Apartheid. USA 1988

March 3, 1987:

The other day, a 27-year-old man who the police said, attacked an officer with a lead pipe, was killed in a barrage of police gunfire on a Harlem street. The eight police officers involved refused to answer questions unless they were guaranteed immunity from prosecution. Their refusal came despite a preliminary finding that the shooting of the victim was within departmental guidelines. Three weeks ago, when a burglary suspect who had been hog-tied died in police custody in Queens after a violent struggle with the officers who arrested him, they also initially refused to answer any questions about the incident, on the advice of lawyers for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. ‘Years ago, if you knew you were right, you didn't care,’ a longtime sergeant said. ‘You told what happened. Now most everyone's not talking right away. It is just a matter of course.’ Police officers involved in fatal shootings or other confrontations with suspects are increasingly reluctant to answer questions immediately, even when they believe their conduct is fully justified. Several accusations of police

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brutality have made even officers not accused of wrongdoing by the department more wary of speaking freely.^61.

61. The New York Times, from a report by Todd S Purdum