Contrary to Prosay's predictions in NEWSNOTES, about lack of press coverage for the Ossining police-involved shooting, the media ran up to Ossining to conduct interviews with chief rabblerouser AL SHARPTON, who made an appearance with a new tag-along and under-employed lawyer, RON KUBY.
Kuby is best known as the long-ago protégé to the late 60's radical defense lawyer William Kuntsler. When Kuntsler died, Kuby thought he was the "heir-apparent" to the high-profile cases that Kuntsler handled. Unfortunately for Kuby, Kuntsler's widow didn't agree, changing the locks on the law office and winning against Kuby in court. Ron was then forced to go out and get a real job, trading on-air barbs with Guardian Angle head CURTIS SLIWA on talk radio. Kuby takes time off from his radio show from time to time to interact with the cop-haters of the day.
As also stated in NEWSNOTES, Prosay hopes that legal minds see this incident for what it is: a lawful shooting by Police to stop deadly physical force. However, one need not be a genius to see which way this is going to go, especially on the heels of Kuby's quote in the New York Times Metro Section on 7/23 about his feelings for Westchester District Attorney JEANINE PIRRO and her previous police-involved incidents:
"She (Pirro) is the only D.A. in New York to put a white police officer in jail for killing a black man....," a reference to an off-duty dispute between an NYPD officer and a civilian.
But even if Pirro is able to do what is necessary here, or, if it goes to trial and the officers are found not guilty, we must not forget that standing in the wings is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, MARY JO WHITE who is probably salivating reading the news reports right now.
The Ossining incident in almost identical to the shooting incident involving a Teneck, NJ, police officer a few years back. The results for the officer was, of course, a not guilty finding by a jury, but what it caused the officer in personal terms, legal fees, etc., was never ending. Although he was a life-long Teneck resident, he was forced leave his job and move out of state.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that for the Ossining Five.
(7/25)Post Script: On the Saturday evening news last night, one local TV news show ran a story with the transcript of a 911 call from a citizen naming the perpetrator of this incident by name, stating that he had fired shots, and where he picked up the gun when he ran from the police. This is, obviously, very significant. It may not have been given wide coverage because of the shooting at the US Capitol Building. The SHARPTON'S and KUBY's will undoubtly try to portray this as a setup, and that the cops put the caller up to this after the fact. Let's hope not, and let's hope that D.A. PIRRO rebuffs the rabble of the alarmists.
