May 29, 2009 7:52 pm US/Eastern
NYC Cop's Slaying Has Major Political Implications
Off-Duty Cop Fatally Shot By Fellow Officer; Questions Abound About Excessive Force, Role Of Race In Killing
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Commissioner Raymond Kelly said 25-year-old, off-duty police officer Omar J. Edwards died after being shot within blocks of the Harlem police station on Thursday night.
CBS
The use of deadly force by a police officer always causes tension in New York City.
In this case, however, a white officer shot a black officer – and that has everyone treading very, very carefully.
It is a political tightrope of the highest magnitude, and everyone seems to be walking it.
"I don't want to politicize the case," Reverend Al Sharpton says.
"Whatever, happened, it wasn't somebody deliberately trying to kill somebody," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
As police try to sort out the friendly fire incident that left 25-year-old police officer Omar Edwards dead, people seem intent on working together to avoid exacerbating tensions.
Mayor Bloomberg, for example, reached out to the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Still, Sharpton said he was concerned by a "pattern" of friendly fire incidents in which minority officers have been shot.
In 2008, Mount Vernon cop Christopher Ridley was killed in White Plains. In 2006, officer Eric Hernandez was shot and killed at a White Castle in the Bronx. In 1994, officer Desmond Robinson was shot four times on a crowded Midtown subway platform.
This time, Rev. Sharpton wants a federal investigation.
"What is the procedure in using deadly force? We're told it's under extenuating circumstances," Rev. Sharpton said. "Well, someone needs to explain how their lives were in danger last night."
Pundits say that the case, coming in a mayoral election year, will be watched very carefully by voters.
"The real question, politically, is going to be how is this handled, and how do people perceive the way that it's handled," Baruch College political analyst David Birdsell says. "Do people think the investigation is impartial, that it's fair? And, if there is wrongdoing discovered, if the wrongdoers are punished."
Rev. Sharpton and other members of the community will hold a rally and vigil Saturday as the city struggles to deal with this latest tragedy.
The mayor's office not only reached out to Rev. Sharpton, but to a long list of clergy and elected officials in the black community.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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