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- <text id=93TT2586>
- <title>
- Jan. 04, 1993: Ask Questions Later
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Jan. 04, 1993 Man of the Year:Bill Clinton
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 17
- SOCIETY
- Ask Questions Later
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Two New York white cops gun down a black one, and the accusations
- fly
- </p>
- <p> What began as a hail of gunfire near a New York City subway
- continues as a war of words over police training and attitudes.
- Two white transit cops sprayed 21 shots at a man in a dispute
- they deemed dangerous--only to find the man was a black
- plainclothes officer, Derwin Pannell. The white officers
- involved claim Pannell had his gun drawn (he was stopping a fare
- beater). He says his weapon was holstered and he was startled
- when his colleagues fired at him from point-blank range.
- Partially paralyzed, he is suing the city for $70 million.
- </p>
- <p> Central to the dispute, in addition to concerns over
- training, is the question of racism--not so much race hatred
- as the revealing assumption on the part of white officers that
- in a violent situation, an unidentified black man is a
- dangerous criminal. It doesn't help that a similar situation
- took place in Nashville in December, when two white officers
- were dismissed for allegedly beating a black undercover cop; the
- two are appealing their ouster.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-