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- THE WEEK, Page 17SOCIETYAsk Questions Later
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- Two New York white cops gun down a black one, and the accusations
- fly
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- 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.
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- 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.
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