March 5, 2000

Prez Says Diallo a Race Case

By DAVE SALTONSTALL
Sunday News Staff Writer

Making his first public comments on the Amadou Diallo case, President Clinton yesterday suggested that police would not have opened fire on the Guinean immigrant had he been white.

"I don't pretend for a moment to second-guess the jury," said Clinton, referring to the recent acquittal of the four officers charged with killing Diallo in Soundview, the Bronx, on Feb. 4, 1999.

"But I know most people in America of all races believe that if it had been a young white man in an all-white neighborhood, it probably wouldn't have happened," Clinton said.

The President's comments, made late Friday at a Democratic fund-raiser in San Francisco, sparked a flurry of reaction — both for and against — from city leaders.

Mayor Giuliani, speaking before a St. Patrick's Day parade in Rockaway, Queens, accused the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — the U.S. Senate candidate who will likely face Giuliani — of playing politics.

"It sounds like the Clintons are trying to drive this as a political issue," the mayor said. "It would not be the first time."

Clinton made his comments as his Justice Department is reviewing the Diallo case at the request of some — including Diallo's parents — who believe the acquitted officers should now face federal civil rights charges.

He also spoke as the First Lady is preparing to make what aides have described as a major policy speech today on police conduct and the Diallo case.

Diallo's parents — along with the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume and former Mayor David Dinkins — met with Attorney General Janet Reno's top deputy, Eric Holder, on Thursday to discuss the shooting.

Holder, who called the review a "priority," is now set to meet tomorrow with lawyers for the four officers.

Meanwhile, Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said the President "should not get involved in second-guessing."

"I am sure he is trying to help his wife's Senate bid," Lynch said. "But as President of the United States, he has a larger responsibility to his country. And his country includes police officers."

In Chicago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson yesterday called for Congress to hold hearings on racial profiling among police, in the judicial system and in school expulsion policies.

"It used to be called just racism. Now they dress it up and call it racial profiling," Jackson said at a rally at his headquarters.

Jackson had hoped to make his announcement with Diallo's mother, Kadiatou, and Sharpton at his side. But they canceled because Kadiatou Diallo was ill. Nevertheless, Jackson used the rally to call for civil rights charges against the four acquitted cops.