AMERICAN SKIN (41 SHOTS), AMADOU DIALLO & NYPD

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma has been listening to Bruce Springsteen, who is preparing his new tour, that will start in Barcelona in a few days. Before this visit, The Grangers have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Have to & Whose.

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Bruce Springsteen published Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City some years ago, an amazing work with old and new songs, one of them American Skin (41 Shots), a song inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo in New York.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City is the name of a concert film done by HBO, featuring the first ever major televised Bruce Springsteen concert.

It was later released on DVD with eleven extra songs not televised, and as a CD of the same name.

All of these forms document Springsteen and the E Street Band's highly successful 1999–2000 Reunion Tour, their first concert tour together in eleven years.

Running 90 minutes, the film was recorded at concerts on June 29 and July 1, 2000. These were the final two shows in the Band's ten-show tour-ending run at Madison Square Garden in New York City. HBO received six Emmy Award nominations and won two Awards for the film.

Springsteen debuted many new songs over the final leg of the tour, and two were included on this special:

-Land of Hope and Dreams, a lengthy American ode for which a studio version would not be released until 2012's Wrecking Ball.

-American Skin (41 Shots), a controversial ballad about the shooting of Amadou Diallo. A studio version was released as a rare promo single in 2001. Springsteen re-recorded the song in 2013 and released this version on his 2014 High Hopes album.

More information: Bruce Springsteen

American Skin (41 Shots) is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo.

It premiered during the band's 1999-2000 Reunion Tour in concert in Atlanta on June 4, 2000, the final concert before the tour's final ten-show run at New York City's Madison Square Garden, where it was featured again. The performance led to some controversy in New York City, where the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association called for a boycott of Springsteen's shows.

The song was first released as a live version on the Live in New York City album. 

The same version appeared a few years later on The Essential Bruce Springsteen. In April 2001, a studio version of the song was released as a very rare U.S.-only one-track radio promotional single on CD-R.

A music video featuring the performance from the New York City show was released in 2001 and directed by Jonathan Demme. A studio version appears on Springsteen's 2014 album High Hopes.

American Skin (41 Shots) was played at several concerts in April 2012 on the Wrecking Ball Tour in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Springsteen performed the song on July 16, 2013, a few days following George Zimmerman's controversial not guilty verdict. It was again dedicated to Martin at the Limerick, Ireland, concert with Springsteen saying before the song I want to send this one out as a letter back home. For justice for Trayvon Martin.

Springsteen was recognized by the NAACP with the Humanitarian Award on December 3, 2000.

Springsteen played American Skin (41 Shots) at selected shows during The River Tour in 2016.

More information: Spectrum News NY 1

Amadou Diallo was one of four children born to Saikou and Kadijatou Diallo, and part of a historic Fulbe trading family in Guinea. 

In September 1996, he followed other family members to New York City and started a business with a cousin.

In the early morning of February 4, 1999, Diallo was standing near his building after returning from a meal. At about 12:40 a.m., officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy were looking for an alleged serial rapist in the Soundview section of the Bronx. 

While driving down Wheeler Avenue, the police officers stopped their unidentified car and interrogated Diallo, who was in front of his apartment. When they ordered Diallo to show his hands, he supposedly ran into the apartment and reached into his pocket to show his wallet.

Soon afterwards, assuming Diallo was drawing a firearm, the four officers fired 41 shots with semi-automatic pistols, hitting Diallo 19 times, fatally wounding him. Eyewitness Sherrie Elliott stated that the police continued to shoot even though Diallo was already down.

The investigation found no weapons on or near Diallo; what he had pulled out of his jacket was a wallet. The internal NYPD investigation ruled that the officers had acted within policy, based on what a reasonable police officer would have done in the same circumstances. Nonetheless, the Diallo shooting led to a review of police training policy and of the use of full metal jacket (FMJ) bullets.

A firestorm of controversy erupted after the event, as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both inside and outside of New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy.

On March 25, 1999, a Bronx grand jury indicted the four officers on charges of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.

On December 16, a court ordered a change of venue to Albany, New York because of pretrial publicity. 

On February 25, 2000, after three days of deliberation, a jury composed of four black and eight white jurors acquitted the officers of all charges.

More information: The New York Times

No secret my friend.
You can get killed just for living in.
You can get killed just for living in your American skin.
41 shots.
41 shots (you can get killed just for living in).

Bruce Springsteen