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AMY GOODMAN: For many communities nationwide, police brutality has become an all-too-common occurrence. And here on Democracy Now!, we’ve looked at a number of those cases, from Fairfield, California, to right here in New York City, most recently the case of an entire police department that residents in the Northern California town of Fairfield say is wildly out of control.

This week in New York City, the neighborhood of Washington Heights was rocked by the death of 16-year-old Kevin Cedeño earlier this week. An officer shot and killed the Trinidadian-born high school student in the back as he was running away from the police. Kevin Cedeño was the fourth man killed by police officers in the last two months and one of more than a hundred civilians shot and killed by police in the last five years. In the background, you’re hearing the ambient sound of a protest that took place yesterday. It’s one of a few that have taken place this week in New York City. About 400 people rallied up in the Washington Heights area, actually in front of the 33rd Precinct, from which the officer came who killed Kevin Cedeño.

Joining us today for the show is Juan González, my co-host and a columnist with the New York Daily News.

Yesterday, Juan, you did a piece on Kevin Cedeño and the killing.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, Amy. Well, my piece basically dealt with the several incidents that have occurred in the last couple of years of individuals shot in the back by police that the public was originally told they had been shot while attacking police, but when the final medical examiner’s autopsy was revealed, all the bullets to these people were in the back.

And, in fact, there was one particular case of Mitchell Edey, who was a mentally disturbed, unemployed young man who had all kinds of problems. His mother called police. Mitchell Edey lived on the same block that Cedeño lived in, the building next door. This happened two years ago. The mother called police to help her bring him to Bellevue Hospital. And the result was, he resisted, and the next thing you knew, he had been shot four times in the back. Police did say that he attempted to assault them with a hammer, a knife and a gas-powered chainsaw. It was never quite explained which weapon he used in what order, or whether he tried them all at one time. But what was clear was that he ended up being shot in the back four times. And this was basically an emotionally troubled man. He was not a criminal. He was not involved in any criminal act.

But there have been numerous other instances over the last few years. There was the example Nathaniel Gaines, a toll collector for the New York State Thruway, who was on a subway platform, stopped by a policeman for allegedly following a woman on the subway, and he was shot in the back. That officer has actually been indicted, although his trial has not happened yet. And there have been others. There was the police officer, Desmond Robinson, who, in the —

AMY GOODMAN: This is a New York City police officer.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: This was in New York City, a New York City police officer, who was shot in the back by an off-duty officer. And the officer also claimed that he came at him with a gun. So we’ve had numerous instances. And the problem is that —

AMY GOODMAN: And Robinson was Black, the officer white.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, the officer was white, right. And Robinson was in plainclothes in the subway at the time, so that what you have is you’ve had a series of incidents where the authorities initially give you one story, and only when there is a medical examiner’s report do you find that the facts of how the person was killed don’t match the story.

And unfortunately, in this particular instance, the mayor immediately jumped to say that this kid, Cedeño — now, Cedeño was no angel. He had a criminal record. But the fact is, as Bob Herbert says in today’s New York Times, how was the officer to know at the time he started shooting what this kid’s record was? And the kid was not actually running from the police. He was running from a group of Dominicans. He and his friends had had a conflict with a group of Dominicans who were chasing them down the street. And the police just happened on the scene. So that the facts of this case have yet to be clarified.

But it is clear that we have a mounting problem in New York City that the police are initially not forthcoming with the facts of cases, that the police brass and the mayor rally behind the police, despite the fact that there have been numerous reports in recent months that the level of misrepresentation and false statements by policemen in normal, day-to-day circumstances is reaching epidemic proportions. In fact, Commissioner Safir recently announced that he will begin firing police officers who are caught lying, because it has become so prevalent within the police department for officers to give false statements in court proceedings, in arrest reports, that Mayor Giuliani’s own commission, police commission, recently issued a report about the growing problem of false statements by police. In this kind of an atmosphere, for the mayor to immediately jump to the defense of the first police version without saying, “Hey, let’s investigate, let’s give time to find out what happened,” is only creating more lack of credibility for the police department.

AMY GOODMAN: There’s also another fact in this story, and I don’t know if this happens around the country, but in New York there’s a 48-hour silence rule for the police?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes. That’s part of their contract, that any policeman involved in a shooting does not have to say anything about what happened or what his role was for 48 hours. And not only the policemen involved in the shooting, but often many of the other cops who are on the scene invoke that. And some critics, like the New York Civil Liberties Union here, Norm Siegel, have said that this only allows police a grace period in which they can, in essence, coordinate their accounts, because, normally, if you have an incident and then immediately internal affairs comes in and questions each individual policeman out of the sight of the other one immediately after it happens, you’ll get a more realistic account of what happened than if you give them 48 hours to basically get their stories together.

AMY GOODMAN: And, you know, we should say that this comes in New York City at a time when the police department is considering hollow-tip bullets, which are more deadly bullets, that they be able to use in their guns.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when Amnesty International has already issued a report saying that there’s a major problem in this city with excessive use of force by the police department. And most people in the city government just dismissed Amnesty International’s report as if it was not new information.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s hear Roma Cedeño. She is the mother of the young man who was killed this week, Kevin Cedeño, who was killed by police officers, again, to summarize, police officers who said he was coming at them, but it turns out, according to the medical examiner’s report, he was shot in the back. Now, Roma Cedeño has not spoken up much. She didn’t speak last night at the large protest. But a few days ago, she did speak. And by the way, her spokesperson also is Al Sharpton, the Reverend Al Sharpton, who is running for mayor in the city and has been very outspoken on this issue. He was the one who said, whether or not he had a record, it wasn’t on his back when the police shot at him, so that they couldn’t have known. But Roma Cedeño did speak at an event where other mothers were, including Anthony Baez’s mother. Anthony Baez’s case, we’ve talked about on Democracy Now!, the young man from the South Bronx who was on his own property playing football with his brothers, and a police officer, it ended up, he didn’t like the fact that his car was hit by his football, and he put him in an illegal chokehold, and he died. So, Anthony Baez’s mother was at this event a few days ago, as well as Roma Cedeño, who was grieving for her son.

