A prominent black businessman is suing the Police Department, claiming cops are punishing his activism in the Diallo case by failing to renew his permit to carry a gun.
The suit, which seeks reinstatement of the permit, was filed yesterday by Earl Graves, publisher of the 3-million circulation Black Enterprise magazine and one of 1,200 arrested in civil-disobedience protests against the West African immigrant’s shooting by police.
Graves’ permit was denied because he didn’t prove that carrying a gun was necessary to his security – and because “we have tightened up our scrutiny” of all gun applicants, a police spokeswoman said.
Graves was arrested after his permit was denied, not before, she said.
Also, another prominent black Diallo protester, former Police Chief William Bracey, is keeping his gun despite his being arrested in a Diallo-related protest, said the spokeswoman, Marilyn Mode.
Bracey’s gun was taken from him until the civil-disobedience charges against all 1,200 arrested protesters were dropped by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Graves calls his first permit-renewal denial in 30 years “retaliation for my exercising my First Amendment rights by joining the non-violent protests which ensued from the police shooting of Amadou Diallo.”
He says he needs to carry a firearm as “one of the leading, and most recognizable black businessmen in all of America,” as well as someone who “often deposits and withdraws large amounts of cash.”
The Graves suit also mentions another prominent black denied a permit renewal, criminal defense lawyer Michael Warren, who is one in a team of lawyers for the Diallo family.
Warren, who has defended rapper Tupac Shakur and El-Sayyid Nosair – acquitted of the Manhattan murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane – is also seeking a permit reinstatement in a suit against the city filed earlier this month. That suit does not claim cops are denying his permit out of bias.