I was naturally saddened when on Friday morning the local NYC news stations reported about a NYPD officer, Andrew Dutton, mistakenly shooting another plain-clothed officer, 25-year-old Omar Edwards. The investigation seemed straightforward: Edwards, who had just gotten off-duty, was in pursuit of a thug whom he had caught trying to break into his car. Dutton, not knowing Edwards was a cop, saw him turn around with gun in hand, and he shot him. Edwards evidently did not have the chance to identify himself as a police officer.
But this story does not satisfy Al Sharpton and other black “leaders” in the NY area. Because Dutton, the shooter, was white and Edwards, the unfortunate victim, was black.
And so the race-baiting begins. Sharpton leads a march and accuses the investigation of being racially biased. The detestable tax-cheating demagogue Charlie Rangel wonders why he never hears of a white cop “accidentally” shooting other white cops. Here’s what Newsday (Long Island) reports:
Sharpton, marchers seek ‘unbiased’ probe of shooting
BY KEITH HERBERT | May 30, 2009
Drawing attention to his call for state and federal officials to investigate the fatal shooting of a black plainclothes off-duty New York City police officer by a white officer, the Rev. Al Sharpton Saturday led marchers through Harlem to the spot where the officer was killed.
Sharpton marched to 125th Street and Second Avenue with scores of people to highlight his plea for Gov. David A. Paterson or U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to intervene and investigate the shooting of Officer Omar Edwards.
Edwards, 25, was killed Thursday night in East Harlem by another officer who didn't know that Edwards was a fellow officer who, with his gun drawn, was pursuing a suspect who had broken into Edwards' car.
Andrew Dunton, 30, of Ridge, fired six shots, hitting Edwards three times, in the left arm, side and back, police said. Dunton is a four-year veteran of the force.
At the spot where Edwards was shot, Sharpton and the marchers held a one-minute vigil of silent prayer. Then Sharpton said he and his group were praying "for the right to grow up in our community and be law enforcement without fear."
"We need an impartial and unbiased investigation," Sharpton said later.
At a park dedication in Harlem Saturday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed confidence in the Manhattan district attorney.
"As with all these things, he will do an investigation, and if the federal government wants to do something that's up to them, but I think [District Attorney] Bob Morgenthau has shown over many decades that he is independent and will do a thorough and competent investigation."
Before the march, Sharpton shared the stage at the headquarters of his National Action Network, a civil-rights group, with city politicians, including Rep. Charles Rangel and City Council members John Liu, Charles Baron and Bill de Blasio.
Sharpton drew a connection between Edwards' killing and other shootings of plainclothes black and Latino officers by other officers, calling the shootings "a pattern."
Rangel said that, in his 79 years, he'd never heard of a white officer shooting another white officer.
"If we have a problem, let's face up to the problem and let's have outside help so we can tell this family that this will never happen again," Rangel said.
Along 125th Street, across from Harlem Hospital, Charles Moody, 70, of Harlem, called Edwards' killing "another situation of racial profiling and police overreacting to black men."
Saturday, Charles Billups of the Guardians Association, a fraternal organization of black police officers, was skeptical of the city Police Department's ability of investigate the killing.
"The fix is in," Billups said. "Who's going to stand for Omar?"
The New York Post has an editorial responding to Charlie Rangel supposedly warning President Obama, who was in Manhattan this weekend, to "watch his back" if he comes to Harlem. Keep it classy, Charlie.
As my wife said when she heard about this Sharpton story: Don’t they think Dutton feels bad enough already?
Such is the state of race relations in Obama’s post-racial America …
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