This news is a couple of weeks old, but it's worth mentioning... Back in January, Christopher Ridley, a 23-year-old African American Mount Vernon police officer, was shot and killed by another cop while trying to break up a fight in White Plains. Ridely was off-duty, and tried to prevent a homeless person from attacking another man. In the middle of the scuffle, Ridley's gun fell to the ground and attracted four police officers. In the midst of the chaos, Ridley was killed by police gun fire: Officer in Scuffle Killed by Police in White Plains. Two of the cops who fired were Hispanic, one was black, the fourth was white.
This was a tragic death, and brings up all sorts of issues, but the reason why I bring it up here are the comments made by Rev. Franklin Richardson during Ridley's funeral: "We must not pretend that this would happen to just anybody. This would not have happened to an Asian." What? I beg to differ, sir. While it's certainly worth looking into the racial implications of this shooting, there's no need here to invoke Asian-ness, or lack thereof. That's just divisive. Did he mean to suggest that Asians have never been wrongfully victimized or subjected to police violence?
Richardson's speech prompted protest from New York City Councilman John Liu. Last month, Richardson met with Liu to discuss his comments, saying there was "a miscommunication," and that his words weren't intended to create any conflict between Asian Americans and African Americans: Councilman Liu meets to defuse possible racial implications by Sharpton aide.
I guess the good Reverend has never heard of Duy Ngo. I couldn't help but think of Ngo, the Minneapolis undercover police oficer who was shot by a fellow police officer six times with a semiautomatic machine gun in 2003. He returned to work after months of rehabilitation but was restricted to desk duty because he couldn't grip a gun. Last year, the city agreed to pay him $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit he filed, claiming his civil rights were violated by the improper use of deadly force. So don't tell me something like this wouldn't have happened to an Asian. It did. (Thanks, Kim.)
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