Document-Based Question (DBQ)

AP World History

Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-10. (The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.) This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents.

Write an essay that:

 Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.  Uses all of the documents.  Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible. Does not simply summarize the documents individually.  Takes into account the sources of the documents and analyzes the authors’ points of view.  Identifies and explains the need for at least one additional type of document.

You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the documents.

1. Based on the following documents, analyze the factors surrounding the death of Amadou Diallo. Identify and explain what additional type of document(s) or sources would help you assess these factors.

Historical Background: Amadou Diallo was 22 years old when he was killed on Feb. 5, 1999, by four New York City police officers. He was a West African immigrant without a criminal history, and he was unarmed when he was hit that day by 19 bullets. The plainclothes officers — Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy — fired 41 shots in total but said they believed Mr. Diallo was armed with a gun. They said they approached Mr. Diallo because they thought he fit the description of a suspect wanted in connection with a rape case. The officers faced prosecution on second-degree murder and other charges but were acquitted by a jury in Albany, N.Y., where the trial had been moved because of concerns over pretrial publicity.

Source: James Fyfe, professor of criminology at the American University in Washington, D.C., newspaper interview, January 1991.

I don't think the increase in police shootings is an indication the cops are more trigger happy. The shootings are generally a reflection of what's happening in the city. … [The New York police force is widely regarded as] the most restrained big city police department there is.

Document 2

Source: Official Firearms Discharge Report, New York City Police Department (NYPD), 1999 – 2006.

1998 1999 2005 2006 Total # incidents 249 155 123 126 Total shots fired 856 621 616 540

Gunfights 26 20 16 13 Total shots fired 259 212 276 144

Other shootings vs. perps* 79 41 43 47 Total shots fired 270 177 196 220

Against dogs 78 43 32 30 Total shots fired 234 102 93 113

* Other shootings vs. perps – defined as when an officer fires in defense of himself/herself or another against a perpetrator and the perpetrator does not return fire.

Bob Herbert, editorial columnist for The New York Times, Feb. 11, 1999.

I don't know if Mayor Rudolph Giuliani realizes it, but there are limits to the amount of abuse that black New Yorkers will accept from violent and racist police officers. And those limits are fast approaching. Black New Yorkers are in a fury over the cold-blooded killing of Mr. Diallo. His death is seen by most blacks as simply the latest tragic manifestation of the ruthless and humiliating treatment of ethnic minorities that is part of the daily routine of so many cops in this city. Apologists for the Police Department can try to sugar-coat it if they like. Yes, it's true that crime has dropped precipitously. Yes, it's true that most cops are solid citizens. But it is also true that there is a frightening number of violent, racist, sadistic and in some cases homicidal police officers who spend much of their time terrorizing people. And that behavior is widely seen by black New Yorkers as being tolerated if not condoned by Mayor Giuliani.

Document 4

Source: Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City, press conference, March 23, 1999.

This Police Department, for all of its problems and imperfections, stands up very, very well as against other urban police departments. And before you come to New York City, you better start going to look at those police departments. Otherwise, then, I will not only listen to the suggestions that there is a political aim here, but it will be quite apparent that there is.

Document 5

Source: Thomas Sowell, an economist, syndicated columnist and senior fellow of the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank, Feb. 26, 2000.

The tragic shooting of Amadou Diallo, for which four New York policemen were acquitted of all charges Friday, has a personal resonance for me. Many years ago, at about the same time of night – around midnight – I came within a heartbeat of shooting someone who was also acting suspiciously and seemed to pose a threat to me. … In the Diallo case, it is hard to think of a single thing that the cops should have done differently – or that I would have done differently in their shoes.

Source: Bruce Springsteen, lyrics to “American Skin (41 Shots),” first performed in concert in Atlanta, June 4, 2000.

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

(41 shots)You can get killed just for living in (41 shots)You can get killed just for living in … Your American Skin

Document 7

Source: Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association of New York, in a memo to organization members calling for a boycott of upcoming concerts of Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden, June 6, 2000.

Springsteen is trying to fatten his wallet by reopening the wounds of this tragic case at a time when police officers and community members are in a healing period. … Surely a performer of Mr. Springsteen's stature and success doesn't need to exploit a tragic situation like Amadou Diallo's death for the sake of politicizing his music and grabbing headlines. The very title of the song is offensively misleading because, as police officers and all right-thinking people know, the color of Amadou Diallo's skin was not a factor in his death. … “American Skin” will not earn Mr. Springsteen any new fans, and it should lose him several, certainly among police officers.

Source: Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, 2005.

Carroll yells out, “He’s got a gun!” And he starts firing. McMellon falls backward and starts firing – and a man falling backward in combination with the report of a gun seems like it can mean only one thing. He’s been shot. So Carroll keeps firing, and McMellon sees Carroll firing, so he keeps firing, and Boss and Murphy see Carroll and McMellon firing, so they jump out of the car and start firing, too. The papers the next day will make much of the fact that forty-one bullets were fired, but the truth is that four people with semi-automatic pistols can fire forty-one bullets in about two and a half seconds. … Carroll and McMellon call out to Diallo. One thousand and one. He turns back into the house. One thousand and two. They run after him, across the sidewalk and up the steps. One thousand and three. Diallo is in the hallway, tugging at something in his pocket. One thousand and four. Carroll yells out, “He’s got a gun!” The shooting starts. One thousand and five. One thousand and six. Bang! Bang! Bang! One thousand and seven. Silence. Boss runs up to Diallo, looks down at the floor, and yells out, “Where’s the @%*#ing gun?” … Carroll sits down on the steps next to Diallo’s bullet-ridden body and starts to cry.

Document 9

Source: “Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot,” a peer-reviewed academic article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2007.

Over the past several years, social psychological researchers have examined the effect of race on shoot/don’t shoot decisions using videogame-like simulations. In one paradigm, participants view a series of images (background scenes and people) and are instructed to respond to armed targets with a shoot response, and to unarmed targets with a don’t shoot response as quickly and as accurately as possible. The results of some 20 studies with this task … consistently show racial bias in both the speed and accuracy with which such decisions can be made. Participants are faster and more accurate when shooting an armed Black man rather than an armed White man, and faster and more accurate when responding don’t shoot to an unarmed White man rather than an unarmed Black man.

Source: New York Civil Liberties Union, website content, May 5, 2008.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today released an analysis of recently obtained NYPD reports that raise serious questions about police shooting practices and about the lack of racial diversity in the NYPD’s leadership. [Among the] highlights of the analysis, which was included in testimony delivered today to the City Council this morning, [is that] during the last two years [when] the NYPD reported the race of those shot by police, nearly 90 percent of the people shot at by officers were black or Latino. In 1998 the Department stopped reporting the race of civilian targets and started reporting the breed of dogs being shot.