to this day, i don t know. my concern was that peoplewere upset and angry. and this incident might havebeen the culmination of that boiling point,boiling over the pot. r: now, racial tensionshere in teaneck, to say the least,are still very high. but earlier today,there was a peaceful, not even a demonstration,a walk through town. walter: we re coming simplyin the name of peace. we don t condonethe actions that took place in teaneckthe other night, after the prayer vigil. but we do understandthe anger and the hurt that that communityis experiencing. our time was spentwith the community in teaneck, talking to merchants and basically saying, we re sorry this happened to you, helping them clean up. we tried to lower thetemperature because we knew that it was going to get very circus-like, and really intense asthe case moved forward. r: while the townstruggles to come to grips with thislatest tragedy, lawyers for the family and the police department began a legal
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,
to this day, i don t know. my concern was that peoplewere upset and angry. and this incident might havebeen the culmination of that boiling point,boiling over the pot. r: now, racial tensionshere in teaneck, to say the least,are still very high. but earlier today,there was a peaceful, not even a demonstration,a walk through town. walter: we re coming simplyin the name of peace. we don t condonethe actions that took place in teaneckthe other night, after the prayer vigil. but we do understandthe anger and the hurt that that communityis experiencing. our time was spentwith the community in teaneck, talking to merchants and basically saying, we re sorry this happened to you, helping them clean up. we tried to lower thetemperature because we knew that it was going to get very circus-like, and really intense asthe case moved forward. r: while the townstruggles to come to grips with thislatest tragedy, lawyers for the family and the police department began a legal
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.
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 more than the chargethat white teaneck cops