Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden
Bloomberg Spent $102 Million On Campaign
Two Doors Fall Off AirTrain At JFK
Dogs Rescued From Puppy Mills And Shelters Arrive In L.I.
In May 2003, the NYPD were trying to raid a CD priacy ring at the Chelsea Mini-Storage. A cop, Brian Conroy, walking the dark labyrinth of the facility ended up fatally shooting Ousmane Zongo, an immigrant from Burkina Faso who had been working on African art in another storage unit. Yesterday, Zongo's family accepted a $3 million settlement from the city as an "apology" to end their wrongful death lawsuit. The city Law Department said, "The city shares its sympathy with the Zongo family and we hope this settlement helps bring closure to his family in this very tragic case." The NY Times describes the other trials against Conroy:
During [the past two years], the officer, Bryan A. Conroy, was tried twice for the killing, producing a mistrial on manslaughter charges, a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, and a sentence of five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service. He was also fired from the Police Department. He has appealed his conviction and sentence.The case's high profile was in part due to the fact that Zongo was unarmed, the questions around Conroy's training and the fact that the police have had a bad history of being too trigger happy in certain situations. The NYPD later admitted that Zongo had nothing to do with the counterfeit ring. The lawyer for Zongo's widow, who still lives in Burkina Faso with their children said she "construed the fact that the city was paying $3 million to settle this civil lawsuit as an apology. That was her perception of the payment. More important than the money to her was that justice was done and that the name, the good name, of her husband be cleared."Those trials also produced a strongly worded critique of the department from the judge, Justice Robert H. Straus of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who said Mr. Conroy was “insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised, insufficiently led.”
In 2003, Gotham Gazette wrote about protests after Zongo's death, in which the deaths of Patrick Dorismond and Amadou Diallo were mentioned.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Illegal immigrant working for a criminal organisation should not have any rights. Tragic accident yes, but $3M taxpayers money for the relatives of this criminal makes me sick.
where did you read he was working for a criminal organization?
They admitted he was not involved in the DVD bootleg sting they were investigating.
Hey, EE,
unless you are directly descended from American Indians, then, I'm sorry to say, your anscestors were immigrants too. And there is no law that says an "illegal" immigrant should be shot. PLUS, Zongo wasn't even involved in the CD piracy operation. So read the goddman facts before you post. Idiot.
This is a bit off-topic but everybody's ancestors are immigrants. This includes American Indians (they came from the north and killed and drove away then current inhabitants - in the southern tip of south america there are still some of those people left. their DNA is close to the pacific races).
Um where does it say he's even an illegal immigrant. Doesn't $3m seem awfully low???
$3 million goes a long way in Burkina Faso.
I guess I'm wondering why breaking up a counterfeit CD ring justifies shooting a citizen dead - even somebody actually involved in the ring.
I guess if you're an NYPD officer you can murder an innocent person and only get probation. Nice....no double standard there at all!!
“insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised, insufficiently led.”
Why in the world would a cop be “insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised, insufficiently led”? Why would a classroom? Or an army? Or a nation? Well, because decisionmakers who set the budgets and educational curriculum have priorities which dont allow for stopping knee-jerk violence. I mean its not as if "we" dont know how to train people to think straight. Its not like levelheadedness is some new concept. So then I guess that means its built into the way-we-do-things. Like last week when the Army said they were going to stop giving Halliburton no-bid contracts because competition would be better for costs and quality and accountability. Wow, what a good idea. Lucky we just thought of that one. Yes? No, I dont think so. Halliburton has their billions and now its time to cash out. Thats how the beast is built. By "us". Ater all it i our army, our police force. The public schools with 50% fail rates and out-of-control hallways are ours. And the solutions to these things are not some mystery or newly discovered development. So why? Well, its how "we" have built the beast. Our beast. Our Civilization.
Fact is that this is a symptom of our problems as a country as a whole. The trickled-down effects of insufficent management thoughout our civilization.
Crucial knowledge is not respected or even acknowledged let alone promoted. The whole system is built upon distributing money, power, status, access and information based not on competence or fairness but rather on laws and tactics influenced over hundreds of years by sheltered shallow elites who still think of the public as their servants and the wealth of the nation as their spending money and the purpose of public education is to prepare kids to work for the elite and not to teach them social wisdom or personal dignity.
See things are they way they are because the priorites of the powerful are what they are.
Public education failing...because a powerful public education(let alone higher education for all) leads to everyone not just thinking they deserve more or that theres a better or fairer way of running things but KNOWING it. That leads to great leaders and great movements. It also leads to calm and competent cops, teachers, parents, soldiers.
It is the importance of the role of "society" in forming Civilization. As it stands now we seem to think "This" all just recreates itself every generation, that all we have to do is make it to college, get a job and social life and maybe vote every four years and thats it...that "Civilization" just isnt our concern.
We have been trained to think that. For generations. Leave the thinking to...to whom??
Who do you think decides, really decides, how Civilization spends its (OUR) trillion dollars a year, decides what is taught in schools (from first thru 12th grade - yes taught: practicing shutting up, learning what is needed for "the test"; not taught: practicing law, practicing politics, acknowledging and celebrating your personal body, emotional management, social skills) who influences the creation of 10,000 property rights for every one personal right.
Its not the average guy. Its INTENTIONALLY not the average guy.
And the very rich and powerful hide behind their gates insisting and lobbying for laws and practices which keep us all struggling alone: parents, teachers, cops, soldiers, the old. Because to address the large issues would be to create cooperation, education, and masses of happy educated organized voters who would quickly see the con game that is our intellectual, political and economic structure and would vote to change the rules, educate the kids and employees, to work together and spend together.
But the rich and powerful, like everyone else, are not an especially happy or profound bunch and are petrified of living without the hollow luxuries which seperates them from "the public".
I mean as a whole "we" do have the resources and knowledge to feed and educate and organize everyone...so why arent "we" doing it.
Because we are not at the table. we dont think its our job. we BELIEVE this. As if voting once every two to four years somehow could possibly be enough to run a country - a Civilization.
Oh but they keep us busy alright. We dont have time to do much mor than work, pay bills, and catch a few laughs here and there. Football, Cable and 50 hour work weeks (they get the profit, unless you start your own business and then think its your turn to get more than your share).
And when an cop or teacher or parent or soldier snaps from the pressure of a situation which "we" created and put them in, instead of blaming that one person completely we need to, as the judge in this case did, we need to not only see and acknowledge the larger picture, but further to see that our hands have been off the wheel for some time and our shedule and priorites, as a Civilization of busy working people, has been determined by those not-so-busy people, by those not-struggling-to-pay-the bills, see that our way-of-life and its consequences is all too often the after effects of the desires, policies and lobbying of elites with who have in mind Big Business, small ideas and zero community and certainly not the daily realities of immigrants, workers, cops, teachers, students...
ok I'm done. guess I should put up or shut up.