Charges laid against four white New York policemen who shot dead an unarmed black street trader, sparking unprecedented protests, could backfire because they are too harsh, it was claimed yesterday.
The men, members of the controversial Special Crimes Unit, whose motto is "We own the Night", face counts of second-degree murder, which requires the prosecution to prove the killing of Amadou Diallo (22), was intentional and/or committed with depraved indifference to human life.
The police were searching for a rape suspect when they opened fire on Mr Diallo in the entrance of his apartment building in the Bronx on February 4th. They had feared the immigrant from West Africa was reaching into his pocket for a gun.
"Amadou Diallo stood blameless, unarmed and defenceless when 19 of 41 shots fired struck him and killed him," Robert Johnson, the district attorney for the Bronx, said.
"There can be no question that at that moment these four defendants intended to take his life.
"I cannot recall any homicide in which 41 shots were fired at the deceased. These officers are like any other individual who rolled up to a building and fired 41 shots."
But Steven Brounstein, a lawyer for one of the officers, said: "For the DA to be equating this case to a drive-by shooting is absurd. It's over-charging, it does not change our position that no crime was committed."
Supporters of the policemen claim the defendants cannot get a fair trial. One former law enforcement official, who declined to be named, said the indictment "satisfied the desire for vengeance".
"In terms of the public understanding this case, the indictment makes it harder to sort out," he said.
"There is no way this was intentional murder. It's more likely there will be a conviction for one or two of the officers on a lesser count."
Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 15 years to life. "Anything less will look like it is a loss, either for the prosecution or the judge, and people will be looking to blame somebody," the former official said.
The four also face charges of reckless endangerment, which carries a sentence of up to seven years.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested during daily protests outside police headquarters in Manhattan, including the Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon. In the Bronx, where Mr Diallo lived, there were rival demonstrations outside the supreme court on Wednesday as officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy pleaded not guilty to the charges.
About 400 protesters claiming a police policy of routinely searching people - most of them black or Hispanic - created police brutality faced 600 off-duty policemen insisting no crime had been committed.
The Diallo affair has transformed the general perception that under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Mr Howard Safir, the police commissioner, New York was a model for cutting the crime rate in a modern urban city.
Mr Giuliani, who has ambitions to be a Senate Republican, has seen his approval ratings fall 20 points to an all-time low of 41 per cent.
And there were calls for Mr Safir's resignation when he was spotted at an Oscars night party in Los Angeles as tension was growing over the Diallo killing.
New York's hard line on crime has resulted in a 70 per cent drop in five years but complaints about the police have also risen by almost 40 per cent. The mayor also miscalculated by failing to condemn Mr Diallo's killers and by dismissing the protesters as silly.
By the time his tone softened it was too late and the Reverend Al Sharpton, the outspoken black civil rights leader, had seized the initiative.
After the four men were indicted, Mr Giuliani said: "It's the beginning of a very, very complex and important process that has got to be done right in fairness to everyone."