PBS Exploring questionable police killings

The documentary says the trend is rooted in the NYC mayor's policies.
By FRAZIER MOORE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
They were three different mothers who might never have known of the others' existence. But they found one another through shared tragedy: the loss of a son from unjustified or questionable killing at the hands of the New York City police.
The documentary "Every Mother's Son" chronicles these casualties of a city's overwrought war on crime, and poses the unsettling question: What if it were your child?
In 1994, Anthony Baez, a Puerto Rican man about to begin training to become a police officer, was choked to death by an NYPD officer in front of his home when the football he was playing with bounced off the cop's squad car.
In 1999, Amadou Diallo, a young West African studying in the United States, died in a hail of police gunfire at his apartment while reaching for his wallet.
And six months after that, Gary Busch, a Hasidic Jew and dean's list computer student, was interrupted in his prayers by police at his front door who, seeing him with a small ceremonial hammer, pepper-sprayed him, then shot him 12 times.
Disturbing trend
"Every Mother's Son," made by Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson, reports that, between 1994 and 1999, there were 107 civilian killings by police in New York under circumstances that community groups felt represented the overuse of force.
Winner of the Audience Award at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, "Every Mother's Son" airs on PBS Channels 45 & amp; 49 at 11 tonight.