a shooting suspect. He was in plainclothes returning from a court appearence when he witnessed a disturbance and shooting in the subway. He began chasing the suspect with his gun drawn. As they exited the station the suspect yelled to two NYPD officers that a crazy man with a gun was chasing him. The officers opened fire on Officer Skagen, fatally wounding him.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/12310-police-officer-john-skagen
to be continued:
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Detective Morgan was shot and killed by a Houston police officer after being mistaken for an armed suspect. Detective Morgan and his partner were working an undercover operation and had gone into a bar.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/9617-detective-rodney-scott-morgan
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Officer Schaefer was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer while conducting a drug buy-bust for the Narcotics Unit. She had just made a purchase and gave the signal a buy had been completed. Another officers mistook her for a suspect holding a gun and shot her once in the abdomen, fatally wounding her.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/11825-police-officer-kathleen-c.-schaefer
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Deputy Leonardson was accidentally shot and killed by another officer in a case of mistaken identity. Deputy Leonardson was at home when he went outside to investigate suspicious noise in his apartment complex, which had recently been the target of vandals. Deputy Leonardson was carrying his gun when an officer from the Blythe Police Department observed him in a dim light and shot him after mistaking him for an armed criminal.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/8069-deputy-sheriff-dirk-alan-leonardson
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Mordy, I guess your statement is not so true…
quote: “friendly fire” and a case of “mistaken identity” by the mainstream press. What this leaves out is the crucial fact of race.
Euphemisms, hypocrisy, racism, etc. etc. It’s really unfortunate.
Seemingly most of the “American” media has a good way of shifting attention from the real issue to one of mostly clutter and noise.
It’s really sad many, if not most, American people feed into this trap. But then again, seemingly, most Americans don’t know how their country works and even its history and come under false beliefs and over hype that “America is the #1 country in the world.” Critical thinking and being a watchdog are really crucial.
I send my condolences to those affected by the officer’s death.
I only looked through the years 2001-2009. Two things struck me.
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1) Notwithstanding the undercover cops, only one white cop was killed because the others thought he was a suspect.
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2) Even including the undercover cops, the incidence of white cops being killed for mistaken identity to black cops being killed for mistaken identity is too scewed to be accidental.
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That said. Okay, jwbe, you’re not saying the race wasn’t a factor. Your problem is how it was presented by the original poster. Exactly what’s the problem with the OP as you see it?
The National Black Police Association Speaks Out
May 29, 2009
The shooting death of NYC Officer Omar Edwards may be only hours old; however, the known facts thus far combined with the police experience possessed by members of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) reveal that the shooter, Officer Andrew Dutton, was reckless and shot without identifying himself as a policeman and worse, failing to give Officer Edwards a chance to drop his weapon. As has been the case in all shootings of black officers by white officers —by example the shooting of Officer Ridley in Westchester and the shooting of Officer Young in Providence, the shooting officers recklessly mistake black officers to be criminals and then commence fire without warning. This shoot first and ask questions later behavior clashes with the caution and protocol that we as police officers are supposed to undertake when confronting individuals with guns. Furthermore, consider that coroner’s report shows that Edwards was shot in the back. Consider that Dutton’s weapon is limited to a three round burst. Six to seven rounds were fired. This means that Dutton pulled the trigger at least twice. By the end of the first burst—Dutton had to know he was aiming at a man’s back and wrongfully firing his weapon. Two other officers were with Dutton, yet Dutton was the only shooter. Lastly, after Dutton shot Edwards—-Edwards was handcuffed and lay dying in his blood. The officers rendered no assistance to their dying black comrade. It was not until the paramedics arrived that Edwards was tended to. Without significant efforts by the New York City Police Department to cause officers to be more open minded, there will be many more black officers killed by fellow officers.
Writer & Member: Christopher Cooper: 312 371 6752 (E-mail: cooperlaw3234@gmail.com); Executive Director: Ronald Hampton, 202 744 2897 (NBPANATOFC@worldnet.att.net) National Chairperson: John Hayes
National Black Police Association
30 Kennedy Street-NW, Suite 101
Washington, DC 20011
(202) 986-2070 (202) 986-0410 FAX
mail to: nbpanatofc@worldnet.att.net
No1kstate
I only looked through the years 2001-2009. Two things struck me.
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1) Notwithstanding the undercover cops, only one white cop was killed because the others thought he was a suspect.
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2) Even including the undercover cops, the incidence of white cops being killed for mistaken identity to black cops being killed for mistaken identity is too scewed to be accidental.
