I am sure the officer who shot Omar Edwards did not intent to kill an innocent man, blake or white, let alone a fellow officer.
He shot his victim out of fear.
Fear has been the accepted justification for taking another persons life.
The officers responsible for the death of Amado Diallo testified or testilied that the saw a gun and feared for their lives, justifying the firing 51 shots and the death of Diallo.
The question should arise, what is the basis of this "fear"? Word has it that Commissioner Kelly is bring in an outside shrinke to analys the problem.
He is also revamping a ten year old traing film.
But the problem lies in the training itself and the failure of the police to integrate within their own department and the community."us against Them" as if they are drafted from an alien planet and not the very neighborhoods that weined them.
The code of silence or the blue wall is real, it exists.
We cover up no matter what, we don't testify against the uniform even if the man in the uniform commits a crime punishable by law if committed by a civilian.(At least not if you want back up when needed.) We clean our own laundry, no oversight agency needed we police ourselves.

Former Deputy Training Commissioner James Fyfe alegedly was "an expert on the use of force" and "developed methods for armed plaincloths officers to identify themselves"This Desk Jockeys' doctoral disitation led to rules forbiding the firing of warning shots.
His amazing method was for police to simply shout "police don't move" upon hearing that challenge, Fyfe said, plainclothes and off duty officers should identify themselves by shouting "I'm on the job"I personally never heard police say "police don't move" I have heard "freeze mother______" and it seemed to work quite well.
The code is not nationaly respected inter agency wise, it is more city wide code.
In the case of the "dirty Thirty" The 30th pct's rouge cops headed by ptl.Dowde who snorted coke of the dashboard of his police cruiser.
The NYPD higher ups dragged their tail but the culprits were arrested by the Suffolk police outside the city limits.Fyfe, whom Ray Kelly said," left his mark for the better on the NYPD and many police departments which sought to emulate it"
Fyfe testified40 times against the Philidelfia police.He testified in a Rode Island Federal civil rights trial for a mother whose off duty Sgt son was shot dead by fellow officers as he tried to break up a fight.
He testified that Providence Police Bosses failed to train their officers on how to preventfriendly fire."Mistakes are most likely to happen when officers are not well trained and these officers were not well trained."Well said.
Odly Fyfe never, to my knowledge, ever testified against any NYPD cops.
He was however a witness for the four cops in the Diallo case.
Mr. Fyfe is credited with covering up the facts leading up to my being shot in a bungled "buy and bust" narcotics operation.
The details of which are cronicled in his book which is required reading in Law School.and dedicated to Police Commissioner Patrick V.Murphy.
The very man who put me in harms way.Go figure.
For the "that was then this is now Apoligist"The NYPD "has to stop assuming that every black male with a gun is a perpitrator" was said by the Commanding Officer of a Brooklyn Precinct, not then but now the year 2009.
- posted by Frank @ 4:42 PM