ROMA CEDEÑO: My child is dead. My 16-year-old baby is dead. No words can truly express the pain of knowing that I will never hear his voice or see his smile upon his face again. My grandson will never know his father. My other children will never be able to play, go to school or have a meet with their brother. My son, he didn’t deserve to die with a bullet in the back. We came to this country from Trinidad to try to make a better life. We came to this community to be among our people. But our people live in a community where they are disrespected, where we are denied services for our young people, where it’s OK to shoot us in the back, one, two, three or four times, as often as it takes to kill us, physically, psychologically and emotionally. My son Kevin is dead today. And our entire community is in pain, for we know it shouldn’t be so. I want you young people to have faith and to come together. Don’t let Kevin’s death be in vain. Join together in peace, but join together demanding justice, truth and respect. Join together and demand that the person responsible for Kevin’s death be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. He must be accountable for this ungodly act.

AMY GOODMAN: And that was Roma Cedeño, who is the mother of Kevin Cedeño, killed by police officers in Washington Heights in New York City, speaking earlier this week. What is the likelihood, Juan, that a police officer would be convicted of the murder of someone as they were working on the job?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Amy, I said in my column yesterday that this whole routine that has occurred now over the years with so many of these cases should actually be playing on Broadway, because it is such a farce in terms of the administration of justice. If Francis Livoti, who clearly choked to death a man who was committing no crime other than playing football — 

AMY GOODMAN: Anthony Baez.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — could come before a court in the Bronx and be acquitted of that act — and this was before many witnesses, with even police breaking ranks — I don’t have any expectation that the Cedeño case will result — it probably won’t even result in an indictment. But if it does, I do not expect that the police officer will be found guilty. And I think that it’s a sorry situation, but at this point in time in the city, it’s virtually impossible to, even though there have been about a hundred people killed by police in the last five years — and I’m not saying — you know, police have a very difficult job, but it’s almost statistically impossible that all of these killings are justifiable. And yet you have had no policemen convicted of killing a civilian, in my memory, in the last 10 years of reporting in the city.

AMY GOODMAN: In two weekends, Juan, at Hunter College here in New York City, a national conference on police brutality is going to be convened by the Center for Constitutional Rights, and we’re going to be doing more on that as that conference comes up, and certainly report from that conference. But another issue that has been quite controversial here in New York is the issue of the use of yearbooks. And this also might be something that is happening around the country, but it is something that has erupted in the last few weeks as the police say that they’re going to take high school yearbooks and use photographs for mug shot lineups.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes. To the credit of the schools chancellor, he has refused to participate in this bizarre scheme, that your annual yearbook photo will be turned into a repository in the police department whenever they want to show mug shots to people who are victims of crimes. Your permission was not asked when your photo was taken for the yearbook for it to be used in that way. You haven’t been accused of any crime necessarily. So, why should yearbooks be used for possible mug shots? It’s outrageous. It’s beyond outrageous. It’s bizarre.

AMY GOODMAN: One person commented, “Will they also be taking private high school yearbook photographs?” That’s a good question. And I feel sorry for yearbook editors in this city and around the country who have a hard enough time tracking down photographs of high school seniors to put in the book. Imagine what’s going to happen right now. Well, there have been a lot of things happening around this city that I think have national implications. And again, we cover the whole country, and we’ll continue to bring you issues, particularly around police brutality, that are raised around the country. In just a minute, we’re going to go on to discuss a different issue, although it does involve the issue of violence, and that is the expansion of NATO and should NATO be expanded to include Eastern European countries at this time. But before we do that, we wanted to play a few comments of listeners who have been calling in over the last few weeks with comments on Democracy Now!

LISTENER: I’m addressing the “coffee, tea and me” and the campaign finance influence-peddling situation at the White House, again, very saddening, very sobering commentary for our times. I could not vote for President Clinton. I did not vote for President Clinton. On the other hand, I could not and did not vote for the other side. I’ve maintained my right to write in votes for candidates that I feel actually would represent my opinions. Callers have called in and made comments attacking Amy Goodman personally, and I’d like to say that I loved Amy Goodman’s commentaries. I’m so glad she has the show Democracy Now! And I wanted to make a comment about, a couple of months ago, she talked about her experiences in East Timor. And I wanted to let he know that when she was talking about her experiences there, I felt terrified for her. And when I heard her play someone who interviewed her right after she got back, and her voice was cracking, and she was obviously shaken — and when I was listening to that, tears came to my eyes. And I’m really glad that Amy Goodman is on the radio. I love Democracy Now! And she’s got two thumbs up from me. And anybody that criticizes her obviously doesn’t know her work.

AMY GOODMAN: And the few of the callers, we’ll be playing more during the show. You’re listening to Democracy Now! We’ll be back to discuss NATO in 60 seconds.