The Opinionator On... The Murder of Amadou Diallo

Forty-one shots. As you've probably heard by now, that's what four New York police officers judged appropriate last Thursday to shower on an unarmed 22-year-old man from the Bronx, Amadou Diallo, at the door of his building on what the New York Times described as a "worn but well-kept" block" of Wheeler Avenue. Nineteen bullets reached Diallo, who died. The cops said they had been chasing a rapist. A recent immigrant from Guinea, Diallo had never been in trouble with the law, and has been described all over the media by friends and neighbors as a friendly, hard-working man.

Little has been done since Sunday's huge rally outside Diallo's home-- at which speakers like Al Sharpton raised the necessary questions from the mike, while demonstrators expressed themselves angrily amidst patrolling police officers. Yes, a state grand jury is convening this week to determine whether the officers should be tried criminally. NAACP president Kweisi Mfume has called on U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to keep an eye on the investigation that's been launched by the Bronx District Attorney's office. But by "little" we mean that no squad cars or police stations have been set on fire; no officers have been ambushed; no vengeful chorus has yet arisen from the throats of New Yorkers ashamed of, and sickened by, the fates of Michael Jones and Abner Louima and others who suffer police prejudice and brutality under far less public circumstances than Diallo's.

It's only February, though. Historically, in times of acute struggle, the temperateness of spring and summer affords several... more incendiary alternatives for action.