6.16.00
Everyone Loves a Parade

6.14.00
American Skin, American Ears

6.12.00
Dead Kings, Living Conspiracies

6.09.00
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire — Senator?

6.07.00
Men Behaving Badly — On The Field And In the Court

6.05.00
Lazio Stumbles — And Soars

6.02.00
David Fights The Racial Goliath

5.31.00
Lies, Damned Lies and the Washington Post

5.26.00
GWB, Meet JFK

5.25.00
In Defense of Sleaze

5.22.00
Living La Vida Lazio

6/16/00 7:25 p.m.
Everyone Loves a Parade
One way to avoid a long, hot summer.

Robert A. George is an editorial page writer
for the New York Post------------------------------------RAGGEDmail@aol.com

pringsteen's "American Skin (41 Shots)" may be the perfect song for summer 2000 in New York City. The echoes of Amadou Diallo's death still resound, as the Puerto Rican Day Parade "wilding" incident now becomes the latest shoe to fall.

But perhaps Elvis Costello provided the perfect lyric some twenty years ago. "I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused." How else to react as both liberals and conservatives leap to draw self-serving conclusions about the apparent failure of cops to stop the random assaults of women following the parade?

It's hardly surprising that Al Sharpton would be found front and left-of-center, as he has been with every major racially tinged incident of the last 13 years. He stepped forward to "represent" two young black girls who had apparently been caught in the melee. Sharpton had no sense of irony. This, after all, was the man who first arose to notoriety with the Tawana Brawley rape hoax in 1987. After that, he stood by the original Central Park "wilding gang that assaulted a 29-year-old jogger in 1989. We shouldn't be surprised as Reverend Al exerts his flexible "principles."

It's far more disturbing, though, to see conservatives go wobbly on certain fundamentals. William Tucker's Interrogatory on this very site carries some of the most problematic views this writer has seen in quite some time. For Tucker, the "problem" in Central Park — and New York City, in general — is apparently blacks. Not some blacks, not Al Sharpton's baloney, just blacks in general. It is a "problem" that he sees in his neighborhood. It is the central "problem" in urban unrest. Tucker is correct in saying that the liberal press only want to see race when it is convenient, but is blind to his own sensitivity in this area. Tucker is right to criticize the city's failure to crack down on the Puerto Rican and the West Indian Parades the way the city did with the St. Patrick's Day Parade, a point that my paper, the New York Post, makes. But, right after that, he sarcastically notes, "You have this woman writing on the Times op-ed page who lives right in my neighborhood. She said that she was jogging in the park and was harassed. No mention that the kids were black. You don't even have to ask."

Well, actually, it might have helped if we did ask. After all, it was just last summer where women were assaulted and raped by gangs of young white men, who ran roughshod through a "park" and nearly caused a riot. Of course, the venue was Woodstock and it was "just" a concert, so we don't have to devote reams of sociological analysis to the violent tendencies of white boys. The common element here is less race than it is age, gender, illegal alcohol and substance use, and the failure of the appropriate security forces to step in and stop misbehavior. Those are the "root" causes that should be addressed.

On a human level, we should "understand" the feelings of cops caught between Diallo-Dorismond overreach on the one side and the Puerto Rican parade "wilding" on the other. But, frankly, conservatives shouldn't just accept that. It is a false dichotomy to suggest that citizens becoming upset because innocent individual civilians are shot by the police gives the police carte blanche to ignore their given responsibilities. It is also one thing for cops to pull back and not act proactively. That, too, might be "understandable." What is not understandable or tolerable is doing nothing when presented with evidence and charges of actual assaults.

Ironically, a similar distinction became the focus of the notorious "stop-and-frisk" policy last year. It is acceptable — and legal — for cops to stop young men — black, Hispanic, or otherwise — in the face of a credible complaint of a recent incident. It is not acceptable — on either moral or legal grounds — to stop and pat down any young black or Hispanic that happens to be walking down the street. That was occurring n New York City. Any conservatives who believe in limited government — to say nothing of those who tend to believe philosophically that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" — should deplore such treatment.

Murder is down in Rudy Giuliani's New York. There are undoubtedly more black and Hispanic men and women alive today because crime has been controlled over the last few years. This is a good thing, and should be applauded. But that doesn't excuse innocent people getting killed by direct police action (as opposed to being caught in crossfire, for example). Simply saying that "it's a tragedy" and expecting a given neighborhood to "move on" creates a huge vacuum — which allows the Al Sharptons to step in.

William Tucker is correct in one very vital way: "It's a very fragile coalition that can contain [crime]." The failure of the mayor (as Tucker notes) to co-opt the Diallo issue had a profound impact in causing the coalition to fray. But he compounded that to the nth degree with his handling of the Patrick Dorismond shooting earlier this year. Automatically defending the cops was somewhat understandable. Releasing sealed public records and going on national television to defame the individual was not merely insensitive, it was politically foolish. It is actions such as these, over the years, that caused Giuliani to lose support from black Democrats who supported his reelection, people like Floyd Flake. That, too has helped bring us to this point.

But there are alternatives to demonizing either cops or specific ethnic/racial groups. Several Puerto Rican leaders were smart to come out Thursday to decry the incidents and call for the quick arrest and prosecution of all assailants. That just might be politically wise, but it's also the right thing to do. Considering that the victims are women of all colors, there's the possibility for communities to work together in getting the real bad guys. There's also the opportunity for the police and, say, the West Indian community to work even closer in preparing for that parade over Labor Day.

That may be one way to help avoid having a long, hot, summer — and fall — of 2000.

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