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That said. Okay, jwbe, you’re not saying the race wasn’t a factor. Your problem is how it was presented by the original poster. Exactly what’s the problem with the OP as you see it?
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Mordy made the claim that there are no white cops who were shot because of mistaken identity/considered as a suspect, a perception which is probably more widespread. Because of this I posted some white cops, males and females, who where shot by another cop because of mistaken identity.
And of course you can make the choice to skip over my posts.
But when this is indicative of how you read my answers, I see no reason to answer any further question asked by you.
Ok. I’m just saying you correctly point out that it’s wrong to say it’s never happened to white cops. I even corrected my own blog. I’m just saying that the fact that it happens to white cops doesn’t negate the fact that it happens to black cops way to often to be coincidence, and it doesn’t undercut mordy’s overall point.
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I’m really curious as to what got the brouhaha going anyway. What is it you find objectionable about the original post. I may agree. I may disagree. But at least I’d understand your point. Right now I don’t understand your point. All I got so far is something about the media portrayal of events . . . ?
one thing I would like to know, because of this quote from the OP:
““This is always a black cop’s fear, that he’d be mistaken for a [suspect],” a source said.”
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why don’t know cops their own co-workers?
Are officers responsible within a given district or for example the entire city of New York? Means, an officer from eg Manhattan can also act as a cop, even off-duty, within eg Harlem? Or would he be obliged to call police working in this district?
jwbe – I have the same questions.
Really great discussion here. I intend to come back and update that post with a few things that have come out in the press since I posted that but need to run around today getting a grant submitted. So, very briefly, in response to the last couple of questions from jwbe and No1KState:
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Are officers responsible within a given district or for example the entire city of New York? Means, an officer from eg Manhattan can also act as a cop, even off-duty, within eg Harlem? Or would he be obliged to call police working in this district?
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First, a few facts about NYC are necessary here. Harlem is a neighborhood within the borough of Manhattan, approximately 110th street to 145th street (north and south) and spanning the island of Manhattan from the East River to the Hudson River. New York City is comprised of five boroughs (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island) and those cover a pretty wide geographic area (not sure exactly off the top of my head).
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Within NYC, policing is done by “precincts” which are smaller sections of neighborhoods within each borough. There are also different police who are assigned to “housing” and “traffic” and – I think – that these don’t exactly correspond to the precincts (but I could be wrong about that). As I understand it, Edwards (the man who was killed) was a housing cop and Dutton (the man who shot him) was in the nearby precinct. So, it’s very possible that they wouldn’t have necessarily known each other from the daily work lives. My point about where Dutton lives (Long Island – a suburb about 45 minutes to the east of the city) is that because he didn’t live in the neighborhood he was policing, he didn’t know Edwards by sight as a cop.
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In terms of police procedure about ‘acting as a cop even off-duty’ – this is where there’s still lots of ongoing debate and discussion and spin happening in the local news about what’s the correct course of action for off-duty cops and who was in the wrong. My sense is that this is a gray area and that even the official police guidelines on this are intentionally vague.
Off duty police officers should not be allowed to carry guns. They should feel as defenseless as most citizens feel. Let’s get all the facts in the case before making a decision on this unfortunate tragedy.
lesson to learn in all of this: if you are a black cop, ALWAYS wear your uniform at all times….
there have been many times when off duty police officers became “on duty” so to speak….their jobs, like doctors, are never really over….
i hate how people uses excuses like “well blacks commit the most crimes, so of course he saw him as a suspect”.
that is a racist thought. essentially you are saying that all blacks, must be criminals….its reasons like that, some blacks end up in jail wrongly accused of crimes.
like the dude who died in jail 10 years ago for a crime he didnt commit. and he ended up dying in prison before they finally said he wasnt guilty.
when you assume all blacks must be suspects, and taht you cant trust blacks…you are causing blacks to harbor thoughts of lack of trust in police…its reasons like that, they dont believe in “snitching”…because the police have shown, that they do not intend to protect and serve for blacks.
and its sad that blacks who actually rise up, are thrown back down into the pile with the gangstas and thugs.
in the end, they will say it was either an accident or it was edwards fault….dutton is going to get off scott free and be able to police once again, no lesson learned. its always like that for white cops.
when you are a minority, you come to the acceptance, taht there is no such thing as justice….
blacks are being told that there is no point in doing good, because they are no better and will be treated the same as some black thug…..
if a black guy wants to be a cop..for his own safety against the white cops, he MUST wear his uniform at all times…if the rules say you cant, make acceptions for the blacks…because otherwise a cop will decide to kill him, based on the misconception that because he is black he has to be a criminal.