and phillip pannell,i understand, was part of that. batron: the violators, it was just a name. you know, we wasn t a gang from the bronx, you know, what i m saying, or from staten island. we were just a bunch offriends that protected eachother. we had town rivals hackensack, englewood, you know,and they re like, we ll get into these fights andthen a cop comes break it up. but we wasn t a gang. we were just trying todefend ourselves, you know? we were alwaysoutnumbered. al: the demonizing of phillippannell, casting him as a thug. it had nothing todo with the shooting. that was not known tothe officer when he shot him. he didn t know whether hewas a choirboy or convict. mike: another thing youneed to understand about what happened in teaneck in april 1990 whenphillip was shot, was you got to turnback the clock a year to the centralpark jogger case. now, we all knowthat the central park jogger case was atravesty of justice.
by followers ofreverend al sharpton, often led by reverendsharpton himself. (upbeat gospel music) (protestors shoutingthrough megaphone) al: the big mistake people make is to have one rally,one march and go. you got to keep going. you got to keeppublic attention. you have to keep people focused. a lot of the attacks ihad then and now is that sharpton just wants publicity. that s exactly what i want. you only showingyour racism, to ask what am idoing in teaneck? what was king doingin selma? he was there becauseinjustice was there. unless you can keeppublic attention, you ll never make change. mike: well, after reverendsharpton came to town, some of the politicalestablishment in teaneck was looking for anantidote, so to speak.
but at the timethat case jumped out to particularlywhite people in the suburbs as anexample of violence from the black community,specifically young black men. alison: in the eighties,teaneck went through a very roughpatch with drugs. and if you take a look at thecrime statistics at the time it was enough to make membersof the community wary. and so a lot of old peoplewere afraid of black teens. a lot of black older peoplewere afraid of black teens. it really boils down to the perceptionthat we re dangerous, and that feeds into theactions of officers take,whether consciously orunconsciously. officer spath perceived that he was being threatened,that his life was in danger, and the individual may have beenturning while he had the weapon and he took the action that,
w3: let me finish my statement. paul: we heard itfrom every direction from those supportive of thepolice to those anti-police. thelma: if that was a black copthat shot a white boy, he would not be outwalking in the streets. face reality. face it. paul: there was anger,there was frustration, there was anticipation. of a trial,wasn t pleasant to be part of. m1: and we come to a towncouncil that i believe truly wants to dothe right thing. but because of ignorance, it does not know how. mike: you had african-americanactivists, people who wanted to address the question ofphillip pannell s shooting, but also wanting to broaden thediscussion into other issues. r: teaneck residents came totown council meetings to demand that more blacks be addedto the police force. but no aspect ofthe racial issue gripped the community s emotions
suspended with payduring the investigation. police officers infull riot gear started assembling behindpolice headquarters. prosecutor hollhad warned earlier force would be metwith force tonight. walter: it s like, really,do we really need every officer armed likethey re in the military? it was basically intimidation. and i think that s the thingthat shocked so many people, because after the town hadgained such a great reputation, no one would have thoughtthat this incident would have been the causefor the town to unravel. r: overnight, there weremore signs of racial unrest in this town of 37,000that once prided itself as asuburban example of racialharmony. in this predominantly blacksection of teaneck, residents say dozens ofthese anti-black and anti naacp pamphlets were dumpedon front lawns and sidewalks beforedawn this morning. the crude pictures,complete with racist phrases,show a white teaneck police officer taking aimfor target practice at blacks.