‘THE BOSS’ PIPES IN FOR TRAYVON MARTIN

Bruce Springsteen, on tour in Ireland, dedicates protest song to Trayvon

In 1999, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot to death in the Bronx by four officers from the NYPD’s elite Street Crimes Unit who believed he had reached for a gun which turned out to be his wallet. The cops fired 41 shots, 19 of which hit Diallo. Al Sharpton, as expected, immediately organized street demonstrations with the usual cries of racism.

The cops were tried on charges ranging from second-degree murder to criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment of bystanders. A jury of four blacks, including the forewoman, and eight whites acquitted the officers of all charges. That led to more demonstrations with Sharpton and other black leaders demanding that the Justice Department prosecute the four cops on civil rights charges. (Sound familiar?) In 2001, the Justice Department announced it would not file any charges against the cops because there was no evidence that the officers fired at Diallo ''with the specific intent to use unreasonable force.''

Along comes leftie troubadour Bruce Springsteen to write a song, American Skin (41 Shots), which accused the officers of racism. Here is one lyric from Springsteen’s song:

Is it a gun, is it a knife
Is it a wallet, this is your life
It ain’t no secret
It ain’t no secret
No secret my friend
You can get killed just for living
In your American skin

Springsteen, now on a world tour, was in Ireland this week and dug up the song at a concert in Limerick, dedicating it to Martin. He told the crowd, “I want to send this one out as a letter back home. For justice for Trayvon Martin.”

As the result of my research for this post, there is now a glimmer of hope that Zimmerman will not face federal civil rights charges. If the Justice Department could not file civil rights charges against the four cops who fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo because they had ‘no specific intent to use unreasonable force,’ then how can they charge Zimmerman when the jerk only fired one shot as his head was being pounded into the pavement.? Ah, but that was then and this is now. Eric Holder was not at the helm of DOJ then.