2/5/9
by Robert Lederman <ARTISTpres@aol.com>
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
On Thursday morning four New York City police officers shot to death an unarmed West African street vendor, Amadou Diallo, as he stood in the vestibule of the apartment building where he lives in the Bronx. Diallo was unarmed, had no police record and had just returned home from vending on the street. The police fired at least 41 shots hitting Diallo 22 times. His name joins a growing list of unarmed young black males shot to death by the NYPD.
Diallo, like many West African New Yorkers worked 12 hours a day as a street vendor, selling socks, gloves and videos on Manhattan's 14th Street. Like many other hard working immigrant vendors he sent much of the money he earned on the street back home to his parents, who live in Guinea, West Africa. Newspaper accounts describe the 22 year old Diallo as a shy, hardworking and very likable young man.
Street vendors have long been a prime target of the Giuliani administration. Being approached by plainclothes cops pressured to meet their quota of vendor arrests, issue piles of summonses and confiscate merchandise is a daily experience for vendors. Being a young black male only increased the odds of Diallo recieving police attention.
This needless tragedy comes at the same time the Giuliani administration is gearing up for a fierce campaign to eliminate street vendors. On January 21st the Mayor's Street Vendor Review Panel announced the arbitrary closing of an additional 100 streets to artists, food, book and general merchandise vendors [see NY Times January 23, 1999 "Compromise Plan on Vendors Is Approved"].
Behind the new restrictions are the City's wealthiest and most powerful Business Improvement Districts. Motivating them is an intense desire to rid the City's streets of honest, hard working people just like Amadou Diallo.
Later this month the City Council is expected to vote on a new vending bill, intro #110, featuring a Warrant system which assigns franchised vending locations to vendors for a one year period based on competitive bidding. An identical system is already in place in all New York City parks. A single vending spot to sell hotdogs or tee shirts in a park can presently bid out for more than $500,000. The warrant system is specifically designed to take vending away from hard-working immigrant vendors like Amadou Diallo and turn it over to corporations like Disney, McDonalds and the City's Business Improvement Districts all of which have been lobbying the Mayor and the City Council in this regard. The same Business Improvement Districts responsible for the street closings wrote the new vending law.
Vendors from every part of the City will hold an anti-Giuliani rally at 12 noon on Wednesday February 10 outside City Hall to protest the street closings, the proposed new vending law and now, the death of Amadou Diallo. Like Amadou Diallo most of the City's vendors are immigrants, most are minorities and many are black. The violent death of Amadou Diallo will only serve to heighten the anxiety and fear New York City's vendors are experiencing as they prepare for the day when Giuliani's quality of life police state come for them.
Addendum
2/6/99
The four police officers who shot unarmed street vendor Ahmed Diallo 19 times claim they "had to shoot him" because they "believed he had a gun", because he "acted in a threatening manner" and because he, "didn't follow orders". Next month when the police get ready to clear hundreds of hard working Asian, Central American, Eastern European and African immigrant vendors from the 100 new streets Mayor Giuliani has just restricted to all forms of vending will language difficulties, holding ones wallet or a failure to "follow orders" cause more police violence? As a vendor activist I want to convey to Ahmed Diallo's family the condolences of thousands of New York City vendors of every race and from every nationality that are horrified and outraged by this senseless killing. We invite all New York to join us on Wednesday Feburary 10 at 12 noon outside City Hall to protest against Mayor Giuliani's increasingly brutal police state.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) (718) 369-2111; Email: ARTISTpres@aol.com.
For extensive information on the vending issue, intro #110, and this demo, go to our homepage <http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html>