FOR husband and father Omar Edwards, life must have been looking pretty good as his day came to an end.
He had survived another shift – not always a given for a cop in New York. He had gotten off early, which meant he’d have a little more time to spend with his new wife and baby boys.
Then on Thursday night, Edwards was shot dead on a Harlem street while chasing a suspect, bringing to life his mother’s worse dream.
But even in that dream, the one that every cop’s mother has, the shooter is almost never another cop.
How far have you come, really, as a black man in New York when, despite having a black governor, a black attorney general in Washington, a black president of the United States and a shiny badge in your pocket, you can still get shot down in the street because a white cop thinks you’re a criminal?
This is life in New York.
So, even as the black president and his wife were in Manhattan yesterday to see the work of an African-American playwright, black residents and community leaders ignored these wonderful signs of progress to walk the streets of Harlem and protest the death of yet another black man at the hands of those who are paid to protect.
“That just goes to show that the presumption that race is no longer a problem in the United States is a farce,” said Noel Leader, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement.
Leader is among those calling for an independent investigation of the shooting, pointing out that cops initially said Edwards was shot in the chest before the medical examiner said he was killed by a bullet through his back.
Leader, a retired NYPD sergeant, noted: “One of our greatest fears is being shot by our white counterparts. White cops receive a three- or four-second benefit of the doubt.”
That’s all the time in the world if your kids are waiting at home.