NEW YORK -- The police killing of an unarmed African immigrant has set off a political crisis that threatens to tarnish Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has largely built his reputation on taming New York's mean streets.
Amadou Diallo was struck by 19 of 41 bullets fired by four white officers as he stood in the vestibule of a Bronx rowhouse on a cold February night.Diallo, a skinny 22-year-old street peddler, lived a brief, anonymous life in the city. But his death has been seized upon as a symbol for allegations about police all too eager to raise a nightstick or gun -- particularly against minorities.
The case also reflects tension over police attitudes and tactics nationally. Earlier this month, President Clinton said he was worried that recent charges of police misconduct could undermine the fight against crime.
Questionable shootings by police have taken the lives of blacks in Pittsburgh and Riverside, Calif. And in New Jersey, state troopers have come under fire for conducting traffic stops based on a driver's race -- so-called racial profiling.
In New York, the Diallo case touches on some of the city's most prickly issues -- police "stop and frisk" searches that some charge are unconstitutional, a shortage of minorities on the police force, and uneasy relations between City Hall and minorities.
A grand jury is looking into the shooting, and the U.S. attorney in Manhattan has broadened a probe of police tactics to include the elite street crimes unit whose members shot Diallo on Feb. 4.
The plaza outside police headquarters has become a forum for carefully choreographed demonstrations urging the arrest of the four officers, who remain on desk duty. Nearly 200 people have been led away in handcuffs with TV cameras rolling, including former Mayor David Dinkins and the president of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume.
There are also demands for the ouster of the police commissioner.