ANALYSISWhile strategists for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mayor Giuliani each believe the Amadou Diallo verdict can be exploited to help their campaigns, the case will likely end up being just a footnote in the Senate race.
That’s because Clinton and Giuliani each played up their public personas to the hilt when talking about the case — pleasing their supporters and further turning off their detractors.
But their overall message was remarkably the same.
Appearing in New York for the first time since Friday’s blockbuster verdict, Clinton yesterday used carefully measured tones when talking about the explosive case.
“We must honor Amadou Diallo’s memory by coming together to build a stronger, just community,” she said during her address to a national conference of Dominicans at City College.
“Racism still divides the human heart in America … There are still too many people in this city who are considered guilty simply because of the color of their skin,” she said to applause from the audience of 400.
“And there are too many police officers who believe they are immediately mistrusted because of the color of their uniform,” she told the Harlem crowd.
The mayor didn’t come close to Harlem — or anywhere else on his public schedule over the weekend, holding just a single news conference in City Hall on Saturday.
Friday, Giuliani called the police shooting “a great tragedy” and reached out to the parents of the West African immigrant.
He also ripped into New Yorkers who don’t like cops.
“We have racism in this city … We also have a vicious form of anti-police bias,” the mayor said.
Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said that the Diallo verdict isn’t a big gain for either candidate.
“The verdict energizes the minority vote turnout — but that’s usually a given during any year there’s a presidential race,” he said.
“The Giuliani team will also be talking up how Hillary called the shooting a ‘murder’ a month before the verdict.”
While the first lady later apologized for the remark, that won’t keep Giuliani aides from relentlessly raising the issue during the campaign.
A further wild card is the possibility that the Justice Department will file civil-rights charges against the four cops — forcing a new trial.
Several strategists see a federal trial as actually hurting Clinton because it would appear that she was using her husband’s clout to help her campaign.
And if the department just walks away from the Diallo case, resentment toward Giuliani in the black community will remain sky-high.