A prominent theologian in New York City once observed that Europeans are rational on every subject except race. The inference to be drawn is that Europeans are thoroughly irrational and illogical when a person of African ancestry should be reasonably perceived as a victim and the perpetrator is a European. Since Europeans enjoy the power to prescribe and apply rules, it is difficult for Africans to look at and understand Europeans through rational eyes. To understand a racial conflict, a person of African ancestry must not only reverse the racial character of the actors in the conflict but must also pose a hypothetical question to address its polemics and racial dynamics and to prepare a solution which makes sense although it will invariably contravene current European reasoning. Given this inherent irrationality, Europeans and Africans will never see eye to eye on the volatile issue of race.

For example, most Europeans seem to be quite comfortable with the four murderers, who executed Amadou Diallo under color of law and in a manner reminiscent of and just as gruesome as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, still being at large and obviously still armed and dangerous. If four policemen of African ancestry had wantonly executed a European immigrant anywhere in New York City with a hail of 41 bullets, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani would have instinctively snatched the badges from their chests and the lethal weapons from their hips before ordering them held incommunicado without bail at a local lockup. He would then assure all Europeans that punishment would be swift and certain.

If a European had been slaughtered by four African policemen, the whole world would have characterized it as a crime against humanity. There would have been a call for new laws, rules and regulations. Among other things, background checks for police recruits would become more intrusive. Psychological tests would be created to detect the slightest suspicion of Black racism." Police officers would have to complete rigorous courses on European history and culture. New recruits would have to racially represent the cultural diversity of the European population. Aggressive, high risk police officers would be barred from patrolling in European neighborhoods. Supervisory personnel would be responsible for the conduct of officers under their supervision.

In the middle of the zealous advocacy for police reform would be the current mayor of the worm-infested Big Apple. This is the same mayor who is calling for residents to reserve judgment and give the four murderers the benefit of the doubt although the shooting speaks for itself. The critical question is not the 41 bullets but the initial basis for the police confrontation. The Fourth Amendment is honored mostly in its breach in New York. Without reasonable, articulable grounds that a person has committed or is committing a crime, the police have no business confronting or harassing anyone. These pretextual, unlawful police confrontations typically end up with a casualty or fatality.

Anyone who travels the streets of New York City will typically observe illegal and arbitrary police stops. Giuliani has recreated the spirit, at least, of the Fugitive Slave Law, which made every African who seemed to be enjoying some leisure time a definite suspect. This aggressive police behavior is similar to his repressive welfare policies. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has ripped the Fourth Amendment into shreds, it is incumbent on the New York Court of Appeals to construe and enforce the New York State Constitution in a manner which will curb police abuses and excesses.

This execution of an unarmed Diallo also violates the International Bill of Human Rights. Diallo was a national of the sovereign state of Guinea which is empowered to prosecute this senseless execution in an international tribunal. Given the heinous police crimes and massacres that have been perpetrated under his watch, Giuliani should be prosecuted in the same fashion that would have been visited on Adolph Hitler had he not chosen to take his own life rather than to face the music. Based on my research of the Nazi era, there is not a dime's worth of difference between Giuliani and Hitler.

While reasonable people are still reeling over the death of Diallo, Giuliani has decided to up the ante in his war against Africans, Asians and Latinos. New York City will soon start to use hollow point or "dum dum" bullets. These bullets, which increase pain and prolong suffering, are specifically banned from military use. Statistically, the overwhelming majority of the persons shot by the police in this city are respectively African, Latino or Asian. Many of the victims have died from a hail of bullets. Like Dracula, Giuliani wants to taste more blood. His hatred of persons of African ancestry suggest a personal motivation from an embarrassing personal experience.

A Vietnamese, who was slaughtered during the Vietnam War by American military personnel, had a better chance of securing posthumous justice than an African-American murdered by a member of the New York Police Department. For example, Captain Ernest L. Medina was court-martialed as the commanding officer of the soldiers implicated in the My Lai massacre. These international rights for the sworn enemies of the United States are collected in the Hague Conventions of 1907 and the four Geneva conventions. On the other hand, the African-American is subject to the Dred Scott Case: No Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect."

Gov. George Pataki must be suffering from laryngitis these days. When the "good" governor feared that Robert Johnson, district attorney of Bronx County, would refuse to charge Angel Diaz with capital murder for the death of Police Officer Kevin Gillespie, he took the summary and unusual step of booting the district attorney out of the investigation and the prosecution of Diaz. There is now a real fear that the district attorney might refuse to prosecute any of the four policemen for the death of Diallo. Now the governor is preaching to the pews that "silence is golden."