The Amadou Diallo verdict seeks to legalize an expanded "rules of engagement," to justify "excess force," and to cover these murders in a defense based on the notion that "they did what they were trained to do." In this sense, the defense strategy goes beyond the acquittal of the four officers. The entire affair, the entire injustice is itself but one link in an evolving (counter) revolution in police practice in America, in which the dominant trend in policing is toward increasing reliance upon and acquisition of technology developed by the military for use in domestic law enforcement. On the heels of the obscene "verdict," the New York Times, wondered, "What if New York City police officers were routinely equipped with hand-held weapon detectors that could tell them from a distance whether a suspect was armed?"1 How quickly and unabashedly the establishment seizes the opportunity (of an innocent man's murder) to enhance the very police methods that are being criticized, utilizing "the Diallo case" in order to indoctrinate and accustom the public to allegedly benign ("non-lethal") "tools to fight crime."
The Times article described New York City's Citizens Crime Commission's recent showcasing of new police technology. According to the Times, the "breakfast symposium" promoted an assortment of "gee-whiz police gadgets," which "might be ready in just a few years," including "facial recognition" surveillance equipment (currently in use in parts of London), pepper spray guns (recently in use in Seattle), and hand-held street scanners to be used for weapons detection. The weapons detection device, put forth in the 1995 NIJ "technology transfer" effort mentioned earlier, is currently being championed by Hillary Clinton who dutifully "called for increased federal spending on research to improve police technology, including gun detectors." The NYPD, according to the Times report, "plays an important role in the field, largely because it is often the entry point for technological innovations." Craig Beery, sales director for "PepperBall" stated that, "there is no agency like the NYPD." That's for sure. The company's product, a "launcher that uses compressed air to shoot small projectiles filled with a disabling powder similar to pepper spray" is technology meant, among other things, to suppress civil disobedience and protest. Thomas A. Reppetto, president of the "non-profit city organization" which sponsored the gathering offered some comforting words: "We are beginning to see a technological revolution in law enforcement of such immense dimensions that I don't think anyone knows really where it will go." Sound "reasonable"?
Finally, just two days before the (good cop) Times report, the (bad cop) New York Post offered another take on how to "avoid another tragedy like the Amadou Diallo shooting" in a story entitled, "City paving the way to give cops ‘street smarts.' "2 The solution: a "$10 million replica of a New York City street," on the grounds of the police firing range which will provide to the officers state of the art police/military training technology. According to the Post promotion, the new training center "will revolutionize how city cops are trained in the use of deadly force." It will feature the simulation of "every kind of stressful situation so that when they (cops) get out on the streets they do exactly as they are trained to do." Haven't we heard that before? The site, located in the Bronx (of course), will enable the police "to learn new tactics," including "advanced classes in crowd control." Most of the financing for the construction project "comes from cash and property seized from drug dealers." Extortion benefitting repression.
The official name of the program, the "Joint Regional Tactical Village," a "gritty, realistic urban scenario," is code-named "Judgment Town," and is to be completed by April 2001. According to the Post report, "plans for Judgment Town date back to 1998, when the NYPD contacted the U.S Army Corps of Engineers about the project. The corps now has a crew of servicemen at Rodman's Neck building the tenements." In addition to the NYPD, "agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and other federal law enforcement organizations will also train there too, officials said." The U.S. military currently operates a number of "military operations in urban terrain" or MOUT training sites around the country. Law enforcement "joint" training centers, given the convergence of the military and law enforcement, is, from the point of view of counterinsurgency and social control, the next step. Here in New York, the test bed for militarist innovation, "the city expects to kick in about $800,000" toward the creation of the training center which will, according to NYPD's chief, Howard Safir, "train our people better and give them more experience in confrontational situations." So, while "crime" is going down, "confrontation," imprisonment and shootings will inevitably go up.

Notes:

1. New York Times, Mar. 7, 2000.
2. New York Post," Mar. 5, 2000.